Random Recollections Of Foreign Travel.

pointed out upon which the cock was perched when his crow carried sorrow and selfreproach to the heart of Peter , and when a hole in the wall is vouched for as whore thc Saviour stopped to rest thc Cross on his weary way to Calvary—what can the sober minded visitor feelbut indignation aud

, disgust 1 The cause of the illumination of the Latin convent was explained to me next morning by one of the priests there . The text " Thou art Peter , " would , it was thought , mortify the priests of the Greek Church if put forward prominently

over the entrance to the convent as the prerogative of the Latins , on the day of the opening of their great Couueil at Romeand this was the form in ivhich the feeling of the hour found vent . Well might Swift write bitterly , " ive have enough Christianity to make us hate , but not enough to make us love one another . "

It was after a sojourn of three months in Egypt and Palestine that I left Suez for Bombay , and proceeded up country in India , as far north as Delhi , returning to Bombay some weeks later , having visited and stayed at Delhi , Agra , Allahabad , Futteypore-Sikri ( the Windsor of Akbar the Greata

, day ' s journey from his capital Agra , and deserted but kept up in the same condition as when he died a couple of eenturiesorsoago ) , Benares , Jubblepore , Nagpore , Calcutta , Lucknow , Cawnpore , and places of minor note . I saw plenty of Masonic symbols on the

tombs , temples and palaces of the Great Moguls , and had abundant evidence that the true spirit of Masonry had been wanting in their clay , The Pathans who , as Bishop Heber said , "designed like Titans , and

finished like jewellers , " have left many curious Masonic marks to be discovered by the investigator , and the same marks may be discerned on the walls of Jerusalem , " and even on the old structure kn own as Absalom ' s Tomb . But leaving the precise significance and teaching of these marks to the care of

the Masonic archaeologist , and taking the broad view of a Mason who places his trust for the future of his race in the recognition of the great doctrine of natural equality before God , and the mutual dependency of manthere is abundant food

, for reflection in the records and relics of the past in India . You shudder at the fierce intolerance of religions , and the bitter hostility of race , which has devastated the country at intervals for centuries ; and you

endeavour to recognise in the spread of civilization , and the gradual breaking down of exclusive social barriers—harbingers of a bettor and more Masonic spirit having sway . Railway travelling in India is a wonderful smoother of rugosities . At Allahabad station I observed ( besides the English

waiting rooms for ladies and gentlemen , and the admirable refreshment rooms with which the line is kept purveyed by Kellner of Calcutta , who , as a public benefactor is to India what the admirable Spiers and Pond are to us iu England ) , "Waiting Room

for Mahommedan Gentlemen , " "Waiting Room for Mahommedan Ladies , " "Waiting Room for Hindoo Gentlemen , " " Waiting Roomfor Hindoo Ladies ; " but I learnt on all sides that the necessity for these formal divisions is gradually dying out . When a great

saving in railway fare can be effected b y a slight sacrifice of the prejudices of caste , the prudent Hindoo thinks twice before he enters upon an expenditnre for which there is no positive or tangible result , and so here again we see the gradual spread of toleration aud some faint hints of that

brotherhood of man and federation of the world , which one would fain hope is not merely a poet ' s dream , I had met many English and Scotch Masons during my trip up the country , and at Calcutta and Bombay , and had derived most charming impressions

from the zeal and kindliness they exhibited . I had also been invited to the Parsee Lodge , or rather an English Lodge , ivhich had many Parsee members , but this last invitation 1 had not been able

to accept . Still I sailed from India with pleasant Masonic recollections . I had been much impressed by a conversation I had held in the train with a Parsee gentleman employed by the Government to collect rare manuscripts fortheState library ,

and who told me with some pride he was about to become a Mason from the great , good and pure precepts which , as he had learnt from some eminent co-reli g ionists , pertained to the Craft . Several days on the way to Aden , Sorabjee and myself

were seated in my noble state room on the " Great Eastern , " when we commenced a conversation on our respective relig ious beliefs . He explained to me , when I asked him to hand me a box of matches for the cigar I was about to smoke , that his relig ion would not allow him to strike a match , although it permitted him to hand the box