The Approaching Election For The Benevolent Institution.

If all will do their utmost there is yet time to hope for something better than a disappointment for some at least of the large number who , under existing circumstances , must be sent empty away .

Masonry In America.

MASONRY IN AMERICA .

BY BRO . R . F . GOULD .

IT is a curious but undoubted fact that Masonic journals , like human beings , are commonly devoid in their old age of many attractions which they possessed in their youth . Nob to make any invidious comparisons , let mo state at once that the remark holds good with regard to

both of the Masonic newspapers published in this Metropolis . In their early days there was much to read , and very little that one waa compelled to skim . Articles or original contributions wero the rule , and Reports merely

the exception . But , nous avons change tout cela , and the journalism of tho British Craft is now content with the humbler mission of recording at portentous length the proceedings of Masonic or quasi-Masonic bodies , together

with , alas , tho oratorical feats on such occasions , of which , to put tho case mildly , it is not too much to say that , in by far tho majority of instances , the impression they leave on

the mind of any reader not belonging to the Society is , that the Lodges of English Freemasons are but so many branches of a great Mutual Admiration Society .

In some recent numbers of the CHRONICLE I have noticed

with much pleasure , a sort of return to the old practice , under which the literary fare was of a more digestible character than is now generally tho case . But , in order

to illustrate my meaning , I need not go further back than the issue of last week , where will be found an Article of great interest by Bro . Jacob Norton , upon which I shall make some observations .

The gist of the Article is the fact of the Grand Master of Ohio claimino- to decide whether the Masons under

his jurisdiction may or may not . join one of the competing bodies ol the ( so-called ) Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite . But a further principle is involved , viz ., the prerogative of a Grand Master , about which American Masonic

jurists are now vainly contending , in the circular letters they annually address to one another ; or , to use other terms , in the Reports on Foreign Correspondence , printed year by year in the majority of State jurisdictions .

The latter I must reserve for future treatment , and shall now proceed with an examination of the occurrence to which attention has been directed by Bro . Norton . Our brother speaks of Cerneauites and Gonrgasites , and to facilitate a

comprehension of these expressions I shall give some extracts from Mackey , premising , however , that this writer , as a prominent official of the A . and A . S . R . Southern

Jurisdiction , must be viewed as a hostile witness with regard to a person whom he no doubt considered a rebel against tho only really lawful authority : —

CEUXF . AU JOSEPH . —A French jeweller , born in 1763 , and who in the beginning of tho nineteenth century removed to the City of New York , wliere in 1812 he established a spurious body under the title of " Sovereign Grand Consistory of the United States of

America , its Territories and Dependencies . " This Masonic charlatan , who claimed the right to organise bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite , was expelled and his pretensions denounced , in 1813 , by the legal Supreme Council [ of which Mackey subsequently became a member ] , sitting at Charleston , South Carolina .

GOURGAS , J . J . J . —A merchant of New York , who was born in Fi ance , in 1777 , and received a member of the Scottish Rite in 1806 . His n » me is intimately connected with the rise and progress of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite in the Northern Jurisdiction of

the United States . Through his representations and his indefatigable exertions , the Mother Council at Charleston was induced to denonnce the spurious Consistory of Joseph Cerneau in the City of New York ,

and established there a Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction , of which Bro . Gourgas was elected the Secretary General . He continued to bold this office until 1832 , when he was elected Sovereign Grand Commander .

The Gonrgasites and Cerneauites may therefore be likened to the " Moderns " and " Ancients , " with which Masonic students are familar . The former claiming a descent from the Mother of Supreme Councils at

Charleston , and the latter professing to act under authority lawfully acquired by , and duly transmitted from , Joseph Cerneau . The literature on this subject is extensive and conflicting , but I carefully refrain from either summing up or dealing

Masonry In America.

iu any other way with the facts in dispute , becanse they have been , or shortly will be , related , with the apparent sanction of my name , in the American edition of my

History of Freemasonry , and I have yet to consider what steps it may be expedient for me to take , to rebut the presumption that the narrative was either written or approved by myself . According to Mr . John Haigh : —

The Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction [ U . S . A . ] has 10 , 000 members , few if any more . The Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction less than 2 , 000 members . The Supreme Council of the United States of America , their Territories and Dependencies , now has 109 bodies subordinate to it

distributed in It' different States . Of these bodies , 29 are in Ohio , and 22 in New York . Counting alphabetically the others are placed as followB : —California , 5 ; Connecticut , 5 j Florida , 4 ; Indiana , 4 ; Iowa , 13 ; Massachusetts , 11 ; Minnesota , 8 ; New Hampshire , 8 . The total membership exceeding 4 . 000 . *

Of the last-named body , Mr . Haigh is the Sovereign Grand Commander , and the above figures are given on his authority . There are thus ( at least ) three Supreme Councils in

America , two of which are in amity and divide the country between them , and a third * which claims and exercises a concurrent ( or it may be an exclusive ) jurisdiction over the whole of the United States . These may be severally described as the S . C . N . J . ; S . O . S . J . ; and

S . C . U . S . A . On 14 th June 1882 , the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts

passed a resolution defining what organisations were " regular and duly constituted Masonic Bodies . " Among these were the Supreme Councils of the Northern and

Southern Jurisdictions and their subordinates , but no other bodies of the A . and A . S . R . —the restriction of course only referring to the United States . The following are the final clauses of this resolution : —

" Now , therefore , it is hereby declared that any Mason who is hereafter admitted , in this jurisdiction , into any other orders , as Masonic , whether called the Eite of Memphis or by any other name , is acting

nn-Masonically , and for such conduct shall be liable to be expelled from all the rights and privileges of Masonry , and shall be ineligible to membership or office in this Grand Lodge .

Any Mason in this jnnpuiction who shau hawk and sell any of the degrees , so called , hereinbefore forbidden , calling them degrees in Masonry , may be expelled from all the rights and privileges of Masonry . "

This was the famous " Massachusetts New Departure , " as it was commonly termed , and it occasioned me not a little astonishment to find that a letter of my own , written without a thought of publication to Bro . Sereno D .

Nickerson , was used by that worthy Brother to fortify his argument in favour of the resolution . However , as my testimony only went to show that the leading members of the A . and A . S . R . in this countrv were " most earnest

and devoted Masons , I need not regret that my humble opinion of the estimation iu which the authorities , at 33 Golden Square , are generally regarded , has been recorded iu the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts .

The wisdom of this legislation was very fiercely debated by the Reporters on Foreign Correspondence under the various Grand Lodges , but we now learn , from Bro . Jacoh Norton , that the new law was never enforced .

In Ohio , a very simihar enactment must have been passed , but the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge are not available for present reference , so I can only infer , from Bro . ther Norton ' s article , that the example set in Boston was copied very closely at Cincinnati .

A very similar legislation appears to have been contemplated , and has possibly been carried into effect in Minnesota , but as my information is derived from the

Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Michigan for 1888 , reporting those of Minnesota for 1887 , I am unable to speak with precision .

It seems to me that many of what in legal phraseology are termed " nice points " may arise for decision in the event either of Lodges being erased , or brethren expelled , through exhibiting a preference for a form of the socalled Scottish Rite over which the mantle of a Grand

Lodge has not been extended . But pending further light , and until the result of the appeal to the Courts of Law by the Ohio brethren , it would be premature to speculate upon the disastrous consequences of Grand Lodges going beyond their proper functions , and arbitrarily deciding that of