Masonic Jottings.—No. 6.

EARLY GERMAN LODGES . In the early German lodges there was Masonry which was Operative Masonry , and there was Masonry which was not Operative Masonry , but the development ( the term is here used

advisedly ) of the Masonry which was not Operative Masonry was effectivel y checked b y the different governments . WHAT GERMAN WRITERS OF OUR MASONIC HISTORY TELL US .

German writers of our Masonic history tell us two things—first , that Operative Masonry and Speculative Masonry dwelt together in the English Lodge during all the 17 th century ; next , that Operative Masonry , after a long illness , died early

in the 18 th century , having previously made her will , and thereb y named Speculative Masonry her executrix and residuary legatee .

The Stuarts And Freemasonry.

THE STUARTS AND FREEMASONRY .

( Continued from page GS ) . Mr . Slei gh tells us that a warrant for a lodge of Freemasons was signed by diaries Edward , as Grand Master , at Derby in 1745 . Mr . Yarker informs us that " Prince Charles was elected Grand Master of

the ^ Scotch Order of the Temple at Holyrood in 1745 . " And again he further informs us that " the Duke of Athol ( sic ) , as Regent , assembled ten Knights at Holyrood House , Sept .. 1745 , and admitted Prince Charles Edward , who was at once elected Grand Master . "

^ It is said that the celebrated Col . Crocket , of Transatlantic notoriety , bequeathed this well-known adage to his countrymen— "Be sure you are right , then go ahead . ' It is a pity that Mr . Yarker did not attend to the first part of this saying , for it can be most easil y proved that the Duke of Athole was not in

Edinburgh when diaries Edward was in Holyrood House hi 1745 . To anyone who knows the history of those ancient orders of chivalrv , the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitallers , I need not say one word of the unfounded assumptions of the Freemasons to he ever so distantly connected with

them . But I may just observe here , that even if it were possible lor the Duke of Athole , and any number of kni ghts , to admit Prince Charles into the Order of the Temple , which , by the way , was suppressed in 1312 , and eke !; him Grand Master thereof , that could not give him any claim whatever to he the Grand Master of the English Freemasons .

Alter Ireemasonry was first founded in England it spread rapid ] }' , through reasons which I will explain in another place ; and as a society that taught men to conceal a secret could not be tolerated by a church whose princi pal dogma was auricular confession , it was speedil y suppressed by the Pope . The Bull of -Excommunication , In Fmincnli , was issued against the Society of Freemasons , by Clement XII ., in 173 S , just twenty-one years after it was established . A translation of jt will he found at length in the Gen- ,

The Stuarts And Freemasonry.

tleinan ' s Magazine of the same year ; but I may here quote the following sentence from it : — "We have condemned and do condemn by the present Bull the societies of Freemasons as perverse , contrary to public order , and having incurred the major excommunication in its utmost extent , forbidding all persons , of

what rank , quality , or condition soever , who profess the Catholick , Apostolick , and Eoman religion , to cause themselves to be written down , or received into that society , to frequent any of its meetings , or hold correspondence with , them , or to suffer or tolerate any assemblies of Freemasons in their houses , under penalty to the contraveners of incurring likewise the said exeom » munication . "

There is no mistake about this Bull ; it is an important historical document , issued forth to all the world , seven years before Charles Stuart , a Roman Catholic , observe , is said to have become a Freemason . —Need I say another word of the absurdity of the statement ? In almost every book relating to Freemasonry

mention is made of a Chevalier Andrew Ramsay , who , as Findel , in his History , tells us , " endeavoured to prove the connection of Freemasonry with the Order of St . John , and to collect money in favour of the Pretender . " Ramsay was a native of Scotland . In 1710 he embraced the Roman Catholic religionunder the

, auspices of Fenelon , Bishop of Cambray . He was jffeceptor to the Duke of Burgundy , then heir apparent to the throne of France , also to the Prince of Turenne ; and in 1725 he was appointed to superintend the education of the two sons of the Chevalier St . George at Rome—Prince Charles Edward , the

eldest , being then just five years of age ; Henry , the youngest , about as many months old . The constant intrigues of the exiled family so disgusted him that he only remained with them for a few months . He subsequently came to England , where he received the degree of LL . D . from Oxford , being the first and probably the only Roman Catholic who received a degree from that university since the Reformation . He was

a distinguished scholar , author of many learned works , and died in 1743 . The Bull of Clement XII ., just quoted , is a sufficient bar to him ever having been a Ereemason , though as a great and good man he must have despised their silly puerilities . Well knowing that during the space of 150 years since Masonry has been established there has not been

one man amongst them who has distinguished himself in either science , literature , or art , 1 took especial pains to discover if Ramsay had been a Ereemason ,. or if he was only a victim to that love of annexation so prevalent among the society ; for , like the fox that had lost his tailthe Freemasons claim every great

, man from Adam down to the late Duke of "Wellington . He certainly must have been a bold Ereemason . who undertook to lead the Iron Duke with a roperound his neck , neither naked nor clothed , barefootednor shod , as their slang terms it , into a Masonic lodge-—hut we may for the present let that pass . One of

their rules seems to have been on the princip le of omneignotumpro wngnrfico est , that if a man has written a book that the Masons could not understand , he must have been one of their society . So Eludd and many other of the old alchemists have been thus claimed ; the Mystics have been served the sameeven Emanuel ( Swedenborg has been set down as a Ereemason . A translation of the "Sethos" of the