Contents.

CONTENTS .

L EADER—— Was Dean Swift a Freemason ? ... ••¦••••••' 43 Festival of the Islington Lodgeof Instruction , No . 1471 ... ... ... 144 Annual Supper of Ihe Rose Lodge of Instruction , No . 1 G 22 ... ... 144

Annual Dinner cf the Eccleston Lodge of Instruction , No . 1624 ... "" ... 145 Ladies'Night of the Samson Lodge , No . 16 SS ... . „ ... ... 145 Consecration of the Sydenham Lodge , No . 2744 ... ... ... 145 Board of Benevolence ... ... ... ¦¦•••••••M Craft Masonry ... ... ... •••••••••' 46 Allied Masonic Degrees ... ... ... ¦ ••••••¦•' 47

M ASONIC NOTESApproaching Festival of the Girls'School ... ... ... ... M 9 Death of Bro . Arthur Stubbs ... ... ... ... ... 149 Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Quebec ... ... 149 Reviews ... ... ... ... ... ¦•••••' 5 ° Masonic Notes and Queries ... ... ... ... ... 1 50 Mark Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 50

Royal Arch ... ... ... ... ... •¦•... 1 50 The Craft Abroad ... ... ... ... •••... 151 Recent Wills ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 151 fnstruction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 151 Knights Templar ... ... ... ... ... ... 151

Royal Mascnic Benevolent Institution ... ... ... ... 151 The Recent Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution ... ... 151 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... 151 Obituary ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 152 Easter Railway Facilities ... ... ... ... ... 153 Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 154

Was Dean Swift A Freemason?

WAS DEAN SWIFT A FREEMASON ?

In the review which appeared in the Freemason of thc ioth September , 18 9 8 , of the latest , but by no means the least important , of the works for which we are indebted to the pen of

Bro . HENRY SADLER — "Masonic Reprints ancl Historical Revelations , " published by Bro . GEORGE KENNING , 16 and IGA , Great Oueen-strcct , W . C . — we announced our intention of

reverting to thc work at no distant date , and bringing more prominently to the notice of our readers those portions of it with which even thc most enlightened brother would of

necessity be least familiar . nut in the meantime other matters which could not be postponed occupied our attention , and it is only now that wc 'find ourselves in a position to redeem our

promise . Probably the least known , and yet at the same time one of the most valuable of Bro . SADLER ' S " Reprints , " is the " Letter from the Grand Mistress of the Female

Freemasons , " which has been taken by Bro . CHETWODE CRAWLEY as the text for thc Introductory Chapter , which Bro . SADLER himself describes in his Preface as an " exhaustive and scholarly contribution . " In this chapter Bro . CRAWLEY has set

himself what at this distance of time and with the imperfect material at his command , every one must regard a . s the difficult task of proving that Dean Swil-T was a Freemason . Inquiries into matters of this kind occupy an almost endless amount of time .

•ind cause an endless amount of trouble , and they are attended Willi this further disadvantage—that in far too many cases the lime and trouble are wasted . In this instance , however , the inquiry has resulted satisfactorily , and , in our opinion , Bro . -KAWLEY has succeeded in demonstrating his case to " a moral

certainty ; " or , to employ his own form of expression , lhat the -- ¦ ram-stances hc has unearthed are such as " to invest the case M | th that highest kind of probability which we call moral cerl ; il "ty , and which falls short of legal certainty , only through cl

* - * 'iciency of technicall y legal evidence . " It would not be just 0 lhe writer to quote whole passages from this chapter in sup-Port of his contention , but a brief statement , firstly , of the fads , ail « then of the arguments which guide him to his conclusion , ln ; i . y legitimatel y be given . p I here exist in the archives of our Grand Lodge three Agisters or Lists of members covering the period from 1 723 to

Was Dean Swift A Freemason?

1733 : these are "the First ( or 1713 ) List , the Second ( or 1725 ) List , and the Third ( or 1 730 ) List , " but all of them include names of persons admitted subsequently to the date of issue . The First and Second Lists are trustworthy , but the Third is so inexact

of transcription , and so incomplete of enumeration that , as we are told , " Bro . HENRY SADLER has come to the conclusion that the 1723 and 1725 lists were written in the register by the Grand Secretary himself , while the 1 730 list was written by a

clerk , or scrivener , who evidently knew little or nothing about the identity of the people whose names he was copying . " Many of the names , " correctly entered in the previous lists , " being " wrongly spelled by the uninterested or

unintelligent clerk who copied out the 1730 list . " It is in the last of these three lists that Bro . SADLER discovered , in addition to that of " Mr . ALEX . POPE / ' the name of " Mr . JOHN SWIFT" in

the roll of members of thc lodge held at the " Goat at foot of the Haymarket , " while thc name of JOHN ARMUTHNOT , with whom both POPE and SWIFT were on terms of thc closest

friendship , occurs in the 1725 list , among the members of the Iodge at " the Bedford Head , Covent Garden . " The arguments which Bro . CRAWLEY employs in order to prove that the " Mr . J SWIFT" thus entered in the 1730 list is the immortal

JONATHAN SWIFT , Dean of St . Patrick ' s , are , to our mind , conclusive , in so far as they establish what has alread y been defined as " a moral certainty . " In the lirst place , as regards the probability of SWIFT having been a Freemason , Bro .

CRAWLEY points out that the three distinguished men just mentioned were the leading members of " a particular literary coterie , in which the rivalry of genius proved no bar to constancy of friendship , " and , as he suggestively puts it , " if any

onc member of it should be found amongst our Fraternity , we should look to lind other members there loo . " Again , we are told that " they "—namely , ARBUTHNOT , POPE , and SWIFT" had been bound together for many years bv the closest

political and tntellectual ties . They had formed in 1714 the Martinus Scriblerus Club , and pointedly addressed each other as Brother . " So far then as regards the probabilities of SWIFT havingbeen a Mason , they are distinctly favourable to the

proposition . Thus ; ARBUTHNOT , POPE , and SWIFT , who were among the most distinguished literary men of their day were on the most intimate terms of friendship ; they had been for ages united " by the closest political and intellectual ties ; " they had joined

together in a certain year in forming a certain club , and they " pointedly addressed each other as Brother . " It is shown b y the register of members of certain of our lodges existent in their day that two of this illustrious trio—ARBUTHNOT and

POPE—were Masons , and what inference more natural than that the remaining one of the three—SWIFT —wasa Mason likewise ? But these probabilities do not of themselves suffice to establish " a moral certainty , " and accordingly we travel a stage further ,

with the following result : In the Third ( or 1 730 ) List , among the names of the brethren returned as members of the Lodge held at "the Goat at foot of the Haymarket , " are find those of "Mr . ALEX . POPE" and " Bro . J SWIFT . " But this list we are

told is notorious not only for its " incompleteness of enumeration , " but also for its "inexactness of transcription . " With a solitary exception , all the members of this lodge , whatever may

have been their calling , have the title " Mr . " prefixed to their names , while , a . s regards tlie omission oi SWIFT ' " ecclesiastical designation , " Bro . CRAWLEY points out that in this respect the Clerk has served SWIFT no worse than