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Article QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION. ← Page 10 of 12 →
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Quarterly Communication.
and would be ' attended with considerable advantage to the Craft in the colonies . Many military men would join and spread the doctrines of the Order in the interior of India and China , but who would know nothing of it , nor understand it ; as at present arranged they coulcl only have one degree , ancl that woulcl rather displease them , perhaps , than make them very earnest in their efforts for its cultivation ; when they arrived further in the Order they must admire itand thus it would be
, productive of good . Bro . BIGG must oppose so great an innovation as that proposed ; it was truly expediency against principle ; and on what was that expediency founded or how supported , but by removing a landmark of the Order ; in the discussion upon this subject , it had been said by some , it was , by others , it was not a landmark ; but what then was a landmark ?
" Who should deckle when doctors disagree , And soundest casuists doubt , like you ancl me . " Whatever it was , the alteration was unnecessary and uncalled for , and likely to disturb the harmony that had so long existed in the Craft . He held it to be a landmark , and coulcl not avoid referring to that hook which said— " Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour ' s landmark , and all the people shall say amen . " It certainly was abandoning principle to expediencywhich was impolitic . He did not believe one good
, Mason more woulcl be made by the adoption of the change , and others were not required . Bro . Bigg concluded a very emphatic and eloquent address by a forcible appeal to the Grand Lodge , imploring its considerate reflection to the necessity of strengthening ancl not weakening the landmarks of the Order . Bro . HENDERSON would tell the brother what a landmark was in law , sanctioned 2 by custom , and hallowed by age . This law , as it now stood ,
was neither one nor the other ; it was therefore not a landmark , but a thing of yesterday ; for before the union' Masons were made and passed in one day in England : they were not given the third degree , because that was then not given at all as it now was understood . The present proposal , if even it has gone the extent of altering the law , would only have placed that portion of our Book of Constitutions as it was before the year 1815 . He could not see any cause for their fears , nor the
opposition with which this suggestion had been met . Bro . DOVER would read the law as it now stood , which set out b y saying that even our own head , the M . W . Grand Master , could not grant a dispensation to suspend the operation of this law , which said a higher degree in Masonry should not be conferred on any brother at a less interval than one month from his receiving a previous degree , nor until he has passed an examination in open Lodge in that degree ; if they meant to abolish that law , let them at once remove it , and do so
boldly . Bro . FAUDEL would urge the brethren to discuss this question more temperately than the former , ancl disabuse their minds of the party feeling by which they were , and still seemed to be actuated . The arguments which had been used all went to shew that a man could not be made a Mason unless we yielded certain points . If a man wished to be initiated in an Irish or Scotch lodge , or was there initiated , was he not as much a Mason as if made in an English lodge ? was he not entitled to all the rights and privileges of the Order , and had he not as many claims upon thein , if in distress , as if made in a London lodge ? Why VOI ,. VI . T
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Quarterly Communication.
and would be ' attended with considerable advantage to the Craft in the colonies . Many military men would join and spread the doctrines of the Order in the interior of India and China , but who would know nothing of it , nor understand it ; as at present arranged they coulcl only have one degree , ancl that woulcl rather displease them , perhaps , than make them very earnest in their efforts for its cultivation ; when they arrived further in the Order they must admire itand thus it would be
, productive of good . Bro . BIGG must oppose so great an innovation as that proposed ; it was truly expediency against principle ; and on what was that expediency founded or how supported , but by removing a landmark of the Order ; in the discussion upon this subject , it had been said by some , it was , by others , it was not a landmark ; but what then was a landmark ?
" Who should deckle when doctors disagree , And soundest casuists doubt , like you ancl me . " Whatever it was , the alteration was unnecessary and uncalled for , and likely to disturb the harmony that had so long existed in the Craft . He held it to be a landmark , and coulcl not avoid referring to that hook which said— " Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour ' s landmark , and all the people shall say amen . " It certainly was abandoning principle to expediencywhich was impolitic . He did not believe one good
, Mason more woulcl be made by the adoption of the change , and others were not required . Bro . Bigg concluded a very emphatic and eloquent address by a forcible appeal to the Grand Lodge , imploring its considerate reflection to the necessity of strengthening ancl not weakening the landmarks of the Order . Bro . HENDERSON would tell the brother what a landmark was in law , sanctioned 2 by custom , and hallowed by age . This law , as it now stood ,
was neither one nor the other ; it was therefore not a landmark , but a thing of yesterday ; for before the union' Masons were made and passed in one day in England : they were not given the third degree , because that was then not given at all as it now was understood . The present proposal , if even it has gone the extent of altering the law , would only have placed that portion of our Book of Constitutions as it was before the year 1815 . He could not see any cause for their fears , nor the
opposition with which this suggestion had been met . Bro . DOVER would read the law as it now stood , which set out b y saying that even our own head , the M . W . Grand Master , could not grant a dispensation to suspend the operation of this law , which said a higher degree in Masonry should not be conferred on any brother at a less interval than one month from his receiving a previous degree , nor until he has passed an examination in open Lodge in that degree ; if they meant to abolish that law , let them at once remove it , and do so
boldly . Bro . FAUDEL would urge the brethren to discuss this question more temperately than the former , ancl disabuse their minds of the party feeling by which they were , and still seemed to be actuated . The arguments which had been used all went to shew that a man could not be made a Mason unless we yielded certain points . If a man wished to be initiated in an Irish or Scotch lodge , or was there initiated , was he not as much a Mason as if made in an English lodge ? was he not entitled to all the rights and privileges of the Order , and had he not as many claims upon thein , if in distress , as if made in a London lodge ? Why VOI ,. VI . T