Meeting Of Grand Lodge.

MEETING OF GRAND LODGE .

IN the absence of tho Grand Master , Pro Grand Master , and Depnty Grand Master , General Brownrigg , C . B ., Provincial Grand Master of Surrey , presided at tho Quarterly Communication on "Wednesday . Among those present wero Bros . Sir Harcourt Johnstone , Bart ., M . P ., Grand Junior Warden , Capt . Piatt P . G . W ., M . Mclntyre

Grand Registrar , John Hervey Grand Secretary , Rev . W . A . Hill and Rev . R . A . Pickard Grand Chaplains , John Havers Past G . W ., J . C . Parkinson P . G . D ., Dr . Jabez Hogg P . G . D ., John Clabon P . G . D ., Rev . J . S . Brownrigg , Rev . R . J . Simpson Past Grand Chaplain , Rev . C . J .

Martyn Past G . Chaplain and Deputy Prov . G . Master Suffolk , S . Rawson Past Disfc . G . Master China , Sir Albert Woods ( Garter ") Grand Dir . of Ceremonies , Rev . S . R . Wigram P . G . Chaplain , & c , & c , & c . Grand Lodge having been opened with customary formalities , fche minutes of the last Communication were confirmed . Two resolutions

of the Grand Master , rendered necessary in order to give effect to certain changes agreed to at the last meeting , were then submitted . It will be remembered that a

resolnwas passed by which it was agreed that Grand Lodge should open a Banking- Account afc tho Bank of England , and tho present motion was to repeal Articles 2 and 3 , p 35 of the Constitutions , and substitute for them a resolution

to the effect thafc all Grand Lodge monies should be deposited in the Bank of England in the names of the Grand Master or Pro Grand Master , the Deputy Grand Master , and Grand Treasurer ; thafc the duties of the G . Treasurer should include a general supervision of the accounts , the

signature of all cheques—which must be countersigned by the Grand Secretary — and assisting the Trustees and Executive in the administration of the funds ; and that the accounts should be annually audited by tho professional auditor to be appointed pursuant to Grand Lodge

Resolution of 23 rd June 1859 . The resolutions were accepted unanimously . The Reports of the Board of Benevolence and Board of General Purposes , the former recommending the grants published in our columns last week , ancl the latter submitting the measures it had been deemed proper

to adopt relative to the erroneous return of votes at the last Communication were agreed to unanimously . What other business , including the alteration of " pounds " into

" guineas in certain Laws and Regulations of the R . M . B . I ., was rendered necessary by the action of the Special General Meeting of the Governors of that Institution , having been disposed of , the Lodge was closed .

So much for the business transacted , bufc a few comments on the Report of the Board of General Purposes , albeit we have noticed the subject matter before , would seem to call for some remarks . Happily , it seldom falls to the lot of Grand Lodge to take cognizance of an offence of this

despicable character , and it is for this reason probably that the Board passed so very lenient a sentence on the incriminated Brother . Let us note somewhat circumstantially the case as it was set forth in our columns last week . It was , to begin with , one of sufficient importance to arrest

the attention of the Pro Grand Master , and thafc immediately ; and his Lordship forthwith ordered a special inquiry to be made . In one of the Scrutineers' Papers ,

which was identified by Bro . Joseph Smith , Past Grand Pursuivant , and Bro . "William Hilton P . M . 780 , as theirs , the votes cast for a certain Brother were recorded as amounting to 113 , whereas , on an examination of the whole of . the voting ' papers , they proved to be only a total of 59 .

Meeting Of Grand Lodge.

This discrepancy , ifc was pointed out , could nofc possibly have happened through any largo number of voting papers being missing , as there wero 404 members who attended Grand Lodge , and 374 voting pipers were given in , and are still in the hands of the Grand Secretary . Thus it was

impossible to account for the amazing discrepancy . There was a difference of 54 between the number recorded and the number cast . The loss of voting papers , and what further explanation was attempted by Bro . Joseph Smith , was , as might have been expected , entirely unsatisfactory . The

consequence was , that , at a second meetingspecially convened for the purpose , tho Board unanimously found thafc Bro . Joseph Smith had knowingly misrepresented the votes on the balloting papers examined by him ; that the return he had made to Grand Lodge , as Chairman of Scrntineors ^ was

false , and Bro . Smith knew ifc to be false . This being the case , sentence of two years' suspension from all his Masonio functions and privileges was unanimously passed on Bro . Joseph Smith , while Bro . Hilton , who had acted , but nofc in complicity with Bro . Smith , was admonished for

negligence in tho discharge of his duty . The vote of Wednesday , endorsing the Eeporfc of the Board of General Purposes , brought to an end the first , and lefc us hope the last , acfc also of a most discreditable episode in the Masonic history

of the day . It is difficult to form anything like an accurate idea of the mind which can be guilty of a crime which is at once so enormous and yet so despicable . The falsification of a return is about the grossest form of lie which can be uttered . Ifc is not the result of fear , as in the case

of a man who tells a lie to save himself a thrashing , or to avoid certain other consequences which terrify him . It is uttered deliberately , and in this case mosfc deliberately . The initial error of mistaking 113 for 59 was deliberate , and the return to Grand Lodge which contained this

glaring inaccuracy was essentially still more so . Now , the man who did this could not possibly have in him anything approaching to a sense of honour , or else the received idea of what constitutes honour is the reverse of just . In this case , it would follow , naturally , thafc he should be

excluded from a society which is nothing if it is nofc honourable . Some among us may have a regard for jewels , and think him the best man who carries on his breast a trayful of insignia ; others may occasionally be unmindful of their duties ; in short , we all may be guilty

of those shortcomings which it is the fate of men , being simply mortals , not angels , to commit . But the falsification of a return is something so utterly low , and the man who makes it , acting as he must do with such marked deliberation , is so essentially a low order of mind , thafc his

exclusion from our Society , for a time at least , if nofc for all time , is absolutely necessary . The Board have taken the more lenient view , and defined the period of his suspension , in the hope , no doubt , that , in that time Bro . Smith will havo been enabled to raise his mind from the

abyss of lowness into which it had sunk . Should he not , however , have succeeded in doing so when the two years have expired , or should there be the slightest doubt about his success , we trust he will take a hint from good Dr . Oliver , who remarks of definite suspension that " ifc

frequently assumes the character of a milder phasis of expulsion , for the suspended brother very seldom renews his connection with the Craft , although his readmission could be effected , as a matter of course , without ceremony or inquiry . "