Charities And Candidates.

most in need of it , tbe better distribution of voting power , so that the really poor shall be selected , and not , as in the case of the boy Herring , for example , whose friends hold a very respectable sum of money in hand belonging to him , and which should be used for his

education and support . It cannot for a moment bo contended that this boy stands in the samo position as ono who has no means , even if the father of the former did subscribe to our Charities , and tho father of tho latter did not . We hold that necessity should be tho first test of claim to help

We know that no system would secure perfect justice m that respect , but those who are responsible for the selection of candidates and the method of election , are bound to seek such a result , and to secure the nearest approach to it

they can find . We would lessen the difficulties of poor candidates as much as possible , and although wealth must always be a great power in all mundane matters , we would not handicap poverty more than is . inevitable , bnt rather lighten the weight it has to carry in the weary race of life .

Let The Mill Grind.

LET THE MILL GRIND .

FROM THE VOICE or MASONRY . THE report of the Judiciary Committee of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , as published in the Voice of Masonry for September , under the caption " The Mill is Grinding , " is itself a profound review of the principal question therein discussed , and opens to the reflective and philosophical mind a wide field of thought as connected with the natural or inherent right as well as imperative

duty of Grand Lodges as concerns the welfare and perpetuity of the Craft as an organized , self-sustaining , and self-protecting body . That the conclusions therein reached will be approved by a large majority of Masons , admits of bnt little doubt , and that the time has arrived when all Grand Lodges should define clearly what shall be recognized as legitimately pertaining to Masonry , and the extent and

limit of such pretensions and practices , is equally patent and necessary . To those minds who have become reasonably proficient in the knowledge of Craft Masonry , its teachings , purposes and spirit , there is serious cause of apprehension in the accretions which year by year are being superimposed npon the foundations and body of our temple , without either our authority or consent , self-styled higher degrees ,

that overshadow and obscure the beautiful and symmetrical proportions of the structure , flimsy Mansard roofs , fanciful frescoes , and superficial decorations intended to dazzle the eye , captivate the fancy , and gratify personal vanity and the taste for display and parade , rather than in any manner to aid in or elaborate the simple and Bterling objects , ends and aims of purely Masonic ideas . The

professions of loyalty to Masonic principles always enunciated by these toptoftical builders , their pretensions as decorators of the temple , and elaborators of Masonic principles , their recognition of Craft Masorjry as the true foundation of the entire superstructure , has in the past been the quieting anodyne which has lulled the Craft into passive or tacit acquiescence in the appropriation of its name and

fame as a secure patent and foundation on which to erect and sustain their pretentious chimeras and parasitic inventions . Yet withal , their only actual relationship to Masonry has consisted in the assumption of its name , and in making Masonio membership a prerequisite to admission to its high-toned and multifarious circles , rings and branches . This has been tacitly permitted by Craft Masonry , until

to-day it would be far easier to understand thoroughly all the secrets of the Cretan Labyrinth , or the tortuous pathways and concealed re . cesses of the Roman catacombs than the knowledge to the full extent of the more labyrinthine mazes and lofty pretensions of all that is denominated and claimed as Masonry . While there is , doubtless , much that may captivate the fancy , dazzle

tbe imagination and gratify vanity in these modern creations of inven . tive genius , the qnestion presents itself squarely for our consideration , in what respect are they necessary as auxiliaries to Masonry ? To what if any degree are they elaborative of its designs ? Are they a natural and legitimate outgrowth of Masonry on a continually progressive plane , or are they parasites that cling to our Institution as

a means of support , and , by their exacting demands upon their membership , and their higher attractiveness , seduce them from the active discharge of their duties to the Craft , which , otherwise would be zealously performed , and , as a natural result , cause them to remember Symbolic Masonry only as the rough , unhewn foundation on which their department of the Temple is erected , and the Sanctum Sanctorum

as oDly a preparation room in which to receive the finishing tonches which qualify them for ascending into the more refined atmosphere of mystic , ineffable and transcendental shadows . The wisdom of the report before alluded to , and the necessity for it , as well as the subsequent action of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , seems clearly conclusive ; yet the fifty-two votes that

were recorded against the Welch amendment indicate the strength which the heresy bad attained , and the necessity for the prompt heroic treatment which it received . It would indeed be a self , evident corollary that , if the membership in all so-called Masonic rites and degrees is limited to Masons ; if to be a Symbolic Mason is a prerequisite , then Symbolic Masonry , as represented in Grand

Lodges , shonld have the indefeasible right , and it should also be their sacred duty to define what should and what shonld not be permitted as Masonic , and to prohibit everything not so permitted under adequate penalties . The so-called Masonic Eite of Memphis , which was invented in France about the year 1839 , by Marconis , who , aided by Moullet ,

Let The Mill Grind.

established Lodges at Paris , Marseilles and Brussels , working this Rite of Memphis , consisting of ninety-one degrees , which , had it ever gained a recognised foothold in America , would now have numbered a hundred , as Yankees would soon have floated it at par . The rite according to the authority of Bagon , and other able writers , was , fur the first thirty-three degrees , pirated almost literally from

the Ancient and Accepted Rite , and , whatever else it may have been , was a Frenchified travesty upon the now extinct Egyptian Rite of Misraim . The Grand Orient of France refused to recognise the rite as being legitimate , though with the French love of pageantry and scenio effect it is somewhat singular that it was not adopted as a grande improvement . A failure on the part of Marconis to

secure the approval and endorsement of tho Grand Orient , whioh was recognised as the sovereign Masonio power of the civil government , led to the suppression of his Lodges in 1852 , by the operation of civil law . By a persistence worthy of a better cause , he at length in 1862 secured from the Grand Orient a recognition of his system , or rite , as legitimate , but in order to effect it had to renounce his

title of Grand Hierophant , and to surrender to the Grand Orient the sole right to confer his rite , he and all other members of his Lodges to renounce all degrees above or beyond that of Master Mason , and to be recognised as suoh and such only , by the Grand Orient , whioh thus became the owner , so to speak , of the rite , and immediately pigeon-holed it , and thus as was supposed stamped it

out of existence . It will thus be seen that , if it ever acquired a recognition of legitimacy it was done simply to strangle it , and that even if thus rendered legitimate by a recognised Masonio power , it could never be revivified without the consent and authority of that power , which has never been given , so that even admitting that it ever had a legal Masonio existence , it is , and has beeu since 1862 ,

defunct . It is not the purpose of this paper , however , to make war upon this particular rite or heresy , but to arouse thought upon the rights , powers and duties of Grand Lodges , as to defining what shall be recognized as entitled to wear the name and garb of Masonry , and to draw the lines sharply as to what may or shall be tolerated on the part of so-called Masonio bodies , which have either constitutionally or tacitly been reconized as suoh .

While the argument is apparently a fair one that Grand Lodges can take no cognizance over any organization which is not subordinate to or more properly coordinately of them ; cannot , in short , have a legal knowledge of their existence , and therefore have no power whatever to assume or exercise any control over them , tbe fact still remains that , as the recognized sovereign powers in all that pertains to

Symbolio Masonry , they may determine what shall and what shall not be recognized as Masonio , not only as to so-called degrees , but under the Ancient Constitutions , and their own several organic laws , to determine what rites shall be considered Masonio , and , in their several jurisdictions , what form or system of ritual shall be practised . The last power , however , 1 B an unquestioned one to-day , although a Tew

years since , from 1862 to 1864 , it was an open question in Illinois , in which those who , from the result we may assume were schismatics , sought by surreptitious means to subvert the Constitution , and to substitute the Conservators' ritual for the lawful work then in practice if indeed it went no further than this , which was claimed by its followers , though distrusted by nearly all others . The writer well

remembers the advent of a very distinguished brother in the Grand Lodge of Illinois , and the motion which followed , that he be requested to exemplify the work of the Third degree before the Grand Lod ge . The Grand Master , Dr . Buck , ruled the motion out of order , and re . ferred to the Constitution , which in express terms prohibited exemplification of work by any others than the Grand Lecturers .

The proposition was renewed in another form , that he be permitted to do so informally . To this the Grand Master replied that he should obey not only the letter but the spirit of the Constitution , and that the motion would not be entertained . But the germ there sown took root , and for two or three years the battle raged . The

Trowel , then published by Bro . Reynolds , became a two-edged sword , dealing sturdy blows for the integrity of the Grand Lod ge , resuming its office of " spreading the cement of brotherly love and affection " only when Conservatism had been openly renounced by those who had attempted to ingraft it upon the old Constitutional stock .

If at that time the Grand Lodge of Illinois had the power to determine what was Masonic and what was not , and to compel obedience to its decision , it surely follows that it , and each other Grand Lodge , possesses that power , and with it the correlative duty to exercise it whenever innovation is attempted , or the best interests of the Craft are menaced . The extremely conservative

ground taken by the Editor of the Voice of Masonry , upon the action of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , is well calculated to make the most impulsive mind pause and reflect well before reaching a decision on the question at issue . But , when we go back to 1740 and find the Royal Arch as a complement to the Master ' s degree , and when also at tho union of the two Grand Lodges of England in 1813 ,

we find a clear definition of Masonry as being the degrees of Entered Apprentice , Fellow Craft and Master Mason , including the Hol y Royal Arch , we may safely assume that we have all of Masonry as then recognized , under the coutrol of the Grand Lodge of England , the Constitutions of which , adopted about 1723 , with their several successive amendments , are still regarded as the general organic law of

Masonry in America . If , then , the Grand Lodge of England , at the times mentioned held and exercised supreme control over everything appertaining to Masonry ; if , as a part of Symbolic Masonry , the Grand Lodge of England sanctioned and adopted the fabrication of the Royal . Arch

Degree by Dunckerly as borrowed from Dermott and Ramsay , and elaborated and remodeled by himself ; if , indeed , that constituted the whole of Masonry in that epoch , by what right or authority has Masonry been used as a god-mother and sponsor for the hundreds of degrees and rites which are now claimed and popularised as Masonic ? And if the Grand Lodge of England had then , in the comparative