"2. A communication from the Most Serene Protector, that he had made known to His Majesty the King, the unanimous conclusion of the three Grand Lodges at Berlin, to protest against the act of the Grand Orient of Belgium, in putting forth maxims which were contrary to the principles of universal Freemasonry. These maxims were presented in the Grand Orient of Belgium, at their conference on the 24th of June, 1854, and were approved on the 21st of October of that year. In consequence whereof, the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes passed an edict of non-intercourse with the above named Grand Orient and the Lodges under the same. It is not stated in the protocol before us what these maxims are; but from another source, we learn that they involve a repeal of the ordinance which prohibited the discussion of political and religious questions in the Lodges, declaring that such a regulation was simply one of expediency, and not necessarily a fundamental law, and it has actually recommended to its subordinates the encouragement of such discussions.

"We are glad to see the promptness with which our brethren of Berlin seize the opportunity to condemn this plain infraction of the fundamental landmarks of the Order. Their action is the more praiseworthy, because they themselves, some eighteen years since, took a position on one of these topics quite in consonance with the policy adopted by the Grand Orient of Belgium, which they now so heartily condemn. The Grand Lodge of the Netherlands, at the Hague, sent a communication to the three Prussian Grand Lodges, fraternally requesting them to admit brethren of the Jewish faith to their Lodges-a privilege which, it seems, they were then debarred. The Council of the Grand Master, at Berlin, requested the M. W. Protector, (the present king we believe,) to arrange the affair with the Netherlands, who directed a reply to be made by the Directorian,' from which we take the following sentences, indicating the general character of the reply: A brother being of the Mosaic or Mahommedan faith is as little admissible to our work, as a brother appren

tice would be to the works of the second or third grade. He must be of the Christian faith (without distinction of creed,) if he wants to assist in any work.'

"You, M. W. Brethren, give us in your message the brotherly assurance that you recognize the legality of our statute, to receive only Christians in the Order, and so do we give you herewith, with as much pleasure, the assurance that we also respect your views, and do not dispute your right to receive, according to your rules and rites, men of other confessions.' Like circumstances having arisen in the exclusion, by the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes, of Brethren of the Israelitish faith, going there from the jurisdiction of New York, a letter was addressed to them by the Grand officers of the Grand Lodge of New York, remonstrating against this sectarian course; and still another letter was written by Grand Master Willard, in 1847, in which he dwelt with eloquence and directness upon the impropriety of such a line of conduct. The effect of which seems to have been the removal of this unjust distinction, and we have not since heard any complaints on this subject from that quarter. The Christian, the Jew and the Mahommedan, alike enjoy their fellowship and hospitality. We repeat, therefore, that it is with unfeigned satisfaction we witness the readiness of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes to correct so great a departure from the established usages of the Craft, as evinced in the action of the Grand Orient of Belgium.

"3. Is a letter from his Royal Highness the Protector, acknowledging, in behalf of Frederick William, the receipt of a list of the members of the Lodges in his States, for which he returned his cordial thanks, with renewed assurances of his fraternal regard for the Masonic Brotherhood.

"There are other matters noticed in this protocol, among which is the very fraternal review of the report of this committee to the Grand Lodge of New York in 1853, and the sentiments expressed by the M. W. Bro. Walworth, in relation to the then affairs of Masonry in our jurisdiction, for all of which we must express our grateful acknowledgments.

"The following statistical facts we present as matters of special interest to the Fraternity of the United States :

"The number of Lodge members in all the German Lodges in 1852, amounted to 21,675, of whom more than half, 12,130, belong to Lodges in Prussia, and they are classified as follows: Of the Princely houses, 19; in the learned professions and classes, 5,457; judicial, state and other public officers, 3,256; in the military, 1,280; merchants, booksellers, music dealers and manufacturers, 5,652; artists, 1,774; foresters, 191; miners, 194; hotel and restaurant keepers, 338; agents, 113; farmers, 1,289; students, 50; farriers, 44; navigators and sailors, 129; mechanics, 1,243; having no particular occupation, 713. The average number in each German Lodge is 86; but there are 11 Lodges numbering less than 30, and 10 numbering more than 200. Though it is not specially stated in the protocol, we believe there are 9 Grand Lodges in the Germanic States, viz.: Saxony, Hamburg, Hanover, the Three Globes, Darmstadt, Grand Landes Lodge, Eclectic Union, Royal York, and Beyreuth. It is proposed to renew these statistical tables once in five years, and we may therefore expect them again the present or next year."

ROBERT BURNS.

The following, taken from the "School Days of Eminent Men," cannot fail to interest every Mason:

"Robert Burns, whom his countrymen delight to honor as the Shakespeare of Scotland, was born in 1759, in the parish of Alloway, near Ayr. His father was a poor farmer, who gave his son what education he could afford. Burns tells us that though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings,' he made an excellent English scholar; and by the time he was ten or eleven years of age, he was a critic in substantives, verbs and particles. In his infant and boyish days, too, he was much with an old woman who resided in the family, and was 29-VOL. IV. NO. X.

remarkable for her ignorance, credulity and superstition. She had the largest collection in the country of tales and songs concerning demons, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, giants, enchanted towers, dragons, and other trumpery. This cultivated the latent seeds of poetry, but had so strong an effect on Burns's imagination, that after he had grown to manhood, in his nocturnal rambles, he sometimes kept a sharp look-out in suspicious places, and it often took an effort of philosophy to shake off these idle terrors. He says: The earliest composition that I recollect taking pleasure in, was "The Vision of Mirza," and a hymn of Addison's, beginning, "How are thy servants blest, O Lord!" I particularly remember one stanza, which was music to my boyish ear:

"For though on dreadful whirls we hung
High on the broken wave."

I met with these pieces in Mason's "English Collections," one of my school books. The first two books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I have since read, were "The Life of Hannibal," and "The History of Sir William Wallace." Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn, that I used to strut in rapture up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough to be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins, which will boil along there till the flood-gate of life is shut in eternal rest.'

"While Burns lived on his father's little farm, he tells us that he was, perhaps, the most ungain, awkward boy in the parish. He continues: What I knew of ancient story was gathered from Salmon's and Guthrie's "Geographical Grammars," and the ideas I formed of modern manners, literature and criticism, I got from the "Spectator.' Spectator." These, with Pope's Works, some Plays of Shakespeare, Tull and Dickson on "Agriculture," the "Pantheon," Locke "On the Human Understanding," Stackhouse's "History of the Bible," Justice's" British Gardener's Directory," Bayle's Lectures, Allan

Ramsey's Works, Taylor's "Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin," a Select Collection of English Songs, and Hervey's "Meditations," had formed the whole of my reading. The Collection of Songs was my vade-mecum. I pored over them driving my cart, or walking to labor, song by song, verse by verse-carefully noting the true, tender and sublime from affectation and fustian. I am convinced I owe to this practice much of my critic craft, such as it is.'

"Burns's father was a man of uncommon intelligence for his station in life, and was anxious that his children should have the best education which their circumstances admitted of. Robert was, therefore, sent in his sixth year to a little school at Alloway Mill, about a mile from their cottage; not long after, his father took a lead in establishing a young teacher, named John Murdoch, in a humble temple of learning nearer hand, and there Robert and his younger brother, Gilbert, attended for some time. With him,' says Gilbert, 6 we learned to read English tolerably well, and to write a little. He taught us, too, the English Grammar. I was too young to profit much from his lessons in grammar, but Robert made some proficiency in it; a circumstance of considerable weight in the unfolding of his genius and character, as he soon became remarkable for the fluency and correctness of his expression, and read the few books that came in his way with much pleasure and improvement; for even then he was a reader when he could get a book.' Gilbert next mentions that The Life of Wallace,' which Robert Burns refers to, 'he borrowed from the blacksmith who shod our horses.'

"The poet was about seven years of age when (1766) his father left the clay bigging at Alloway, and settled in the small upland farm at Mount Oliphant, about two miles distant. He and his younger brother continued to attend Mr. Murdoch's school for two years longer, when it was broken up. Murdoch took his leave of the boys, and brought, as a present and memorial, a small compendium of English Grammar, and the tragedy of Titus Andronicus; he began to read the play aloud, but so shocked was the party at some of its incidents,