Masonic Amenities.

practice is different , whose Masonic profession and Masonic actions do not square . " Now , as there are one or two prevailing forms which these jyiasonic amenities often assume , let us note them and seek to profit by the illustration . First of all , there are those who never will see any

o-ood in anything you do , propose , plan , or suggest . In lodge and out of lodge , there are those who , like Pickpoint Pashly , of fo- : -nsic memory and reputation , always find points and pegs to hang something upon . In his case he was distinguished by much personal acumen and

legal skill ; in their case they arc the magp ies and the marplots of our lodges . They will always object , they will always find fault , they will never be convinced , thev _ isiAl

never be satisfied . How r nari £ _^ i ^ fy ] U ) Urs have we seen consurm ^ U ^ -ToTig ^ mceting by the hopeless piirfrfwrTMTyfTf some brother , obstinate or ^ firTpractieable , in a glorious minority of one , but yet resolute and unconvinced , even to the last ? Such brethren are full of " pros and cons , " and

" quips" aud " quiddities , " and very tiresome they are , often very little deferential , to the W . M . or brethren—groat nuisances , greater bores . Then there are those who always " smell a rat" in everything—the would-be sagacious and discerning . In vain you plead the common

humdrum , matter-of-fact , business way of proceeding of the lodge ; hopelessly you assure them that there is nothing in their supposition , they know better than you do yourself , and feel quite sure that there ' s more than meets the eye in some simple matter , plain as A B C These

knowing and mysterious' brethren often give most needless trouble , as they will unravel a mystery where there is none , they will get to the bottom of things , where probably the thing has , so to say , no bottom at all . Very angry they are when opposed , angrier still when

laughed at , as they richl y deserve . 'I here is a large class in our Order , always abounding in personalities . Personal they are , and personal they always will be , and , of course , in their hands everything becomes personal , and the lodge itself assumes the appearance of a cli que or

a cabal , and everything is permeated in it and outside of it by the hateful animus of unmeaning likes and dislikes , the too often dangerous and degrading influences of vulgar personality . And lastly , we have the Masonic writer who affects to criticize the articles of a confrere . As

a general rule , no thoroughl y true Masonic writer ever condescends to allude in an unfriendl y spirit , to the writing of a brother Mason , unless in the distinct ' interests of truth or ri ght , to correct an error , to put right a misstatement . If allusions are made , ( it is far better , in our

opinion , not to allude to contemporary writers at all ) , they should be made in a spirit of true criticism and Masonic forbearance . Nothing like offensive recriminations , personal animosity , vulgar coarseness , or uncourteous expressions ' should ever be permitted in Masonic journalism ,

Some young writer , indeed , may be excused , through ignorance or ineptitude , but the old hack should be ashamed of himself , whoever he be , who prostitutes his pages in order to gralily personal vanity , or manifest very "bad form . " When such writers offend against every canon of

propriety , eveiy axiom ot Masonic teaching , the innermost dictates of good feeling and decency , and express themselves in language which may b ^ English or High Dutch , or anything you like , what can you do ? You simply pass them In- with a sigh of pity , with a smile of contempt ,

as feeling assured , that they will never take up their Freedom in the great Guild of writersjionest and true , and you leave them to that sound public opinion , which always , sooner or later , decides critically and trul y b ; twecn the "gnorant and the intelligent , the impostor and

' »« true , the man without brains and the man 'With brains , the man whose words are the merest platitudes , aud the man whose words are worth fading ., potts and Slurk still exist in the '' terary world , but let us hope and trust that Masonic journalism may be long and safel

y Preserved from their " amenities , " from all that j ^ n still y and defame the free course of Masonic 'terature , and the forbearing and courteous character of Masonic writers . V / e on our part "terly contemn and despise alj Masonic pers ° nahties . '

Masonic Imposition.

MASONIC IMPOSITION .

We are not going to indulge to-day in a long tirade against that simulation of distress and suffering which very often imposes on our kindhearted brethren . We are not intending- to dilate

now on that standing nuisance in some parts of the country very abounding , the travelling impostor , though much mig ht well and seasonably be said on both topics . The real live Masonic impostor when we come across him , we think

the best thing to do with him is to harjjul . i'ff over to the nearest | I { i | , | , | him to a limited Hi , » r nnrj ^¦ nir .- rlrr £ eclusion from ^¦^ j ij-- ^ TTr 7 eiiiarks to-day , ' take as if « c < e a wider range , and perhaps may Lave a more direct interest for us . We live in a age of much

pretention and noisy utterance . Shallowness and self-sufficiency mark a good deal of our professions , both of sympathies and of open teaching , and we are . inundated just now , as it seems to us , with a bevy of noisy talkers but not of thinkers . Our ; is a great epoch of secondhand

information , and most sure it is , that we like our " thoughts like clothes all ready-made . " Hence we have uflisten to idle themes and crude suggestions , to the reveries of the unpractical , the theories of the hazy , the hopeless chimeras of an overwrought fancy , or the unhealthy

lucubiation of some unreasoning sciolist . Nothing is more painful , nay humiliating than to have to wade through the turgid nonsense of some aspiring rhapsodist , or the indigested indigestible bathos of the so-called profound thinker , in nine cases out of ten such writers

are impostors , amiable impostors perhaps , who have no claim to originality of any kind , and who have no pretence to careful study of the subjects they so glibl y write about . Whether they have evoked their own self-conscience , as S'jme are fond of saying just now , or no , matters

nothing at all , they are blind leaders of the blind , and as they have studied nothing truly , they have nothing to communicate really . They are and will always remain " literary duffers , " full of froth and noise , and ofttimes vulgar personality and pretentious pomposity , but as

teaches valueless , as leaders helpless , as guides hopeless . And those of us who are conversant with the literature of the hour , must at times feel deeply moved at the spectacle before our eyes , of this hurrying and confused crowd of teachers and writers without any definite aim or

distinctness of utterance . That there is a brighter side to the picture we do not deny , but we have but too faithfully , wo fear , endeavoured to describe the " epidemic " which is affecting and deteriorating our current literary efforts . Of course we are

well aware that much may be fairly advanced in favour and support of a free course for literature , liberty of discussion , expansion of thought , developement of the conscious intellect , & c , & c , but still to our mind the " outcome " so far is not pleasant or

promising , but , on the contrary , suggests very many serious considerations . And this state of things exists in Freemasonry . It has been our wont often to talk of the charlatans of the past , like Cagliostro an . l Fiiich , and many more ; but wo must not shut our eyes to the fact that just now

we have before us very many evidences that much that has been put forward in respect of Freemasonry is based on no accurate knowledge of the subject , has been formed with no proper " measuring rod" of the dimensions of the Masonic building , that in short our "Naometria" is neither very

accurate nor very scientific . Many of us form systems , and then invent theories ; many of us propound certain notions of our own , and then give them the name of the wisdom of the past . And hence practically our public teaching becomes an imposition , and wc impostors

Masonically . That is to * ay , we ventilate opinions whose bearings we have not ourselves realized ; We assert conclusions of our own , which wc submit as "dogmata , " and without regard to abstract truth per se ; we make the subjective sentiment

of the moment , a bone of contention or a test of orthodoxy . We shall recur to this subject in another issue , as it is a very important one in itself , and has a good deal to do , more than we perhaps think , with the future progress and prosperity of Freemasonry .

Boys' School Anniversary Festival For 1876.

BOYS' SCHOOL ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL FOR 1876 .

The Boys' School Anniveisary Festival took place at thc Alexandra Palace , en Wednesday , June 28 th , under the Presidency of our dist , ^ ffuished Bro . Lord Leigh , when upwaifj ^ f

jQ \ 2 . 000 was announced by the J ^ , ^ . ^ ^ with twenty-one lists to ^ cotifa ^ IVeTshall rtcur to the cniTiprtJri pfffffiTTf ^ wp jjgg eivlphatically ll' U'llHTTiTl il the House Committee and Bro . Binckes .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

[ . We do not hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving ofthe opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we uish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain aeccsf . lry iimits—free discussion . —ErO

THE LAST QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION . To the Editor of Hie Freemason . Dear Sir and Brother , — Bro . Simpson , in his letter published in your impression of Saturday last , rebukes me seriously for " thc use" which he says " I made of thc Grand Master ' s name , as a lever to propel my motion to success . " Bro .

Simpson is right 111 the fact , though not in the somewhat coarse explanation he gives to it . I thought I had referred sufficiently to this subject in my last letter , but holding , as 1 do , that when a man commits an error the only proper way is frankly to admit it , I do admit that I made a grave mistake , and I am exceedingly sorry for it . Believing , as I did , that my motion would be carried , I

thought that it would add an additional zest to the satisfaction with which it would be carried to know that the Grand Master approved of it . I judged by myself and by the opinions of the many distinguished brethren upon whose judgment 1 place great reliance , and whom I had consulted upon it . I alone , however , am responsible for it . I alone bear thc blame . I learned for the first time

that a Grand Master must not express an opinion . have served under four different Grand Masters , and although I may have once heard an expression of opinion by one of them received in silence , I never before heard the opinion of the Grand Master received with cries of •' No , no . " When I heard those cries , then for the first time 1 saw the formidable nature of the opposition to my resolutions .

I unwittingly exposed our Royal Chief to this discourtesy , and I am deeply sorry fur it . I now proceed to Bro , Simpson ' s letter generally , lie complains that I published a private letter of his without his consent . I utterly deny this . 1 claim that 1 had a perfect right to make any use I thought proper of his letter . It was in no way a private letter ; it was written

ro me 011 public business , and on matters which weie to be publicly discussed i-. i the course of a few days . 1 am not surprised that he i ! o ; s not like , as he evidently does not , that the opinions lit expressed tome should be known to vary so immensely from those which he expressed in Grand Lodge ; but that is his concern , iiot mine . 1 claim , then , my perfect right to use his letter , and 1 am about lu

exercise that right again . Before doing so 1 must premise that I do not understand Bro . Simpson , perhaps he docs not understand himself . " Methinks he docs protest too much" —of that , however , others will judge . On Wednesday last , by the last post , I received from Bro . Simpson a Utter , in which he asks me to serve on a committee to be nominated in

September next , and then goes on to say , " I confess I feel very sore at one or two of your expressions in rtference to me before Grand Lodge meeting and in your recent letter , but I feel bound , both as a clergyman and a brother Mason , to sink any personal fctling 1 may have , in order that charity and brotherly love may abound amengst us . " At or about the very time that he wrote these words ( for

I believe that you do not receive communications for publication after Wednesday ) he must have written the Utter which appears in the " l- ' rccmnson" of Saturday last . Why did he write that letter to mc ? and why did he so write , if he had already written , or contemplated writing , his letter to you : How singularly charity and brotherl y love abound in it ; how singularly practice follows

profession : Bro . Simpson labours hard to prove that the opinions he expressed in his letter to me and those declared by him in Grand Lodge are reconcilable . The ailifice is too transparent , the effort is a failure , lie writes , " I say now , as I said then , I think the plan of giwng to St . Raul ' s and St . Alhan ' s an admirable one per sc—that is , by itself and

in itself , and from my standpoint ( as a clergyman of thc Church of England ) , I like thc idea very much . " but thc plan by itself was one thing and as paid for out of Grand Lodge funds another . Now , this latter pnrt is exactly what lie did not say . Was thtre one word in his objections to me as to Grand Lodge funds ? No , but there was a icason given , and a very different ' -He , v . by my plan

being admirable per sc , was not | icjfeet , and that reason l 3 ro . Simpson gave , " because it wants that personal am ! living element which he thought such an rcensinn should possess . " I li . i present argument is an after-thought , and will n > it hold water . lie says in thc one case he had to follow his pleasure and in the other to do his duty . Some people might have thought that pleasure as a clergyman

and duty as a Mason might have been together in such' a case . How did our reverend brother ' s pleasure and duty feel in reference to his own proposition for a public service of Masons at St . Raul's , and a grant of £ 1000 from Granil Lodge funds to a charity in India ! In reference to thc passage in my last letter , where I said " I heard Bro . Simpson ' s statement in Grand Lod ge with amazement , when 1 knew that he had expressed