Grand Lodge.

that we have not administered it during the last three years ? ( Hear , hear . ) You have , as usual , locked the door when the horse has gone , and I think you may well take the horse ' s opinion as to how he is to be got into a stable again . But it is , I repeat , hardly fair to press this matter forward , and then say that it is we who want to force a discussion upon it . We do not ask G . L . to adopt the report ; all we call upon them to do is to receive it , and enter it upon the minutes as usual ; but as Bro . Havers has raised the question of the whole report , or a part of it , I have nothing to do

but to ask you to adopt it in its entirety , for if you now shrink from giving your judgment upon the facts which are contained in the papers now before you , and which our report does nothing else but faithfully embody ; you may indeed be paying a graceful compliment to the executive , but you will go far to abdicate your own functions as a governing body . I move , my lord , as an amendment , that the whole report be adopted . W . Bro . WILKINSON seconded the amendment . W . Bro . J . HERVEYP . G . D . wished to say one word explanatory

, , of the position in which the Colonial Board at present stood . There was no member of that Board but entertained the highest respect for the G . M ., and was convinced that he was desirous to shape his course in the direction most beneficial to the order . ( Hear , hear . ) With regard to the report , he was quite sure that the worthy Bro . who drew it up did so with the conviction , that by their agreeing to it , they would confer a benefit on the Craft , and carry out the object for which they had been constituted a Board . ( Hear , hear . ) There was however in that report one point on

which he did not agree with the majority of the Board . Ho did regret that it should have stated that they were to expect their instructions from Canada ; but he did deny that it had been framed in any feeling of disrespect to Grand Lodge , or G . M ., or out of a desire of dictatorial interference with either of them . He was not quite satisfied that the constitutions did give them a power of expressing an opinion upon the matters submitted to thein , prima facie , but if that opinion was not expressed , the question might bo delayed for three , or even for six months . It would , for instance , come before the Grand Lodge on that night , and be referred back to the Colonial Board : the Board would give in their report in December , and the decision would be arrived at in March . ( Hear , hear . ) Without at all wishing that the Board should dictate to

G . L ., it would , he thought , be well that they should have the power of expressing their opinion to G . L . ( Hear , hear . ) It would then be for Grand Lodge to adopt that opinion , or not , just as it might please . The Colonial Board stood in a different position from the Board of General Purposes . If any matter for inquiry took place in any part of England , an answer to any letter sent there could be received in twenty-four hours , but if they had to write to India , to Jamaica , or to Australia , they would have to wait weeks and months before they could get a reply . He had before stated that he had

signed the report as a mere ministerial act , but although that was the case , he would say , those who drew it up were not imbued with any spirit of insubordination , but were ready to pay that respect to the G . M . to which he was so justly entitled . ( Hear , hear . ) V . W . Bro . HENDERSON , G . R ., remarked , that no one had said or thought that any member of the Colonial Board wished to treat the G . M . with disrespect . On the contrary , Bro . Havers had most guardedly and properly said , that he acquitted whoever drew up

the report from any such feeling . ( Ironical cries of hear , hear . ) The question was altogether one of discipline . The Colonial Board was completely a ministerial body , and as such was not entitled either to pronounce a decision , or to express an opinion , those being functions reserved to Grand Lodge itself . W . Bro . MASON thought the G . M . might well cry out , " Save me from my friends . " ( Hear , hear . ) There was in the report no insinuation that there was anything wanting on his part towards the restoration of harmony between the G . L . and the Canadian

Masons ; but the moment the report was read , up started a zealous Br . to talk of the G . M . ' s errors and shortcomings . ( Hear , hear . ) He could not but consider that to be a very injudicious course on the part of any friend of the G . M . ; and all there were his friends . ( Hear , hear . ) There had no doubt been shortcomings ; but as the order was founded upon the principles of brotherly love , relief , and truth , they were not , by observing one of these principles , to lose sight of the other two . They were not , because of their brotherly loveto lose sight of truth ; and they wore equally bound to afford

, relief to those who required it at their hands . But , departing from that point , lie considered that the Colonial Board required very little vindication for a determination to do their duty . The papers were sent to them by G . L . for consideration : they were referred to them surely for some purpose—it could not be for nothing ; and as men of business thev did something , and told Grand Lodge where

the mistake lay . Should they now bo blamed for doing that ? He did not believe that Grand Lodge would say , that , because they had taken that course , they had exceeded their powers . ( Hear , hear . ) The Board was constituted for the sake of saving the time of Grand Lodge ; and what was more proper than that G . L . should hear their opinions ? ( Hear , hoar . ) The proposition of Bro . Havers was , he considered , a most injudicious one , and they would do wrong to the Colonial Board if they were now hurry-scurry to reject their report . ( Hearhear . )

, W . Bro . WARREN , as a matter of order , wished to know if it was right that one Bro . ( Bro . Hervey ) should have been furnished with a copy of the report , and thus placed in a better position than the other brethren , not one of whom had a copy , and could only rely upon their memory in hearing it read . ( Hear , hear . ) The D . G . M . did not consider it at all a question of order . If the worthy Bro . had a charge to bring against any officer of the Lodge for furnishing the document in questionhe miht do sobut the

, g ; abstract question was not one of order . W . Bro . WARREN said his object was to know if he or any other Bro . might go before the opening of Grand Lodge to the Grand Secretary's office and get a copy . The D . G . M . —Clearly the worthy Bro . can go to the G . See . ' s office and ask for any document he pleases . It may be granted or it may be refused . But if he can shew that it was refused to him and granted to another , he will then have a just ground of

complaint . Before I put the motion , I will make one or two observations in reference to it . I am certainly of opinion that the paragraphs which are moved not to be admitted on the minutes , are paragraphs which do not affect the subject ; and I am distinctly of opinion that they tend to revive old sores , and refer to matters which , so far as I could understand what took place in March last , were agreed to be forgotten . . The G . M . frankly and handsomely admitted that he was not free from blameand presented for the

, adoption of the Canadian Brethren an ultimatum , which he considered a sufficient purgative of past errors and shortcomings . The G . M . having done that—not in a corner—not upstairs in his own room—but in the face of Grand Lodge and of the Craft , there can be no excuse for again referring to the errors which were so candidly acknowledged . Now I distinctly state , that paragraph No . 3 is merely a repetition of those charges which were made in March

last , and there met in a maimer most satisfactory to G . L . I can conceive no conduct more ungenerous on the part of any body of men , but especially of Masons , than to adopt a resolution which no doubt goes back to former times , and condemns former conduct . With regard to the whole of these paragraphs , I will say that they contain expressions of opinion for which we did not ask the Colonial Board . Bro . Portal says the report ought to be entered on the minutes without being adopted ; but that I consider a very puerile distinction . There it would stand whether adopted or

notrecord-, ing that certain acts which Grand Lodge passed over ought to be condemned , and that too at a period when it is well known that it is impossible to stay the hand of secession in Canada . But I am not quite so sure that the act of the Canadian brethren is entirely owing to the conduct of the Grand Lodge of England . I see it recorded that " owing to the rapidly increasing influence of the irregular Grand Lodge , as well as from other internal causes , the P . G . L . has been placed in a position of great difficulty . " Now I believe there

has been for a long time a desire among a minority of the Canadian brethren to set up an independent Grand Lodge for themselves . A small minority of them did so , and it having been recognised by the Grand Lodge of Ireland , became the nucleus of all those discontented with the Grand Lodge of England . My conviction is , that when the truth comes to be sifted , it will be found that the neglect of the Grand Lodge of England has been made the stalking horse for their throwing off their allegiance to it . But the on

paper goes still further , and in paragraph No . 5 invites us to do all in our power to allay the distrust of Grand Lodge , which exists among Canadian Masons , and to prevent the separation which it is now impossible to prevent . We are also told that the P . G L . of Canada will in due time point out to us the steps we are to take . That , however is not the position in which we stand to the P . G . L . of Canada . We have sent out to the Brethren in Canada a propositionwhich the Colonial Board admits to bo both le and

suffi-, amp cient , and to give no excuse to the Canadian brethren . Why should this proposition not be as sufficient , when received in April ' or Mav last , as if it had arrived in Canada at an earlier date ? Simply because the determination had been taken to separate , and any concession which could make them would bo unavailing to upset that determination . Therefore , Brethren , I do think that the Colonial Board , in signing this report , has gone beyond its province . I mav doubtless take a wrong view of their duty ; but I take it that the