Note 366 — Part I (continued 4)

This oration has been published several times and has been variously attributed to Ramsay and the Duc d'Antin. The author of a paper in A.Q.C., XXXII. Part I., says on p. 7: "Whether Ramsay delivered his speech or not is doubtful, but it is certain that he wrote it. It was printed in an obscure and obscene Paris paper called the Almanach des Cocus for 1741 and is there said to have been 'pronounced' by 'Monsieur de R--Grand Orateur de l'Ordre.' It was again printed in 1742 by Bro. De la Tierce in his Histoire, Obligations et Statuts, etc.,... and De la Tierce says that it was 'prononcé par le Grand Maître des Francs-Maçons de France' in the year 1740.... A. G. Jouast (Histoire du G.O., 1865) says the Oration was delivered at the Installation of the Duc d'Antin as G.M. on 24th June, 1738, and the same authority states that it was first printed at the Hague in 1738, bound up with some poems attributed to Voltaire, and some licentious tales by Piron.... Bro. Gould remarks: 'If such a work really existed at that date, it was probably the original of the "Lettre philosophique par M. de V---- , avec plusieurs piéces galantes," London, 1757.'" Mr. Gould has, however, provided very good evidence that Ramsay was the author of the oration by Daruty's discovery of the letter to Cardinal Fleury, which together with the oration itself (translated from De la Tierce's version) he reproduces in his History of Freemasonry, Vol. III. p. 84.