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Obituary.
I believe that the Lodge of Instruction ( held under the Lodge of Stability ) , was one ofthe first , if not the very first , founded after the Union . It was followed some six years later , namely , in 1823 , by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement , which has been adorned by so many good Masons , but all the founders of which are now dead . In 1827 , when the Lodge of Promulgation was formed for the purpose of procuring uniformity in the installation . of Masters ( and of which Broadfoot member icuous
was a ) , the labours of our fate Brother became again consp ; everywhere was he found assisting , advising , and superintending the work . And here let me call to your recollection that we must not judge of the learning of the Masons of those days by the acquirements of the Masons of our own times . Now every one who desires Masonic knowledge has it brought as it were to his own door . Lodges of Instruction are open to him on all sides ; whilst in the days I refer to the greatest difficulty was found in acquiring anything like correct information . Even amongst tbe great
and good working men of those days a certain degree of rivalry and ( shall I call it ) , jealousy existed . Their mode of working was somewhat different —different only in the verbal arrangement of a small portion of the ceremonies , but identical in all that appertained to the Landmarks and established usages of the Order , and so they continue even to this day , and must inevitably continue so , while so large a number of Masons are continually working them ; for it is physically impossible to preserve an exact adherence to the very words of each ceremony , when the numbers of Masons are continually changing and continually increasing . Indeed our late Grand Master gave it as his opinion that although it was very advisable to keep as nearly as possible to the same form of words , yet that tbe Landmarks were
alone to be preserved exact and always the same , and that the Master might vary the phraseology according to circumstances . To so high a degree did these jealousies go , that we find even the great i Masons of that day complaining of each other , and the West-end Teachers laying a complaint before tbe Board of General Purposes that the Teachers 1 in the City were not practising pure Masonry . Fortunately this complaint i was allowed to fall to the ground ; and I should not have referred to it but i that it throws a light upon the history of the times .
The avocations of our late Bro . Peter Thomson did not permit him to devote much of his time to our Boards . We find him but once , and that in 1824 , on the Board of General Purposes . His ambition and his only ambition seemed to consist in making himself generally useful—in instructing the young Mason , and in aiding the older in the performance of his duties . 1 believe that no living man ever initiated so many Masons as our late Brother , and I think I may safely say that no one ever will . * It cannot be supposed that bis admirers and pupils were unmindful of services so valuable ,
so disinterested , so thoroughly Masonic as these , —far from it . Besides numberless votes of thanks presented to him by the different Lodges ( and I remember to have heard him say that at one time be was a member of twenty-nine Lodges ) , he was presented with a splendid gold watch and appendages by his Lodge of Instruction , —with a jewel by his own Lodge , who afterwards caused his portrait to be painted , an engraving of which was afterwards completed , a copy of which found its way into the hands of a very large number of the Craft ; and though " last not least" was the graceful act of our present most AVorshipful Grand Master who was pleased , in 1844 , to single out that humble-minded and true-hearted Mason and to confer upon him the honour of a purple apron , —an honour no less valued than deserved . I believe that no appointment of our present Noble
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Obituary.
I believe that the Lodge of Instruction ( held under the Lodge of Stability ) , was one ofthe first , if not the very first , founded after the Union . It was followed some six years later , namely , in 1823 , by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement , which has been adorned by so many good Masons , but all the founders of which are now dead . In 1827 , when the Lodge of Promulgation was formed for the purpose of procuring uniformity in the installation . of Masters ( and of which Broadfoot member icuous
was a ) , the labours of our fate Brother became again consp ; everywhere was he found assisting , advising , and superintending the work . And here let me call to your recollection that we must not judge of the learning of the Masons of those days by the acquirements of the Masons of our own times . Now every one who desires Masonic knowledge has it brought as it were to his own door . Lodges of Instruction are open to him on all sides ; whilst in the days I refer to the greatest difficulty was found in acquiring anything like correct information . Even amongst tbe great
and good working men of those days a certain degree of rivalry and ( shall I call it ) , jealousy existed . Their mode of working was somewhat different —different only in the verbal arrangement of a small portion of the ceremonies , but identical in all that appertained to the Landmarks and established usages of the Order , and so they continue even to this day , and must inevitably continue so , while so large a number of Masons are continually working them ; for it is physically impossible to preserve an exact adherence to the very words of each ceremony , when the numbers of Masons are continually changing and continually increasing . Indeed our late Grand Master gave it as his opinion that although it was very advisable to keep as nearly as possible to the same form of words , yet that tbe Landmarks were
alone to be preserved exact and always the same , and that the Master might vary the phraseology according to circumstances . To so high a degree did these jealousies go , that we find even the great i Masons of that day complaining of each other , and the West-end Teachers laying a complaint before tbe Board of General Purposes that the Teachers 1 in the City were not practising pure Masonry . Fortunately this complaint i was allowed to fall to the ground ; and I should not have referred to it but i that it throws a light upon the history of the times .
The avocations of our late Bro . Peter Thomson did not permit him to devote much of his time to our Boards . We find him but once , and that in 1824 , on the Board of General Purposes . His ambition and his only ambition seemed to consist in making himself generally useful—in instructing the young Mason , and in aiding the older in the performance of his duties . 1 believe that no living man ever initiated so many Masons as our late Brother , and I think I may safely say that no one ever will . * It cannot be supposed that bis admirers and pupils were unmindful of services so valuable ,
so disinterested , so thoroughly Masonic as these , —far from it . Besides numberless votes of thanks presented to him by the different Lodges ( and I remember to have heard him say that at one time be was a member of twenty-nine Lodges ) , he was presented with a splendid gold watch and appendages by his Lodge of Instruction , —with a jewel by his own Lodge , who afterwards caused his portrait to be painted , an engraving of which was afterwards completed , a copy of which found its way into the hands of a very large number of the Craft ; and though " last not least" was the graceful act of our present most AVorshipful Grand Master who was pleased , in 1844 , to single out that humble-minded and true-hearted Mason and to confer upon him the honour of a purple apron , —an honour no less valued than deserved . I believe that no appointment of our present Noble