A Roman Catholic's Notion Of Freemasonry.

whose exertions in the cause oi i < reemasonry , have heen the stepping-stone to their high position . All 0 f them , we verily believe , think more of their heavy responsibilities in governing and directing those under them than they do of any political changes in the world . Indeed in every grade and order of Freemasonrypolitics have no place , and we can afford

, to laugh at such sheer nonsense . Freemasons number more than twenty-seven Emperors , Kings , and Princes of Europe amongst them at this day . The late Royal Family of England were , all Freemasons , and most of them members of the hi h grades . We have noblemenbishopspriests

g , , , lawyers , soldiers , sailors , professional men of all kinds , merchants , and tradesmen , who belong to us ; and is it to be supposed that men of those classes , each having a stake in the country , are actuated by any other than loyal and patriotic feelings ? Proofs mi ght be adduced , but it is too puerile an objection to combat

seriously . Looking at Mr . Robertsons notions of Freemasonry , we are sorry to see a gentleman of his position and attainments lend himself to such clap-trap as his lecture evidences . He , for want of a guide , has been betrayed into disseminating falsehood instead of eliciting truth ; ancl if he will take our adviceas he

, promises to lecture on the Jacobins and Illuminati , which have nothing to do with us , let him read both sides of a question , and if he be an honest man , which we believe , he will turn to some ofthe works we have pointed out , ancl , no doubt , will modify his opinions of Freemasonry and its higher grades very

considerably . This much we know . The Christian degrees of Preemasonry strengthen a man ' s faith , and vividly impress upon him the merits of that Blessed Saviour , through whose redeeming sacrifice we hope for salvation to our souls . ( To be concluded in our next . )

British Architects.

BRITISH ARCHITECTS .

K"EW MATEHIAIS TOE THEIR IIVES . Sir John Vanbrugh . —We know too little of Sir John Vanbrugh , or , as he wrote his name at other times , Vanbrug , ancl Vanbrook . in any one of his fourfold capacities—architect , dramatistmanagerand herald—we would wish to

, , know more of him . As an architect , Castle Howard and Blenheim ( I have seen them ancl seen over them ) V'ell entitle him to the compasses which Kneller , on a kit-kat canvas ( you may see the original at Bayfordhnry ) , has placed in his right hand . " Tho Relapse " ancl "The Provoked Wife" make good his claim to rank

as a dramatist , as be does , thanks to Moxon and ueigh Hunt , in the same volume with his contemporaries and friends , Wycherley , Congreve , and Farquhar . For his heraldic claims to Camden ' s tabard o ± " Clarencieux , " what will Garter Young , or York King , or Ilouge-Qroix Planche ? The lastnamed

say - gentleman , himself a successful dramatist , would be kind to "Van , " while Mr . Buckstone , the able manager of « The Hay market" of to-day , would admit v an s full claim to be " manager , " from the treble rick he had of securing good plays , writing good plays , and filling houses , as well as building them .

In a very unpromising MS . volume in the British Museum , called a " Register of Requests , " from 1660 to 1670 , 1 found the following : —• "John anil James Yanbergh . That y'" Petrs aro both twhines , and borne in London , and for some yeares past have employed a stock left them b 3 their grandfather in a course of merchandizing . Yet

some , out of spight , go about to hinder their trading , in regard that their father was an alien , though their mother an Englishwoman , and themselves have not attained y full age of xxj yeares . Prayes y Ma 'e 3 dispensacon w "' their innocent disability , and that they be permitted to trade , & c . " The royal order thereon runs thus : —

"His Ma * having been moved in this Peticon , his pleasure is , that M ' Attor 1 ' or M ' - Sol . Gen" doe prepare a Bill for his Ma * royal signature , cout a grant and liberty to y ° Potrs to traffiq , as by them is humbly desired . "

I have never seen the petition . Does it exist ? In 1819 the Rev . George Vanbrugh , rector of Aughton , in Lancashire , then " the only surviving descendant" of the family , informed the poet of the " Pleasures of Hope" that his ancestors were eminent merchants of Antwerp , and fled out of Flanders when the Duke of Alva tried to establish the Inquisition in

those provinces , There is other evidence of this were it needed . " Our family first , " he further informed the poet , " took refuge in Holland , and from thence came over to England to enjoy the Protestant protection of Queen Elizabeth . " Some settled in Chester ; Giles Vanbrugh was one ; others in

London , in the ward of Walbrook and parish of St . Stephen . We first hear of them in Walbrook parish in the year 1628 , when , as the register records , William , son of Giles Van Brugh , and Mary , his wife , were baptised . Other entries relating to them ancl others of

the name , of a like multiplying kind , are to be found in the same repository of barren facts for the . years 1631 , 1656 , 1657 , and 1659 . The latest entry reiat-iug to the name records the burial , in 1726 , " in the north aisle , " ofthe great architect himself . Vanburgh ' s father was a merchant in Laurence Pountney-lane , in the city of London , and appears as such , "William Vandenbergh" by name , in a veryrare volume called " A Collection of the Names of

the Mercnants living m and about the city of London , " printed in 1677 . This small circumstance may afiord a clue for information of moment , ancl for this purpose I call attention to it here . When ancl where Vanbrugh was dubbed " Sir John" I cannot find in any account of his life . This I have ascertained : he was kni ghted at Greenwich

House on the 19 th of December , 1714 , in the first year of the Hanoverian accession . The great Duke of Marlborough introduced him , ancl no fee was paid on the occasion .

Tne first Theatre erected m the Haymarket of London was built in the year 1705 . Vanbrugh was the architect . The first stone was laid the 9 th of April , 1705 . " Of this theatre , " says Colley Gibber , " I saw the first stone laid , on which was inscribed ' The Little Whig , ' in honour to a lady of extraordinary beauty , then the celebrated toast and p ride of that party , then the celebrated toast and pride of that party . " This often-toasted beauty at kit-tat dinners ( left nameless by Cibber ) was Anne Churchill ,