Freemasonry.*

" Good Samaritan . " Mr . Woodford asserts that these bodies " are not Freemasonry , " and " neA'er can be Freemasonry , " AA'hich Ave can quite believe . But Avhen he says that " it is A'ery doubtful Avhether they can do any real good or be of any lasting use , " he appears to us to hesitate Avhere there is not the sli ghtest warrant for hesitation at all .

Next to its nysteriousness , the most remarkable thing about Freemasonry is its antiquity , if Ave are to accept for truth what is often put forth by its A'otaries on the subject . Of these some affirm that it is as old as creation—or , at any rate , that it flourished long before the ' flood ; and others connect it with the heathen 1113 'steries , the Temple of Solomon , the Solar Myth , the Maniclneans , the Pythagoreans , and what not besides . We are glad , hoAveA'er , to find from Mr . Woodford that oven Freemasons

Avhen dealing with their Craft have HOAV come to some extent under the influence of criticism , and that several of the versions of its history once current among them are either altogether abandoned or only partly and suspiciously allowed . " Our present speculath'e system , " Mr . Woodford says , "is undoubtedly lineally ancl archfeologically the successor of the guild fraternities of operative masons . But whence , it may be asked , did the guilds obtain the masonic legends ? Brother Findel aud a large ancl able school contend that the system was , so to say , set up in the thirteenth century by the

lodges or ' Bauhiitten of Stemmetzen and operatiA'e masons in Germany . But another body of students has ahvays existed , ancl still exists , Avhich AA'ould trace back the Anglo-Saxon guilds to Roman guilds , and the Roman guilds to Greece and the East , to Tyre and Jerusalem , ancl Egypt above all . " Mr . Woodford is disinclined altogether to g ive up " the legend of the Temple , " or " even a connection Avith the ancient mysteries , " Avhich , in his judgment , " for a long time retained many lingering evidences of primeval

truth . " To us , AVO confess , Brother Findel seems more likely to approach correctness in his conjectures than Mr . Woodford—a " Grand Chaplain" not being the safest guide iu the Avorld when Ave have to deal with the " Temple" and supposed relations betAveen " the ancient mysteries" and " primeval truth . " But when it is conceded that Freemasonry , as we understand it , is " lineally and archseologically the successor of the guild fraternities of operative masons , " which in other words means simply that it is a

" survival from a mediaeval " trade union , " Ave may leave the " Temple , " " the ancient mysteries , " " primeval truth , " ancl the rest of it out of the question . That the masonic brotherhood Avas , early in the fifteenth century , to all intents and purposes a " trade union , " is indisputable ; for practically as such it was the subject of an Act of Parliament passed in 1425 . By the 3 rd Henry VI ., c . 2 , "it is ordained , " as Dr . Plot in the curious notice of Freemasonry contained in his " Natural History of Staffordshire" says ,

" that no congregations and confederacies shoidd be made by masons in their general chapters and assemblies , Avhereby the good course and effect of the statutes of labourers Avere A'iolatecl and broken in subversion of laAv , ancl that those AVIIO caused such chapters or congregations to be holden shoidd be adjudged felons , and those masons that came to them should be punished by imprisonment and make fine and ransom at the King ' s will . " Whether this statute , —ivhich by-the-by brings the told and new methods of

attacking the " problem of capital and labour" into odd juxtaposition—Avas or Avas not put in force there is no evidence to shoAV . It used to be said , on Avhat Mr . Woodford rejects as authority , that only a feAV A / ears after it Avas passed a great gathering ancl " respectable Lodge" of Freemasons Avas held at Canterbury under the presidency of Archbishop Chichely ; that later on in his reign Henry VI . ( who was only a child in 1425 ) Avas initiated into the confraternity , and that the " charges and laws" of the society AA'ere

" seen , perused , and alloAved" by the King and his Council . That Henry VI . and Archbishop Chichely , who were both great builders , should have been patrons of the masonic guilds would not be at all surprising , and it is given by Mr . Woodford as an ascertained fact that Henry VH . ancl Cardinal Wolse 3 * , who again were both great builders , were Grand Masters of the Craft in succession to each other . Charles I ., Charles H ., and William III . are also in the list of Sovereigns and eminent personages AVIIO held the office previous to the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 . Of these " ante-Revival" Grand Masters Sir Christopher Wren seems to have been the