Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

more broadly the patriotic mood that pervaded British political culture at
the end of the eighteenth century. 22
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This sense of loyalism was also apparent in Scotland. Speeches, prayers,
and toasts that paid homage to the government and its leadership were often
extensively recorded in lodge minutes. 23 For example, during a dedication
ceremony for the Barracks in Aberdeen in 1794, the Grand Chaplain prayed that
the building might “be so happily finished, as to become a commodious edifice
for the temporary residence of British Soldiers, the brave defenders of our King,
our Constitution, our Religion, our liberties and our Laws.” 24 No. 1(3) also
equated freedom with the establishment. In a prayer given on 7 July 1801 at the
laying of the foundation stone of the bridge over the Denburn River, the
chaplain for the lodge prayed that the people might maintain their “Liberty, the
happy order and good Government which we enjoy under our gracious King,
our excellent Constitution and our equal laws.” 25
Masonic loyalism was also conveyed through letter writing. In
correspondence, especially to the government and the King, freemasons
expressed their sentiments about a variety of public issues and continually
declared their intense support for the Crown. A fine example is a letter of 1800
from the Grand Lodge of Scotland to George III. Characterized by overzealous
flattery and ornate language, the freemasons asserted their steadfast allegiance:
22 Melton, Rise of the Public, 267. Jacob writes that lodges were “enamored of British
constitutionalism” and “encouraging of enlightened and strong central government,” Radical
Enlightenment, 110.
23 Lionel Vibert notes that the “Kings in Scotland very much encouraged the Royal art, Lodges
were there kept up without interruptions for many hundred years, and the old toast among Scots
Masons was ‘God Bless the King and the Craft,’” “Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723,” 49.
24 No. 1(3) Aberdeen Lodge Minutes, 24 June 1794.
25 Ibid, 24 June 1794.