The Illuminati.—Ii.

magistrates took away from the Lodge of Strasbourg the jurisdiction upon buildings which had been so long confided to them . The bad use which they made of their authority necessitated their suppression , "

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

MOST wonsnippui , MAHTIX FOLKES , GRAND JFASTEJJ . It may be as well to give a short note of a man so eminent in his day as Martin Folkes , of whom biographies will be found in Chalmer's Biographical Dictionary , vol . xiv ., pp . 423 , 451 ; Nichol ' s Anecdotes , ii ., 588 ; Nichol's Bowyer Anecdotes , pp . 562 , 5 G 6 ; Weld's History of the Royal Society , vol . i ., p . 480 ; National Cyclopaedia , Biography , vol . ii ., 939 .

Folkes was the eldest son of Martin Folkes , Esq ., and was born in Great Q . ueen Street , Lincoln's Inn Fields , Oct . 29 , 1090 , near that Masonic locality oi' the temple in which he should he worthily commemorated . In 1707 he was entered at Clare Hall , Cambridge , ancl for his distinguished attainments was in 1713 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society , and in 1715 a member of the council . His first communication to the society was on the Aurora Borealis of March 30 th , 1717 . In 1723 , Sir Isaac Newton appointed him

Vice President ; and on Newton ' s death , so high was Folkes's standing , that he was a competitor with Sir Hans Sloane for the Presidency in 1727 . In 1733 he was appointed Vice President by Sir Hans , and in that year he set out , with his whole family , on a tour in Italy , returning in September , 1735 . This led to his "Dissertations on the Weights and Values oF Ancient Coins . " In 1736 , was read before the Antiquarian Society , " Observations on the Trajan and Antoninc Columns . " Other papers arc to be found in

the Archieologia . These led to his considerable work , still in estimation , "A Table of English Silver Coins . " In 1742 he was chosen to succeed Halley as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences , at Paris : ancl in 1746 he received the degree of LL . D . irom the University of Oxford , and afterwards from that of Cambridge . Being a Fellow of the Royal Society , he was thrown into great intimacy with . Desaguliersand from acquaintance with Wrentook an active art in

; , p . Masonry , ancl particularly in the re-organization of the administration in the early part oF the last century . Folkes was seized with palsy , depriving him of the use of his left side , on September 26 th , 1752 ; ancl by a second stroke was deprived of life on the 28 th June , 1754 , not long surviving Desaguliers .

GRAND MASTKKS AXD PRESIDENTS OP THE AXriQVAllIAN SOCIETY . _ THE same Martin Folkes , who was a man of extensive attainments , was likewise President of the Antiquarian Society , elected in February , . 1750 , having been a Vice President ; and lie was the first President under the charter of incorporation , November 2 nd , 1757 . ROYAL SOCIETY PORTRAITS .

The Portraits of the Eoyal Society include the following of Masonic personages - . — Sir Christopher Wren , by Sir Godfrey Kncller , Martin Folkes , by Hogarth . Duke of Sussex .