Red Tape.

RED TAPE .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER U , 1861 .

"We find the following in the Indian Freemasons ' Friend for July : — " OTJH SIR . CHARLES WOOD . "The former Grand Secretary , good old Bro . White , used to allow Scotch and Irish Masons to join in an application for a Craft Warrant or a Eoyal Arch Charterprovided they

, had previously paid the prescribed fees and registered themselves as English Masons . The present Grand Secretary insists upon the exclusion of the names of all but " bona fide English Masons from applications , and has thus thrown a great difficulty in the way of the Officiating Prov . Grand Master . The effect of this rule at Lucknow is to make it almost an impossibility , at present , for the brethren

there to establish the Bamsay Chapter ; and perhaps the same reason may be assigned for the silence of the brethren at Boy Bareilly , in Oude , who were anxious not long ago to form a lodge there . "Another impracticable rule is , that brethren wishing for the revival of an old lodge , must get some of the former members to make the lication . In Indiahowever

app , , especially in out-of-the-way stations , this is often easier said than done . In Cawnpore , for instance , almost all the members of the lodge formerly working at that station were massacred during the mutiny . The Cawnporo brethren , therefore , who lately attempted to revive the lodge , finding it impossible to comply with the requisition of the Grand Secretaryhave at last been obliged to return the local

, Warrant of Dispensation under which they commenced working . It is their intention , however , to apply for a Warrant for anew lodge . " We trust our Prov . Grand Master in England will be able to induce the Grand Secretary to rescind the rule requiring that none but Masons originally entered in the English Eegister shall sign applications for Warrants or Charters . "

Though we are aware that Bro . Grey Clarke is a strict stickler for routine , we can scarcely believe that he has laid down any such rule as that referred to , in the above extract , with regard to applications far new lodges , and every attendant at Grand Chapter must he

convinced that it does not apply to new Chapterwarrants or charters , they being continually granted to companions hailing from other jurisdictions than that of England , subject only to this being duly registered in the books of Grand Chapter . "Whether the rule alluded to does exist with regard to

the granting of warrants to new lodges we cannot say , owing to the manner in which lodges and chapters are constituted , presenting a rather curious anomal y , seeing that we are taught that there are but three degrees , including the Eoyal Arch , and that the Eoyal Arch is only the completion of the Master Mason ' s degree .

Every application for a warrant for a new lodge " must be by petition of at least seven regularly registered Masons ; " and upon this it is that we suppose the difficulty would arise , and " transmitted to the Grand Secretary , unless there he a Prov . Grand Master of the district or province in which the [ lodge is proposed to

he holden , in which case it is first to be sent to him or to his deputy who is to forward it with his recommendation or opinion thereonforthe Grand Master " —whose province alone it is to grant warrants for new lodges . This is the law , though , so far as distant

provinces ai'e concerned , in Australia or India for instance , it is constantly evaded by the Prov . Grand Master granting dispensations for new lodges pending an application for a warrant , though under the Booh of Constitutions they have no power of doing so—that power onlyexisting "if the prayer of the petition be granted , " when

it may be exercised " until a warrant of constitution shall be signed by the Grand Master . " If the Grand Secretary or Grand Master—for we can scarcely suppose the Grand Secretary would reverse a- rule adopted hy such an authority as Bro . White without consulting the Grand Master—has laid down the rule that the " seven

regularly registered Masons " must all he registered in the Books of the Grand Lodge of England , though they may be acting in the strict letter of the law , we do not think that it is either judicious or in the spirit of the law . Situated as our colonies are , there are naturally to be found men from all sections of the United Kingdom —•

England , Scotland , and Ireland—and if they he registered as Masons in the Grand Lodge books of either of those eoimtries—a fact to he proved hy their certificatesthat should he deemed to be sufficient when applying for a warrant for a new lodge , subject to their ; registration in the books of the Grand Lodge of

England , which they would naturally he , so soon as the new warrant was granted—the only difference being in the amount of fees chargeable on its being delivered to the petitioners . To adopt any other course than that here laid down is only to drive the "brethren , away from the Grand Lodge of England , and place them under the

authority of the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland , who are more cosmopolitan in their practice , and not quite such slaves to red tape as are the authorities of Great Queen-street .

But irrespective of all other considerations , the practice of Lodge and Chapter ought to assimilate , though in the Eoyal Arch the warrants or charters are issued ! hy the Grand Chapter , and not hy the Grand Z . or Master . In the Constitutions it is equally laid down that

the application must be signed by " nine regular and registered Eoyal Arch Masons , - " and the petition before being presented to Grand Chapter , has to go before the General Committee whose province alone it is to determine on the regularity of the form—and if the Grand Secretary has rejected any such petition without

consulting the committee , as the extract from the Indian Freemasons' Friend would seem to imply with , regard to the Bamsay Chapter , he has far exceeded his duty ; but here we believe our contemporary must be in error , it not being the practice of the Committee or Grand Chapter to require that the whole of the petitioners

shall he registered in the books of the Grand Chapter of England at the time of petitioning for the charter , but only prior to their receiving it ; and the charter to Chapter 1059 , Bombay , was so granted in November , 1859 ; and , a priori , what was done for the "Western Chapter of India may also he done for the Eamsa } Chapter of India .