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timated: and, if necessary, you are to waive the discourse and manage it prudently, for the honour of the freternity. At home, and in your several neighbourhoods, you are to behave as wise and moral men. You are never to communicate to your families, friends, or acquaintances, the private transactions of our different assemblies; but, on every occasion, consult your honour and the reputation of the fraternity at large. You are to study the preservation of health, by avoiding irregularity and intemperance, that your families may not be neglected and injured, or yourselves disabled from attending to your necessary employments in life.

If a stranger apply in the character of a mason, you are cautiously to examine him in such a method as prudence may direct, and agreeable to the forms established among masons, that you may not be imposed upon by an ignorant false pretender, whom you are to reject with contempt; and beware of giving him any secret hints of knowledge.

But, if you discover him to be a true and genuine brother, you are to respect him; if he be in want, you are without prejudice to relieve him, or direct him how he may be relieved; you are to employ him or recommend him to employment. However you are not charged to do beyond your ability, only to prefer a poor mason, who is a good man and true, before any other person in

the same circumstances.

Finally, these rules you are always to observe and enforce, and also the duties which have been communicated in the lecture. Cultivate brotherly love, the foundation and cape-stone, the cement and glory of this ancient fraternity, avoiding, on every occasion, wrangling and quarrelling, slandering and backbiting; not permiting others to slander honest brethren; but defending their characters, and doing them good offices, as far as may be consistent with your honour and safety and no farther. Hence all may see the benign influence of masonry, as all true masons have done from the beginning of the world and will be do to the end of time. Amen, so mote it be.

Having completely developed the frivolous secrets of masonry, in the first degree, I declare this letter closed, and remain your trusty brother, in all revelations, masonic, divine, moral or useful. RICHARD CARLILE.

P. S. REVELATION FOR EVER!

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

I acknowledge the receipt of £1. 5s. Od. from Richmond Yorkshire, as a further subscription, and will, in a few months time, make an effort to establish a joint stock company, for the publication of the most useful standard books. We could begin with the present offers to take shares; but circumstances point out the propriety of a delay to the commencement of another year. In such an investment of money, there cannot possibly be either error, danger or future loss; but there is a sure prospect of interest for the money deposited, in the circumstance, that we can work with so small a sum of money as a hundred pounds, or advantageously employ a hundred thousand. The first deposit will set the Press to work, and all future ones can but accelerate it.

.

Mr. Lowes Letter will be printed as soon as a corner offers room. The subject of providing a series of books for children and schools, void of immorality and spirituality, has been long contemplated. The task is easy, the means of printing and stereotyping alone are wanted:

Ephraim Smooth shall have as early an insertion as possible. He writes, that twelve jurymen have found, that God, visited a London Brothel lately, and that the mistress of the brothel was, like another Semele, killed, by that visitation ! Oh! the Christians.

Mr. Joseph Swann has my best thanks for the hat he has sent me. I shall put it in wear, as soon as I have worn out the Sleaford Hat, which will not be for some time yet. I should have been glad to hear of his success in trade and restored health, after his five years of suffering. He has lived to hear of Castlereagh's throat cutting, and if he lives a few years longer, he will certainly hear many more joyous sounds, if not of the same kind, of the same good tendency.

The God of the Jews and Christians or the likeness of the Trinity in Unity is lithographed and on sale. The print is coloured and will be sold for a shilling. Whoever has seen the Wesleyan Methodists prints of the Indian Gods will feel assured, that this of the Jews and Christians has the same origin.

R. C.

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 135, Fleet Street.-All Correspordences for "The Republican" to be left at the place of publication.

No. 2, VOL. 12.] LONDON, Friday, July 15, 1825. [PRICE 6d.

TO WILLIAM WILLIAMS, ESQ., M. P. PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER FOR THE COUNTY OF DORSET OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE MASONS.

LETTER II.

SIR,

Dorchester Gaol, July 8, A. D. 1825-Anno
Lucis to Free Masons 1, not 5825.

IN my first letter, I have described every particular connected with the Entered Apprentice's Degree of Free Masonry, which Masons hold secret. Those secrets consist of

the grip, the sign, and the word. Disappointed in seeing the proof sheets of that letter, I find, that I have omitted to say, that, when Masons are practising the grip with their right hands, they cover them as well as possible from the eyes of bystanders with their left hands. Many other matters were formerly counted as secrets among Masons, and until within the last dozen years, in this country; but the French Masons have long published the particulars of their ceremonies, with the exception of the words, signs and grips. In this letter, I purpose to describe what is called the working part of the first degree, which consists of nothing more than catechisms and lectures upon the merits, purposes, lodges and ceremonies of masoury. I have a heap of those catechisms and lectures before me, varying in form, but alike in substance, embracing, I conjecture, all that have been current in England, since Freemasons bave had records or written papers of any kind; but I shall follow Dr. Hemming's book, in this first degree, as the most modern and best arranged series of questions upon the subject. As I copy for exposure and not for profit, and as the work is not sold to the public, I must beg the Doctor, through you, not to bring me to a knowledge of one of Lord Eidon's grips in Chancery; for that would be worse than to be locked up by him here; as now, I can, in some measure, keep his hands and the hands of his tools out of my pockets.

Printed and Published by R. Carlile, 135, Fleet Street.

But there will not be much danger on this head, as mine, is to be a review and a fair criticism, and I shall, as a matter of justice to my readers, avoid the copying of thore sections, which would be but a repetition of the process, of initiating à candidate, as described in my first letter.

Though I address you by name, it is only for the purpose of form: the object of these letters is, to communicate a knowledge of masonry to the public. I do not expect, that I can add much to your knowledge upon the subject, but I am nearly sure, at this time, that you cannot add to mine. It will however, be proper for me to inform the reader here, that what is called the working part of masonry is practised on those nights, when there are no new noodles to pay fees for introduction, and that a capacity to answer the questions promptly is the qualification for advancement to official situations, and, in some instances, for advancement in the several degrees of Masonry. But, in this latter case, the grand qualification for advancement is money. One of my correspondents, on this question assures me, that, for the sum of five guineas, he passed the three degrees in one night, though then a seafaring man and a stranger to all but one in the lodge. On his return from sea, so little was he acquainted with the ceremonies, that he was not sure of being qualified to work himself into lodge. However, he found himself very welcome to come and spend more money at a London Lodge, and welcome to a certificate from the Grand Lodge of his being a good mason for half a crown, or some other sum of money. Masonry may be truly defined a scale of trick and nonsense to dupes. With the exception of its moral precepts, it teaches nothing useful, but is, on the contrary a mischievous waste of time, a stupefaction of the mind, by leading it on to the pursuit of a phantom, which is always expected, but never caught.

I now proceed with that which is ridiculously called a Freemason's work, at which they play, as if it were real labour, and from which they stop to play also at dinners and suppers, as we did when children, or in masonic term, to take refreshment. But the Mason's refreshment is general a removal from stupefying doctrines to more stupefying liquor, and some Masons have followed Masonry for no other purpose but that of carousal and what they call conviviality. Let us work with Dr. Hemming's Tools.

First Degree-First Section.

INTRODUCTION.

Masonry, according to the general acceptation of the term, is

an art founded on the principles of Geometry and directed to the service and convenience of mankind. But Freemasonry, embracing a wider range, and having a nobler object in view namely, the cultivation and improvement of the human mind, may, with more propriety, be called a science, inasmuch as, availing itself of the terms of the former, it inculçates the principles of the purest morality, though its lessons are for the most part veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. To draw aside this veil, therefore, or more properly speaking, to penetrate throughout it, is the object of directors in Freemasonry, and, by a careful and appropriate attention to them, we may hope, ultimately, to become acquainted with all its mysteries.

The Lecture of the first degree is divided into seven sections and each section is subdivided into three clauses. Throughout the whole, Virtue, is painted in the most beautiful colours and the duties of morality are every where strictly enforced. The principles of knowledge are imprinted on the memory by lively and sensible images, well calculated to influence our conduct in the proper discharge of the duties of social life. The mode of masonic instruction is catechetical, I shall, therefore, Brethren, without further comment, challenge you by the usual questions, and I have no doubt but you will reply to them in a becoming manner. Assured then, Brother Senior Warden, by a previous conviction that you are a Freemason, let me ask you, in that character, from whence came you.

FIRST CLAUSE.

Question. Brother Senior Warden, From whence came you? Answer. From the West.

Q. Whither are you directing your course?

A. To the East.

Q. What is your object?

A. To seek a master and from him to gain instruction.

Q. Who are you that want instruction?

A. A Free and Accepted Mason.

Q. What mode of introduction have you to recommend yourself to notice as a Mason?

A. (Gives the sign.) A salute of respect to the Master in the chair.

Q. Any other recommendation?

A. (Gives the sign to the company.) A hearty salute to all under his direction.

Q. For what purpose came you hither?

A. To regulate my conduct correct my passions, and make a progress in Masonry.

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