United Grand Lodge Of England.

received and entered on the minutes , Bro . S . R . Basket , P . M ., interposed to ask the President a question in regard to the two brethren who had been suspended from their Masonic rights and privileges , and he moved that the first paragraph in the report be not received . The question

proved to be entirely a legal one , and the arguments adduced scarcely appealed to the vast majority of those present . It is enough to say that the Grand Registrar , who replied tit the request of his brother K . C ., the President of the Board , succeeded in satisfying Grand Lodge that the decision wtis not only good law , but that Masonic justice had

been done , for on a division being called , the amendment wtis lost by apparently the whole assembly to one . Bro . Lamonby's motion with regard to wearing Grand Lodge clothing of other jurisdictions in Grand Lodge , which the Grand Registrar humorously described as a " Lamonby "

relief bill , wtis negatived by an overwhelming majority . The result of the polling for the office of Grand Treasurer wtis tis follows : —Bro . Horace Brooks Marshall , 1 , 55 8 votes , and Bro . John Barlow , 1 , 213 votes , and Bro . Horace Brooks Marshall was declared duly elected . Grand Lodge was then closed in ample form .

Masonic Bristol.

Masonic Bristol .

DEAR old Bristol , where Harry Esmond landed and with choking voice told of his brother ' s supposed death , and where the Frome and the Avon join hands and wander together down to the channel between banks of browny-black mud , which remind one irresistibly of Rudvard Kipling ' s " slimy , sludgy creek . " This when

the tide is out . But when Father Neptune takes the affair in hand and rolls his silver waves , with their curling frothy spangles , past sleepy little Portishead , under Clifton Bridge , and on to " Bristow , " then the scene is changed ; then , borne on the swelling bosom

of the ocean , comes the commerce of the world , the laden barques rich with merchandise which the careful Bristolian exhtuiges for golden wealth . " It seems to swim on the waters , it has its streets full of ships , " so said Pope , the cynic , and so it appears to-day . Proud , peerless Bristol

you showed us the way to America , when , three hundred years ago , your merchant fathers started the " Matthew " on her voyage and , three months later , welcomed her back with the news that another half had been added to

the world of commerce . De Foe , too , was standing on your quavs when that bold privateer landed with you , the real , genuine Robinson Crusoe , after his years of travail on Juan Fernandez . Yours was the privilege to have seen the first paddle turn when the lirst of first steamships started for America ' s distant shore .

That sparkling little daughter of yours , the " Saucy Arethusa , " that little daughter who Dibdin hymned and who Chamier has storied to us , she was yours from keel to topmast , proud , peerless Bristol . Tyiidale , Cranmer , and Latimer preached themselves hoarse within your walls , and the blood

of the mart } rs has stained your cobble stones ; you have been petted and honoured ; you have been battered and bombarded ; you have seen turmoil and war , peace and plenty ; but you have come up smiling , and you take a lot of beating , dear old Bristol .

For " that peculiar system of morality" with which we tire all familiar , Bristol has done much ; she litis ever been a keen supporter of all appertaining to the Craft , and with that persistent luck which seems to have followed her throughout , she can claim to have been the pet province of that squareheaded old organizer and autocrat Thomas Dunckerley . Not

that he can claim to have been the pioneer of Masonry within her walls , for Bristol can show as ancient a record of work as any city in the United Kingdon ; but when the City and County of Bristol were divided in Masonic jurisdiction from Gloucester and became ti province per se , he was nominated

lirst Prov . G . AI . The old fellow was wondrous pleased with his new honour , and gave most minute instructions to the , then . Grand Secretary as to the wording of his patent and the indexing of his lodge in the Calendar . In this communication he says : — "This

will be very pleasing to the brethren of Bristol and the Isle of Wight , and it will enable me to appoint a great number of blue unci red aprons . Many of the principal gentlemen in these counties are anxious to attend me in Prov . Grand Lodge . " Slv old fellow , he had discovered as far back as 1786 that tt Grand Lodge set of clothing was ti tempting bait indeed to dangle in the face of the ambitious Mason .

In this letter , too , we lincl the numbers of those lodges which went to form his province , they were—155 , 253 , 296 , 359 , 445 , 472 ; to-day with R . W . Bro . W . A . F . Powell in the chair , Bro . Col . Bramble as his deputy , and that ever energetic Mason , Bro . Pierpoint Harris , as Grand Secretary , we find nine lodges—68 , 10 3 , 187 , 326 , 610 , 686 , 1388 , 1404 , 2257 .

The life and adventures of some of the older lodges in this province have been eventful enough . The Royal Clarence , 68 , which to-day heads the list , started its career on November 15 th , 1758 , as a military lodge attached to the nth Regiment of Foot ; its warrant then travelled as far tis Sheffield and

thence from place to place , now up in the world , now down until torn and bedraggled it found a home and a shelter in Bristol , and there it is to-day , famous and honoured . The Moira , 326 , the fourth on its list , is a Londoner of very varied experience . Originally started in Soho under the

title of the Mecklenburgh , she seems to have wandered till over the west-end of London until footsore , and weary , she landed at Croydon ; after a short stay in that suburb—we beg its pardon , borough—somebody took compassion on her , and putting her in his pocket brought her all the way to Bristol ,

where a home was found for her tit the Bush Hotel , and prosperous , too , to-day . Strange were the ways of our forefathers in tlie manner they sometimes dealt with their warrants .

The Jerusalem Lodge , No . 686 , whose present warrant dates only from 1856 , litis failed twice in its career . In 176 9 it was struck off the roll because its warrant had been sold ; while the Jehoshephat Lodge in the year 1797 closes its minute book with the following entry : — "The Lodge not assembling , the warrant wtis sold to a Mr . Brady , and by him opened tit

Walton-under-edge , and since removed to some other place . " A drastic old gentleman wtis Thomas Dunckerley , and one who ruled his province , or rather provinces , for he ruled some four or live , with a " mailed list , " but clothed in velvet

withal . In 1 785 we find him erasing a lodge from his list because one Thomas Tomes had dared to make Master Masons , the poor fellow was provided with a warrant but had failed to complete payment of it , so out he went . Grand Master Dunckerley appears to have had a good deal of

trouble with this same gentleman , since earlier in his correspondence he refers to him in no very complimentary terms . In 1786 , the year in which Bristol wtis launched on her voyage tts a separate province , we find our late RAY . Brother

going in procession to the Church of St . Cuthbert , preceded by a wind baud , and , again in 1794 , he marched in state , with a band in attendance , from Merchant Taylors' Hall to Portman Square , to lay the foundation-stone of St . Paul's Church . Here , in the quaint phrasing of the contemporary newspaper report : — " He made three strokes with Hiram and instructed the architect tts to the use of the tools . "

For a close and careful study of the birth , life , and work of Thomas Dunckerley , and his connection with his pet province , one must turn to the exhaustive work of Bro . Sadler . But under the direction of its present rulers the province is nourishing , and is daily adding to the strength of the grand old Craft . Long may it flourish .