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Article THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW. ← Page 8 of 8
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The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
At last , when no hope remained to stall off the holy grant , a Past Grand Registrar is called from his retirement to interpret the law against the widow—and he did unblushingly so interpret the law , in a manner that brought to our recollection that
" Non sunt autem pejores lacquei quam lacquei legum . " The Grand Master alluded to the fable of the hen with the golden eggs—we believe he should have referred to the goose ; but we have in remembrance abetter fable , and founded on fact—that of the old woman whose cow always gave more milk than her neighbour ' s , which she accounted for by stating that she milked it oftener than they did . The
name of the cow was " Charity . " Special pleading , sophistry , and fallacy , prevailed ; and thus supported by his advocate , the Grand Master called in the visionary phantoms of insolvency , bankruptcy , and scorn , —those were the very words—to embitter the hopes of many a tearful widow , and to endanger the principles of Freemasonry ! which he had sworn to protect : but which we , after
all , believe that he was not seriously aware that he may involve in ruin unless he shall retrace his steps . We shall conclude by adverting to two masonic directions , the one is , that in the regulations of Grand Lodge , no one shall speak twice to the
same question , unless in explanation , or the mover in reply , whereas , at the last Grand Lodge the Grand Master did speak twice , and then ingeniously left it to the good taste of a brother who had not spoken once , whether he would follow the Grand Master ! The next point is , a reference to the charge given to Wardens on their appointment to office , it runs thus , ' : " You should be patterns of good order and regularity , as
without a due observance of the laws yourselves , you can hardly expect obedience to them in others . " The want of observance and obedience converted the last Grand Lodge into a bear-garden scene , during which the election of Grand Master was managed , —but , oh ! how changed the feeling ! At the approaching Especial Grand Lodge for the dispatch of business ,
the long-pending motion of Bro . Bigg will be brought forward . To offer our opinion before the arguments are gone into , would be not merely premature , but improper ; we shall therefore simply observe that if the Red Apron be an honour it should not be confined to certain lodges , if it be merely an expense it should in such case he shared by all .
The MASTERS ' , PAST MASTERS ' , AND WARDENS' CLUB is forming , as offering the best means of protecting the interests and maintaining the dignity of English Freemasonry .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
At last , when no hope remained to stall off the holy grant , a Past Grand Registrar is called from his retirement to interpret the law against the widow—and he did unblushingly so interpret the law , in a manner that brought to our recollection that
" Non sunt autem pejores lacquei quam lacquei legum . " The Grand Master alluded to the fable of the hen with the golden eggs—we believe he should have referred to the goose ; but we have in remembrance abetter fable , and founded on fact—that of the old woman whose cow always gave more milk than her neighbour ' s , which she accounted for by stating that she milked it oftener than they did . The
name of the cow was " Charity . " Special pleading , sophistry , and fallacy , prevailed ; and thus supported by his advocate , the Grand Master called in the visionary phantoms of insolvency , bankruptcy , and scorn , —those were the very words—to embitter the hopes of many a tearful widow , and to endanger the principles of Freemasonry ! which he had sworn to protect : but which we , after
all , believe that he was not seriously aware that he may involve in ruin unless he shall retrace his steps . We shall conclude by adverting to two masonic directions , the one is , that in the regulations of Grand Lodge , no one shall speak twice to the
same question , unless in explanation , or the mover in reply , whereas , at the last Grand Lodge the Grand Master did speak twice , and then ingeniously left it to the good taste of a brother who had not spoken once , whether he would follow the Grand Master ! The next point is , a reference to the charge given to Wardens on their appointment to office , it runs thus , ' : " You should be patterns of good order and regularity , as
without a due observance of the laws yourselves , you can hardly expect obedience to them in others . " The want of observance and obedience converted the last Grand Lodge into a bear-garden scene , during which the election of Grand Master was managed , —but , oh ! how changed the feeling ! At the approaching Especial Grand Lodge for the dispatch of business ,
the long-pending motion of Bro . Bigg will be brought forward . To offer our opinion before the arguments are gone into , would be not merely premature , but improper ; we shall therefore simply observe that if the Red Apron be an honour it should not be confined to certain lodges , if it be merely an expense it should in such case he shared by all .
The MASTERS ' , PAST MASTERS ' , AND WARDENS' CLUB is forming , as offering the best means of protecting the interests and maintaining the dignity of English Freemasonry .