United Grand Lodge.

UNITED GRAND LODGE .

rPHE Quarterly Communication of Wednesday last was - - held in the large Hall of the Freemasons' Tavern , under the presidency of the Right Hon . the Earl of Carnarvon Pro Grand Master , who was supported by a large assembly of the Present and Past Grand Officers , and representatives of various Lodges ; altogether there being

nearly 700 brethren present . After Grand Lodge had been opened , Col . Shadwell H . Clerke , Grand Secretary , read the minutes of last Quarterly Communication , which were confirmed . After the minutes referring to the Grand Festival of the 25 th April had been read , a

question was raised by Bro . Hugh D . Sandeman , Past Grand Master of Bengal , as to the precedence of brethren appointed as Grand Officers on that occasion . Brother Sandeman pointed out what he conceived to be an important error in the printed Proceedings of Grand Lodge . If

this error arose unintentionally , he had nothing more to say on the matter ; but if otherwise , he thought an encroachment on the powers and privileges of Grand Lodge was involved . He alluded to page 37 of the printed Proceedings of United Grand Lodge , where the sequence of

appointments for the year does not follow that laid down in the Book of Constitutions as regards the degree of rank . He would therefore ask that the record be so arranged as to name the Grand Officers according to the rank assigned to them under the Constitutional law , which having been

passed by Grand Lodge can be modified or altered , by Grand Lodge only . Brother iEneas J . Mclntyre , Q . C ., Grand Registrar , said , that the only question before Grand Lodge was whether the printed minutes recorded accurately what took place in

Grand Lodge at Grand Festival on the 25 th of April , and it was perfectly clear that the minutes did correctly state what took place . The order in which the Most Worshipful Grand Master appointed the Grand Officers for the year was without doubt within the exercise of his prerogative .

He could appoint his Officers , and give rank as he pleased ; that had been acted npon again and again by former Grand Masters . It was acted upon before the Union ; it had been acted upon since the Union ; and the various positions and distinctions of Officers have varied from time to time at tbe

will of the Grand Master for the time being ; instead , therefore , of its being an encroachment upon the powers of Grand Lodge , to oppose such actions would be an attempt to encroach upon the rights , privileges , and prerogative of the Grand Master . Bro . Mclntyre then gave some

very lengthy illustrations in support of the views he had enunciated , and respectfully submitted to , and asked the M . W . Grand Master in the chair to rule that , inasmuch as the Grand Master , the fountain of honour , had the bestowal of the offices , and the

appointment of the officers , he also had the right to put them in Mat position and in that rank which he thought proper , tfro . Mclntyre ventured to represent that as the only

question that could be raised in Grand Lodge was whether the printed report of what took place upon the last occasion represented what was done by the authority and order of the Grand Master , and that inasmuch as what was done

was correctl y represented by the minutes , and was within the Grand Master ' s province , they had no power to

United Grand Lodge.

These views were strongly opposed by W . Bro . H . H . Locke , who said that though his work in Masonry had been done many thousand miles away , and though he was but a stranger amongst them , he could but raise his voice , with

all earnestness , in emphatic protest against the astounding doctrine just laid down by the Grand Registrar—a doctrine as he conceived not only unsound and dangerous in itself , but contrary to our Constitutions , and such as would be as distasteful to the Grand Master himself as to the

brethren at large when they hear of it . After some remarks from Bros . James Stevens and the Rev . R . J . Simpson , the Most Worshipful Grand Master in the Chair said he had purposely allowed this discussion upon a point of order to run on , being anxious that a

question on which Grand Lodge felt strongly should not seem to be in any way curtailed by any act from the chair ; before , however , he gave his ruling on the subject , he wished to say a word with regard to the remarks that fell from the worthy brother who spoke last but one . He always

deprecated—in Grand Lodge especially—the introduction of anything like personal feeling , which diminishes from the fairness and harmony with which all their questions ought to be discussed , and which imparts a personal and acrid tone into our debates . He thought it his duty

to notice that that brother went far beyond his province when he suggested there was any intention to make use of the Grand Master in order to stifle debate or to bring forward the name of the prerogative in order to diminish the -just rig hts and liberties of Grand Lodge .

Such a course of proceeding could only proceed from , or at least through , the brethren who sit in the chair which he now occupied . It had been his good fortune often during the last two years to sit in that chair , and he thought no brother in Grand Lodge could say that he had ever been

guilty of wishing to curtail the liberties of Grand Lodge , or even by word , hint or inuendo to bias unfairly the course of discussion . That was a charge lightly and not very discreetly thrown out , therefore he would say no more on the subject . The question which he had to

consider , or which rather he had had to consider withm the last five minutes , was this—what is the question which has been raised in this way , and on which a decision is needed ? The worthy brother who raised it did not justify or formulate it in any way . It was , as he gathered it , a general

anduneasy feeling in G . Lodge that something had been done which in some degree militated against their ancient rights . Now , if that be so , he was the last man living who would wish to prevent the full and free discussion of it ; but it must not be discussed hastily , by a side wind , in an

indirect manner , and without full knowledge on we part of all who attend that discussion of what they have to discuss . Therefore , if it rested on that ground alone , he should feel it incumbent on him , not only for the sake of Grand Lodge , whose interests are as clear to him as they are to any

person in the room , bnt for the sake of the Grand Master , whose chair he had the honour to fill , and whose position and prerogative he was bound to guard as far as they were to be guarded , he should feel it incumbent to prevent discussion arising hastily or indirectly on an

important question . If there be such a feeling in Grand Lodge as that lie had indicated , and if a fair case could be made out , let it be discussed fully and fairly at the first convenient opportunity . There were two questions , as he gathered . First of all the question of pre-