Freemasonry In France.

latter responded by the following declaration : — "We do not concedeto the Grand Orients the right to confer any but the first three degrees , and those above the grade of Master Mason , which they have conferred ,

or will in future' confer , are declared void and irregular . Provisionall y , each Supreme Council is authorized , for the country over which it has jurisdiction , and for the brethren belonging to those countries , to tolerate admission in the lodges of its

jurisdiction visiting brethren raised to superior grades by other powers of the same country already existing . But this toleration is permissive , and can never be claimed as a right by a visitor who does belong to one of the confederated Supreme

Councils . It depends upon the good will of the lodge visited , or of its presiding officer , who can , if he so think fit , require the visitor to remove all insignia above the rank of Master Mason . This tolerance even does not apply in foreign countries , and will be rigorously observed : that is to say , a brother not belonging to one of the confederated Supreme Councils , and not

having been raised by one or the other to the supreme degrees of which he wears the insignia , cannot be admitted into a lodge of the Supreme Councils except as a Master Mason ; neither can he be admitted as visitor in a Chapter or Council , because he

will be considered as not being regularly possessed of the 18 th to 30 th degrees . " After a similar declaration of principles made by the confederated Congress of Councils at Lausanne , we do not think that there exists a single Mason of the

Grand Orient of France so little sensible of his dignity to knock at the door of the temple , depending for admission upon the goodwill of a Lodge or its President . But in the face oi these pretensions and unmasonic follies it was ' necessary to establish

, in the face of all , the incontestible rights of the Grand Orient of France , the government of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite ; seeing that in 1814 the Supreme Council became dormant , and the Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General , who formed

part of the Grand Orient , alone continued the Scottish Rite , and not the Supreme Council of America , who had no jurisdiction in continental France . It is clear , therefore , that the Supreme

Freemasonry In France.

Council of 1821 is a usurper against the body which with every just claim had exercised jurisdiction since 1814 , and which reclaimed rights possessed from 1804 , therefore when the Grand Orient resolves in its Grand College of Rites to create Lodges of the degrees of which it

possesses the sole government , is it permissible for the Supreme Councils in Confederation at Lausanne , to impeach its rights 1 When in its quality of Supreme Council it desires to create Lodges of the Knight Kadosh , or to give the 33 rd

Degree to a Mason under its jurisdiction , have the Supreme Councils any right to impeach it ? Moreover can the Supreme Council pass laws to govern the entire Masonic body 1

When the Supreme Council says that these laws are made for themselves , it might be said to be creating a division in Masonry , for it violates the principles which should unite Masons of every degree . If the Supreme Councils decline to submit to the laws which govern Masonry

universal , do they not therefore cease to form part of the great Masonic family I In recapitulation , we would say that the Supreme Council of Prance , which seems to have had a preponderance in the deliberations of the Congress of Lausanne

, should have remembered that the Grand Orient has always held out to it the hand of friendship , and would have inspired itself with the great principles which have laid the foundation of the Order everywhere on a firm basis . We can add

without fear of contradiction , that when the Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General will take one step towards a general conciliation , the Grand Orient will take two , and take them with the greatest pleasure .

Wonders Of Operative Masonry.

WONDERS OF OPERATIVE MASONRY .

From the "Keystone . " V . KELSO ABBEY , 52 miles south-east from Edinburgh , and 4 miles from the English border , was erected by King David L , in A . D . 1128 , about the same period as the Abbeys of Melrose and Jedburgh , althoug h