The Multiplicity Of Offences In American Masonry.

cautioning our lodges , and especially those which have been newly-formed . But where a lodge is so unfortunate as to have accepted such a person as a member , the only course left open to it . in our humble opinion , is , to use a familiar expression , to

make the best of a bad bargain . At all events , let its members behave like sensible men and keep all their petty squabbles and e-ontenfions , slanders , and the like , outside the lodge and treat them as they deserve to be treated , that is to say , as matters witb which Freemasonry has no concern .

Freemasonry In Norfolk*

FREEMASONRY IN NORFOLK *

¦ Bro . HAMON LE STRANGE , whose " History of Freemasonry in Norfolk " has just been published , is to be congratulated on the wealth of material he has had to work upon . True , he has not fared much better than other writers who have undertaken

a similar task in respect of other Provinces as regards official records . Our Norfolk brethren of last century , and even of later times , appear to have been as studiously indifferent to the preservation of minute books as the most careless that ever

donned the white apron of Masonry . But it is not ever ) ' Province , even among those which are far stronger in the number of their lodges , that can boast , as Norfolk can , of an uninterrupted Masonic History of 170 years , or that it has possessed what is

virtually an unbroken Provincial organisation for 135 of those 170 years . Masonrv in this favoured county , as elsewhere , has had its vicissitudes . Lodges have come and gone , some after a brief existence and without leaving behind them much else

than the record of the simple facts that in certain years they were constituted in certain places , and bore certain numbers on the roll of the Grand Lodge which warranted them ; while others maintained their position , through a long course of years ,

with a greater or less measure of prosperity , and the wonder is , that , with so many men around them of good social standing whose devotion to the interests of Freemasonry must always pass unquestioned , bodies of such long-established repute should have

been allowed to pass out of existence . Still , Norfolk , through all its varying fortunes , and though the number of lodges on its roll , even including that which was consecrated only a few days since at Cromer , is but iS , has always maintained an honoured

position among thc Provinces , and , in compiling its History , Bro . LE STRANGE has done a service to the Craft of Masonry in this country , which cannot be too highly valued , in a manner for whicii he cannot be too greatly commended . It is a history which

deserves to have a place of honour assigned to it in every Masonic Library in England , whicii will be read with interest by every student of Masonic History , and of which , as it is a credit to the author , as well as an honour to the Province in whicii he

holds so distinguished an office , every one of his brother Masons in Norfolk should possess a copy . It is not every Province , of which so ample and valuable a work as this could be written ,

and it is not every brother , of whom it could be said without flattery , that he possessed the patience and ability , as well as the leisure , to write it .

Having regard to the fact we have already mentioned that at the present time thc number of lodges on the roll of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Norfolk is only 18 all told , the list of those whicii from time to time have been warranted is a

somewhat formidable one :. Of the 50 and odd lodges which at dffierent periods have : met on Norfolk soil , the earliest is that which was constituted at the Maid's Head , Norwich , in 1724 . The ceremony was performed by Bro . MARTIN Foi . KES , Deputy to

CHARI . ES , Duke of RICHMOND , Grand Master , and there is evielene-e : llial the lodge was working till the e : lose of 1 793 , that it continued to send in returns to Grand Lodge till 1797 , and that its last payment thereto was made in April , 1802 ; but in 1809

it was erased from the list , and then a lodge , which "all through its career maintained its position as premier lodge of the Province , " whicii numbered among its members brethren belonging

Lo some of the principal families in the county , and of which the first four P . G . Ms , of Norfolk were initiates or joining members , was allowed to pass away , the one memorial of its existence

-History of Freemasonry in Norfolk , " 1724 to iSy 5 . By Hamon Le Strange , P . G . D . England , D . P . G . M . Norfolk . Norwich : Agas H . Goose , Rampant Horse-street . iSyG .

Freemasonry In Norfolk*

being a minute book from 27 th December , 1743 , to December 1793 , which came into the possession of Prov . Grand Lodo-e in 1 S 94 , and to which , as may well be imagined , the author is indebted for the bulk of the narrative he has been able to

compile of its history . The second senior lodge , founded at the Duke ' s Head , King ' s Lynn , in 1729 , has also passed away , having been erased from the roll of Grand Lodge on ist February , 1786 . Respecting this , Bro . LE STRANGE has been

able to discover very few particulars , the most important beino that about the year 1781 , the Iodge contributed ^ , ' 5 5 s . towards the building fund of Freemasons' Hall , and that in 178 5 a Bro . ROBERT PARTRIDGE , as proxv for the lodge , signed the petition

for the appointment of Sir EDWARD ASTLEY as Prov . Grand Master . The third in point of seniority has been more fortunate . It was warranted at the King ' s Head , Norwich , in 1736 , and is still on the roll of Grand Lodge as Union Lodge , No . 52 ,

meeting in the same city . In 1817 it united with and took the name of the Union Lodge , No . ' 236—No . 357 of 1765—and in 1819 it obtained a warrant of confirmation , while in 18 7 8 his Royal Highness , the M . W . G . Master , was pleased to grant it a

centenary warrant . The information which Bro . LE STRANGE has been able to collect relating to this lodge is very fragmentary , nor has he been very much more successful than Bro . J OHN LANE—in whose " Masonic Records , " as well as in this volume ,

the facts we have quoted will be found mentioned—in unearthing particulars as to its doings during last century . The Lodge of Unity , now the senior lodge on the roll of Suffolk , was

the fourth lodge warranted in Norfolk , having been established in 1747 at the Bear , Norwich . Later in its career it removed to Acle , and thence to Yarmouth , while in 1814 it migrated to Lowestoft , where it still flourishes under a centenary warrant .

The lodges that follow after the Lodge of Unity are extinct till we come to what is now the Faithful Lodge , No . 8 5 , Harleston , which was originally established in Norwich at the Castle and Lion , in 1753 . This lodge , though it has lost its recorels

anterior to 1821 , is fortunate enough to have preserved its warrant or dispensation , which is in the handwriting of Bro . Dr . THOMAS MANNINGHAM , who was Deputy firstly to Lord CARVSI'ORT , G . M ., and then to his successor , the Marquis of

CARNARVON , subsequently Duke of CHANDOS . Of the six lodges that follow , no less than three arc happily preserved to us , namely , the Social Lodge , No . 93 , Norwich , warranted in 1755 ; the Lodge of Friendship , No . 100 , Yarmouth , warranted

in 1757 ; and the Lodge of Unanimity , No . 102 , North Walsham , in 1758 . All these have received centenary warrants , as also one other lodge of later date , so that one-third of the number on the Provincial roll , can boast of the honour

of having been able to trace out an existence of 100 years and upwards . Of the 13 lodges that follow , only one actually retains its place on the roll of Grand Lodge , but this — the Shakespcre , Lodge , No . 284 — which was

originally formed in Norwich in 1792 , migrated in 1808 to Warwick , where it still flourishes . However , the Union Lodge , of I 765 , meeting in Norwich , was united with and gave its name to the present Lodge , No . 52 , which , as Bro . LE STRANGE points

out , would in all probability but for this circumstance , have dropped from the roll altogether . Of the remaining eight pra - Union Lodges , there remain on the roll of the Province tin ' Lodge of Perseverance , No . 213 , one of the ten lodges warranted

by the " Ancients , " and dating from thc year 1795—to this a centenary warrant has lately been granted , and the lodge celebrated the event with all possible tklat at a meeting held during the present year ; the Lodge of United

Friends , No . 313 , warranted by the "Moderns" in I 797 ; aiu ' the Philanthropic Lodge , No . 107 , King ' s Lynn , which , thoug h it figures in Grand Lodge Calendar as an " Ancient" lodge ' , dating from 1766 , in reality is of 1810 origin . Thus of the y >

lodges established in Norfolk prior to the Union of lS 13 , namely , 28 " Moderns" and lo "Ancients , " six of the former and two of the latter remain on the roll of Norfolk and two others are to be found in other Provinces , while yet another united

with , and gave its name to , the lodge which dates from 1730 311 " is the senior in the Province . Of the 15 lodges that have been warranted since the Union , including the Baring Lodge , consecrated at Cromer last week , and therefore not dealt with m