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Article STATE OF MASONRY IN IRELAND. ← Page 7 of 9 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
State Of Masonry In Ireland.
the contrary , coldness in the high departments of any administration , possesses a fatally contagious tendency , and descends from one rank to another , until the entire body politic or corporate , as the case may be , is gradually chilled and frozen into a death-like paralysis of all its vital functions . In Ireland , the poverty of the humbler Brethren is itself a sufficient impediment to their actual exertions , though it cannot quench their zeal in the cause , and they have , therefore , need of encouragement ,
instead of meeting , as they have too often done , with supercilious indifference or frigid neglect , at the hands of men whose imperative duty it was to have lifted upon them at least the light of their cheering countenances , if they could not extend to them any more substantial assistance . How is it , for example , that the Grand Lodge of England is enabled to expend from £ 1500 to £ 2000 a year in charity , while that of Ireland is remarkable for no work of general benevolence , unless clamorous poverty and ostentatious extravagance may be classed in the list of philanthropic virtues ? Were the Dublin Lodges to avoid the monstrously
expensive entertainments which they have been in the habit of giving , and were they to apportion , even in the way of a loan , to their poorer Brethren in the provinces , the large sums which would thus be economized , Masonry in Ireland would be saved from much of that reproach and degradation , a strong sense of whicli has elicited the inculpatory animadversions in which we have been compelled reluctantly to present . There can be no question that great blame exists in some quarter or other , and if the Grand Lodge will only fulfil the obvious and comparatively easy duties which we have pointed out , we will cheerfully submit to any penal consequence , if the result shall not correspond with our
most sanguine anticipations . We have already stated , that in various quarters , an anxiety , not only for a reform , but for a concomitant revival of Masonry in Ireland has been manifested ; and , indeed , so general , as well as so decided , is this sentiment , that even a qualified movement on the part ofthe Grand Lodge , would achieve absolute miracles in the way of Masonic regeneration . The Brethren of the city of Londonderry have , in this respect , set a noble example to the rest of the kingdom , although they have had
difficulties of no trivial magnitude to encounter . Through the spirited exertions of a single individual—Brother Alexander Grant—the system has , in that city and its neighbourhood , been purified from many of the abuses which had become incorporated with its practical administration , through the culpable carelessness of those who ought to haye exercised in regard to it the right of vigilant disciplinary controul ; and the effect of Brother Grant ' s reforming labours has been of the most animating character . Not only have new accessions from the niost respectable orders of the community been very numerously added to the ranks of
the Brotherhood , but old Masons , many of whom had beforehand scarcel y been known to belong to the Order , and who had long withdrawn from it in disgust , have re-assumed their places in the Lodge , and are now foremost in carrying forward the work , when they see it organized upon a proper Masonic basis . This solitary , but instructive fact , abundantly proves what might be done , were it possible only to move the Grand Lodge into an exhibition of anything bearing even a distant resemblance to conscious vitality . Our : Londonderry Brethren have also set about the erection of a Masonic Hall in that city ; but though the importance ofthe object is admitted , and though the poverty of their means'has been'frequently as well as earnestly laid before the Brethren at a distance ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
State Of Masonry In Ireland.
the contrary , coldness in the high departments of any administration , possesses a fatally contagious tendency , and descends from one rank to another , until the entire body politic or corporate , as the case may be , is gradually chilled and frozen into a death-like paralysis of all its vital functions . In Ireland , the poverty of the humbler Brethren is itself a sufficient impediment to their actual exertions , though it cannot quench their zeal in the cause , and they have , therefore , need of encouragement ,
instead of meeting , as they have too often done , with supercilious indifference or frigid neglect , at the hands of men whose imperative duty it was to have lifted upon them at least the light of their cheering countenances , if they could not extend to them any more substantial assistance . How is it , for example , that the Grand Lodge of England is enabled to expend from £ 1500 to £ 2000 a year in charity , while that of Ireland is remarkable for no work of general benevolence , unless clamorous poverty and ostentatious extravagance may be classed in the list of philanthropic virtues ? Were the Dublin Lodges to avoid the monstrously
expensive entertainments which they have been in the habit of giving , and were they to apportion , even in the way of a loan , to their poorer Brethren in the provinces , the large sums which would thus be economized , Masonry in Ireland would be saved from much of that reproach and degradation , a strong sense of whicli has elicited the inculpatory animadversions in which we have been compelled reluctantly to present . There can be no question that great blame exists in some quarter or other , and if the Grand Lodge will only fulfil the obvious and comparatively easy duties which we have pointed out , we will cheerfully submit to any penal consequence , if the result shall not correspond with our
most sanguine anticipations . We have already stated , that in various quarters , an anxiety , not only for a reform , but for a concomitant revival of Masonry in Ireland has been manifested ; and , indeed , so general , as well as so decided , is this sentiment , that even a qualified movement on the part ofthe Grand Lodge , would achieve absolute miracles in the way of Masonic regeneration . The Brethren of the city of Londonderry have , in this respect , set a noble example to the rest of the kingdom , although they have had
difficulties of no trivial magnitude to encounter . Through the spirited exertions of a single individual—Brother Alexander Grant—the system has , in that city and its neighbourhood , been purified from many of the abuses which had become incorporated with its practical administration , through the culpable carelessness of those who ought to haye exercised in regard to it the right of vigilant disciplinary controul ; and the effect of Brother Grant ' s reforming labours has been of the most animating character . Not only have new accessions from the niost respectable orders of the community been very numerously added to the ranks of
the Brotherhood , but old Masons , many of whom had beforehand scarcel y been known to belong to the Order , and who had long withdrawn from it in disgust , have re-assumed their places in the Lodge , and are now foremost in carrying forward the work , when they see it organized upon a proper Masonic basis . This solitary , but instructive fact , abundantly proves what might be done , were it possible only to move the Grand Lodge into an exhibition of anything bearing even a distant resemblance to conscious vitality . Our : Londonderry Brethren have also set about the erection of a Masonic Hall in that city ; but though the importance ofthe object is admitted , and though the poverty of their means'has been'frequently as well as earnestly laid before the Brethren at a distance ,