Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 223 Lodge of Benevolence 224 Consecration of the Clerkenwell Lodge , No . 106 4 224 Opening of a New Masonic Hall at Antrim 326 Masonic Historv and Historians 227 A Word to tlie " ( Vise 227

CORRESI'OXDF . XCEKarly History of Alasonic Templarism ... 22 S Appointment" of Ollicers 22 S " Notes and Queries "—a Suggestion ... 22 S A Query 228 Reviews 22 S Masonic Notes and Queries 229 Provincial Grand I . odge of Staffordshire ... 220

Doric and Friars Lodges of Ins ' ruction Ma-onic Ilenevolent Association 229 REI' - IRTS OK MASO . VK : MEETI . N-CS — Craft Masonry 230 Instruction 233 Royal Arch 234 Alark Masonry 235 lied Cross of Constantine 235

Cryptic Masonry 235 Irelmd 235 Obitnarv 23 . 4 The Theatres 236 Music 236 Science and Art 236 I Masonic : and General Tidings 237 I Lodge Meetings for Next Week 238

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THOUGH we think it always better " form " not lo allude to the inevitable " * on dits " of Masonic gossip as regards the new Grand Officers , until officially announced , we may , however , mention that we have heard that the follow , wing will be among the new Grand Officers for 1 SS 2-83 : Lord CARRINGTON * , Senior Grand Warden ; The Right Hon . the LORD MAYOR , Junior Grand

Warden ; Rev . THOMAS ROBINSON , P . G . C . Kent , & c , and Rev . IHOMAS COCHRANE , Grand Chaplains ; Major PENRICE , D . G . M . Norfolk , R . C . ELSE , D . G . M . Somersetshire , Captain CLEMENT N . BESWICK-ROYHS , HARRISON , Q . C , and W . MASEI ' IELD , D . G . M . Worcestershire , Grand Deacons ; HORACE J ONES , Grand Supt . of Works ; H . S . ALLPASS , P . G .

Sec . West Lancashire , J MESSENT , L . F . LITTELL ; and CUSINS as Grand Organist . VVe think it right to add , that we know as a fact , that the greatest possible care has been taken in the selection ; much thought and consideration evinced ; and that , tliough , oi course , it is utterly

impossible to gratify all personal aspirationsor satisfy all pressing claims , 3 'et that the present yearly appointment of Grand Officers rests on a very high standard of service and work for Freemasonry , and must give entire satisfaction to Grand Lodge . The provinces will be pleased to note that the meritorious efforts of provincial officers are neither forgotten nor disregarded .

* * IT would be amusing , if it were possible , to read and realize all the claims and applications for Grand office . They proceed from many sources , and are based on very conflicting reasons . Some good brethren seem to think that they are " born , " so to say , for the " purple , " and have

almost a right to it , either simply because they wish it themselves or because they deem that they have sufficient interest at head-quarters to carry the appointment . A considerable section of our brethren , some of the most eager applicants for rank , have , perhaps , a better opinion of themselves than others have of them , and do not see , or will not see , that though , as Mrs .

MALAFROI 1 liked to say , " comparisons are odorous , " there are others who , to say the least , have far more availing and pressing claims than they have , or ever possibly can have . Now it is not , we think , too much to assert that in the present throng of expectants for Grand office nothing can justify the claim but long and meritorious service . There are , of course , exceptions to

every rule , even the laws of the Medes and Persians ' ; , and the prerogative of the Grand Master , the fountain of all Masonic honour and promotion must always be carefully guarded and vigilantly upheld . There must exist " power of selection , " and very often there is a good reason for a promotion which escapes the popular mind which cannot well be overlooked or passed by .

Making every allowance for special cases and exceptional promotions , which we must always fairly and reasonably admit to be both probable and possible , we think , however , we are not saying too much when we add that no one under eighteen years faithful service to the Craft can ordinarly or reasonably expect promotion to Grand Office . No doubt

such a limit may disappoint many good friends of ours , worthy men and Masons , whose zeal however sometimes outruns their discretion in openly soliciting or secretly anticipating Grand Office on a lesser qualification of time and service . As we said just now , there are and must be cases and reasons when this rule may be dispensed with , necessarily put on one side

but in our normal promotion to-day , we venture to think we have put before our readers the probably lowest term of service now compatible with an application for Grand Office . Some-years ago , twenty years used to be considered a fair qualification , but now we apprehend that we have almost

correctly estimated the average . of years of Masonic membership required as a preliminary for Grand Office . If then any of our excellent friends are disappointed at what they fondly deemed was in their reach , or grieve that the fruit which they were ready to pluck is not yet ripe for them , we can

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only add for their consolation in the fashionable vernacular of the hour , * - * ' Dear Boy , " " Dear Chappie , " wait patiently a little longer !

* * WE are much amused at a paragraph , taken from the Montreal Gazette , which appears in our last impression , headed " Coming events cast their shadows before . " It appears that Bro . RU-IIARD VAUX P . G . M . and Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Correspondence Grand Lodge of

Pennsylvania , has thought well to endorse certain statements of our good Bro . GRAHAM , G . M . of Quebec , and gently to intimate that , in his opinion the excommunication by the Grand Lodge of Quebec of the mother Grand Lodge of the world , and declaring the three lodges inCanaJa holding lawfu ' English warrants clandestine lodges , would be a proper proceeding . Knowing

something of some of the brethren who form part of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , and being fully aware too of their high claims to admiration and regard , their true Masonij feeling and their fitting Masonic acts , we doubt much if such a rash and im-masonic course of action will be approved of in any manner by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania .

The position , as far as we are concerned , is a very simple one , but one which so concerns the honour and dignity of the Grand Lodge of England , that it is one from which it cannot depart , under any menace or any unfraternal behaviour . We regret to note the impatience of modern Freemasonry ; this tendency to " Boycott" and excommunicate ; this

use of " loud " language , always most unmasonic , and the resource , as history proves , of weak minds and weaker cases . As regards this " causa teterrima belli , " we would only repeat that the solution is not so much with the Grand Lodge of England as with the lodges of Canada themselves . Ori ginally chartered by the English Grand Lodge , having worked on their legal

warrants for man ) ' long years , when the first great separation occurred between England and Canada , arid the independence of the Grand Lodge of Canada was acknowledged , the very status and loyalty of the fugitives of these same lodges were openly acknowledged . When another severance took place from the Grand Lodge of Canada itself , and the Grand Lodge of Quebec was set

up ( or the first time , the position of these lodges was attacked , and their existence disapproved of in the connection with the old "MolherCountry / 'which , for good and sufficient reasons thereunto moving they had maintained , and declined to abandon . Latterly the complaints of the Grand Lodge of Quebec have grown louder and louder , and the claims of Bro . GRAHAM

more and more pressing . In vain our Grand Secretary has assured the Grand Lodge of Quebec through him that the Grand Lodge of England is in honour bound to stand by those who stand by it , and that it is impossible by its own laws to discontinue a connection unless the lodges themselves desire it , as the lodges have apparently done no wrong , but seeking to preserve

their union with the warranting Grand Lodge . It may be for them only a question of sentiment , but still it is a sentiment to be respected ; and , as they are clearly within their legal rights , it is absolutely impossible on any ground of Masonic law or common equity to censure them or punish them , either by recalling their charters , or desiring them to discontinue to act as chartered

English lodges . All the Grand Lodge can do is to say , lhat if these Canadian Lodges wish to take out new charters from the G . Lodge of Quebec they are perfectly at liberty to do so , but that the Grand Lodge can neither officially advise or lawfully compel them so to do ; and when , in addition , it is wellknown that the English Grand Lodge fully recognizes the independence of

the Grand Lodge of Quebec , and will certainly not seek to prolong the existence beyond its natural term of the Prov . Grand Lod ge of Montreal , thus giving up its old and cherished association wilh Canada , we should have thought that everything was settled . What the English Grand Lodge can do properly , legally , or Masonically more wc fail to see or to realize .

Perhaps some one will kindly inform us . If it should so happen that Bro . VAUX ' S idea of proper (?) Masonic action should be carried out , we poor benighted English Masons shall endeavour to face the awful alternative held out to us with decency and decorum . If we arc to be isolated , we

will be isolated , and like the Roman Patrician say " mea virtute me invelvo . " We can only say that any such course will lead to the serious disintegration of the whole Masonic family ; will assuredly lead to the cessation of many international Masonic relations ; and must pave the way for most regretable severances and painful alienations .

* * WE just wish to call attention to one fact amid these claims of American sole sovereignty , as adopted by our good brethren in Canada The P . G . M

of the Grand Lodgeof Manitoba claims to give a lodge license to meet on unoccupied territory temporarily , and then to form a territorial Grand Lodge , in another country , under the name of the Grand Officers of a Grand Lodge thousands of miles away . Where are we all going to ? Is there