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will advance , in proportion as the interest of any one Clique will diminish . The present plan has been tried and has failed . It is for the Craft to apply a remedy . We again refer our readers to the Book of Constitutions , p . 23 , § . 14 , a passage which , though for their own interest , " Grand Lodge" seems heartily to dislike—a passage which we shall never tire of quoting .

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THE Brethren of the Province of Hampshire are getting troublesome , and must he snubbed . They are actually of opinion that their Provincial Grand Lodge is constituted for other purposes besides drinking healths , and uttering stereotyped compliments . Even

so respectable a functionary as the Mayor of Portsmouth seems to have become infected with the epidemic , and in place of confining himself to the regulation of harbour dues and bum-boats , has presumed to be of opinion that the Provinces are not properly represented in Grand Lodge . We may expect to hear next that the perpetual

re-election of the same GBAND MASTKR is injurious to the Craft , as discouraging other noblemen from interesting themselves in its affairs . In short we may expect to hear anything from persons so extremely ignorant of antient and modern landmarks . For does not every one know that just as the stability of the Order depends upon our always having a Whig G . M ., so that keystone of the Masonic arch rests upon the foundation of a

monopoly of power by the London Brethren ? And no one surely who loves our Society can object to such an equal division of labour , as the Provincials pa . ying the taxes , and the Londoners spending them . What can be so unreasonable as for the Provinces to wish to have a voice in the appointment of the Board of General Purposes , when the GRAND REGISTRAR has been so kind

as to take all the trouble of such an invidious task off their hands ? Why , if the Board w ere elected by voting papers , so that Loudon and the country were put upon an equality , we should , perhaps , have a large proportion of them returned from the Provinces ; and they might be instructed to object to that liberal and generous

distribution of their funds in all directions , which exemplifies the diffusive character of Masonry , and refutes the vulgar notion that it is mainly a charitable institution . And then BRO . HAVEKS would be unable to reward his friends with annuities after a year ' s service , which it took other people thirty years hard work to obtain- ^ and

then Grand Lodge would come in time , perhaps , to represent England , in place of London—and then we should have no more cliques . And then , of course , must come the deluge . So that we hope nobody will ever attempt to disturb the status quo any more . But if their attendance at Grand Lodge , costs them as many pounds as it does pence to the Londoners , why it only gives them an opportunity of showing their zeal for

Masonry . And if they stay at home m consequence , why then they show their sense , and their zeal for their own firesides at the same time , and we are sure their wives will be pleased , and the Londoners will be pleased , and the Executive will be pleased , and every body will be pleased , except , perhaps , BROS . STEBBING , and PORTAL , and SHEURT , and such like , who have antiquated notions about fairness and the Constitutions , and whom , therefore , it is hopeless to please .

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ONE undoubted advantage attending a quarterly publication like our own is that , though its views of Masonic piolicy must be patiently entertained for so long under the heavy file firing from the Executive in G . L ., and the hebdomadal skirmishing of their subsidized organ , the few remarks which it is our duty to

offer to our readers from time to time are accredited to their notice as the expression of matured opinion , and are entitled to that consideration which may fairly be claimed by honest deductions from carefully digested premises . It is not without unhesitating conviction that we

dissent from the policy of the resolution passed in June by a large majority in G . L ., on the recommendation of the Board of General Purposes , to increase the salary of the GRAND SECRETARY . We will , as requested , assume Bro . GRAT CLARKE to be an accomplished

gentleman . The incubus of epistolary duties is said to be heavy upon him . In the discharge of this function he is certainly not wedded with the devotion of a bigot to the style of Lord CHESTERFIELD , but would seem , from the published specimens of his art , to affect rather the

school of JUNIUS , and this was evidently felt by Bro . HARINGTON , the talented and zealous Masonic Reformer of Canada , in the important correspondence which has been perused by all who are interested in the welfare of our Order in foreign parts . " As regards myself , ' ' writes Bro . HARINGTON , " your letter is very personal . " Doubtless it was intended to be so . " The M . W . the

GRAND MASTER , " he continues , " is more likely to perpetuate disunion than to banish discord b y instructing the GRAND SECRETARY to adopt the extraordinary tone of your last letter . " Till the humiliating confession made by Bro . Lord PANMURE at the Special Meeting of G . L . in June we had thought Bro . HARINGTON in error

as to the author of the insults to which he was subjected . But the D . G . M . then said that , " though the letters were penned by the G . SECRETARY , they were letters written by desire of the G . M ., letters of which the G . M . was substantially the author , and of which the D . G . M . also was cognizant . " Of this new Patent Official Automaton Scribe we could not have imagined a Fox MAULE the motive power : nor , when the oracle in its utterance ignored the simple elements of courtesy ,