Brothers' Law.

law . Brethren must have been more easily governed than now , more obedient , more accessible to reason , more easily entreated . And yet in some important respects Freemasonry was more complex then than now . The brethren

were not simply obedient to the moral law , to the symbology of the Craft , but they were actual architects and builders , enjoying exemption , more or less , from the general laws , and subjection in lieu thereof to the brothers' law . At this distance of time it might appear that our system

should be the simpler one , aud theirs the moro involved ; but facts prove the reality to be otherwise . The explanation is this : —The body of their law then was unwritten law . This was traditional . It was not contained in any manuscripts or books . It was understood generally

by the Craft , and pronounced on occasion by the Master or Grand Master . When pronounced it was implicitly obeyed . Brethren had not then learned to refine and distinguish , to cavil and appeal . The ruling Masons were wise Masons , and the subject Masons were obedient Masons . They did nofc split hairs , nor quibble over the meaning of a plain regulation . They did not quote Latin to explain English . They simply accepted the unwritten law as it

was decided , and the written law they construed in its natural sense , untortured by scholastic or legal technicalities . Happy men were our ancient brethren—that is , they appear to us now to have been happy—but distance may " lend enchantment to the view , " and possibly they would have exchanged places with us , if they could . Our

work is child ' s play to theirs—our labour an evening ' s entertainment . We meet and greet ; we open and close ; we enter , pass , and raise ; we decide , and appeal sometimes from decisions ; and after all is over we surround

the festive board , rest our weary limbs under the mahogany , set our stomachs to labour , and our voices too , and finally , when Low Twelve is about to strike , retire to the seclusion of our homes .

Such is modern Masonry ; and yet how much law is required to govern it ! There is the Book of Constitutions , which is always being tinkered at and amended ; there are

the decisions of Grand Masters , numerous in proportion to the ambition of the brethren occupying King Solomon ' s snnt to distinguish themselves as great Masonic judges , voluminous declarers of the unwritten law . It would seem that

by and by Masonic law , like profane law , will need to be codified . In some jurisdictions the decisions of Grand Masters already fill a good-sized volume . It is about time to consider whether it is not wise to rely more upon the

unwritten law and less upon constitutional law ; whether new decisions should not be given only when positively unavoidable , instead of rushing into a decision upon the least

provocation . Then , too , so many decisions are but a redeclaration of prior ones , and therefore entirely needless . Brethren should more often be referred to the Book of

Constitutions , without more , or to a prior decision , without more . Accumulated decisions upon the same subject , whether affirming old ones or overruling them , are to be deprecated . In the very large majority of cases the constitutional law or the common law of the Craft is all

sufficient to decide the case . When this comes to be generally recognised , our brothers' law will be simpler , better , more Masonic . Let us not be guilty of tbe profanity of multi - plying the written law until it becomes a tangled mass of

verbiage , a labyrinth to which few can find the clue , a voluminous library composed of overlying and conflicting enactments and decisions . Brothers' law should be simple , direct , conclusive—Keystone .

A numerous gathering is expected of the members and friends of the King Solomon Lodge , No . 2029 , this ( Saturday ) evening , when the annual installation meeting will take place at the Masonic Hall , 8 a Red Lion-square , W . C . Bro . W . P . St . Leonard Chubb S . W . will be installed into

the chair , and the W . M . will adjourn after business to the Holborn Restaurant , where the banquet is to take place . This Lodge is known as one of the most popular and

influential of the Branches of Freemasonry in which the principle of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors is the chief and essential feature of membership .

The true Mason is not satisfied with simply passing through the forms and ceremonies of its several degrees ; he will strive to fathom their interior meaning—their true significance and teachings ; he is n , labourer in tho Masonic vineyard , and takes an ii-jforest in unveiling the beauty he finds in its symbols and in imparting the lesions there taught to others . —Masonic Light .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions ff our Correspondents .

All Letters must bear the name and address nf the Writer , not neccessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

— : o : — AMERICAN KNIGHTS TEMPLAR . HOW THEY WERE SNUBBED BY PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S SERVANTS , IN WASHINGTON !

To the Editor of the FREEMASON s CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —From a paper , printed in San Francisco , of 4 th December , called the Argonaut , I copy the following editorial , which , aa far as I know , has not yet appeared in any Masonic paper j it certainly waa new to my friends in the Boston Masonio circle .

The news will , doubtless , amuse the mere Master Masons , but whether the chivalrio Order of Knights Templar in the United States , and more especially those in Philadelphia , will suffer the insult th-y received to go unpunished , remains to be seen . However , here is the editorial , and your readers can form their own opinions about it .

President Cleveland refuses to see a Commandery of Knights Templars . He snubs them . Good for President Cleveland ! The more we see of him the better we like him . A set of half-baked dunderheads , dressed in absurd regalia , determine on an excursion , to air their clothes , select the national capital , as a cheap , convenient

place upon which to impose their magnificent presence . Uninvited by the President , they march in martial array to the White House , and , with an impudence which cannot be exceeded , parade themselves in his best parlour ; and there , with drawn swords , standing in rank , with their hats on , ordering a 'halt!—front face !—right dress , ' the

Commander ' directs' an nsher to notify the President that'they were there , and would like to seo him . " The usher politely informs the Knights that the President is occupied , and cannot see them . In . stead of going away like gentlemen—which they were not—tho Com . mander directs his Orderly to go upstairs and ' notify' tbe President

that' they are still there ; " and when the Orderly was denied admis . sion to the occupied President , the magnificent Commander of this tramping squad of masquerading nincompoops from Philadelphia goes himself . He went , but the nearest he got to the President wns to his Usher—he did not even get a glimpse of the Private Secretary ;

and so this discomfited Commander and hii disgusted squad of Knights marched hack to their hotel j back to Fhilad Iphia ; and now there U danger that Pennsylvania will vote for Blnine fur J'r"giipnfc . Grover Cleaveland is a brave man , he is no demagogo " , and if he does not stop arting like a snnsible citizen there is danger that he

will be re-elected President , in spite of the poll loians . As already intimated , the American Masonic papers , though all conducted by chivalrous Sir Knights , have thus far been silent about

the insult the Philadelphia chivalry received at Washington . The above rebuke , given by the editor of the Argonaut , to the whole Order of Knights Templars , may , however , str up the editors of our Masonio press , and , if so , then—we shall see what we shall see .

Fiaternally yours , JACOB NORTON . BOSTON , U . S ., 15 th December 1886 .

"A DISTRESSING CASE . " To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE .

DEAR SIR AND B ROTHER , —Under t ' us heading a paragraph appeared in the daily newspapers , just before Christmas , riot-crib > % the melancholy end of a brother Mason , who , after enduring t -rrible suffering and hanger , was found dend beneath a bush on Plnms ' ead

Common . I have wa'cherl closely our own and other journals t •see whether any notice would be taken of a circumstance so ia-e , and apparently so derogatory to the Craft ; a-. d , inasmuch as several non-Masons have been overheard to cast reproaches at the " vaunt d charity and beneficence " of our Order , I have vent * ir- » d to trouble

you with the ° e few lines in the hope that some satiafact > ry oxplan . ation may be forthcoming at the hands of those individuals nios "; immediately interested in it . The facts are briefly th se : Two lads were wandering abont on the Common , when they came acros- * the body of a man , covered over with a coat , lying under a furzo-bmh , in

a lonely spot , 400 yards from the public road . On giving an alarm , the police and a medical officer were spec lily in attendance , but the latter expressed his opinion that the poor fellow had been dead thri or four days , and that he \ rai probably frozen to death during t * i < rocent frosty nights . The report goes on to say : "In his prcket

was found a parchment certificate , in Eiglish and Latin , certifying that Oliver Hutton was a member of 'Court Waterloo' Lod „ 'e ( Woolwich ) of Freemasons , ancl that he bad been Secretary and a Warden of that Lodge . He had lately been in poor circum- * tnnje- * i , and had not been seen by hid friends for some . time . From inquiries

made by the police , there is reason to suppose that the dt-c aseri had been in the habit of sleeping under the bush in question for lomi weeks . By bis side were some crumbs and a few well-pi"k > d bones . On Dr . Tees examining the body he found it emaciated , and g-ve the opinion that death bad resulted from starvation and exposure to

cold . " It seems almost incredible that in the nineteenth century , no t - withstanding all that is said ab ) ut depression of trade and s ' a ** k ** ess of work , any man should be so reduced by poverty and di ^ ues-i aa to

be compelled to retii c to a dro . ry aud desoiatu spit lik < a Plum-iead Common , and thus to die of ft irvnlion and exposure . Bn' -hen it comes to be known thai the unfortunate victim of snrh oirr » fi * nsf- ! - (* es was " one of us "—a brother whose position at one time must havo