AMERICA.-UNITED STATES.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The letter on the practice of the Royal Arch in the United States and the Canadas is inadmissible; not that it is written in a spirit of unkindness, but indiscretion. The difference in practice is to be regretted, but the governing Masonic bodies of each country must be respected. The representative system, PROPERLY Conducted, might tend to some good. It could hardly be expected that the English Chapters in Canada should adopt the American system, any more than that the American Chapters should conform to the English ritual. We refrain from further remarks,

L. H. will accept our thanks for a very pleasing letter on the subject of some remarks that appeared in the American Masonic Register of December last, Such testimony of our utility is gratifying to our "amour propre;" and we shall endeavour to deserve the continuance of our correspondent's approbation.

The remarks of the EDITOR are not unfair; but it is clear that he is not yet wide awake enough even to guess at our American co. respondent.

NEW YORK.-We are pleased to learn that our illustrious Brother Ed. A. Raymond, Esq., has been appointed by the Supreme Grand Council 33° for England and Wales, the representative of that illus trious body for the northern jurisdiction of the United States; and that the illustrious Bro. Henry Udall, Esq., of London, has received a corresponding appointment from the American Council. These appointments will tend to render felicitous the fraternal relations of these distinguished Masonic authorities.

BOSTON, Nov. 11.-The dedication of the new Masonic Hall, in the Masonic Temple, took place, on which occasion the Brethren of the city and neighbourhood attended in great numbers—the hall was completely filled; Brethren of all degrees attended, from the Craft to the thirtythird. The M. W. Grand Master, Bro. S. W. Robinson, Esq., most impressively performed the ceremony of consecration, during which appropriate parts of the "Masonic Melodies" were sung by the choir; and a dedicatory prayer was offered up to the throne of Grace by the Grand Chaplain. The Rev. Brother, Albert Case, then delivered an address of great beauty and excellence; and after a benediction by the reverend and venerable Brother, Dr. Esa Eaton (78), the Grand Lodge retired to their room and the Brethren to their homes.

The expense already incurred is about three thousand dollars, a sum well laid out in very admirable improvements.

The address of the M. W. Past Grand Master, Peabody, is a masterly one-it grapples earnestly with much subject matter of grave importance, and most emphatically urges the consideration of a general Grand Lodge, as a means of securing uniformity in work and action throughout the union. We could wish the address circulated throughout the world. The same august Brother delivered a most excellent address on the installation of the officers of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.-A new Masonic Hall has been opened here under the happiest auspices.

INDIA.

The Agents in Calcutta for this Review are-Messrs LATTEY, BROTHERS & CO., Government-place; and Messrs. THACKER & Co., St Andrew's Library.

The Freemasons of India have again resolved to raise a subscription in aid of the suffering poor of Ireland. The subscriptions will amount to five thousand pounds, exclusive of large sums from wealthy Hindoos of high caste, who have latterly been admitted into the Order, by authority of the Grand Lodge of England.

MADRAS.-The Lodge Social Friendship (326) have circulated an appeal to the Craft at large, soliciting its aid in the erection of a Masonic hall. The claims to public attention are made with due consideration, and will, we hope, be met with liberality, and sure we are that abundant success would have attended the appeal, but that the case of the millions now suffering by famine and disease will absorb the means, even of the generous. Among the principal claims to public sympathy is, that as their Lodge must close, from circumstances, unless a new hall be erected, nine widows and their families will be thrown helpless on the world-may such calamity be averted!

Extract from Correspondence, Dec. 31.-" Dear Brother,—Madras has suffered very much this quarter by the breaking up of the S. W. monsoon on the 21st and 22nd of October last. The rivers overflowed, the streets were inundated, tanks were burst, bridges carried away, and thousands of the poor made houseless. Lives were lost, and more damage done to life and property by the raging of the elements, whilst the gale continued, than by any similar visitation for thirty years past. The fort was under water to the depth of from four to seven feet in some places, and our Lodge-rooms were flooded to the depth of about three and a-half feet, destroying and damaging more or less our records, books in the library, dresses, and furniture, belonging to the various degrees of Arch, Craft, and Chivalric Masonry.

"The Lodge has made an appeal to the Masonic world for aid, a copy of which was forwarded to you, and hopes are entertained that you will use your utmost exertions to forward the good cause.

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Although this Lodge suffered so much, yet it stood forward the first of all the Madras Lodges to aid the sufferers by the flood, subscribing fifty rupees out of its relief fund for their assistance; thus maintaining the pure principles of Masonry, seeking solace in distress by affording relief and consolation to the afflicted in the dark hour of their trouble."

HONG KONG.-The progress of the Craft in this colony, by the laudable exertions of a zealous and indefatigable Brother, viz., Bro. Lieutenant Leigh Lambert, of H. M. S. Vestal, is most satisfactory. A Lodge has been established and profitably worked to the honour and comfort of the originators, as well as to the great benefit of all in the vicinity of this hallowed middle chamber.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Sermons. By the Rev. Dr. N. M. Adler. Longmans and Co.

On the occasion of his installation into office as chief rabbi of Great Britain, Dr. Adler preached his inaugural sermon at the great synagogue, on the 8th July, 1845. This discourse has been translated by Dr. Vanoven. It made, as may be well supposed, a very favourable impression on the congregation, and, in the language of the translator, was at once elegant, powerful, and persuasive. The preacher observed, that he entered on his office with the following purposes :-To walk in the ways of God-truly to maintain His law-to superintend the institutions for education--to watch over the places of worship-and lastly, with a deep hope to make his way into the hearts of his flock. The subject matter of his discourse treated on all these points, and doubtless affected his bearers, who for the first time listened to their new pastor. The conclusive prayer to the Father of all is an invocation worthy of the sacred calling of Dr. Adler.

The Golden Remains of the Early Masonic Writers. Edited by the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D. Spencer.

The first volume of this interesting miscellany has closed appropriately with the republication of the paper by the late Rev. Bro. Daniel Turner, On the Value of Masonic Secrets;" the editor's notes thereon are as usual explicit and valuable. Dr. Oliver has commenced a new volume, with an introduction (by himself), on the social position of symbolical Masonry in the eighteenth century. The following quotation from an address by the late Duke of Sussex, gives it additional interest.

66 I have endeavoured all through my Masonic career to bring into Masonry the great fact, that from the highest to the lowest, all should feel convinced that the one could not exist without the other. Every Mason owes respect to the recognised institutions of society, and the higher his station, the more is required of him. The great power of Masonry is the example-the chain extends from the highest to the lowest, and if one link shall break, the whole is endangered.'

The existing Remains of the Ancient Britons within a small district between Lincoln and Sleaford; in a Letter to Sir Edward Ffrench Bromhead, Bart. By the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D. Spencer.

In tracing out the vestiges of antiquity, there must exist a peculiar and intuitive power in the antiquarian, that settles itself down into a kind of grammar, from which emanate those elements that imperceptibly find their way into the minds of others, and thus create a deep feeling for research into the past. Can the leisure, which more or less is enjoyed by all, be better employed than in examining the records of the Creator through the march of His great agent, Time? In his present effort Dr. Oliver has lost none of his high reputation, but has added a link to the chain of knowledge by which he has inseparably connected himself with the age in which he lives.

The American Masonic Register. Hoffman, New York.

We appear to have lucklessly fallen under the displeasure of our contemporary, inasmuch as we have been misunderstood in some of our

former remarks. As we do not think it right to re-open the subject that called for them, we can only state that they were not intended to offend. Among the intelligence of the present number (December) is an admirable communication from the M. W. Grand Master of Ohio.

The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine. C. W. Moore, Boston, U. S. Brother Moore continues indefatigable in the vineyard, culling from every Masonic flower, like the industrious bee, and making his own hive rich by his collection. Active and enterprising, may he long be spared, and when he may no longer be able to work, may his vigour of mind and intelligence animate others with a kindred spirit. Thus will his Monthly Magazine be a reference for ages yet to come.

The History of the Sihks, containing the Lives of the Gooroos, the History of the Independent Sedars or Missuls, and the Life of the Great Founder of the Sihk Monarchy, Maharajah Singh. By W. M. McGregor, M. D., Surgeon 1st E. B. Fusileers. 2 vols. Madden.

Dr. McGregor has entered into the investigation of this subject with a vigorous spirit; and the result is what might be expected from him; we have not merely a glance at the Sihk nation, but such details of its nationality as make much that was previously obscure perfectly comprehensible-its religion and politics too, are developed and explained. The geography of the Punjaub is well traced, as a preliminary introduction to the scenes that have recently rendered that country so important to the Anglo-Indian government, and as explanatory of the hard-won battles so ably contested. The personal characters of the powerful chiefs are given with a critical examination that shows what close observation the author has paid to this very essential part of his subject. His accounts of all the battles prove what a hardy superior race of combatants the British had to contend with; he states that "the battle of Sabraon may be justly termed the Waterloo' of India; it was the last, and one of the hardest contested; like that great and ever memorable engagement, it completely broke the power of the foe"-and well it did so, for so hard was the contest that the bayonet alone carried the field;-even the British artillery could not silence that of the Sihks.

The character of Govind Rao, the last Gooroo, has much of the romantic; he became so successful as to alarm the Court of Delhi, and was suminoned to appear before the emperor, but, in lieu of compliance, he sent a glowing picture of his grievances in a poem of no less than 1400 verses, of which Dr. McGregor gives a very animated translation. He became tired of life, and found his death in a most singular manner; determined to die, he urged a young Pathan to kill him as the murderer of his father; and being refused this boon, they played at chess, when, the young Pathan enraged at losing, stabbed Govind whose bowel s protruded; the Pathan was seized, but liberated at Govind's order. Determined to die, Govind tore open the wound, and at length expired.

As a political result, Dr. McGregor observes, "that sooner or later, the day must come when the British standard will be again unfurled, and the Indus, and not the Beas, become the frontier barrier of her possessions in the East." He may not be wrong in this prognostic, for subsequent information proves that the Mahomedans prefer the British to the Sihk government; but will the Punjaub be a profitable annexation, its revenue being already at a fearful discount?

Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara to ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly. By the Rev. Joseph Wolff, D.D., L.L.D. J. W. Parker.

That this enterprising traveller could only ascertain the dreadful fate of those whose lives he hoped to have been the instrument, under Providence, of saving, does not detract from the nobleness of the motive by which he was actuated, nor from the sublimity of the principle involved in such motive. He risked his own life in the attempt, and returned home to spend the remainder of his days in the peaceful labour of diffusing the results of his experience for the benefit of mankind. The narrative ranges over the years 1843, 4-5, during which the journey from Southampton to Bokhara, and his return home by Constantinople and Gibraltar to Southampton, are detailed with much interest and precision. It would exceed our limits to attempt a description of the various characters of this eventful drama, among whom, that of Abdool Samut Khan, the instigator of the murder of the two British officers, appears most prominent by its infamy; nor can we enter into the daily perils to which Dr. Wolff was exposed. The profits of the publication are devoted to building a parsonage-house for the living to which he has been presented, and to relieve the poor; thus every purchaser becomes a means in aid. Dr. Wolff has, since his return, entered into the bonds of Freemasonry, and has addressed the Fraternity by circular on the necessity of their uniting to assist their fellow-subjects suffering in Ireland by famine.

China; Political, Commercial, and Social, &c. &c. By R. Montgomery Martin, late Her Majesty's Treasurer for the Colonial, Consular, and Diplomatic services in China; and a Member of Her Majesty's Legislative Council at Hong Kong. Madden.

Lord Macartney, and other diplomatists, his predecessors and successors, have certainly given us occasional glimpses of this singular and wondrous empire, but what information resulted was scarcely of any value, unless indeed that we find that few and rare as were the marvellous relations, they were of actual occurrence. But Mr. Martin has given us China as it was, and as it is; and in his close statistical examination of that great empire, he boldly and fearlessly explains where the British statistics are at fault, and at the same time as clearly developes the great commercial subjects involved in the question, the favourable consideration of which by our Government would place China as one of the most prominent objects for the employment of the vast resources of the British empire as a colonial agency, such as perhaps has never been yet approached. As Colonial Treasurer to Hong Kong, Mr. Martin had abundant opportunities of judging independently, and he has given proofs of his patriotism by the sacrifice of a splendid income, that he might place immediately before his Government not merely the consequences of the mistake in deciding on Hong Kong instead of Chusan, but in pointing out the best course now to be pursued. The penalty that too often attends true patriotism has been exacted from Mr. Martin. The Government accept his experience, but refuse him as yet the opportunity of proving its value and its truth. Surely the present premier will do better justice, for where can our rulers learn wisdom but from the experience of such able men as Mr. Montgomery Martin ?. Should the Government remain regardless to the great claims of the author upon its attention, it will incur a fearful responsibility, for Mr.