The Rights Of Visitors And Masonic Trials.

THE RIGHTS OF VISITORS AND MASONIC TRIALS .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 19 , 1863 .

The subject of the rights of visitors was brought up at the last Grand Lodge under two views , one on complaint to the Board of General Purposes by a brother who was not admitted to visit a lodge without what he considered an improper test , and

the other on an appeal from a decision of the Piwincial Grand Master of Quebec , to the effect that visitors had not the right to be present at Masonic trials ;—a decision Avhich Grand Loclge , at the instance of the Grand Registrar , reversed , in

opposition to the general ruling throughout the Masonic world—we speak not of one Grand Lodge—that visitors have not the right to be present at Masonic trials . In the first case , the Board of General Purposes

report : — " A complaint was preferred by Bro . L . J . Levisohn , of tbe Old Concord Lodge ( No . 172 , late No . 201 ) , London , against the Lodge of Fidelity ( No . 230 , late No . 280 ) , Devonport , for refusing him admittance as a visitorbecause he objected to take an obligation

, thathe had been regularly admitted into Masonry , was a subscribing member of his lodge , and had not been expelled from any lodge . It appeared from the explanation furnished by the AV . M . of the Lodge of Fidelity , that Bro . Levisohn not being known or vouched for bad been required to pledge himself that

he was the person named in the Grand Lodge certificate which he produced , that he had not been expelled from the Order , and was not under Masonic censure . That this practice had been followed hy the lodge for many years , and had never before been objected to , and from circumstances stated by the \ V . M . not

having reference to the case in question , appeared to be very necessary as regards visitors not known or vouched for . The Board , after consideration of all the circumstances of the case , resolved that the explanation was satisfactory , and commended the caution which the lodge appears to exercise in the admission of visitors . "

We only Avonder that , in a case of this kind , the Lodge of Fidelity was even called upon for an explanation , —the only law regulating the admission of visitors being : "No visitor shall be admitted into a lodge unless he be personally knoAvn ,

recommended , or Avell vouched for after due examination by one of the brethren present " and though there is no law , under the English Constitutions , requiring a visitor to shoAv that he has not been excluded from his lodge , Ave think the brethren of a lodge have a full ri ght to ask for somo explanation or declaration from a

stranger seeking admission , and so it has been held in all times . Formerly , all visitors unknoAvn to the Tyler or not formally introduced were treated as coAvans , and were not even subjected to examination until they had taken an

obligation that they were regular made Masons , and had not been expelled or deprived of their Masonic rights;—indeed , this obligation is still required in America , and generally on the Continent . That obligation there is no harm in

printing , as it is intended to be given to any one presenting himself at a Masonic lodge , without regard to his being a Mason or not ; and we therefore copy it from Mackey's "Masonic Jurisprudence , " AA'here it stands exactly the same as in Oliver : —

"I , A . B ., do hereby and hereon solemnly and sincerely swear , that I have been regularly initiated , passed and raised , to the sublime degree of a Master Mason , in a just and legally constituted lodge of such ; that I do not now stand suspended or expelled ; aud know of no reason why I should not hold Masonic communication with my brethren . "

' And Mackey proceeds to say : — "This declaration having been confirmed in the most solemn manner , the examination is then commenced with the necessary forms . The ritualistic landmark requires that these forms must be conducted in such a manner as to constitute what is technicall

y called a " strict trial . " No question must be omitted that should have been asked , and no answer received unless strictly and categorically correct . The rigour and severity of the rules and forms of a Masonic examination must never be weakened by undue partiality or umjustifiable delicacy . The honour and safety

of the institution are to be paramount to every other consideration ; and the Masonic maxim is never to be forgotten , that " it is better that ninety and nine true meu should , by over strictness , be turned away from the door of a lodge , than that one cowan should , through the carelessness of an examining committee , be admitted . "

What ai-e the regulations 'in Scotland with regard to visitors we are not aAvare , though the writer of this notice is a member of a Scotch lodge , —the "Book of Constitutions" being , so far as Ave can find , silent on the subject ; but in

Ireland , on visiting a lodge in Dublin , Ave Avere called upon to take an obligation far more stringent than that Ave have quoted above , it being distinctly laid down that , though lodges are as a right open to visitors during the hours of labour ,

that"Any lodge admitting a person to he present at any of its meetings who is not properly qualified by initiation iu a regular lodge , or who is disqualified by being suspended or excluded , violates the principles