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Article QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION.—SEPTEMBER 2. ← Page 2 of 8 →
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Quarterly Communication.—September 2.
The GRAND MASTER then concluded his address , and subsequentl y stated that he had appointed the Earl of Zetland as Pro-Grand Master in the room of the late Earl of Durham , and the Marquis of Salisbury as Deputy Grand Master , an office vacant by the promotion of the Earl of Zetland .
The first appointment was received with some demonstration of pleasure ; and the second was hailed with the most repeated acclamations , which lasted several minutes . * The minutes of the last Quarterly Communication having been read , the Grand Master put them for confirmation , when Bro . STEVENS rose , and begged leave to call the attention of the Grand Lodge to the singular inaccuracy of the minutes—in that respect a
counterpart of the printed statement forwarded from the Grand Secretary ' s Office—in describing him ( Bro . S . ) as having " addressed the Grand Lodge at considerable length , " upon his appeal , " commenting upon the evidence which had been adduced before the Board of General Purposes , " ancl having " wished to call witnesses in Grand Lodge . " Without supposing it to be at all likely that such errors had heen made intentionally , he felt that it was not the less necessary for him to
point them out , in order that they might be rectified ; and he was anxious that the correction should be made by the Grand Lodge , rather than by himself , as the best means of evincing mutuality of good feeling . He hoped , therefore , to be spared the necessity of proposing any formal motion , whilst he reminded the Grand Lodge that his address , described as being of considerable length , had reference only to the circumstances which distinguished his case from that of Bro . Aid . Thomas Wood , and which had rendered it impossible for him to follow the course adopted
by that W . Brother ; that he ( Bro . S . ) was stopped in limine from " commenting on the evidence ; " and that so far from having expressed a wish to examine witnesses in Grand Lodge , he had not even entertained such a wish , nor had he even dreamt of it . Bro . HENDERSON complimented the W . Brother on the tone and tenor of his observations , but recommended him not to press the subject , as it might occupy the time of Grand Lodge , before which there was alread y
so much business . He would admit that Brother Stevens hacl not commented on the evidence , but then he had commented on the verdict , as contrary to the evidence , which might be taken as pretty much the same thing , f Bro . PHILIPE expressed a similar opinion . Bro . STEVENS said he felt obliged by the compliment paid to him , although it embraced the expectation , that , having exercised so much
forbearance already , he should save the time of the Grand Lodge by exercising a little more . He would have preferred some proof of mutuality of forbearance ancl good feeling on the part of those who differed with him on points of Masonic polity , to a mere compliment . The difference between commenting upon evidence and commenting upon a ferdict was so obvious , that be would not detain the Grand Lodge to discuss it ; he felt that he was quite as ri ght in contending for a correction of that part of the minutes , as he was for that of the concluding words of the sentence , about his wishing to call witnesses , an assertion
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Quarterly Communication.—September 2.
The GRAND MASTER then concluded his address , and subsequentl y stated that he had appointed the Earl of Zetland as Pro-Grand Master in the room of the late Earl of Durham , and the Marquis of Salisbury as Deputy Grand Master , an office vacant by the promotion of the Earl of Zetland .
The first appointment was received with some demonstration of pleasure ; and the second was hailed with the most repeated acclamations , which lasted several minutes . * The minutes of the last Quarterly Communication having been read , the Grand Master put them for confirmation , when Bro . STEVENS rose , and begged leave to call the attention of the Grand Lodge to the singular inaccuracy of the minutes—in that respect a
counterpart of the printed statement forwarded from the Grand Secretary ' s Office—in describing him ( Bro . S . ) as having " addressed the Grand Lodge at considerable length , " upon his appeal , " commenting upon the evidence which had been adduced before the Board of General Purposes , " ancl having " wished to call witnesses in Grand Lodge . " Without supposing it to be at all likely that such errors had heen made intentionally , he felt that it was not the less necessary for him to
point them out , in order that they might be rectified ; and he was anxious that the correction should be made by the Grand Lodge , rather than by himself , as the best means of evincing mutuality of good feeling . He hoped , therefore , to be spared the necessity of proposing any formal motion , whilst he reminded the Grand Lodge that his address , described as being of considerable length , had reference only to the circumstances which distinguished his case from that of Bro . Aid . Thomas Wood , and which had rendered it impossible for him to follow the course adopted
by that W . Brother ; that he ( Bro . S . ) was stopped in limine from " commenting on the evidence ; " and that so far from having expressed a wish to examine witnesses in Grand Lodge , he had not even entertained such a wish , nor had he even dreamt of it . Bro . HENDERSON complimented the W . Brother on the tone and tenor of his observations , but recommended him not to press the subject , as it might occupy the time of Grand Lodge , before which there was alread y
so much business . He would admit that Brother Stevens hacl not commented on the evidence , but then he had commented on the verdict , as contrary to the evidence , which might be taken as pretty much the same thing , f Bro . PHILIPE expressed a similar opinion . Bro . STEVENS said he felt obliged by the compliment paid to him , although it embraced the expectation , that , having exercised so much
forbearance already , he should save the time of the Grand Lodge by exercising a little more . He would have preferred some proof of mutuality of forbearance ancl good feeling on the part of those who differed with him on points of Masonic polity , to a mere compliment . The difference between commenting upon evidence and commenting upon a ferdict was so obvious , that be would not detain the Grand Lodge to discuss it ; he felt that he was quite as ri ght in contending for a correction of that part of the minutes , as he was for that of the concluding words of the sentence , about his wishing to call witnesses , an assertion