A Sensible Address.

A SENSIBLE ADDRESS .

To judge from the copious extracts in the Voice of Masonry for last month from the address which Bro . GEORG-E A . J OHNSTON , M . W . G . M . of South Dakota , delivered at the annual meeting of his Grand Lodge in June last , and from Bro . WILLIAM BLATT ' S Report on Correspondence , the views which prevail in this jurisdiction are characterised by , 1 large amount

of shrewdness and common sense . It must be remembered that South Dakota is but a young jurisdiction . The annual meeting to which we are referring was only the eighteenth , and consequently the establishment of its Grand Lodge dates no further back than the year 1873 . Vet there are many far older jurisdictions in the United States , whose Grand Masters

and Editors of Correspondence are wont to indulge in so much impassioned rhetoric as to the mission of Freemasonry to regenerate the universe , that they leave themselves no room for the exercise of that less showy , but more serviceable , attribute of common sense . Here , for instance , is a passage from Grand Master J OHNSTON ' S address , which reads as if it had been

delivered by our late Bro . J HERVEY or Bro . Colonel SIIAVJWELL H . CLERKE at the consecration of a new lodge in London : " Brethren , " says Bro . J OHNSTON , " your lodge is what you make it , and its power for good is dependent upon the men who control it , and the material admitted within its portals . Only the upright , conscientious citizens should receive

its honours . Those whose morals are loose , ways dark , and associates low , you should avoid . None but the just and upright should be made Masons . " Again , on the subject of promotion in the lodge , Bro . J OHNSTON is equally clear as to the plain and simple rule by which it should be governed . "The only claim , " says he ,

" to preferment in Masonry should be real worth and personal merit . No person dissolute in character or lax in his duties as a citizen , even though he may possess social virtues and be ambitious for preferment in his lodge , and sustained and supported by a part of it , yet no good reason can be given why his ambition should be gratified , and no brother should be

afraid to oppose him . We cannot expect to rise above the standard we set up . The character of the officers of a lodge must , in a great measure , relied the character of the lodge , and if such officers are not representatives nf our best citizenship our lodges must suffer in consequence . " All this is most sensible , and we trust that future Grand Masters of South

Dakota will follow in the footsteps of Bro . J OHNSTON , and by constantly impressing these points on the lodges throughout its jurisdiction will succeed in keeping South Dakota Freemasonry as free as possible from latter-day " fads " and missions , with no more ambitious object in view than that of preserving it in what we may reasonably describe as its present pure and unsophisticated condition .

The remarks which Bro . WILLIAM BLATT offers in his Report on Correspondence are equally worthy of our attention , but more especially those which are directed against the introduction of any of those new ideas , which , unfortunately for the Craft , have found favour in more than one jurisdiction in the United States . " I feel it a duty , " writes Bro . BLATT ,

" to continually remind you , dear brethren , that an almost absolute conservatism should ever rule and guide our proceedings . Innovations on our part I do not fear . It has ever been the policy of this Grand Lodge to follow and not to lead in any changes deemed necessary . We can well afford to continue in that policy . Every proposed change of or amendment

lo our laws and regulations should be looked upon with suspicion . They "o not emanate generally from those who have well studied the history and wtcresls of the Craft at large . They arc mostly evolved by those who have yd experience in other than Masonic channels , and who have but a super-¦• cial knowledge of the stability of the laws and government as established in

J ' past , and which with but little material changing has ever been and still | abreast of the civilisation of the day . Therefore , brethren , be careful in judgment , slow inaction . " We thank thee most heartily , Bro . BI . ATT , for 'aying such stress on the " almost absolute conservatism " which " should ' ° r rule and guide our proceedings , " and the more so as , in the United

plates , there are Grand Lodges which appear to have thrown all idea of 'asonic conservatism to the four cardinal winds of heaven . In the "P'nion of these , Freemasonry must be as " go-ahead " as it can be made , " " that means as unlike what it has been in the past as it is possible . ence it is that we find one Grand Lodge permitting public installations , '" ° thcr ing the crusade against intemperanceand a third ¦ & —¦ 1

encourag , alln *> •¦ ' ¦• - - owing the officers of its lodges to bedeck themselves with robes en one of the Degrees is being conferred . As for public installain ° ' , ''' ls nothing which can be twisted even by the utmost geiiuity of man into a justification for such a function . Surely lodge ° m ust be confined to the close-tvled lodge . The manner of conducting

A Sensible Address.

our different ceremonies in no way concerns the outer world , nor does it in any way affect the principles of the Craft , which those who care to know what they are may easily ascertain by reading our Ancient Charges and the laws of our Grand Lodges . As for the crusade against intemperance , which more than one American Grand Lodge sanctions and encourages , we need ,

only point out that temperance is one of the Masonic virtues , and that if our lodges are properly conducted , there is no place in them for intemperate persons . Neither if Freemasonry had a hundred missions to which it was called upon to devote its energies , are its lodges and Grand Lodges justified in taking part in the controversies which rage around the public questions of

the day , be they religious , political , or social ; while as for the adoption of robes by certain officers in conducting a certain ceremony , there is nothing to justify it , and we can only ascribe it to that inane love of finery by which some men who , in all other respects are sensible enough , are actuated . In speaking of the proposed Masonic Congress at Chicago during the

International Inhibition next year , Bro . BLATT is of opinion that certain inter-State questions might profitably be discussed at such a meeting , and the true aims and objects of the Fraternity might be fully elucidated by those who occupy a front rank as expounders of Masonic law and morals ; but he does not share the fear—which in several quarters has been expressed—that a

Congress would assume unauthorised powers and encroach upon the independence of Grand Lodges . Indeed , though he does not intimate in so many words that he has no very high opinion of such gatherings , he furnishes one of the best reasons we have yet seen against the proposal , when he says— " Of the six general conventions attempted to be held within the

past 50 years , none have in any sense accomplished anything that the Craft was injured by or derived any benefit from . The one held at Chicago a very few years ' ago was utterly barren of results . " As these remarks will in all probability be equally applicable to the congress which it is proposed to hold in the same cit } ' in the course of 1893 , it strikes as being

fatbetter that the idea of holding one should be given up , so that American Masonry may be spared the ridicule which is certain to follow from a resultless meeting . In his conclusion , Bro . BLATT is equally to be commended for the views he expresses as to the principles by which the relations between the Grand Lodge and its private lodges should be governed . As lie very

properly points out "Strict , faithful , and loyal obedience to the enactments of Grand Lodge and to those principles of the Institution acknowledged as fundamental , will in no wise interfere with the independence of the lodge . " And , again— " The Grand Lodge should direct the issue , the lodge through its membership must reach the conclusion . The former , governed by its

constituents , should act as the executor of the will of the majority in which the lodge and every Mason must acquiesce , and can do so without the sacrifice of their individuality . All powers possible and consistent should be vested , as we believe they inherently are , in individual lodges and their

membership . This very independence will make more cohesive our system of government , while dependence engendered by a centralisation of power in the Grand Lodge enervates the individual mind from lofty thoughts , and the will from noble action . It leads the individual Mason to remain within

the boundary of a prescribed and narrow circle . We can only express our regret that more American Grand Masters and Correspondence Editors do not accustom themselves to address their constituents in terms as sensible and to the point as Grand Master J OHNSTON and Fditor BLATT .

Provincial Grand Lodge Of Durham.

PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF DURHAM .

The flourishing condition of Freemasonry in the Province of Durham was amply testified on the 27 th ult ., when the annual meeting of the above Grand Lodge was held in the ancient Palatinate city . Not only was there a large attendance of brethren to welcome the Provincial Grand Master , Bro . Sir Hedworth Williamson , Bart ., and the Deputy Provincial Grand Master , Bro . the Rev . Canon Tristram , D . D ., but reports were presented

showing increasing membership in the several lodges of the province , and also increased dispensations for benevolent purposes . The gathering took place in the Town Hall , in the Market-place , and the line old building was filled to its utmost capacity . The scene was a striking one . The brethren , of course , wore their various insignia indicative of their rank in the Craft , and the picturesque adornments of the hall—the portraits of county and civic worthies and their emblazoned arms- heightened the effect of the

picture . Bro . Sir Hedworth Williamson , presided , and was supported by the Deputy Prov . G . M ., and a large assemoly of P . P . G . Officers . Bro . C . S . Lane was Prov . S . G . W ., and llro . Nixey , Prov . J . G . W . The brethren numbered about 3 SO , and represented 35 lodges which are comprised in the province .