frequent references to the annual assemblies of Freemasons in
public documents. The preamble to an act passed in 1425, during the reign
of Henry VI., just five centuries after the meeting at York, states that,
"by the _yearly congregations_ and confederacies made by the Masons in
their _general assemblies, _ the good course and effect of the statute of
laborers were openly violated and broken." This act which forbade such
meetings, was, however, never put in force; for an old record, quoted in
the Book of Constitutions, speaks of the Brotherhood having frequented
this "mutual assembly," in 1434, in the reign of the same king. We have
another record of the General Assembly, which was held in York on the 27th
December, 1561, when Queen Elizabeth, who was suspicious of their secrecy,
sent an armed force to dissolve the meeting. A copy is still preserved of
the regulations which were adopted by a similar assembly held in 1663, on
the festival of St. John the Evangelist; and in these regulations it is
declared that the private lodges shall give an account of all their
acceptations made during the year to the General Assembly. Another
regulation, however, adopted at the same time, still more explicitly
acknowledges the existence of a General Assembly as the governing body of
the fraternity. It is there provided, "that for the future, the said
fraternity of Freemasons shall be regulated and governed by one Grand
Master and as many Wardens as the said society shall think fit to appoint
at every Annual General Assembly."

And thus the interests of the institution continued, until the beginning
of the eighteenth century, or for nearly eight hundred years, to be
entrusted to those General Assemblies of the fraternity, who, without
distinction of rank or office, annually met at York to legislate for the
government of the craft.

But in 1717, a new organization of the governing head was adopted, which
gave birth to the establishment of a Grand Lodge, in the form in which
these bodies now exist. So important a period in the history of Masonry
demands our special attention.

After the death, in 1702, of King William, who was himself a Mason, and a
great patron of the craft, the institution began to languish, the lodges
decreased in number, and the General Assembly was entirely neglected for
many years. A few old lodges continued, it is true, to meet regularly, but
they consisted of only a few members.

At length, on the accession o