The Masonic Convention For Italy.

g iven to Bros . Giuseppe Garibaldi , ex-Grand Master , Macchi , Mordini , and Frappolli . The new Grand Master , in returning thanks , exhorted the brethren to persist in concord and perseverance . On the third day , May 2 ( 5 , the Assembly resolved

that the report of the Grand Orator be printed and sent to the Masonic papers . It was decided also that the Italian Freemasons should take the initiative for the erection of a monument to the Brothers Bandiera , at Cosenza , where they and their

fellowmartyrs , mostly Masons , were shot . It Avas resolved also that one fourth part of the subscriptions of the members of the lodges should be appropriated for the expenses of the Grand

Orient , and that the latter should , in its turn , assume all the liabilities incurred by the Masonic Assembly of 1863 . The standing orders being disposed of , the "bag of benevolence" Avent round the Hall . Bros ,

di Boni and Frappolli then addressed the assembly on various subjects interesting to the Order generally , and to Italian Freemasons in particular , Avhereupon the Grand Master declared officially the close of the labours of the Assembly , the next

session having been appointed to be held at Naples in May , 1866 . The " mystic accolade " having been gone through , the assembly dispersed .

Symbolism.

SYMBOLISM .

Accustomed as we are to symbolism , the practices of bygone ages cannot but be interesting to us . We learn from " Grimm ' s Researches into the History of the Teutonic Nations" that " Much of this character in the ascertainment of property

and privilege , by some act of the claimant , is performed with some implement or symbol of his profession . For this purpose , knights ancl nobles hurled the spear , or some other weapon ; and if the Archbishop of Mentz or the Count of Nassau , riding

in complete armour into the Rhine as far as they could find footing for their equally-armed steeds , marked the extent of their dominion over the river by flinging a sledge hammer , such hammer was not so anomalous as at first sight it appears

to their rank , or even to the ecclesiastical profession . " Grimm considers the use of this hammer as a proof that tho custom prevailed pro to the existence of written law amongst the northern

nations and their conversion to Christianity . "A hammer , somewhat resembling , perhaps , what Avas afterwards termed a mace , was , in

those early days , a martial weapon . It was especially that of the god Thor , and was esteemed so peculiarly holy as to be the regular sign of consecration . Thus , in the hands of the Count of Nassau it was an instrument of Avar , in those of

the archbishop , traditionally , perhaps , one of religion , though the circumstance of his being clad "in armour might seem to imply its being a most holy Aveapon .

" Our readers must remember that , during the dark and middle ag-es , man did not forfeit the pleasures of fighting by becoming the minister of a God of peace and mercy . A shepherd might drive his flock so far into a forest ( the property of

the hamlet , or of the lord ) , as that , standing beyond the head of the foremost sheep , he could fling his crook out of the wood ; and the AA ^ oodma-n might cut wood as far as he could fling his axe . " Grimm observes that this mode of

admeasurement , hy throwing a spear or a stone , is found in Homer , but that there are no traces of any theory of the kind in the laws of the Greeks or the Romans , and he quotes Persian and Hindoo tales of land thus acquired ; they belong , however , to

poetry . In the Welsh laAV he discovers a similar spirit ; and , indeed , we suspect that a considerable degree of resemblance , in many respects , existed between tha Germans and their Celtic neighbours in Southern Germany , Gaul , and in Britain .

" Before leaving this subject of admeasurement , Ave should state that the smallest possible extent of mother earth ' s surface , the possession of Avhich constituted a landed proprietor , was ascertained by a custom , not proper to any trade or profession ,

but to human nature . 'The space must be so large , that the owner may , thereupon , set a cradle containing an infant , and a stool for a maid to rock it . ' From descriptions in other places , Ave suspect this stool had only three legs .

" Some doubt may arise in the breast of a sceptical reader , whether this determining of the certain by the uncertain , fanciful poetically as it appears to us , might not , Avhen devised , be a very straightforward proceeding—the best substitute

for maps , plans , and written deeds . Indisputably , it sprang from the want of such documents ; but the arbitrary selection , in the last-mentioned instance , of one of the tenderest offices of humanity —the care of babyhood—satisfies us that the old

Germans Avere as conscious as ourselves of the play of feeling and imagination marking their laAVB and customs , "