The "Edinburgh Review" And Freemasonry.

a manuscript being in the archives of the Masons' Company goes far to illustrate its operative connections , and suggests the thought that we may yet succeed in discovering something more definite as to the character of the company . 3 . Respecting the " connection bet * veen

the operative masons , " and the speculatives , which Sir Francis Palgrave considers Avas dissolved about tbe beginning of tbe eighteenth century , we are quite content to abide by his opinion , for about that periodwe all knowFreemasonry

be-, , came much more speculative than ever it did before , and generally—though not universally—ceased to be connected Avith the operative Craft . A severance , hoAvever , suggests a prior

connectio % , and so evidently tbe able writer of the article in question believed in the continuous existence of the Society of Freemasons for centuries ; and that the operative department , so to speak , of the Institution was not severed from the esoteric and speculative portion until the

period mentioned , viz ., early in the last century . The final disjunction also suggests tbe partial severance previously , which Avas accomplished , and can still , be traced in the records of some lodges , which exhibit the fact that prior to the

formation of the speculative Grand Lodge in 1717 , the members had ceased to have any practical connection Avith operative Masons , and thus had partially accomplished what the Revivalists of 1717 completed .

Homeric Troy.

HOMERIC TROY .

A MEETING of the Society of Antiquaries was held at Burlington House on Thursday evening , June 24 , Earl Stanhope in the chair . His lordshi p had previously received Mr . Gladstone ancl the Trojan discoverer , Dr . Schliemann , ancl a small

party at dinner . Dr . Schliemann read a paper entitled "The Dkcovery of Homeric Troy . " There was a full meeting of the Fellows , and among those present Avere Mr . Gladstone , the Duke of Argyll , Mr . Grant DuffM . P . Lord Talbot de

Mala-, , hide , Mr . Beresford Hope , M . P ., Mr . Paley , Lord Arthur Russell , Mr . 0 . T . Newton , ' D . C . L ., Admiral Spratt , Mr . Frederick Leighton , R . A ., Mr . George Richmond ,

R . A ., Sir John Lubbock , M . P ., tbe Earl of Rosebery , Dr . L . Schmitz , Sir John Heron MaxAvell , Dr . Dasent , Dr . Acland , Professor Rolleston , Mr . Penrose , Mr . John Evans , & c . Routine'business having been transacted , the President introduced the illustrious

excavator of the Troad to the crowded assembly . The paper opened Avith some remarks on the toiiography of the Troad , and noticed the once flourishing city , Alexandria Troas , which , from the extent of the ruins , Dr . Schliemann thought must have contained half a million of inhabitants .

Differing from common opinion , he thought the city Avas not founded , but only enlarged by Autigonus , and cited Strabo for that opinion . Its extensive Byzantine debris leave no doubt of its having been inhabited till the end of the Middle Ages It is now called Eski-Stamhul . On the left the

traveller immediately aftenvards passes the island of Tenedos , behind Avhich , according to the " Odyssey , " the Greeks bid their ships after the construction of the wooden horse . At Cape Sigeion begins the Hellespont , the strait betAveen the Troad and the Thacian peninsula At the foot of the cape Avere tAvo conical heroic tombs , commonly identified Avitb those of Patroclus and Achilles . Here Avas the

celebrated plain of Troy , 8 J miles long , If to 5 broad , and bounded on the north by the Hellespont , and on all other sides by continuous heights , sloping from Ida . The terrain Avas then further

described m detail . The Plain of Troy was traversed by the River Scamander , still recognizable in its piresent name Mendere . The river rises from a cold and a hot spring , in a valley near the summit of Ida , and after a course of 36 miles , falls into the Hellespont near the town Kumkale .

The river was minutely described , and the Homeric notices of it were compared with its present state . There could be no doubt that in the poet's time it filled the broad bed of the little rivulet called Intepe-Asmak . If it had occupied its

present bed it must have passed throug h tbe Greek Camp . The modern Dumbrek-Su was Homer ' s Simois . Other remarks followed on the waters of the district The question had not been yet decided Avbetber tbe plain of Troy bad once been a deep gulf and harbour , consolidated into