THE CELEBRATION AT PORTLAND. THE celebration of the first Centennial Anniversary of the introduction of Freemasonry into Maine, was held at Portland on the 24th of June, and was in all respects an entire, perfect and brilliant success. The weather, though some rain fell in the latter part of the day, was, on the whole, much more agreeable than would have been a clearer sky and a brighter sun, inasmuch as less inconvenience was experienced from the heat. The rain held off until after the public exercises had been completed, and the procession was on the march to the Pavillion for dinner; and then it fell in such a gentle shower that it caused very little derangement in the proceedings. The entire programme, which was judiciously prepared, was admirably executed by the Marshal of the day and his assistants. It is estimated that there were not far from three thousand Masons in the procession, including the Grand Lodges of Maine and Massachusetts, in full ranks, and delegates from those of some other States. There were also in the ranks not less than FIVE HUNDRED KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, in their rich and showy uniforms, and they presented the finest exhibition of Masonic Knighthood, both in numbers and appearance, probably ever witnessed in this or any other country. We are not aware that on any previous occasion an equal number of Templars were ever assembled together, and we are very certain that in point of general deportment and beauty of display, this feature in the pageant has not been excelled. The Boston Encampment was under the command of Sir John K. Hall, and numbered about two hundred Knights in its ranks. The De Molay Encampment was commanded by Sir E. C. Bailey, and numbered about one hundred members. The St. John's Encampment, of Providence, R. I., and the Portland Encampment, were also out in full numbers. But we have not room this month for particulars. It is enough that the procession was worthy of the occasion, and an honor to all parties engaged in it.

The addresses at the City Hall were productions of high merit. The welcome address by the Grand Master of the State, Hon. JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND, was able and appropriate, and was received in a manner which must have been gratifying to the eloquent speaker. This was followed by "historical remarks in relation to the introduction of Masonry into Maine, and the formation of Portland Lodge, No. 1," in 1762, by W. Moses Dodge, Master of said Lodge. The narrative was well and carefully prepared, and was a very interesting paper. We shall endeavor to lay it before our readers next month. The principal address was delivered by the Rev. E. C. Bowles, of Portland, and was received with great favor by the audience. It was an elegant performance, and we shall be glad to learn that the orator has yielded to the solicitations of his Brethren and consented to prepare it for publication. It was delivered without notes and occupied about thirty minutes. The M. W. Grand Master of Massachusetts was the next speaker, and his remarks, which were eloquent, earnest, and well adapted to the place and the occasion, together with the historical remarks of R. W. Brother John H. Sheppard, Esq, we shall endeavor to find room for in our next. The prayer by Rev. Cyril Pearl, and the music by the Bands, gave great satisfaction and elicited high praise.

At the conclusion of these services the procession was re-formed and marched

through some of the principal streets to the pavillion, where a fine and bountiful collation was spread, free to all who chose to partake of it. It need not be added that the invitation was generally accepted, for the Brethren had been full five hours on duty. Plates were set for thirty five hundred persons.

In the evening a large number of the Brethren with their ladies, assembled at the City Hall, and united in a promenade concert, dancing, conversation, &c. It is said there were twelve or fifteen hundred ladies and gentlemen present, and that the occasion was a joyous one. And this reminds us that the R. W. Deputy Grand Master, Brother WM. P. PREBLE, Esq., entertained the Grand Lodge, and other Brethren and their ladies, at his residence on the preceding evening, in a very handsome and hospitable manner.

To the citizens and people of the neighboring towns, the occasion was a gala day. The city was literally crowded with strangers, and the streets through which the procession passed were lined with spectators. The houses all along the route were instinct with pretty women and children, with joyous faces. Business was measurably suspended, and all, young and old, seemed by common consent, to have surrendered themselves to the enjoyments of the day, and to making each other, and everybody else, happy.

To the officers of the Grand Lodge and other Grand Bodies of Maine, to the Committee of Arrangements, and indeed to the Portland Brethren as a body, their visiting Brethren are largely indebted for kind attentions and generous hospitali

ties.

BURNS

MASONIC

CONTEMPORARIES.

To the Editor of the London Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror. DEAR SIR AND BROTHER,-Under the heading "Notes and Queries," you have in your last number devoted considerable space to an extract cut from an American paper and forwarded to you by "Ex. Ex.," who remarks, "Where its editor got it from I don't know." I recognize in these extracts given by "Ex. Ex." biographical descriptions of the characters represented in a painting of great merit well known to Scottish Freemasons, and engravings of which are found to adorn the walls of many of our lodge-rooms and private parlors. These " descriptions" appear in a foolscap 8vo. tome, of some 200 pages, entitled A Winter with Robert Burns, being annals of his patrons and associates in Edinburgh during the year 1786-7, and details of his inauguration as Poet Laureate of the Lodge Cannongate Kilwinning, (No. 2), and published in Edinburgh some fifteen years ago. The volume is dedicated to the Cannongate Kilwinning Lodge, and contains a lithographed key to the picture, the painting of which suggested the compilation of the biographical sketches just alluded to. It was on Brother Stewart Watson's return from the continent in 1845, where for many years he had resided in the prosecution of his studies and profession as an artist, that, at the special request of Lodge No. 2, he was induced to undertake a painting of "the Inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet Laureate of the Lodge Cannongate Kilwinning ;" and for the benefit of those who may not have seen the painting, I take the liberty of appending a short de. scription of it as given in an Edinburgh paper, when it was being publicly exhibited

in the Scottish metropolis :-" This is the first attempt on canvas to illustrate the life of Burns. The plan adopted is the only true one, by presenting him in the actual light in which he was regarded by his contemporaries-the sort of men who were his friends and companions-in fact, giving a glimpse into the intellectual world in which he moved in the metropolis, after his first arrival, during the year 1786-7. The subject is striking, and awakens our finest sensibilities.

Burns is represented in a standing posture, in the act of being installed Poet-Laureate by the R. W. Master. The Lodge, at the moment, is filled by the most distinguished and notable men of the day, in groups, and so arranged as to shew the friendship and remote intimacies subsisting among them. The leading characters are evidently portraits, but they are animated and lighted up by the interest of the scene and the passing conversation arising out of it. The group on the Master's left is composed of distinguished visitors, such as Lords Elcho, Torphichen, Glencairn, Egliton, and the Earl of Buchan. On his right we have Sir William Forbes, Sir John Whiteford, Mr. Dalrymple, of Orangefield, Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, &c. The next most prominent group of the whole is graced by the interesting portraits of Lord Monboddo and Henry Erskine. The next presents Henry Mackenzie (the "Man of Feeling"), Baron Norton, and Lord Kenmure, engaged in conversation. A prominent group now presents itself, amongst whom Dunbar (Ratlin, Roarin, Willie) appears, supported by Nichol and Cruickshank, Masters of the High School, Lewis Cauvin and Allen Masterton, who, being a composer of music, is addressing himself to the orchestra. We have then Dugald Stewart, William Smellie, and Creech, the publisher; also Sir James Hunter Blair, Lord Francis Napier, the celebrated James Boswell, Alexander Wood, Capt. Grose, with many more interesting and well known persons connected with the history of the period. The features of Burns are admirable. Such a picture as the present imparts more insight into the character of Burns and the relation he stood in to the world around him, than many common-place biographies."

If agreeable to you and your readers, I may, in the absence of Masonic news from the land of Burns, and during our Masonic "recess," send you a few more selections from the biographies of Burns' Masonic contemporaries.

I am, yours fraternally,

D. MURRAY LYON,

P. J. W. of Mother Kilwinning, and P. G. J. W. of Ayrshire. Ayr, April 7, 1862.

EARLY ALLUSION TO MASONRY. ROBERT FABYAN, one of the English Chroniclers, was a draper, citizen and Alderman of London in the 16th century, and was likewise one of the resident gentry of Theydon Gernon, in Essex, where he had an estate. He was born in London, but in what year is uncertain; this much, however is known, that he served the office of Sheriff in 1493, and resigned that of Alderman in 1502. Of the date of his death there appears to be no accurate information, but his will was proved July 12th, 1513, and dated July 11th, 1511. His work, from which the following extract was made, is entitled by himself, The Concordance of Histories, and was first printed by Pynson in 1516; it is now popularly known as Fabyan's Chronicles. In his Incipit Prologus, consisting of twentyeight stanzas-he tells

us how difficult it is to arrange his materials properly, and in the 5th and 6th stanzas thus makes an early allusion to Masonry :

"And I lyke the Prentyse that hewyth the rowgth stone,
And bryngeth it to square, with harde strokes and many,
That the mayster after may it ouer gone,

And prynte therein his fygures and his story;

And so to werke it after his propornary,

That it may appere to all that shall it see,

A thynge ryght parfyte and well in eche degree.

"So haue I nowe sette out this rude werke,
As rough as the stone nat comen to the square,
That the lerned and the studyed clerke
May it oure polysshe and clene do it pare;
Flowrysshe it with Eloquence, whereof it is bare,
And frame it in ordre that yet is out of ioynt,

That it with old Auctours may gree in euery poynt."

ADMISSION OF CANDIDATES.

[From the Address of the M. W. Charles F. Stanbury, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.]

WHEN a Mason is made, he is not made for any particular Lodge alone, but rights are conferred upon him which bind him to every individual Mason in the whole world. Let, then, no desire to accede to individual wishes, or contribute to Lodge aggrandizement, induce us to relax one jot of the stringent requirements which ought to guard the entrance to our Order. Granting the degrees under dispensation, especially to strangers in the jurisdiction, ought to be entirely discountenanced, except in extraordinary, and clearly made out, cases of emergency. Dispensations can, in my judgment, seldom be necessary in order to hasten the entrance of candidates upon our rights and privileges. Our resident citizens can well afford to wait the regular period; while strangers, from the most obvious considerations of prudence, should, as a rule, be required to do so. Masonry should not seek, but be sought. It confers benefits upon its members, but asks no patronage of the world. Those profanes who are offended, or impatient, at caution and delay, are not the best material for our edifice; and those Masons who desire to hurry applicants into the fraternity, from any other motive than the ultimate good of the entire Order, are not the ones most worthy of influence in council. The benefits of our Order are a sacred trust which has come down to us from former generations. In its administration, we should emulate the illustrious example of fidelity which is so often set before us in the most interesting of our Masonic legends, and, even at the peril of our lives, deny any part or lot in it to all who do not apply at the proper time and place, and are not, by every Masonic test, found worthy.

We shall best attain to this enviable state of entire devotion to our Order, by making it the subject of frequent reflection, and endeavoring to rise to an adequate comprehension of its nature. As one of the most efficient means to this end, I would suggest that the Masters of Lodges ought frequently to deliver, after

careful preparation, explanatory lectures of their own, on the history, usages, and jurisprudence of Masonry. An institution which has survived the lapse of ages, which lives and flourishes in all countries, and in all conditions of civilization, which tempers the wrath of the savage, and enlists the sympathies of kings, which raises the amenities of cultivated life to the sublimest heights of charity, and the very heroism of self-devotion, has a principle of vitality in it which cannot well be fully comprehended in an hour or a day. And this, I may incidentally remark, is another strong reason against hastening candidates through the degrees.

SPEECH OF HIS MAJESTY KING KAMEHAMEHA IV.

REPLY of his Majesty to the address presented to him by the Lodge of Freemasons and the Royal Arch Chapter of Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, on the birth of a son.

Most Excellent High Priest, Companions, and Brethren,-Bound together as we are by a holy league of Brotherhood, I should not be doing justice to the feelings which actuate me in my relationship with yourselves, and operate amongst us all, did I deny that I almost expected you would seek a fitting occasion to felicitate, me in the character in which we now appear. For all your kind wishes I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and amongst the many blessings for which I have at this time especial reason to be thankful to our Supreme Grand Master, I do not reckon this as the least, that I enjoy the sympathy of a Fraternity whose objects are so pure and whose friendships are so true as those of our Order. I will not multiply words, but believe me that when I looked upon my infant son, whose birth has been the cause of so much joy to me and of so much interest to yourselves, the thought already occupies my mind that perhaps one day he may wear those dearly prized badges, and that his intercourse with his fellow men, like his father's, may be rendered more pleasant and perhaps more profitable, by his espousing those solemn tenets which make the name of a Freemason honorable throughout the world. May 23d, 1858.

ST. JOHN'S DAY was celebrated at Westfield, Mass., by a 66 Strawberry Feast," in the afternoon and dancing in the evening. About a hundred Brethren were over from Springfield, and a large number were present from other towns. The occasion is said to have been a very pleasant one.

BE MORE SELECT.-It is a great error to suppose that any man, however elevated or however circumstanced, has or can have any claim to admission to the privileges of Masonry. This is a matter that lies wholly and exclusively with the members of the Lodge within whose jurisdiction the candidate resides, any one of whom may effectually deny him entrance. There must be entire agree ment and consent, or he cannot enter in, however exalted his social or intellectual attainments.