To Correspondents.

TO CORRESPONDENTS .

" AV . M . " and "P . JI . "—There havo been many ingenious theories promulgated in reference to the Avord " JIason ; " but the true origin , unless ifc has come from the HebreAV DDI 7 , massang , or "Masan , " cannot bo found . The Avord must bo taken in its ordinary signification of a worker in stone , and thus it indicates tho origin of the Order from a society of practical artificers . AA e learn that Niiina Pompilius ( B . C . 714 ) , among his laws for the government of the people , instituted colleges of

artisans , collegia artifichvm , Avhose members were originally Greeks , brought by this lawgiver to Rome for the purpose of embellishing the city over ivhich lie reigned . These associations existed in Rome in the time of the Ctcsars . They ivere eiidoived AA'ith certain privileges peculiar to themselves , and held their meetings iu private . They wero divided into three classes , corresponding- Avith the three degrees of Freemasonry , and admitted into their ranks as honorary members

persons AA'ho Avere not operative Jlasons . They used a symbolic language draivn from the implements of JIasonry , and were in possession of a secret mode of recognition . In course of timo the collegia arliftcium became the repository oj the rites brought to Rome from other countries , and thus tho HebreAV mysteries or Temple JIasonry may have been introduced Avhen the Avhole empire embraced Christianity . The priests patronised the institutionand under their guidance the

, artisans devoted themselves to the building of churches ' and monasteries . Iu the tenth century they AA'ere established as a freehold or corporation iu Loinbardy . From Lombardy they advanced into all tho countries AA'hore Christianity , but recently established , required churches . For the erection of religious edifices they

had a monopoly ; they ivere independent of all sovereigns in lvhoso dominions they might temporarily reside , and subject only to their OAA ' private laAvs . In one ofthe papal decrees on the subject of these artisans tho pontiff declares "that these regulations have been made" after the example of Hiram , King of Tyro , Ai'hen he sent artisans to King Solomon for the purpose of building the temple of Jerusalem . These travelling Masons afterwards passed into England , and raised many splendid structures . Somo AA'ent to Scotland and established themselves at

Kil-Avinniug (\ . T > . 1140 ) , where thoy erected a stately abbey , and here ivas the germ of Scottish Freemasonry , which has regularly descended through the Grand Lodge to this timo . Iii Elias Ashmole ' s MS . in the British Museum , Ave have an account of a charter granted to the Jlasons by King Athelstano in 926 , upon the application of his brother Prince Edwin ; he says , 'Accordingly Princo Edivin summoned all the Jlasons in the realm to meet him in a congregation at Y ork , ivho came

and composed a general Lodgo of which ho was the Grand Master ; and having brought with them all the writings and records extant , some in Greek , some in Latin , some in French , aud other languages from the continents thereof , that assembly did form the constitution and charges of an English Lodge . " Thus , about the same period , similar guilds were instituted in Italy and in Britain ; Ave have in some of our ancient parish churches , specimens of tho skill of

Anglo-Saxon architects . Presuming Ashmole ' s to he a true statement , it Avas doubtless the first formation of a guild of the Craft of Masonry ; and hence the ivord Free , in connection AA'ith Mason , originally signified that the person so called was free of the