Masonic Notes And Queries.

mission , when tho faculties were withdrawn , by which the original Commission was established . The majority of the subordinates were subaltern officials—secretaries , registers , an abbe or two , and the like . I need not observe that the Knights of Devotion are merely an honorary body , with no power whatever to form Commissions , or act in any way as regular members of the

Order . The solitary exception I have alluded to was the octogenarian commander Dienne ; who , by the influence of a near relative—one of the young refractory Knights of Devotion— -was , in his dotage , induced tib sanction with his honoured and respectable name many of their acts which his unimpaired reason would never have consented to . One of the most harmless of their

doings , during their short though mischievous career , was this imaginary revival of the English Language . Not knowing at what precise point truth becomes libel , and exposes the teller thereof to the fangs of ' old Father Antic , the law , ' I shall refrain from further description of the exploits of this exemplary body . I was in hopes that this discussion would have drawn

from MAJOR POBTEB , or some advocate of tho pretensions of the Langue , a detailed explanation of that mysterious proceeding—their foundation ; with the names of those , both French and Spanish , who assisted at and confirmed the transaction . The Synoptical Sketch ( p . 24 ) mentions the Count de Feuillasse and Chevalier de Chastelain ; neither of whomcertainlare on the roll of the French

, y , Knights of Justice . Mention is also made of an anonymous ' Chancellor of the Gallic Languages . ' Besides these , we have heard the name of the ' Mandataire General' ( whatever that may be ) , whose name has also been heard of in connection with certain law proceedings in Paris against traffickers in spurious orders , titles , and diplomas of various kinds . We have also the name of

the ' Agent General' employed by the soi-disant Capitular Commission , in the work of the revival of the Langue : to wit , a respectable tailor in Waterloo-place . I may here observe , en passant , that there is no mention of the Langue in the Chancellerie of the Order , beyond some half-a-dozen loose sheets of correspondence in 1838 , and again in 1841 or 1844 ; an abortive effort on the part of

that society to obtain some notice or recognition from the S . Council . AVith regard to the Languages of Spain , which , we are told , assisted in the operation of reviving the Langue of 1826 , 1 will observe that there are only thirteen Knights of Justice of the old Royal Spanish Order in existence , all of whose names are well known to me . It was my fortune , some few years ago , and since

my commissioncrship expired , to be the medium of communication between these old cavaliers and the S . Council . I took the opportunity to inquire of one of them , the Marquis d'A . ( chief of the illustrious family of C , which has given two Grand Masters , and a succession of gallant knights to the Religion for centuries ) whether any of the Spanish Royal Order had assisted officiallin

y the restoration of a Langue in England in 1820 " , or at any other time . The Marquis d'A . * assured me , in the first place , that neither he nor any of his confreres had , to his knowledge , even heard of a Langue of England ; and that , in the next place , it was simply impossible that any of their body could have assisted , legally , at such a proceeding ; for to have done sothey must first have

se-, cured the permission of the Council of the Royal Spanish Order , which could not have been conceded without an appeal ; to the king , and that the king would not have granted the necessary powers without some preliminary diplomatic understanding with the ministers of England and France . So that we may conclude that the assertion is as trustworthy and truthful as . that of the revival by

the Grand Prior , Sir Robert Peat , of a lapsed corporation , by an oath before the Lord Chief Justice Denman . I have heard , by-the-way , that there is an entry in the parochial register of New Brentford to the effect , that Sir Robert Peat took the sacrament ou a certain day in the parish church , in pursuance of the Corporation Laios of England , on his entering upon office as ' Lord Grand

Prior of the Sixth , or English Language , of the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St . John of Jerusalem ; ' which act was attested by the rev . the curate , the two churchwardens , and the parish clerk ! ( Shades of L'Isle Adam and La Yalette !) Perhaps some of your readers can , and will , verify this queer story . I shall not remark upon the rest of MAJOR PORTER ' S communication , which

is merely a repetition of the statements of the Synoptical Sketch ; nor ( beyond a reply to the query that preludes that attempt ) shall I offer any comment upon an attempt , feeble as unworthy , to enlist a ' ~ No Popery' prejudice on the side he advocates . MAJOR POBTEB asks why the protest against the pretensions of the Langue , a copy of which was sent to you by SIR GEOBGE BOWYER ,

had not been issued during the thirty previous years of that Langue ' s existence F The real solution of this problem differs somewhat from that which he propounds . In the year 1858 or 1859 the Langue published a re-issue of their famous Synoptical Sketch , and introduced prominently therein a list of their councillors and other officebearers . At the head of this list they placed the name of the venerable Bali , fra . Philip de Colloredo , as Lieutenant of the Mastership of the Sovereign Order of St . John of Jerusalem ; and also the name of every

member of the S . Council of the order that had at anytime been incidentally mentioned in ray official correspondence with the authorities of the Langue as their commissioner , thereby leaving it to be implied , with the characteristic veracity of that pamphlet , that the Langue was a legitimate branch of the Order of St . John , and , as such , recognised by the Lieutenant of the Mastership and S .

Council of the Order . This cool and impudent assertion by implication of what was the very reverse of truth , coujiled with their thirty years' previous pretensions , if left uncontradicted , might , even in a legal point of view , have amounted to a virtual acknowledment on the part of tho Order , of the justice of the Langue ' s pretensions and assertions . Hence the protest ; and MAJOR PORTER

may rest assured that , but for this proceeding on the part of the Langue , no such protest would have been issued against them any more than against another respectable society , who , like the Langue , and with about equal right , style themselves 'Knights of St . John '; who , like the Langue too , meet occasionally for convivial purposes at the old gate of Clerkenwell ;* and wholike the

, Langue again , have issued their official papers and circulars from the same ancient and interesting public house . All tbe observations of ANTIQUARIUS . who followed in the wake of MAJOR . PORTER , may be reduced to one single proposition , viz ., that at present the Order of St . John of Jerusalem is neither so rich , powerful , nor influential as it was one hundred years ago . The fact of

the decadency and comparative insignificance of this celebrated confraternity , for so many ages the pride as well as bulwark of Christendom , he conceives to be a rare good joke , and chuckles over the idea of its present