The Mark Degree.

same plan has been also adopted with regard to irregular Arch Masons , a large number of whom existed in Scotland ( made under old worn-out Irish Charters ) until within the last twelve years , but the whole of whom , it is believed , have now become affiliated with the regular Arch Chapters , four of which are at the present time nourishing in Glasgow alone .

That the S . G . Chapter of Scotland are anxious to do every thing in their power to bring the Mark under some regular authority , Ave have a strong proof , in a case which occurred not long since , and relative to which , we speak on the authority of a Br . and Comp . of high standing in that country . An application was lately made from , we believe , Callao , in Peru , for a warrant enabling the Mark and Past degrees to be granted to the Comps . —the applicants being all Arch Masons under the " ancient and accepted Scottish rite , " as it is called . And though there is a wide

difference between the ceremony of that degree and that now in practice in Scotland , yet as both evidently have their derivation from one source ,, and in North America the members of the one are allowed to visit the Chapters of the other , the G . Arch Chapter held the petitioners to be Eoyal Arch Masons , —had them affiliated with a Glasgow Chapter ( the nine petitioners being all American Mark Masons ) , and registered them on the .

Grand Eole of Scotland . This done , a warrant was forwarded to them as a Eoyal Arch Chapter , and they were thus enabled to grant the Mark degree as desired . Though bringing this instance forward lo show the anxiety of the S . E . Arch Chapter of Scotland to do everything in its power to give fair facilities for the practice of the Mark , and because Ave desire to see the

Bon Accord Lodge of London working under legal authority—we feel , at the same time , bound to admit , that we would rather see the whole of Masonry practised in England , brought under the undivided control of our own G . Lodge and Chapter .

CAUTION IN TEE ELECTION OF CANDIDATES . —An ancient traditioninform us , that our brethren at the Temple were so circumspect in the choice of the materials intended for that stupendous edifice , that no stone was permitted to be received until it had passed the rigid examination of at least three overseers . The consequence of such a scrutiny was seen

in the beauty and perfection of the building , which , when completed , seemed , as our lectures inform us , to be the handiwork of the Supreme Architect of the Universe , rather than of mere human hands . Borrowing , as we do , all the symbolism of our speculative science from the operative art of our ancient brethren , it were well if we should remember that as the material stone , which could not pass the scrutiny of the overseers '

square at Jerusalem , was rejected and thrown aside as unworthy to form a component part of the House of the Lord , so should the candidate , whose moral qualifications are defective , be rejected by our Lodges because unfitted to occupy , as a living stone , any portion of that symbolic Temple , "that house not made with hands , " which it is the constant , labor of every Mason to erect , —New Fork Mirror and Key Stone .