Grand Officers And Prov. Grand Officers.

GRAND OFFICERS AND PROV . GRAND OFFICERS .

WE published last week a lengthy and interesting correspondence between Bro . Newmarch Past Dep . Prov . G . Master Gloucestershire of the one part , and Bro . iEn . Mclntyre Grand Registrar of the other , and as the question discussed between these brethren is of considerable importance , we propose fulfilling our promise of

dealing with it at the earliest opportunity . However , before proceeding to offer our opinion upon the merits of the case , it will be as well , perhaps , if we recapitulate the arguments adduced by Bro . Newmarch in his contention that Prov . G . Officers in their own district or Province ,

having , by the Constitutions , the rank of Grand Officers , are entitled to toke precedence of the Officers of Grand . Lodge of a lower relative rank . This point is contested

by the Grand Registrar , whose views are admitted by his opponent to be very fairly stated , and as , having once arisen , it is likely to arise again , we cannot do better than follow it up by expressing our opinion thereon .

Bro . Newmarch in his first letter submitted to the judgment of the Grand Registrar the question as to the relative rank of Grand Officers and Prov . Grand Officers

m their own district , this question having been latterly considered , in a perfectly friendly and fraternal spirit , at a meeting of the Prov . Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire . The interpretation he puts on the Constitutions is to the effect that in every district in England which possesses a

Provincial organisation , the Officers of that Provincial G . Lod ge are in point of fact Grand Officers , and that as such they take precedence above G . Officers of inferior relative rank . Thus , in ordinary circumstances , a P . G . Warden

would take rank after a G . "Warden , but before a Grand Deacon ; a Prov . Grand Deacon after a Grand Deacon , but before G . Superintendent of Works ; and a Provincial G . Superintendent of Works after Grand Superintendent of

Works , but before the Grand Director of Ceremonies . In the table of precedence at pp 16-18 Book of Constitutions , the onl y Provincial G . Officers whose rank is determined are the Provincial and Past Provincial or District Grand Masters . These rank next after Past Deputy Grand Masters and before

the Grand Wardens . There is then nothing here to justif y any view whatever in either direction , nor indeed could we have hoped to find any indication of the opinion needed , as Deputy Provincial or District Grand Masters , and the rest of the Provincial Grand Officers , are not officially

members of Grand Lodge , neither do they take any rank outside their several districts . Thus , a Provincial Grand Warden of Wilts or West Lancashire has no seat as such in . Grand . Lodge , nor has he any rank outside the limits of jus Province . But as Bro . Neivmarch points out , a Deputy Provincial Grand Master in the absence of Prov . G . Master to

Presides in any Lodge he may visit in his Province , while ^ the Provincial Grand Wardens and Subordinate Grand tncers they are said to possess , within their district , the rank and privileges of Grand Officers . This being so , « is argued from the Gloucestershire point of viewthat

, , t the recent , and as a matter of course , at all future 5 Tovmcial Grand Lodges , the Deputy Provincial Grand faster and Prov . Grand Wardens should take precedence of — --. Awy . wuiuu 11 Oil ILCliQ OliUUJU lcll \ . U UlCUOUCU ^ C Ul wand

Officers of lower rank than Wardens , and that ^ ordinate Provincial Grand Officers take precedence of rand Officers of lower respective ranks ; while as between -p cers . ° * same nominal rank in Grand Lodge and I'ovmcial Grand Lodge , those of the latter , being within

Grand Officers And Prov. Grand Officers.

their own district , rank as Grand Officers of the grade they respectively hold , equally with Officers of the former of the like grades respectively , " precedence in their case being governed by the seniority of their respective appointments . " Grand Registrar in his reply describes this

argument as being " doubtless very specious , " but he is unable to bring himself to think it is a correct view of the case . He says he has always considered that " the Grand Officers of the Grand Lodge of England are Grand Officers of England in every Province thereof , and in each Province take

precedence of the Provincial Grand Officers , in like manner as the M . W . G . M . by whom they are appointed , takes precedence in every Province of the Provincial Grand

Master by whom the Provincial Grand Officers are appointed . " He further says , that if Bro . Newmarch ' s argument "were pressed to its logical conclusion , " then in liis own Province the Provincial Grand Master would take

precedence of the M . W . Grand Master of England . " A reference to Sir Albert Woods , Grand Director of Ceremonies and Garter King-at-Arms , as the great authority in matters of precedence , brings this first portion of the correspondence to a conclusion .

Nothing daunted by a first rejection of the point he has raised , Bro . Newmarch returns to the charge in a second letter , dated 24 th May , and objecting to the Grand Registrar ' s description of his argument as being a " specious " one , presses him , " as a lawyer , to say whether the plain

words of the Constitutions admit of any other true legal construction than that I give to them . " He admits that the Grand Officers of England are Grand Officers in every Province , but he qualifies this admission by limiting it only to those of the same relative rank . Thus a Grand Deacon

of England is a Grand Deacon only , and in the event of his visiting a Province in which a Provincial Grand Warden happens to be present , then the latter , being " a Grand Warden in Ms own Province , " must take precedence of the former , even though he is an Officer of

Grand Lodge . On the supposititious case of the Prov . Grand Master taking precedence in his own Province of the Grand Master itself , Bro . Newmarch holds that the Grand Registrar is urging a case that is not in point , the Grand Master being the supreme head of the whole Craft

in England . In a third letter , there having m the interim been no reply to his rejoinder , the same brother , while accepting Sir Albert Woods as an authority on questions of precedence " within his cognizance as Garter King-at-Arms , " expresses his belief that this is not one of those

questions , but must be decided by the " established Laws which govern our fraternity . " Our Constitutions , he says , lay it down that Provincial Grand Officers in their own Districts shall possess the rank and privileges of Grand Officers , and hence the

contention that a Provincial Grand Warden , with the rank and privileges in his own district of a Grand Officer , must yield precedence to Grand Officers of inferior rank to Grand Wardens is to argue that he shall not possess the said rank and privileges , which the Constitutions say he

shall . In acknowledgment of this and the previous letter , Bro . M'Intyre , after reiterating his view as to the fitnes 3 of Sir Albert Woods to determine a question of this importance , urges it as his opinion that " Officers appointed by the Grand Master take precedence of all Officers

appointed by Provincial Grand Masters , " and that " in their respective Provinces Provincial Grand Officers bear the same position , with respect to the Provincial brethren , that the Grand Officers of England bear to all members of Lodges in England who are not Grand Officers of England . " Bro .