Aldermen are persons who hold public offices, and are engaged to exercise their genius and talents in the sciences. These also are Brothers of the third rank of Scotch Free Masonry, and out of their number are the Diocesans and the Directors of the Reading Societies selected.
The members who are designed simply Men, are Brothers of the second rank of Masonry, and have also a definite scientific occupation assigned them.
The Cadets are writers who have not yet merited any particular honours, but have exhibited sufficient dispositions and talents for different kinds of literary manufacture.
Every member is bound to bring the productions of his genius to market through the Union. An Alderman receives for an original work 80 per cent. of the returns, and 70 for a translation. The member of the next class receives 60, and the Cadet 50. As to the expence of printing, the Alderman pays nothing, even though the work should lie on hand unsold; but the Man and the Cadet must pay one-half. Three months after publication at the fairs an account is brought in, and after this, yearly, when and in what manner the author shall desire.
In every Diocese will be established at least one Reading Society, of which near 800 are proposed. To each of these will a copy of an Alderman's work be sent. The same favour will be shown to a dissertation by a Man, or by a Cadet, provided that the manuscript is documented by an Alderman, or formally approved by him upon serious perusal. This imprimatur, which must be considered as a powerful recommendation of the work, is to be published in the General Review or Gazette. This is to be a vehicle of political as well as of literary news; and it is hoped that, by its intrinsic worth, and the recommendation of the members, it will soon supplant all others. (With respect to affairs of the Union, a sort of cypher was to be employed in it. Each Diocesan was there designed by a letter, of a size that marked his rank, and each member by a number. It was to appear weekly, at the very small price of five-and-twenty shillings.)—But let us return to the plan.
When every thing has been established in the manner set forth above, the Union will assume the following republican form, (the reader always recollecting that this is not to appear to the world, and to be known only to the managing Brethren.
Here, however, there is a great blank. The above-named sketch of this Constitution did not come to the hands of the person who furnished the bookseller with the rest of the information. But we have other documents which give sufficient information for our purpose. In the mean time, let us just take the papers as they stand.
No. IV. Contains a list of the German Union, which the sender received in manuscript. Here we find many names which we should not have expected, and miss many that were much more likely to have been partners in this patriotic scheme. There are several hundred names, but very few designations; so that it is difficult to point out the individuals to the public. Some however are designed, and the writer observes that names are found, which, when applied to some individuals whom he knows, accord surprisingly with the anecdotes that are to be seen in the private correspondence of the Illuminati, and in the romance called Materials for the History of Socratism (Illuminatism)[13]. It is but a disagreeable remark, that the list of the Union contains the names of many public teachers, both from the pulpit, and from the accademic chair in all its degrees; and among these are several whose cyphers show that they have been active hands. Some of these have in their writings given evident proofs of their misconception of the simple truths, whether dogmatical or historical, of revealed religion, or of their inclination to twist and manufacture them so as to chime in with the religion and morality of the Sages of France. But it is more distressing to meet with unequivocal names of some who profess in their writings to consider these subjects as an honest man should consider them, that is, according to the plain and common sense of the words; whereas we have demonstrative proofs that the German Union had the diametrically opposite purpose in view. The only female in the list is the Grafin von der Recke, the Lady who gave Dr. Stark of Darmstadt so much trouble about his Tonsure. This Lady, as we have already seen, could not occupy herself with the frivolity of dress, flirtation, or domestic cares. "Femina fonte patet, vir pectore." She was not pleased however at finding her name in such a Plebeian list, and gave oath, along with Biester at the centre, that she was not of the Association. I see that the public was not satisfied with this denial. The Lady has published some more scandal against Stark since that time, and takes no notice of it; and there have appeared many accounts of very serious literary connections between these two persons and the man who was afterwards discovered to be the chief agent of the Union.