Grand Lodge.

These were plain and intelligible grounds on ivhich to base tho resolution , and such as ive had foreseen must at some time be brought before Grand Lodge ; as wiil be proved by a reference to our number of June 23 rd , 1858 , where , after expressing our concurrence iu the increase of salary granted to Bro . Farnfield ( though as a rule we disapproved of Grand Lodge taking the details of financial

arrangements into its own hands ) Ave wrote : —• ¦ One thing is HOAV clear , the Board of General Purposes must reconsider the Avhole question of remuneration in the Grand Secretary ' s office ; for it certainly will be a most curious anomaly for the superior officer to be paid less , or even as little as his assistant Should the Grand Secretary ' s salary be raised , another question Avill arise—one ivhich cannot be passed over in

silence . Three Officers will havo had their salaries raised ; the fourth may fairly ask are not his claims to be considered also 1 " In the words we have italicised lay the whole gist of the questionand not only did we then prepare the brethren for the early consideration ofthe question of Thursday last , but it is clear from the speech ivhich Bro . Whitmore made at the Special Grand Lodgeon June

, 16 th , 18-58 , in moving tho addition to Bra Farnfield ' s- salary , that ho also foresaw , if his motion ivas carried , that of Thursday last ivould folloAV as a natural sequence—for ho then said , in explaining the reasons Avhich might be urged against tho vote ,

" One ivas , that should they agree to the vote , " the Assistant Secretary ' s salary ivould be greater than that of the Secretary ; but the question they had to consider ivas . not how much the Secretary received , but what the Assistant Secretary deserved . " On the motion for increasing the Grand Secretary ' s salary on Thursday last being put , Bro . Stebbing opposed it on the ground that

the Grand Secretary had been but recently appointed ; that the late Grand Secretary and the present Assistant Grand Secretary did not get their salaries increased until after having been many years in office , and then not in consequence of increased duties , but for many years of continued and zealous services . But what said Bro , Whitmore upon this point last year ?

" It ivould be ivell to consider what had been the past and ivhat were the present duties of Bro . Farnfield . He held in his hands a table which showed that within the last twelve years tho business of Grand Lodge , in the mere registration of those AVIIO joined either particular Lodges or Masonry in general , had increased threefold , and there ivas , of course , a corrcspondm" - increase in the accounts of Grand Lodge ; and although Bro . Farnfield had for many years kept the cashbookno one could ei'er say that he had kept

, a farthing ofthe cash . Another circumstance , ivhich had tended to increase the business of the Grand Secretary ' s office , ivas the interest in Masonic affairs ivhich the Freemasons' Magazine had created among the Brethren generally and which had led to a vast deal of correspondence between the country and colonial Lodges and the Grand Lodge . "

It is true that he added thafc ifc ivas not so much for the present as for the past services of Bro . Farnfield that he asked for the increase 4 E 3