The Threatened Secession From The Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter Of Scotland.—No. Ix.

heing found in rebellion against Grand Chapter , only some fifteen members ofthe Order belonging to three of the six Glasgow Chapters have as yet been found worthy of Masonic censure . So much , then , for the boasted strength and influence of the party who were to lead their followers to victory and supreme Masonic power .

Although the avowed friends , but in reality the worst enemies of the suspended companions , live , both in Glasgow and in the town of Ayr , doing their utmost to produce schism , the rebellion may be said virtually to have been put an end to ; for anything that the handful of disaffected ones can do towards

the attainment of their unconstitutional desires will fall feckless upon the Supreme Chapter ' s position as Head of the Order in Scotland , and be alike impotent in causing to withdraw from her pale any number of companions that could justify the movement being magnified into one of a Masonic secession . The

proximate result of the threatened secession has been the suspension of its ringleaders , —expulsion , in 'the case of some or the whole of these suspended brethren , may he the final result of their ill-advised attempt to lord it over the now famous Chapter , Ayr Elilwinning , No . SO , and to coerce Supreme Chapter

into the homologation of their unrighteous acts . We congratulate the M . E . Grand Z ., Comp . Lord James Murray , aud the other Officers of Supreme Chapter , upon the turn events have taken in regard to the suppression of the rebellion in the west ; and there is much cause also for congratulation ou the continued prosperity of the Order , several new chapters having been recently formed;—but the other day one

was opened in Ayrshire , possessed of numerical strength superior to that of all the other Ayrshire chapters combined , —and one or two other chapters are in course of formation in the same province . The plaint of Comp . Donald Campbell , Past Grand J ., & cappended to Sirpreme Chapter ' s Report

ap-, pearing iu THE MAG-AZIXE of the 10 th , is evidently the production of one who , while sensible of the humiliating position which his indiscretion has caused him to occupy , and wincing under his chastisement , thirsts for revenge . The recollection of his former Masonic greatness must aggravate the feeling of his

present Masonic degradation , although he tries to obtain relief by " clearinrj himself" of a body which to his jauudiced vision has become unworthy of his support ; but we would have had more hope of Bro . Campbell and those who " concur" with him , had they meekly borne their crossinstead of

essay-, ing the justification of their own altogether unjustifiable conduct ; for so long as they exhibit the same obduracy of disposition towards those whose duty it was to cut short their career of Masonic insubordination , there is little chance of their ever being able to resume the honourable position to which some

of them had attained in Royal Arch Masonry . The "Past Pr . G . H . " has , in the " warning" addressed by him to " the companions who may not know the real state of matters , " protested against his suspension as being " illegal , unwarrantable , and unmasonic" Perhapsnotwithstanding his professed aversion to being

, " embroiled in a paper war , " Bro . Donald Campbell may yet be induced to show in what respect it is either " illegal" or " unmasonic" in a supreme body to suspend a subordinate , who not only bv word and act

himself attempts to undermine its legitimate authorit y , but does his best to incite others to throw off the allegiance they , equally with himself , owe to it . In p lace of retaliating , Supreme Chapter in the first instance , and in the most liberal manner , afforded the rebels the opportunity of retracing their steps

and of returning , unclogged by any humiliating conditions , to the bosom of Supreme Chapter , where , iu the words of Comp . Lord Loughborough , " a cordial welcome awaited them ; " but rather than accept the terms offered , they have engaged iu acts of hostility eveu more gross than those previously indulged in . The

charge of " precipitancy , " " unwarrantable conduct , " and so forth , preferred against Supreme Chapter in their treatment of the four disloyal chapters and thirteen rebel companions , comes , we think , with peculiarly bad grace from those who in , in their zeal for their own aggrandisement , hesitated not to violate

the first law and principle of Masonry , viz ., obedience to the constitutional commands of the grand body under whose warrant alone they possessed the privilege of congregating as regular Royal Arch Masons .

We hear nothing of " precipitancy" or " illegality " of action when the books of a subordinate chapter are carried off in a wajr declared unanimously by Grand Chapter to have been as unconstitutional as it was uncalled for ; of nothing " unmasonic" when , " riding on high aud spirited horses , " the Provincial

Grand Chapter of Glasgow make it a sine qua non to the settlement of their differences with Supreme Chapter that Comps . D . Murray Lyon and G-eorge Good be suspended from Royal Arch privileges because of their defence of themselves and their colleagues iu " Kilwinning Ayr , No . 80 , " against the

ungentlemanly aspersions of their " superior officers ;" nothing of " unwarrantable conduct" when the so-called Royal Arch Masons of the West of Scotland meet to concoct and pass certain arbitrary , unjust , and illegal resolutions condemnatory of Supreme Chapter for refusing to administer the laws of the Order in

accordance with the interpretation judged by the rebels themselves to be the most favourable for the furtherance of their designs upon the liberties of the subordinate chapters unfortunately placed within their jurisdiction . Of all these illegal proceedings the rebel chiefs desire to be oblivious ; or , if they are at

all adverted to , they are spoken of as part and parcel of a heroic crusade entered into against the injustice of Supreme Chapter , aud those who have suffered deplumation because of the part they have taken in these proceedings are attempted to be held up as martyrs for the purity and the prosperity of Royal Arch Masonry .

How unfavourable does the conduct of the rebels contrast with that of the venerable companion who was made the scape-goat of a bundle of moral cowards . No sooner did the ex-Provincial Grand Superintendent of the Western District discover that the interpretation put upon certain statutes of the Order by Supreme Chapter did not accord with

his own , and was such that he could not conscientiously acquiesce in , than he at once retired from Grand Chapter , and has ever since abstained from any act that could , by any possibility , be construed into one of an un-Masonic character , or calculated to injure the prosperity of the body of Royal