Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

196
this Order is engaged in the Schisms of Illumatism. I firmly believe that
this Invitation to a Correspondence is with a view to make proselytes. It
were to be wished that it could be prevented. One way occurs to me, to
publish the whole secrets of the Order, which are in my possession, but
this is very disagreeable to me, because altho’ I came under no
obligation to consult them, the person who sent them to me, when he
quitted Russia in haste, expected that they would be kept.
What makes me trouble your Lordship just now is the Letter
which accompanies this. By it you will see that it is highly probably that
a bad use is already made of Free Masonry in this Country. I remember
hearing of the story of a detachment being spared by the French because
they were Brethren but it was not supposed to be authentic by the foreign
[illegible]. It would be of some use to inquire of our officers who were
on the spot such as Major Tytler now at Stirling who was then an Aid de
Camp, and must have known more than an ordinary battalion officer. If
the Story could be proved to be false, it might put an End to the use
made of it in Galloway and probably in other places.
I have sent your Lordship a pamphlet which I had a few weeks
ago from Lord Auckland which confirms my Suspicions about the
Swedish Masonry. I am respectfully
Your Lordships ms. Obedt. Servt.,
[Signed] John Robison 33
Robertson’s letter in January 1798 addresses issues similar to those
raised by Robison. Robertson had attended seminary in Ratisbon, Germany, and
after he was professed in 1778 he served on missions in Buchan, Edinburgh, and
Galloway. 34 Having briefly revisiting Ratisbon in 1788, he returned to Scotland
in 1789. By 1797, he was in Galloway when he composed the following letter
to Dundas, which drew upon his recent and personal knowledge of Continental
freemasonry:
My Lord,
Permit a Stranger to congratulate you & the world on your late
performance. If any thing can save us, it can only be men who have
33
Letter from John Robison, (Laing MSS II 500), reprinted with the permission of the
University of Edinburgh Library.
34
Mark Dilworth, “Two necrologies of Scottish Benedictine Abbey’s in Germany,” IR 9(1958),
191.