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Article SIGNS OF THE TIMES. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Signs Of The Times.
steps down the Grand Lodge , waving their official wands with magical effect , calling up ( not spirits like Prospero , but ) numbers , to decide questions in which they of course had no interest . We also see our busy friends the venerable Grand Secretary and the Assistant Grand Master of the Ceremonies rushing from their seats , and backing the Deacons by a sort of supervising power ; and then the quartette , after some sotto
voce conference , march to the dais , and whisper to the Grand Master the result of their cabalistic inquisition . The Grand Lodge hears nothing of their report , or scarcely anything of the Grand Master ' s ; but by " hook or hy crook" it has been generally found that the majority was in favour of some measure supported by the purples , or mutatis mutandis , ' opposed by them .
Without stopping to comment on the impertinence of any Grand Officer or Officers not authorised by law assisting the Deacons , we will ask whether the long continuance of a practice like that represented , was not a disgrace to any Institution professing to he governed by principles of natural justice and the rules of all well regulated society ?
To correct a vice of so glaring a character , it will be concluded that no objection could be interposed . Not so gentle reader . When some two years ago , a Brother proposed to amend this system , he was met at the " porchway" —not of King Solomon ' s Temple—but of the Board of General Purposes , and told that the Grand Master himself intended to remedy the evil . Of course he was obliged to defer to such authority
—and what think ye was the " remedy" for the evil , or rather the tub thrown out to the whale ? Why merely that instead of sitting whilst voting , the Brethren should stand up ! The plumb-rule was the masonic miracle that was to set all things to rights . Of course this modicum of reformation was perfectly abortive , and the evil remained in its primitive , vigour .
However time which cicatrizes wounds often redresses wrongs . The Grand Lodge has at last on the suggestion of that excellent and able Mason Brother Faudel , agreed to alter the old law , and to enact , that when a division is demanded by any two of its members , there shall be a real—not a sham—ascertaining of numbers , —that the members for or against shall go to the right and left of the Lodge , as the case may be , and
that two ( one from the opposite side of each question ) shall be the Tellers , who shall { audibly we hope ) report the numbers to the Grand Lodge .
We hail this new measure as a step in the right direction : it will to a certain extent remedy the evil ; but it is not such a plenary alteration on the whole , as we should deem well calculated to give full satisfaction
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Signs Of The Times.
steps down the Grand Lodge , waving their official wands with magical effect , calling up ( not spirits like Prospero , but ) numbers , to decide questions in which they of course had no interest . We also see our busy friends the venerable Grand Secretary and the Assistant Grand Master of the Ceremonies rushing from their seats , and backing the Deacons by a sort of supervising power ; and then the quartette , after some sotto
voce conference , march to the dais , and whisper to the Grand Master the result of their cabalistic inquisition . The Grand Lodge hears nothing of their report , or scarcely anything of the Grand Master ' s ; but by " hook or hy crook" it has been generally found that the majority was in favour of some measure supported by the purples , or mutatis mutandis , ' opposed by them .
Without stopping to comment on the impertinence of any Grand Officer or Officers not authorised by law assisting the Deacons , we will ask whether the long continuance of a practice like that represented , was not a disgrace to any Institution professing to he governed by principles of natural justice and the rules of all well regulated society ?
To correct a vice of so glaring a character , it will be concluded that no objection could be interposed . Not so gentle reader . When some two years ago , a Brother proposed to amend this system , he was met at the " porchway" —not of King Solomon ' s Temple—but of the Board of General Purposes , and told that the Grand Master himself intended to remedy the evil . Of course he was obliged to defer to such authority
—and what think ye was the " remedy" for the evil , or rather the tub thrown out to the whale ? Why merely that instead of sitting whilst voting , the Brethren should stand up ! The plumb-rule was the masonic miracle that was to set all things to rights . Of course this modicum of reformation was perfectly abortive , and the evil remained in its primitive , vigour .
However time which cicatrizes wounds often redresses wrongs . The Grand Lodge has at last on the suggestion of that excellent and able Mason Brother Faudel , agreed to alter the old law , and to enact , that when a division is demanded by any two of its members , there shall be a real—not a sham—ascertaining of numbers , —that the members for or against shall go to the right and left of the Lodge , as the case may be , and
that two ( one from the opposite side of each question ) shall be the Tellers , who shall { audibly we hope ) report the numbers to the Grand Lodge .
We hail this new measure as a step in the right direction : it will to a certain extent remedy the evil ; but it is not such a plenary alteration on the whole , as we should deem well calculated to give full satisfaction