More Of The Quebec Imbroglio.

But it is still more true that a warrant which had already disappeared from its legal guardianship conld not possibly be surrendered by the representative officer of the Supreme Grand Chapter of England , and remitted by him to that

body . It is necessary , it seems , we should point oat for the edification of Quebec Masons that a thing may he existent , or it may be non-existent , bnt it cannot be both existent and non-existent at one and the same time . It

would puzzle a wiser even than Solomon to remit a document which , from its previous disappearance , it was impossible he ever could have received . Thus the story of the surrender of tho original Chapter warrant and the

consequent illegality of the present Victoria Chapter refutes itself , if indeed it were not sufficiently refuted by tho fact of over fifteen of its present Companions having been on the roll of the Chapter previous to 1856 .

It may possibly be suggested that the allegation as to the surrender of the Warrant may so far rest on a basis of fact that several of the members seceded from the

Chapter , and received a warrant constituting them a Chapter from the then Supreme Authority of E . A . Masonry in Canada , while those who did not secede took no steps to resent the movement by maintaining the original Chapter in a state of activity , that , as a

consequence , the course pursued by the latter must be considered as tantamount to an acquiescence in the proceedings of the seceded Companions ; and , therefore , that the said original Warrant was virtually , if not actually and as a matter of formality , surrendered to the Grand Chapter of

England which had granted it . We cannot , of course , in the absence of the requisite information , undertake to trace the history of tho Victoria Chapter from its constitution till now . But even if the Companions who remained true to their allegiance to England took no trouble to proclaim

a self-evident fact , we have , under the hand and seal of Companion Badgley , then as now District Grand Superintendent of Montreal , and others , that the warrant was abstracted not surrendered ; that they never acquiesced in

the abstraction , and that they decline now , as they have always done , to recognise the abstraction as equivalent to a surrender . But it will be as well perhaps to describe the circumstances as narrated in this pamphlet .

Companion John 0 . Brown , S . E . of the Victoria Chapter , writing under date Montreal , 1 st April 1884 , to the Grand Scribe E . of England , states among other things , that Comp . A . Grant G . S . E . of Quebec , in his letter to the Grand Scribe E . of England of the 28 th

April 1883 , declared that the Victoria Warrant was returned to the Hon . Judge Badgley shortly after the establishment , in 1864 , of the Mount Horeb Chapter Trader Canada . Tbe same Companion Grant , in another letter , dated 8 th October 1880 , tells the Grand Scribe E . of

England that " in the year 1863 the then Victoria Chapter , No . 440 E . C ., voluntarily surrendered and delivered Tip its -warrant ( English ) to the G . S . of Montreal , to be returned to England through the G . Z . of Canada , " adding thereafter that " the then

Victoria members at tbe same time petitioned for and received from the G . C . of Canada a Warrant to form and constitute themselves into a new Chapter , entitled the ' Mount Horeb , Montreal , ' which was duly constituted in January 1864 . " Comp . Brown designates this latter

statement as a barefaced falsehood ; " asserts that only eight of the Victoria members proved disloyal to their Constitution , and that there are now " on our roll , and in obedience to our Chapter , over fifteen Companions who were with us previous to 1856 . " These are the principal

statements and counter-statements . Towards extracting the truth from these contradictory allegations , -we have , in the first place , a letter from Comp . J . H . Dorwin , P . Z . of the Victoria Chapter , dated Montreal , 31 st October 1883 , relative to certain " letters of A . A . Stevenson and Thomas

Milton , as published in the Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of Quebec for 1883 , " in which occurs the following passage : " I say , as a member of the Victoria Chapter , the Chapter never surrendered its warrant . The warrant was stolen during the session of the Chapter , whilst the

members had temporarily retired for refreshments , and on their return to the room it was gone . I have been a member of the Chapter from its organisation , in January 1847 , and will continue to be till I die . If the warrant

was unanimously surrendered , as Mr . Stevenson says , please tell him he did not get my consent , nor Companions Brown , Cbitty , Smith , Thompson , Frazer , Cliff , and others who are still with us in Victoria . " The next document is a

More Of The Quebec Imbroglio.

letter from Comp . G . S . Frazer , which is the more valuable from the fact of his admitting that , at the personal request of the Grand Z . of Canada , he assisted , or at all events did not oppose , Comp . Milton in the steps the latter took to establish the Mount Horeb Chapter , that is , tho Quebec

successor of the English Victoria Chapter . The third document is a letter from Comp . J . 0 . Brown , which , however , may be passed over , as be is the author of the pamphlet . But the most important evidence of all is Comp . Badgley ' s letter of the 1 st May 1883 , in which , having

verified the fact of the abstraction of tho warrant , — Comp . Badgley says , he entered the Chapter room , just after tho warrant had disappeared and in the heat of tho excitement which followed its disappearance . Ho goes on to state , " seeing that the abstraction was the result of a

preconcerted plot , and that nothing would be gained by continuing the present excitement , the assembly broke up without making any resolution , the loyal members withdrawing in the expectation that effective means might be adopted for recovering their stolon warrant , or replacing

it by a warrant of confirmation . The Chapter consisted of about thirty members on the roll , of whom all continued loyal to their English connection , except seven or eight , who joined the Canada warrant as Mount Horeb Chapter , and neither at that time of the abstraction , nor

subsequently , has the Chapter , or have its loyal members , voluntarily dissolved or attempted to dissolve their Arch connection with England . Subsequently , all endeavours having failed to recover their stolen Warrant , upon representation to the Arch authorities in England , of the

occurrences above mentioned , a warrant of confirmation was granted them , with its present name of Victoria Chapter , which still exists and prospers . " In a further paragraph , Companion Badgley characterises the statement already referred to as made by the Grand Scribe E . of Quebec to the

Grand Scribe E . of England in 1880 , that many years ago " the Warrant of Victoria Chapter , English Constitution , Montreal , was duly returned to the then representative officer of tho G . Chapter of England here , the Hon . Judge Badgley , of Montreal , to be by him remitted to the Grand

Chapter of England , " as " an absolute and utter falsehood , inasmuch as no such warrant has ever been returned to me for transmission to England , or for any such purpose . " He also describes the opinion of the Grand Z . of Quebec expressed for him by the Grand Scribe E . Comp . Grant in

another letter , dated 8 th October 1880 , namely " that very grave irregularities have been committed from the delay in the transmission to England for cancellation of the said voluntarily-surrendered warrant , and that communication had been received by the G . Chanter of England from the

said Chapter with reference to its said surrender , ' as being " entirely gratuitous and unfounded , as no such voluntary surrender was either made or transmitted . " What

makes this last testimony of all so valuable is , that Bro . Badgley has been D . G . Master of Montreal under the G . L . of England since 1849 , and G . Superintendent under the English G . Chapter since 1851 .

The above evidence which Comp . Brown has adduced in support of his allegations is such that no amount of ingenuity or misrepresentation on the part of the Quebec authorities can overcome it . Its authors speak from an intimate personal knowledge of what happened at the time

of the abstraction of the warrant and has happened since . The conduct of the Quebec G . Chapter and notably of Comp . Graham , who is the moving spirit which guides , if not originates , these disturbances , we prefer passing over in

silence , but we wish it to be understood that our silence is that of contempt , that any body of men could have so far forgotten the honour of their Masonic obligations as to have lent the weight and sanction of their authority to such discreditable proceedings .

The Growth Of Masonry.

THE GROWTH OF MASONRY .

rpHE following interesting address was delivered by ¦¦ - P . G . M . Bro . Hamilton Wallis , on the occasion of laying the corner stone of the new Masonic Temp le , Trenton , New Jersey , on 15 th July 1884 : —

M . W . GRAND MASTER , BRETHREN OF THE G RAND LODGE : —The occasion which has called together this assemblage , not only affords satisfying proof of the zea and energy of the Brethren in this community and of the continued growth of Masonry among you , and thus