The Family Of Grand Lodges.

on Jurisprudence , and accepted on their authority by the Grand Lodge of New York . The influence , nevertheless , brought to bear upon the alleged legitimacy of the Gran Dieta was very great , and at the close of the same year Bro . G . W . T ) Ier , whose name has been previously mentioned in connection with the " Tieaty of Monterey " ( 1 S 91 ) , in a tone of jubihtion , which , however , subsequent events can hardly have failed to reduce to a much lower pitch ,

wrote as follows : " lexas is proud of her action in recognising the Masonry of Mexico , represented by the Gran Dieta , the Supreme Masonic Power there , and already realises , and is realising day by day , the beneficent influence lhat suih recognition has wrought in our intercourse with their people , and not a single event has occurred thus far to mar our pleasant relations , or to cause regret for the action we have taken . " ( Proceedings Grand Lodge Texas , December , 1 S 94 . )

Commenting on the remarks of P . G . M . Tyler , from which the foregoing is an extract , Bro . W . H . Upton very forcibly observes : " That Brother , in a three-page article , tells us nothing . Facts and categorical answers to the charges made by Bro . Chism are what the Masonic world wants to hear from Texas , not arguments , or abuses , or evasions . And facts and direct answers are just what Mexico and Texas have spent four years in not giving . " ( Proceedings Grand Lodge Washington , June , 1893 . )

A wealth of information is next forthcoming from a very unexpected source . The Chicago Legal News of July 20 th , 1895 , has :

" TRULY THE MASONIC WORLD MOVES . " " The wife of T . W . Parvin , the daughter of a Past Grand Master , and the daughter-in-law of Most Worshipful Theodore Sutton Parvin , of Iowa , Past Grand Master , etc ., is a fourteenth Degree Mason , Lodge of Perfection , and was the Worshipful Master of Martha Washington Lodge of

Master Masons in Mexico . Bro . Theodore Sutton [ Parvin ] was himself knighted in Apollo Commandery , No . i , of Chicago , January 10 , 1855 . He never expected then to live to see the day when his son and son ' s wife would meet in the same Master Masons' Lodge , and the son ' s wife would be the Worshipful Master . "

The number of letters written in consequence of the above to Grand Secretaries , Repoiters on Conespondence , and Masonic periodicals by Bro . T . S . Parvin has been immense . The Gran Dieta , he informs us , in a letter dated August 10 , 1895 , " while its constitution did not provide for or permit it , still by resolution it authorised the initiation of women , and its Grand Secretary organised Lodges of Women and presided at their initiation . "

In one cf these ledges ( we are further told ) his daughter-in-law was initiated , and became its Master , but had since retired from it . In five of the States of Mexico women had been made Masons , and , though the law permitting ihis had been repealed , the Gran Dieta " failed to deny to the women already initiated the lights previously conferred upon them , President Diaz was nominally the head both of the Supreme Council and of the Gran Dieta , but the former body was governed bv the

Deputy , Dr . Pombo , and the latter by the Grand Secretary , Canton . " The writer ( Bro . T . S . Parvin ) then goes on to say— " I recognise the Masonic bodies of the various grades and rites which I visited in many places as legitimate under their law , and by their law , and their law only , can we judge them , so that when I went to Rome I did as the Romans did . I visited their lodges and Grand Lodges , Consistories , and Supreme Councils . I am glad that I did , and I would do it again were I to go there . " ( Voice of Masonry , Chicago , September , 18 95 )

It is evident lhat when—to use his own expression—our Bro . Parvin " went to Rome , " he fully succeeded in convincing himself that he was a Masonic pilgrim at an orthodox shrine . But , from the point of view of others , his visits to the ledges and Grand Lodges of Mexico may cause them to remember and apply the verses of du Bellay , which are to be met with in the Mi-moires de Marguerite de Valois — " Thus Rome in Rome was sought for round ;

But nought of Rome in Rome was found . " About the same time—August 26 , 1895—a circular letter , headed"A Commit nicotian from Mexico , " was issued by the Master , Past Master ( Bro . Agramonte ) , Secretary , and Treasurer of Anahuac Lodge , No . 141 , which states : " On the 24 th day of June , 18 95 , the Grand Lodge Valle de Mexico , No . I ., of the Federal District of Mexico , opened its labours indue

Masonic form with several females present ( alleged to be members of female Masonic Lodges ) , which action was contrary to all precedent and in contravention of the established laws and usages ot the Order . " Vigorous protests were made against the said actions of the Grand Lodge , and on August 24 th , 1895 , it was decreed by the Gran Dieta Simbolica , "' That all Charters held by so-called female Lodges should be at once withdrawn , and that no recognition should ever be made of women as Masons , the decree to take

effect immediately , and also that the Holy Bible , Square and Compass should be used in all Masonic Altars in the Symbolic Lodges of the Republic of Mexico . At the same sessicm of the Gran Dieta , the suspension was announced of the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Valle de Mexico , No . I ., of the Federal District , and also of the Grand Secretary and several of the members of the Grand Lodge , which committed the irregularity above referred to on the 24 th of June , 1895 . " ( Square and Compass , Denver , Cclorado , September , 18 951 .

Ihe following remarks from the pen of P . G . M . Joseph Robbins , are dated September 25 th , 1 S 95 , and appears among the introductory observations prefixed to his Report on Correspondence for that year : " The full exti nt of the scandal involved in the recognition of the Gran Dieta Simbolica of Mtxico by Grand Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons is just now becoming apparent to the whole world of regular Masonry . We have only time to refer our readers to our report , and particularly to our review

of New York for the facts , and to say that while the discovery that the allegations of Bro . Chism that Mexican Lodges subordinate to the Gran Dieta admitted women and excluded the Bible from their altars is important , it should not cause Masons who are , and want to be , loyal to the landmarks , to lorget the utter illegitimacy of the Lodges for reasons entirely apart from these disclosures , and that during ( he outcry and confusion consequent on these scandals is the lime when they should be most watchful against the rr-achinatiuns of those who would seek to commit them to the doctrine that

some other Masonry than the Masonry of the Charges of a Freemason—Free and Accepted Masonry—may under certain conditions create Lodges that are recognisable as a lawful basis for a Grand Lodge . " ( Proc . G . L , Illinois , 1 S 95 ) . lt may be here observed that the chief interest in the present controversy , which , in the first instance , had centred 111 the Initiation of Women , is now vttrii g round lo the competency ( or otherwise ) of bodies of the to-called iicouish Rite lo constitute Symbolic ( or Craft ) lodges .

The Family Of Grand Lodges.

With one conspicuous exception , all recent writers on the subject , who have themselves attained to what is called the 33 rd Dagree of the said Rite , seem to entertain no doubt whatever as to thi perfect legitimacy of the lodges established in Mexico by the Supreme Council and Grand Orient which united in the formation of the Gran Dieta . The dissenting Inspector General , 33 ° , is Bro . J . Q . A . Fellows , a

Masonic scholar of the first rank , for long years the trusted friend and councillor of Albert Pike , and one of the most respected as well as one of the oldest living members of the Mother Supreme Council of the World . P . G . M . Fellows writes : " Last year we stated that it would not be safe to acknowledge as If gitimate any Grand Lodge which could not ' trace its genealogy , ' and intimated that it was necessary for them to show that they

were first formed by a convention of Lodge representatives , they representing a majority of the lodges in such country or independent State , and that these lodges derived their existence from a legitimate source , to wit . * legitimate Grand Lodges . The Grand Lodges of Germany , Northern Europe , and all Grand Lodges in countries where the EnglLh language is spoken , can trace their origin and have shown their right to exist under , and in

accordance with , the above rules . We have yet to see that any others can so trace their descent . Most of the others of this class are formed by Supreme Councils , who never hid the rightful power to create lodges or to initiate the profane . Such lodges and Masons seem to us to bs irregular or clandestine . All Supreme Councils claim to be derived from the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States , and it claims to

be the Mother Supreme Council of the world , established in Charleston , South Carolina , on the 31 st of May , 1801 . The first members ( nine in number ) of that Supreme Council were Master Masons , and had received their degrees in a regular Lodge of Freemasons , under all the obligations and restrictions which such a degree implies , and of which we are all familiar as Master Masons . They could not aid in admitting into the Fraternity any

profane , except in a legally constituted lodge , which lodge must have possession of a legal charter , emanating from some Grand Lodge empowering them to work ; and they could not convey to anyone upon whom they might confer the 33 rd degree , any power beyond what they themselves possessed ; not having any such power , all persons initiated by them were clandestine , and all lodges formed and composed of persons thus initiated ,

were clandestine lodges , and had no power to form a legitimate Grand Lodge . Grand Lodges thus formed cannot properly be " recognised . " ( Proceedings Grand L dge Louisiana , 1 S 96 ) . The law which should prevail on the subject , could not possibly be laid down in better or clearer terms , but I must return to the Gran Dieta Simbolica , whose fortunes during the present year have again been in the ascendant , and on the 20 th of February last it was duly recognised by the Grand Lodge of Kansas , under circumstances that will next be related . ( To be continued . )

The Massachusetts Lodge, 1770—1895.

THE MASSACHUSETTS LODGE , 1770—1895 .

A petition from Bro . Joseph Tyler and seven others was presented tothe Massachusetts Grand Lodge on Friday , May nth , 1770 , praying "that they might be erected into a New Lodge to be held in Boston under the title of th ? Massachusetts Lodge , " and duly read , being its consecration deferred until the following Monday , when the desired charter was granted . An account of I'he petition and other particulars are noted in the very

interesting volume , entitled " Proceedings in Masonry , St . John s Grand Lodge , 1733—1792 , Massachusetts Grand Lodge , 1769—1792 , " & c . ( Boston , 1895 ) , by the esteemed Grand Secretary , M . W . Bro . S . D . Nickerson , P . G . M . Bro . Tyler , the first Master , was an initiate ol the St . John ' s Lodge ,

held at Portsmouth , N . H ., which was authorised on Jur . e 24 th , 1735 , by the Prov . Grand Lodge ( known sub : equently as the "St . John ' s Grand Lodge" ) , but , though dating from then , the probability is it was working some years before then , for the brethren had their own " Constitutions " on petitioning in 1735 , which may mean they had a copy of the " O ' . d Charges . "

On May 17 th , 1895 , the 125 th anniversary of the Massachusetts Lodge was celebrated in the Masonic Temple , Boston , in a most dignified , appropriate , and hearty Masonic manner , and on Dicsmber 16 th a Committee of live was appointed by the W . M . "to prepare and publish a report of the Proceedings , of whom W . Bro . Samuel Walley Creech , Jr ., shall be chairman . " With him were associated W . Bros . John F . Neill and George R . Emerson and Bros . William H . Lott , S . W ., and Arthui W . Clapp ,

Treasurer . On January 20 th , 18 9 6 , these brethren were requested "to prepare and publish with the Proceedings of that celebration an appendix containing such historical matter as they thought best , together with the By-laws of the Lodge and list of the members . "

In response to these fraternal wishes , and to do honour to the lodge , a handsome volume has been published , profusely illustrated and containi * ' ! , ' some 150 pages of most readable matter , the printing having been entrusted to that past master in the art of book-making , my esteemed friend , the R . W . Bro . W . T . R . Marvin , P . G . W . to

I cons . der the work quite a model Commemorative Volume , and fit take its place , side by side , with the one issued by the " Columbian " Lodge , whose Centenary Proceedings have lately been published in most peri ' . ct style by the same eminent firm . On the day named , the lodge was opened in the Egyptian Hill , "in tne Master Mason ' s degree , " wilh the W . M ., Mi ' jrG . E Henry , and tne with ths

other officers ( 14 in number ) , when , a procession being formed , addition of 11 Past Masters , the brethren walked to the Sutton Hall , in tn e same Temple , where they w ** re received by somj 60 menberi of the > ° <* g ? - Tne Grand Marshal then announced the advent of " thi M . W . Bro . lvlwi ™ B . Holmes , Grand Master , and his sjite , " who were in an adjoining apart " ment for the purpose of participating in the exercises of this memorao *

occasion . . A number of most distinguished Craftsmen then entered , at which tin * the hall " was completely filled with the Brethren of the Lodge with tnei ladies and guests from other Lodges , " all of whom were warmly welcome in a neat and effective address by the Master . A copy of the Char . er v /