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THE LATE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE . The presentation plate which was issued in connection with the Christmas Number of the Freemason contains an admirable portrait of the late Duke in Masonic dress . A few copies are still on sale at the office , 16 , Great Queen-street , W . C .

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NOW READY . THE LATE COL . SHADWELL CLERKE . At the request of numerous correspondents we have reprinted the Biographical notice , together with the portrait , of the late Grand Secretary in pamphlet form on superior paper , with emblematic cover , price is . Orders may be given to any bookseller , or sent direct to the office of the Freemason , 16 and I 6 A , Great Queenstreet , London , W . C .

To Correspondents.

To Correspondents .

The following communications unavoidably stand over ; CRAFT . —Union Lodge , No . 117 ; All Souls' Lodge , No . 170 ; Israel Lodge , No . 205 ; Union Lodge , No . 414 ; Scarsdale Lodge , No . 681 ; Lodge of St . John , No . 1306 ; St . Nicho ' as Lodge , No . 22 $ q ; Viator Lodge , No . 2308 ; and St . John ' s Lodge , No . 891 ( l . C ) . INSTRUCTION . —Prince Frederick William Lodge , No . 7 * 1 :

Ranelagh Lodge , No . 834 ; Islington Lodge , No , 1471 ; West Middlesex Lodge , No . 1612 "; Covent Garden Lodge , No . 161 4 ; Kensington Lodge , No . 1767 ; Creaton Lodge , No . 1791 ; William Slrarrour todEe , No . 2374 ; and Star Chapter , No . 1275 . Presentation to the Earl of Euston at Northampton . District Grand Lodge and District Grand Chapter of the Punjab . Provincial Grand Lodge of Tyrone and Fermanagh ( I . C . J .

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^ re emLa sQil SATURDAY , J ANUARY 30 , 1892 .

Masonic Notes.

Masonic Notes .

It is a satisfaction to us to be able to report that at a meeting of the Hall Committee of the Board of Stewards of the approaching Jubilee Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , it was decided to recommend to the Executive Committee that the

celebration should take place in the Theatre Royal , Covent Garden , in accordance with the terms offered by Bro . Sir Augustus Harris , Past G . Treas ., the lessee of the Theatre . Thus , subject to the action of the Executive Committee , all the most important

requirements are now settled , and the Festival will be held at the theatre in question on Wednesday , the 24 th February , under the presidency of Bro . the Right Hon . the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , D . G . M . England , and Prov . G . M . of Cornwall . Be it added that the Board

of Stewards has been very greatly strengthened and musters now close on 1150 brethren .

* It will be seen from the programme of business to be transacted at the Quarterly Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter on Wednesday next , the 3 rd prox ., that

it will be proposed to vote a contribution of 100 guineas towards the Jubilee Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution . Grand Chapter is an annual subscriber to the funds of the Charity to the extent ° f £ 150 .

We are not surprised when a non-Masonic journal writes somewhat confusedly about the different Degrees of Modern Freemasonry , but we are hardly prepared ^ to find a similar confusion of Degrees in the columns of a Masonic paper . The other day a " profane " contemporary , after announcing that the installation

banquet of the Studholme Lodge , at which the late Duke of Clarence was to have been present , had been postponed in consequence of his death , added that his * oyal Hi ghness was to have taken the " Rose Croix , agrees " in the same lodge during the following—that > s last—week .

We thought nothing of this mistake , and passed it y "" noticed . On Saturday last , however , a Masonic contemporary made precisely the same announcement , entirely oblivious of the fact that Anfient „ v v ~ ..,. Wuu Vi tl ( v , lill ^ l Ulttl ^ 111111111

. ree and Accepted Masonry as defined by our Book Constitutions consists of only three Degrees , Xh r ? 8 tbC R ° yal Arch ' while the RosR Croix is the ( , h D fB ° Ihe Ancient and Accepted Rile , and nothing whatever to do with Craft Masonry .

is o f '" " ™« i « l /^/ announces that a scheme and ri k the erQCtion of » Masonic Temple , Hotel , ¦'¦ inrl ; , ° " tbe S ' te 0 f her WaJesty ' s Theatre at a cost , ciuoing the purchase of the lease of the ground , of . e-quarters ° * a million sterling . Prodigious I

Correspondence .

Correspondence .

[ Wedo not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish in a spirit of fair play to all to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . ]

THE FUTURE OF FREEMASONRY . To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , The letter of a " P . P . G . Officer , " taking up nearly two columns of your issue of the 16 th instant , has hardly anything to do with the " evil " pointed out

in Bro . Whytehead's letter , although he writes under the title of that letter . The complaint of this " P . P . G . Officer " appears to be that all the " reigning Masters " he has come across are incompetent , and from the way his letter is worded he leaves it open to be inferred that he has his own

lodge in his mind ' s eye . Of course , as everyone knows , the election of Master depends on the members of a lodge , and it must indeed be a curious lodge who would elect a brother as Master knowing him to be "of the kind " pointed out at such length by " P . P . G . Officer . " The Book of Constitutions is not perfect—what book

is ?—but , in my humble opinion ( based on 30 years ' Masonry ) , it is well compiled , and meets all that is required of it , which I am afraid would not be the case if it was to be "corrected" up to date by "P . P . G . Officer . " The election of undesirable candidates still goes on , and until each member ol our Fraternity sees and understands that his own credit and that of his

lodge depends on him when proposing a candidate , I am afraid this evil will continue . You cannot legislate in such a matter , and the wholesale espionage advocated by some could not for a moment be entertained—bah I the brother who could advocate such a thing can be but a poor Freemason at heart . —Yours fraternally , OLD PROVINCIAL .

THE GREAT NORTHERN LODGE OF INSTRUCTION . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother ,

I am anxious to find out the present meetingplace of the Great Northern Lodge of Instruction , recently removed from the Berwick Arms , Berners Street , W . Can any brother through your medium kindly inform me . —Apologising for troubling you , I am , yours faithfully and fraternally ,

T . W . HUDSON , 957 . 18 th January .

"OLD MASONIANS . " To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir , I am receiving several applications from old pupils of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys who

are wanting situations . 1 should therefore be glad if gentlemen having vacancies would kindly communicate direct with me . —I am , dear sir , yours faithfully , R . S . CHANDLER , Hon . Sec . Anderton ' s Hotel , Fleet-street , E . C .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

970 ] THE ANCIENT CRAFT CHARGES . BKO . HOWARD ' THEORIES AND THE LANSDOWNE MS . In my short article , which you were good enough to insert in last week ' s Freemason , I alluded to the bearing of the new theory upon the Lansdowne and Antiquity MSS ., and as their text differs very materially from all the other versions , a few lines upon them may not be

out of place . The date 1560 is assigned to the Lansdowne in Bro . Hughan ' s work on the " Old Charges , " and the MS . is believed to have formed a part of the collection of Lord Burghley , who died in 1598 . The Antiquity MS . is in strict agreement with it , and is dated 1686 . Owing to the peculiarity of the text , which seems designed to bring into prominence the

Temple of Solomon and a strictly Judaic system , I have advocated the opinion that there was some error in the date assigned to the Lansdowne MS ., and that it must be much nearer the time of the Antiquity copy , and the result of a Puritan line of thought . But with the new light that has been sprung upon us by recent investigations , and especially by Bro . Howard ' s

two papers , I think now it was a mistaken view , and that the special points on which I relied to prove their modern nature may be equally used , in the li ght of the Nismesian theory , to support the view of the superior antiquity of its peculiarities . It may even throw a new light upon the object of the Ncvi Atlantas of Lord Bacon , or Verulam ( the Roman name of St .

Albiuis ) and his advocacy of a House of Solomon . It is very possible that ths author of much of our confusion WAS Ure ancient writer of the original of the Cooke MS . in his revision of the St . Alban legend . In the Lansdowne the first departure from the general

text is the entire omission of the Euclid Charge . This portion in all the MSS . has the appearance of an interpolation , and is out in chronological sequence . He ( . Euclid ) is twice casually mentioned by name in the Lansdowne , and it may be that this is the foundation which expounded into what we have left of the Athel .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

stan version in the remainder of the Modern charges , but it is more probable that the Lansdowne writer omitted the Euclid charge as outside his range . The Masonic claims of the charter of Athelstan is through the Romans to the Egyptian Ptolomey ' s , and therefore Euclid , as a master of geometry , is made the principal person who obtains a charter and gives a Charge . But

the claims of the St . Alban legend is wholly Semitic , derived through Nimrod , Asshur , Abraham , David , Solomon , and Namus Gricus , and might well derive its origin at Nismes . Still , there would be no great improbability in Saraconic Masonry appropriating Euclid , except that the manner in which it is introduced in the English documents , has every

appearance of interpolations . Bro . Howard advocates the view that the Lansdowne is a purer and more ancient text than our other versions for which I advocated a York origin ; and though the Lansdowne admits a York charter also , it causes Edwin to be made a Mason at Windsor , and when Athelstan is mentioned it is without special necessity , as Edwin is said to be

the son of a worthy King of England ( of his time ) from whom Edwin obtained a rule for the Masons . Bro . Howard draws marked attention to the fact that the Lansdowne makes mention of Hebrew MSS ., but this is surely only one amplification of the writer who had before him these Jewish legends . It is more important to note the fact that the new brother is

pledged by an invocation to Almighty God , or Almighty God of Jacob , as it appears in the Antiquity MS . of 1686 . This is a form so consonant with modern usage , th . it I have hitherto relied upon it , in part , to prove the late 17 th century origin of the Lansdowne version . In the light of the new theory we may now look upon these two MSS . as bearing a

specially Southeran stamp , and , though modernised , as embodying an older St . Albans type ( if even we go so far back ) than that given in the first part of Cooke MS ., which was revised to suit a Greco-Roman constitution , sanctioned only by Athelstan , and hence that they have preserved more correctly certain features which have been confused in all the copies that we

possess . We must bear in mind that Islam , from the time of its prophet , has had its secret societies analagous to Freemasonry , and that Nismes in France had been thoroughly saturated by Semitic teaching during two centuries of Saracenic occupation , until this Arabic stock was ejected by Charles Martel , and that such Semitic legends as we have in these Masonic

charges are of the sort that would be readily accepted and assimilated by a French stock that had become Christian . If we go back for our present system , beyond the time of the Crusades , there is no part of the world so likely as Nismes to have given it to us . Moreover , the two very widely differing versions of our constitutional Masonic legends point to a state of things

widely divided north and south , when the country was unsympathetically disunited , as in the Heptarchial period . All my argument , of course , hinges upon the acceptance of the theory that St . Albans was built by Masons from France , and if the theory is allowed by general opinion , we must admit the Lansdowne to be

a school which preserves the legend in a somewhat purer state than the other versions . Hitherto I have supposed the introduction of Charles Martel to be due to Norman Masons , but Bro . Howard's theory is so feasible , that in initiating this revised version of it f hope to ascertain the opinion of brethren qualified to decide upon it . JOHN YARKER .

PICART'S LIST OF LODGES , 970 A , I ) . 1735 ( Circa ) . Your readers are much indebted to Bro . Hughan for his instructive letter in your last week ' s issue . His statements in all matters connected with the arch . eology of the Craft may be always relied upon , as nothing comes from his pen which is not the result of

painstaking and careful study . The information given by him as to the above list is therefore especially valuable as well as interesting to all those who pursue researches into the somewhat difficult and intricate subject of the existence , identity , and relative positions of lodges in the earlier years of the Grand Lodge of England . There is one slight modification which has recently

taken place in the arrangements for the issue of the facsimile he mentions . It is now published by our zealous Bro . Richard Jackson , P . M ., of Commercialstreet , Leeds , at the very moderate price of 5 s ., and only 100 copies will be issued . I have inspected the facsimile , and can testify to it as one of the most

beautiful and exact reproductions 1 have ever seen , so much so that , considering it is precisely the same size as the original , it is difficult to distinguish one from the other . The price at which it is to be sold , 1 am afraid , will leave Bro . Jackson much more honour than profit as his reward for placing this valuable work of art within easy reach of the studious . WILLIAM WATSON , P . M ., P . Z .

972 J AN OLD CERTIFICATE . My friend , Bro . Hughan , has kindly allowed me to inspect and report on a most interesting certificate which has been submitted to him ( thanks to Bro . McLeod , the owner being Bro . Sydney W . Allen , of

Hastings ) , and which is the oldest specimen issued by the Grand Orient of France which he has seen so far . The document in question is printed from an engraved plate on a large sheet of parchment , and the design is particularly handsome . It is enclosed in an elaborate border , and the lower part of the ornamentation con