The Quebec Correspondence.

THE QUEBEC CORRESPONDENCE .

IT ia no fault of ours if the Quebec business merits the epithet of "irrepressible . " As far as the Grand Lodge of England is concerned , the Grand Lodge of Quebec may continue to exercise as long as it pleases that faculty of annoying other bodies of Freemasons which

apparently occupies so much of its time , and plays therefore so conspicuous a part in the record of its proceedings . We cannot agree with the opinions ifc propoands , bnfc we must at least give it the credit of possessing a rare fund of ingenuity , which enables it almost at will to distort or

exaggerate the simplest facts , create misunderstandings , and stir up strife with people whose only idea is to live at peace with the world generally . We have no hesitation in saying that , if this Grand Lodge will only go on its way quietly , that whioh ifc professes to desire so ardently ,

namely , the inclusion of the three English Lodges in Montreal under its banner , stands a very fair chance of happening sooner or later in the ordinary course of things and without anybody ' s intervention . Ifc knew or ought to have known , at the time of its establishment , and was

courteously told some few years later , by the medium of the regular official channel , the conditions on which the Grand Lodge of England was prepared to recognise its existence as a separate authority and enter with ifc on terms of mutual and friendly intercourse . But even in

those early days , when , so to speak , it was hardly on its legs , or at all events , unable to do more than waddle , this precocious little Grand Lodge must needs go stumbling about in all directions in the cockiest possible manner , just as though there were no other way for a Grand Lodge of

Freemasons to assert its sovereign independence than to bully its big neighbours and make itself generally disagreeable . Ten years ago Quebec might have entered into the friendliest relations with England , and have maintained them uninterruptedly ever since—that is ,

if she had been so minded—if only she would have consented to accept the condition on which England was prepared to recognise her—a condition , be it remarked , which ifc was imperatively necessary that England should attach to her act of recognition , if she had any regard for

her own hononr , and which Quebec , had she been wisely governed by a similar regard for her own dignity , might and should have accepted unhesitatingly . But , as we have already suggested , Quebec was born into the world of Masonry a tremendously cocky little Grand Lodge , and

considered it would be guilty of the unpardonable sin of self-disrespect , if ifc exhibited any scrupulous weakness towards the old-world notions of consistency and clue respect for established rights . What , we may suppose it asked itself , is the good of being a perky little cock unless

one keeps on crowing and crowing , not only for the purpose of proclaiming one ' s existence , bufc likewise fco disturb everybody else ' s peace and quietness ? Thus Quebec lias gone on ever since , screaming out most appalling earpiercing , cock-a-doo-doos just for all the world as if the hen

of its bosom had continued laying any number of eggs daily , from the moment it burst its shell and pecked up its first particle of food . Bufc ifc sometimes happens that

perky little cocks of this kind , when they over-indulge themselves in the belief that all tbey have to do is to make noise enough , and all the other cocks in the nei ghbourhood will put up with their air . s and graces , require to be told

The Quebec Correspondence.

severely , but firmly , that if thoy wish for a prolonged existence , they had better behave themselves discreetly , or their last condition may be found considerably worse than the first . The present stage of this troublesome Quebec business is

as follows . Three of the English Lodges in the Dominion of Canada which elected to remain in allegiance to England when the Grand Lodge of Canada set up for itself nearly thirty years ago are precisely of the same mind still . When England agreed to recognise the Masonic independence of

Canada , ifc stipulated thafc such oi its Lodges as were desirous of remaining under its banner should have full liberty to do so . Canada gracefully acquiesced in the propriety of the stipulation , and all went merry as a marriage bell till , in 1869 , the Lodges in the Province of Quebec , which had

necessarily been as much parties to tho stipulation as those of the Province of Ontario , from which they had resolved on separating , set up a Grand Lodge of their own . This Grand Lodge was in due course recognised as an independent body by that of Canada—the Ontario Province retaining

the old title—and some time afterwards officially addressed itself to the Grand Lodge of England with a view to obtaining its recognition as well . No difficulty whatever was raised by the latter , but very naturally , and very honourably , ifc made ifc a condition precedent of such recognition

that the Lodges which had elected from the very outset to remain true to their old parent should continue in the enjoyment of the same status as had been stipulated for them long before such a body as the Grand Lodge of Quebec had even been dreamt of . With this just aud reasonable

stipulation , however , Quebec would have nothing to do . It experienced no sense of compunction in rejecting an honourable stipulation , to which , when part of the Grand Lodge of Canada , it had seen no objection . The idea never seems to have occurred to it that , in accepting the rights and

privileges it had enjoyed as a part of the Graud Lodge of Canada , it accepted likewise the responsibilities , or rather liabilities , as well . We have read in the comic papers of certain dissolutions of partnership between two business men , in which one of them claimed all the assets and

generously handed over to the other all the liabilities . This is practically what Quebec has been doing . It claims all the rights and privileges ifc had when a part of Canada , bufc ifc leaves the responsibility of honourably abiding by a particular act of agreement to the latter . Ifc refuses to see

anything disreputable in doing all in its power to set afc naught an agreement to which it was once a party ; and because England firmly holds by its original condition , it now announces its determination to put under the ban of its august ; displeasure , not only the three

recusant English Lodges in Montreal , which still pertinaciously refuse to listen to the voice of its charmer Graham , but the whole body of English Masonry in addition . Well , we suppose it is one of the penalties which the United Grand Lodge of England must pay for being the

Mother Grand Lodge of modern Freemasonry , as well as the most powerful and influential body in existence of its kind , that every insignificant Grand Lodge which was born , as it were , but yesterday , must fling at it a certain quantum of dirt .

We hear constantly in the profane world of vulgarly-disposed people who are never happy but when they are abusing their parents and grandparents , but for whom they would never have had any existence at all . Bufc we were under the impression that people managed things