Grand Lodge.

appointed the Secretary of the Lodge was another question ; but he held a letter in his hand from that brother , stating that he held the charter and regalia , and declining to give it up . He therefore would now move that the suspension of Bro . Heward be confirmed . Bro . Roxburgh , G . Reg ., seconded the resolution , thinking it most important for the interest of Masonry that the

authority of the Board should be upheld . Bro . the Rev . G . R . Portal said there could not be two opinions with regard to the justice of suspending Bro . Heward ; but he objected to the present motion upon two technical points . In the first place , he did not see the necessity of the motion at all , as all that the Board of General Purposes had to doaccording to the Book of

, Constitutions , p . 101 , was to report that they had suspended a brother ; and Grand Lodge was not called upon to express any opinion upon the subject unless an appeal was made against the decision of the Board . In the second place it was laid down at p . 45 , that all subjects of Masonic complaint against Lodges or individual brethren were to be heard and determined by the Prov . Grand Master or his deputy , and it

was not shown why this case had been allowed to came to London , whilst the Prov . or D . Prov . Grand Master might much more easily have arranged it on the spot . Bro . Savage , S . G . D ., fully concurred with the last brother that the suspension was justified , and was of opinion that Grand Lodge ought not to be called upon to express an inion unless an appeal was lodged against the suspension as

op laid down at p . 100 of the Book of Constitutions . Bro . Spiers , P . G . S . B ., stated that in a case which occurred in his province no report even of a suspension of a brother was made to Grand Lodge . Bro . Stebbiug was of opinion that this subject ought never to have been brought before Grand Lodge or the Board of

General Purposes at all . It ought to have been adjudicated upon hy the Prov . Grand Master or his deputy , when probably local interest might have been brought to bear upon the brother , and led to a conclusion which might have rendered the suspension altogether unnecessary . A great deal might be done through the influence of neighbours and friends which could not be effected through the Board of

General Purposes . Some further discussion ensued in which Bros . Gregory , Mason , Adlard , and Symonds , took part , and in which it was shown that the complaint was laid before the Board of General Purposes by the D . Prov . Grand Master , who had failed in inducing Bro . Heward to surrender the charter of the Lod .

ge Bro . the Rev . J . S . Sidebotham moved that the matter be referred back to the Provincial Grand Master of Sussex . Bro . Havers briefly replied , and contended that it had always been the practice , or ought to have been , to take the opinion of Grand Lodge relative to the suspension of a brother , and no such power should be allowed to exist in any but the supreme body . The Board of General Purposes had

not , or ought not to have , the power of suspending a brother without the confirmation of Grand Lodge ; and even if there not many precedents for the course now proposed to be taken , he would call upon Grand Lodge to make a precedent for-the future , and thereby prevent the supremo power being exercised by other than themselves . With regard to what had been stated relative to the Provincial Grand Masterit

, was not until the Deputy Provincial Grand Master had done his best to secure the charter of the Lodge for the brethren , that he had remitted it to the consideration of the Board of General Purposes , whose power to deal with it could not be questioned . The resolution was then put and carried .

THE HALL . The President of the Board of General Purposes would , as an introduction to his next motion , read a paragraph from the report of the Board : " The Board further report that they have received an application from Messrs . Elkington and Co ., the lessees of the tavern , requesting the grant of a sum of to he expended in repairs of the great hall

money , ; that they have caused inquiry to be made under the authority of the Grand Superintendent of Works , who reports that the repairs necessary may be completed for a sum not exceeding £ 275 , and that competent persons are ready to undertake the work . The Board , therefore recommend that the sanction of Grand Lodge be given out for such outlay . " He might mention that their house had cost them a large sum in repairs

—iii ten years grants having been made for the purpose to the extent of £ 1 , 500 . It has been proposed by Messrs . Elkington and Co . that a grant of £ 500 or £ 700 should be made for repairing the hall . The question has been referred to the Grand Superintendent of Works , who had reported that the necessary repairs might be made for £ 275 . He believed that the tenants were satisfied with what was proposed to be done , and he , therefore , moved that the sum be granted . Bro . W . Pulteney Scott seconded the motion .

Bro . Masterman thought that the lessees ought to repair the house themselves . Were they not bound to do so under the lease ? Bro . Havers : They were not . Bro . Masterman : Then they ought to be . The lessees got the benefit of the house , and the Craft had the benefit of paying for the repairs , which was no benefit at all . (

Laughter . ) Bro . Stebbing rose to oppose the motion , as he thought it most ridiculous to expend £ 275 on the repairs of the hall , when they were on the eve of a discussion with regard to the future arrangement of the premises ; which might make those repairs perfectly useless . He looked upon this as a most reckless expenditure of £ 275 , abstracted from charity .

( Cries of "No , no . " ) He maintained that it was so ; for though the money was not avowedly subscribed for that purpose , whenever they had a surplus of money they transferred it to the funds of one of their charities . ( Hear . ) He thought on the eve of making alterations in their property , the expenditure most inopportune , and that the utmost they should be called upon to do before the whole question was taken into consideration should be to keep out wind and water . ( Hear , hear . ) The resolution was then put and carried .

THE ORGANS . The President of the Board of General Purposes had next to bring forward a resolution , which he believed was to be opposed by one of his earliest friends . It was a question of which neither himself nor any member of the Board of General Purposes had the slightest personal interest , nor could have . It related to the organs . They had received from the Grand

Organist an opinion that the present organs were perfectly useless , that he was opposed to all expenditure upon them . The Board had come to the conclusion to recommend that they should be repaired at an expenditure of £ 70 , but they had not done so without the fullest consideration . He held in his hand a report from Mr . Bates—he believed he ought to Bro . Batesfor he was a hihl

say , gy esteemed member of the Order—the organ builder , of Ludgatehill , which stated that not only could he put them into serviceable repair , but that if properly looked to from year to year they would last for twenty-five years . He took the opinion of that gentleman as that of an upright man , and he