of Memphis, 90 deg. of Misraim, and
33 deg. Scottish Rite, the last honorary membership including bodies under
the Pike _regime_ as well as its opponents. He is perfectly well
acquainted with the claim of the Charleston Supreme Council to supreme
power in Masonry, and that it is a usurpation founded on a forgery. In a
letter which he had occasion to address some time since to a Catholic
priest on this very subject, he remarks:--"The late Albert Pike of
Charleston, as an able Mason, was undoubtedly a Masonic Pope, who kept
in leading strings all the Supreme Grand Councils of the world,
including the Supreme Grand Councils of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
the first of which includes the Prince of Wales, Lord Lathom, and other
peers, who were in alliance with him, and in actual submission. Its
introduction into America arose from a temporary schism in France in
1762, when Lacorne, a disreputable panderer to the Prince of Clermont,
issued a patent to a Jew named Stephen Morin. Some time after 1802, a
pretended Constitution was forged and attributed to Frederick the Great
of Prussia. This constitution gives power to members of the 33rd degree
to _elect themselves_ to rule all Masonry, and this custom is
followed.... The good feeling of Masonry has been perpetually destroyed
in every country where the Ancient and Accepted Rite exists, and it must
be so in the very nature of its claims and its laws." Mr Yarker has no
connection with a supreme dogmatic directorate in any other form than
this disputed but perfectly well-known assumption of the Charleston
Supreme Council. The term "Supreme Dogmatic Directorate" was not used by
Pike, and the confidence enjoyed by the American was never extended to
Lemmi, though he may have desired it. Instead, therefore, of all Masonry
being ruled by a central authority unknown to the majority of Masons, we
have simply a bogus claim which has no effect outside the Scottish
Rite, and of which all Masons may know if they will be at the pains to
ascertain. When Signor Margiotta informed the officer of the Giordano
Bruno Lodge that he secretly represented a central and unknown
authority, it is in this sense that we must understand him--that is to
say, he represented the interests of the Charleston Supreme Council.
Hence the revelations concerning "Universal Masonry" are an exaggeration
founded upon a fact, and the Palladian Order, of which Signor Margiotta
tells us that he is a member, is at any rate