To the Provincial Members of Grand Lodge. 37 addresses of Bros. R. G. Alston and Dr. Crucefix is recorded. The rejoinder, however, of the Most Worshipful Grand Master is not omitted. You are thus left to draw a very natural inference-that the argument was all on one side; and that it was not worth your while to oppose the confirmation of the resolution. In the name of common sense, let us hear no more of ex parte and garbled reports. The resolution was, "That the Most Worshipful Grand Master be authorized to confer on Provincial Grand Masters in the Colonies and foreign parts, a power of dispensation, in cases of urgency, for a brother to be advanced to a higher degree at an interval of one week, instead of four weeks." It is said that for want of this indulgence, many join the Scotch and Irish lodges, because they can thus obtain all three degrees in a few days: often on the same day. But this is a very insufficient argument for such an innovation in the laws of the Grand Lodge of England; inasmuch as an Entered Apprentice is entitled to a certificate of his first degree; which would enable him to be advanced in any place he might be removed to. And, in case of accidental misfortune or distress, he would receive assistance equally with a brother who had taken all his degrees, or even held high office in the Craft. The strongest advocates for this innovation, even the Most Worshipful Grand Master himself, admitted that they do not act from PRINCIPLE, but on grounds of EXPEDIENCY. Brethren, look well to this admission. For if you do not give a timely check to the secret influence which has so LONG, SO BANEFULLY, Swayed the measures of Grand Lodge, rest assured further innovations will be made. Applications from some of the maritime Provincial Grand Masters have already been made for a similar indulgence. This will be followed by a demand for a reduction of the initiation fees; which, upon the plea of EXPEDIENCY, will be conceded. What! brethren! is the Grand Lodge of England, (after so ably and successfully maintaining the cause of our Jewish Brethren, upon motives of PRINCIPLE) upon grounds of EXPEDIENCY to sacrifice the great bulwarks of our Order, and throw PRINCIPLE to the winds? Is English Masonry to be brought down to a level with all the spurious forms of bastard Masonry? No! let us rally round our standard: let us tell these innovators, that we seek no change; and least of all such change as they would give us.' Amongst other pieces of "special pleading," we were told at the last Grand Lodge that this measure is not an innovation; that it is only a return to a practice which prevailed up to the time of the UNION. Be it so; the argument is of no weight. Look at the state of confusion Masonry was in at that period. It was then considered necessary to revise the working of our ceremonies, and remodel our laws. Can any one suppose that the restriction, now sought to be set aside, would have been introduced into our MAGNA CHARTA, without due conviction of its necessity; without a firm persuasion that the then existing practice worked detrimentally? The brethren entrusted with this work, possessed able heads, and honest hearts. They were not bitten with the fashionable nostrum expediency. They wished for no free trade in Masonry. Upon the back of all the special pleading, came, what must have pained many to hear, a threat, that if the measure were not carried, the Most Worshipful Grand Master would resign. I trust there was not a brother present wanting in feelings of proper respect to the noble head of the Order; but does he expect that we are to give up our private judgment and conviction, and be no better than serfs? It is high time to put an end to the "sic volo, sic jubeo" system. The close borough influence of the Dais must be counteracted. Soon after the first appointment of the present Most Worshipful Grand Master, Dr. Crucefix gave notice of a motion to limit the office to a term of three, or five years. If he has refrained from following up his notice, deluded by a hope that matters would be better managed, than they had been latterly, the proceedings of last Wednesday must have convinced him of his error; the sooner the motion is again brought forward, and carried, the better. The present head of the Craft never has possessed the confidence of the brethren in general. He was elected by means of the metropolitan interest, and that interest exerted "per fas, et nefas." And by that interest have he and his advisers been able to do as they like. But, if the most unbounded confidence had been placed in the Most Worshipful Grand Master, let me ask, whether he is any longer deserving of it? When a motion is brought forward striking at the very foundation of our bulwarks-when, to carry that measure, threats are resorted to-what confidence, what rational expectation, can we entertain, that, ere long, some other innovation will not be proposed, and carried. Now, brethren, let me conclude this feeble advocacy of our cause, by exhorting you to bear in mind Wednesday, the 6th of December next. Upon your energy, or lukewarmness, it mainly depends, whether we shall have a new sovereign to preside over us or remain in thraldom. But to have our masonic state well governed, it will not be sufficient to change our sovereign, W. H. Guizot and company must be put "hors de combat." PHILO MASONICUS. London, 4th March, 1848. MISSILES FROM THE MOON. HINTS TO INSURANCE COMPANIES. "IF, as we are inclined to assume," says Brother Professor Nichol, in his Contemplations on the Solar System, "the phenomenon of the rays from the crater Tycho indicates a protrusion from below, through rents in the moon's crust-whence those rents? They are not mere chances, or irregularities; it is not as if the protruded matter only filled a gap where it found it, a thing which happens so often with our own trap rocks. These rents proceed along great circles of our luminary, from Tycho as a central point; they are, and can be no other than cracks, extending over a vast portion of its crust, produced by the convulsion which formed that stupendous chasm. The formation of the rays and of the crater was therefore the same; and the crater is the mere mouth or point of escape of some tremendous internal and eccentric force. And thus, at an early age in the history of the present crust of the moon, at least five thousand cubic miles of rock were displaced, and the solid surface in all directions rent, in one case through the length of one thousand seven hundred miles, by some terrific convulsion. And where is the displaced matter? Making allowance for the wall and protrusions, some three thousand cubic miles of rock have disappeared from the moon, blown out at Tycho. Have they been drawn back by her attraction? No such thing, the mass has gone into space, erupit, evasit; it is missing, and must be found! Three thousand cubic miles of rock cannot have been disposed of like a metaphysical dogma, which any day may be taken up by another, and discussed and sent to Orcus. In space they are, careering frenziedly, only restrained in somewhat by the arm of the sun! And, ye insurance companies, that, on the ground of well-calculated tables, guarantee both men and things from every imaginable mischance, take heed solemnly, and lay it both to heart and pocket, that before space-the space within which we live, and which you are insuring-is safe from the past actions of this Tycho, a small spot on the surface of a very small globe-at the least, and on the most favourable hypothesis, two thousand cubic miles of rock will yet have to be discharged somewhere, in the shape of meteoric stones!” Breakers a-head! Verily, some new patent skull-cap must be invented, proof against such a pepper of stone-blocks as the above, or no man can trust for a moment to the thickness of his own cranium, however dense its substance, or impenetrable to ordinary agencies! Seriously, however, the opinion that meteoric stones are projectiles from the moon is entertained by many eminent philosophers, as well as by the above writer. M. Arago, in particular, considers it the most probable theory that has been broached, and the only one that seems to satisfy all the phenomena observed. At same time he allows that it is still but a simple hypothesis, presuming upon the existence of lunar volcanoes-a fact which is by no means demonstrated, though it may appear probable. Aerolites have fallen on the continent of Europe weighing two hundred and three hundred pounds; and in America a inass of iron, of seventy cubic feet, fell in 1800. An instance occurred in this country, in 1795, at Wold Cottage, Yorkshire, the stone weighing fifty-six pounds. The fact of such stones falling is indeed undeniable; and that they are of an extraterrestrial origin is admitted now to be certain. GREAT SOLAR SPOT. TO THE EDITOR. February 2, 1848. SIR AND BROTHER,-As in my terrestrial wanderings I sometimes do turn my eyes, like other pious pilgrims, up to things celestial, perhaps the following notice, though somewhat of an astronomical character, may not be considered out of place in your pages; inasmuch as I believe there is, or was anciently, an intimate connexion between astronomy and Masonry; which, indeed, is deducible from the etymology of Masonry, derived from a Greek word, signifying, "in the midst of the heavens,' referring to the sun. Looking admiringly one day (25th January last) upon the great source of life, who had long before that opened the glorious day, and was past the meridian altitude of his course, I saw, or thought I saw, an obscuration on his disc (even as one will sometimes discover specks in the Master Mason himself), and, an intervening haze or fog, mixed with city smoke, dimming the radiance of the lustrous orb, and rendering his disc of a deep orange-red colour, I could so steadily gaze on him as distinctly to discover that the appearance was in reality a vast spot, of the apparent size and shape of a large bean. It was perfectly palpable to the naked eye, and rather of a mottled, dusky aspect, than of a pitch-black. Taking up a small spy-glass which lay near, I saw at once that there was no mistake, and again regarded it de liberately with the unaided eye. A row of high houses was about to hide the unexpected vision from my sight; but I had time to plant an achromatic refractor before it vanished, when, with powers of sixty and one hundred and twenty, which I rapidly applied, the obscuration resolved itself into a great congregated group of spots and shallows, two large, long ones lying in the centre, surrounded by a number of lesser spots. There were, besides, in different parts, a good many other small spots. That the perception of this great spot, or cluster of connected spots, indicated some extraordinary movement in the solar elements I am well aware; but I am not astronomer enough to presume to speculate upon the causes. Some consider these spots to be rents or openings in the sun's luminous atmosphere, resulting from tremendous rains or discharges of moisture, so rarifying the atmospheric envelope, as to disclose the dark solid body of the sun. Professor Nichol, of Glasgow, conceives them to be the effect of winds, whirlwinds, tornadoes displacing the circumambient atmosphere of the sun, and creating, as it were, a vacuum, through which we see as through a funnel, the opaque body of the sun peeping out at the small extremity. These, however, and other hypotheses, may not here be enlarged on; nor should I have troubled you at all with this notice, but that the fact of the visibility of such spots by the naked eye is of very rare occurrence, and has even been doubted. I therefore give my testimony, with name should it be asked for. So far as my sources of reference reach, I can only find two clear cases upon record. The first is that given by Hakluyt, in the following entry from the log-book of a ship on the coast of Africa, in December, 1590: "The 7th, at sunset, we saw a great black spot on the sun; and on the 8th, both at rising and setting, we saw the like, the spot appearing about the size of a shilling." This occurred before the telescopic observation of the solar spots by Galileo and others, and is probably the earliest notice of the kind. The other well-authenticated instance is that of Sir W. Herschel, who saw a spot, in 1779, large enough to be distinguished by the naked eye. I doubt not, however, there may be some other cases. Dr. Dick, a well known astronomical writer, who has many times examined the sun, appears never once to have seen a spot with the unaided vision. In a letter to a friend he says—" If any spots have been visible to the naked eye, they could not have been much less than fifty thousand miles in diameter." The spot above described was probably still larger, from its apparent size. PILGRIM. Postscriptum.-Since writing the foregoing the writer has had the satisfaction of a full corroboration of the facts mentioned, from several respectable witnesses. John Wanchape, Esq., of Edmonstone, county of Mid Lothian, N. B., distinctly observed the same solar spot, and describes its appearance to the naked eye in terms accordant with the above. Two other gentlemen in Edinburgh have in like manner testified to the fact. So that, so far as the visibility to unassisted vision goes, the fact is put beyond doubt, if it were not sufficiently confirmed before. But it is not the mere establishment of this circumstance that renders the observation of interest or importance. The idea presses itself upon the mind, what must be the enormous extent of such obscurations to be thus palpable to the naked eye, at the distance of ninetyfive millions of miles? What, too, must have been the force or power that could so turn light into darkness? With the latter question I may not intermeddle. Speculation has already done its best, or its worst, as either may be interpreted from the theories above mentioned. Analogy is exhausted in the attempt. But in respect to the former, from the vast space evidently occupied by the obscured part on the surface of the sun, and judging by the eye, in the absence of any micrometer or other instrument, the diameter of the spot must have much exceeded the minimum, as given by Dr. Dick, possibly about one-twelfth of the solar diameter, or seventy-three thousand miles, might have been so observed, This, of course, is a very rough calculation, or rather conjecture, from the nature of the case; but those who saw the spot, or obscuration, whether the result of one or of many united spots, will, I am persuaded, not think it far from the truth. Altogether, from a consideration of this subject, we may with greater confidence receive the accounts transmitted to us by some ancient authors of obscurations, which have been considered as incredible. Plutarch, for instance, recounts, that in the first year of the reign of Augustus, the face of the sun was so dim, that people could gaze steadfastly upon it, at any time of the day. And Abulferagius relates, that in the seventeenth year of the Emperor Heraclius, half of the sun's body was obscured from October to June. It is known that the great darkening of the light, sent as a plague to the Egyptians, could not have resulted from a natural solar eclipse, as it lasted three days. Might not the Almighty have employed these spots, as they are termed, as his agents in effecting the supernatural obscuration? The supposition by no means affects its miraculous character, as a departure from the ordinary course of things, TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-You will much oblige some inquisitive brethren by informing them who at present is Grand Master of the Templars; I allude as to being in possession of the Templars' Cross which Sir Sydney Smith held. Who is his successor since the publication of your 18th Number of June 27, 1838? and by so doing you will confer an obligation on yours very faithfully, Feb. 21, 1848. W. H. JERIF, Captain R.N., [Will some Templar-Mason kindly reply to the above.-ED.] TO THE EDITOR. GRANT OF THREE HUNDRED POUNDS TO FORM A WIDOW'S FUND. DEAR SIR AND BROTHER,-One strong reason urged at Grand Lodge against the confirmation of the above grant, why the country lodges would not agree to an augmentation of their dues, was, "that they already had annuity funds of their own, to which they subscribed in the various provinces." Such being the case, why should not the lodges in the London district also have their annuity fund, restricted to the widows of Masons having belonged to such lodges? There are, I believe, one hundred and six lodges in the London district; assume them to have an average of fifteen VOL. VI. G |