made the observance of them penal in all time coming."

This record clearly refers to a revision of the system at that period, and an adaptation of it to the change of times and the feelings of men; for the above-mentioned record further informs us that Prince Edwin "prevailed with the king to improve the Charges and Constitutions of the English Lodges according to the foreign model; to increase the wages of working Masons, and grant them a privilege of correction among themselves to amend what might happen to be amiss, and to hold a yearly communication and a general assembly."

These improved Constitutions still exist, and have been recently discovered amongst the stores in the British Museum, and published by Mr. Halliwell, from a manuscript which is pronounced to have been drawn up for the use of Freemasons during the reign of Athelstan. As, therefore, the revisal of the Ritual was accomplished by a Christain prince, and for the improvement of an institution expressly designed for the use of the builders of Christian churches, we may reasonably suppose that it would not be destitute of Christian references. And accordingly we find that these Constitutions blend worldly duty with heavenly aspirations, and temporal interests with preparations for eternity so intimately that they cannot be separated without sapping the foundations and destroying the genuine principles of the institution.

They contain a brief enunciation of certain Landmarks; not, it is freely admitted, under that express

denomination ;-nor, according to their evidence, was the Craft previously called Freemasonry, but Geometry (which I think the more scientific name). The committee, however, appear to have then adopted the present appellation; for it is affirmed in the body of the document, that they "cowenterfetyd" or changed its primitive designation, "and zaf hyt the name of MASONRY," which they pronounce to be "the moste oneste craft of alle." The word Point is used in a sense somewhat corresponding with our Landmark. And certain particulars are made so indispensable to the integrity of the institution that we cannot reject, on any substantial grounds, the implicit belief that these Points or Landmarks were intended to be of perpetual obligation on the fraternity.

The introduction to this most ancient document, which I conceive to contain the veritable constitutions of the Grand Lodge of York, holden A. D. 930,1 gives an account how Euclid undertook to teach the principles of Masonry to certain young persons, well born, the lawful offspring of "lodeges," and who were sound and perfect in body; and directed that they should use no other term when speaking of or to each other, but that of Brother. The origin of Masonry is here ascribed to the Egyptians, and introduced into England in the reign of " the gode kinge Aldelston." It then speaks of the formation of a Grand Lodge at York, composed of earls,

1 The reasons for this opinion have been given at large by the author, in the American Freemasons' Quarterly Review for 1858.

knights, squires, and "grete burges of that syte,' assembled together for the purpose of drawing up a code of regulations for the government of the craft. 2 Then follows a clause, which, under the head of Alia ordinacio artis Gemetrie, provides that a general assembly shall be held every year with the Grand Master at its head to enforce the regulations, and to make new laws when it may be expedient to do so, at which all the Brethren are competent to be present; and they must renew their O. B. to keep and observe the statutes and constitutions; and further directs that, in all ages to come, the existing Grand Lodge shall petition every new monarch to confer his sanction on their proceedings.

The last division of this important document may be denominated the moral and scientific lecture, for it contains three hundred lines of instruction to the Brethren for behaviour in the Lodge during labour and refreshment-in the Church, where they are directed to be regular in their prayers to God and the Blessed Virgin through Jesus Christ, and to conduct themselves in that sacred place with reverence and devotion. It further gives a definition of the seven liberal sciences, and recounts various

2 These Regulations are comprised in fifteen Articles and as many Points; but they are too long for insertion here. If, however, the reader will turn to the above-mentioned periodical, or to p. 64 of the new edition of Preston, he will find an abstract of them, the latter being taken from a MS. written in the reign of James II., and now in the possession of the Lodge of Antiquity.

points of duty in the behaviour of Brothers and Fellows "in halle, yn bowre, and at borde," including many useful hints which would not be inapplicable to the Craft in the 19th century.

If such be the design of Freemasonry as it was remodelled eight hundred years ago, we shall be at no loss to discover the occult signification of many of its details which would otherwise remain impenetrably obscure through the alterations in the Charges, Constitutions, and Lectures, which were effected at the Union in 1814. The ancient Gothic Charges, which have been reproduced and modernized from time to time, uniformly speak of T. G. A. O. T. U. as the founder of the Catholic Church (whose temples the fraternity were then busily employed in erecting), who, according to the voice of prophecy, was heralded by a blazing star, proclaimed by John the Baptist, born at Bethlehem in Judea, as the "LORD OF LIFE" (still retaining a place in the Third Lecture), to establish and confirm that primitive faith which is destined to become the religion of all mankind, including Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, bond and free, and to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.

The laws thus established were secured from alteration by certain Landmarks; which, as our traditions certify, were pronounced unchangeable; and the prohibition appears to have been so strictly maintained, that in many of the later editions of these constitutions, the laws then established are almost verbally repeated; and do actually existsomewhat emasculated I am free to confess-in the

system universally practised at the present day, and recognized amongst Masons in every country under heaven by the distinguishing appellation of the York Constitutions, having been originally drawn up and authorized by the Grand Lodge, holden in the city of York under the charter of Athelstan already mentioned, and confirmed at a subsequent meeting of the same Grand Lodge, when Athelstan had himself assumed the Grand Mastership of the Craft on the death of his brother.