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is stated in the official report of the proceedings that one English lodge and 25 brethren from an English lodge took part . We note on equally good authority the assured statement that no English lodge was represented . One of the Irish lodges also reported present "cries off , " so that the action of

this body , depending upon a few Scottish and Irish lodges ( 75 English lodges standing out ) , thereby becomes an act of such self-evident absurdity , that it must be repudiated by the Masonic svorld . We can only ask , in " bated breath , " " What next ? "

9 # OUR readers svill be glad to see lhat our actis'e and svorthy Bro . Rev . W , TEBBS , P . G . C . for Somersetshire , P . M ., P . Z . and D . G . R . for Otago and Southland , New Zealand , vicar of St . Matthesv ' s , Auckland , has been

busily employed in carrying out the good svork of founding Royal Arch Masonry in that district . We feel quite sure that his performance al the ceremony of consecration , from his " bright" knosvledge of our ritual , will have been both expert and impressive in the highest degree , and produced a beneficial effect on ali those svho svere present .

i * " a WE are glad to note lhat thc Dorset Masonic Charity Fund has been so successful . Such an effort reflects great credit on the good province of Dorsetshire and its distinguished head . * ' ** * in WE have read , sve admit svith emotion of almost unmasonic envy , Bro .

PARVIN ' catalogue of the BOWER library nosv in peaceful possession of the Grand Lodge of Ioss'a , U . S . Remembering our osvn little library at head quarters , almost unknosvn and almost unused , sve feel strongly that such a contrasted state of affairs is hardly dignified or becoming for the premier Grand Lodge of the svorld . See reviesv of report of Grand Lodge of Iosva elsewhere .

The Formation Of New Grand Lodges.

THE FORMATION OF NEW GRAND LODGES .

BY MASONIC STUDENT . It seems advisable , as a good deal nosv is said about certain legal conditions of forming Grand Lodges , to look into any knosvn law and precedent affecting the subject . But the moment you attempt to do so you are met by this great difficulty , the absolute svant of any distinct or binding precedent or law thereanent .

All modern Freemasonry hangs upon the formation of the English Grand Lodge of 1717 , and all later Masonic lasv seems either to depend on the original English lasvs of 1721 , or to have been made by bodies " ad hoc , " as it suited their convenience , or special questions arose . The American Grand Lodges have certain quasi-lasvs of formation and

recognition of Grand Lodges , but they have experienced many difficulties in the matter , confessedly a very intricate one , and they have at this moment one or two curious questions undecided ; but all these provisions it is but fair to observe are purely American , governed by American svants , needs , position , and do not profess to rest on European or English lasv .

The Grand Orient of France and other bodies have taken up and enforced viesvs of their own , but there is actually no one code of international or national lasv of Masonic formation and recognition of Grand Lodges svhich can be safely appealed to , or generally acknowledged as such . Everything must be referred to Grand Lodges themselves . In 1717 four lodges met

and formed the Grand Lodge of England ; if other lodges existed , as perhaps they did , they put in no appearance and claimed no rights . There was then north of the Trent an older Grand Lodge , that of York , though at the time apparently dormant , and the lodges south of the Trent , over which York never claimed to exercise any ssvay , svere clearly in the right

in meeting and forming themselves into a Grand Lodge . Too much stress cannot be , hosvever , placed on those proceedings , because , in the first place , sve have no reliable or special record of svhat took place , and in those days they did not seemingly pay much attention to mere form . But the formation of a Grand Lodge in 1717 became a " fait accompli , " not an

act of schism , as some have hastily averred , because York , as I said before , had never claimed any authority over the lodges of the South , and its Deputation to the Lodge of Antiquity much later in the century svas clearly " ultra vires , " as , though it could charter * ' lodges , " it could not in any

possibility create a " Grand Lodge . " A Grand Lodge , as we understand the term , being an aggregation of private lodges . One of the great achievements of the Grand Lodge of England after it had become settled svas . to issue deputations for Provincial Grand Masters , and many svere given , say , as betsveen 1717 and 1800 , in fact , all over the svorld .

About the middle of the last century the " Antients began also to issue deputations for Provincial Grand Masters ; but no Grand Lodge out of English warrants was formed , ( excepting the French Grand Lodge ) , until the American Provincial Grand Lodges , after the War of Independence , svhether

Antient or Modern , converted themselves by resolution into State Grand Lodges . As the States in the American Republic have increased in number successive . Grand Lodges have been formed , and all the present difficulty arises for the most part from American proceedings and American exigencies on the subject .

When the Grand Lodge of Canada svas formed there was no question tViat a large majority of English lodges wished to secede , and , saving the rights of a few loyal lodges , Lord Zetland acknosvledged the Grand Lodge

of Canada . Ouebec , formed out of Canada under viobnt protests Irom the Grand Lodge of Canada at the time , even under "threats of excommunication , " svas also offered eventually recognition by the Grand Lodge of England on the terms of accepting the original concordat

The Formation Of New Grand Lodges.

as regards the English lodges . Quebec refused , and so the matter stands . The theory nosv boldly put forsvard that three lodges can anysvhere constitute a Grand Lodge is so great an absurdity in itself that it is not likely ever to be recognized by the Grand Lodge of England . It is , in truth , a burlesque on the Latin adage , " Tres faciunt Collegium , " or a " quorum " for business , as sve should say .

In some of the nesv American States lodges have been warranted , as an unoccupied country , by three Grand Lodges , and the Americans have held that if three lodges of three jurisdictions meet and form themselves into a Grand Lodge such is a good formation . But even in this they have stretched the legal right to do so very much indeed if other lodges exist . Further

than that they have not gone , and indeed there is even nosv , or svas a little time back , a question pending svhere a lodge svarranted by one State Grand Lodge did not svish to leave its mother Grand Lodge , and though the

mother Grand Lodge for the sake of uniformity , kc , svould have preferred that the lodge had voluntarily joined the new Grand Lodge , declined , as the English Grand Lodge had done , to svithdrasv its charter or to sever compulsorily its connexion .

The tsvo most recent flagrant cases of thus ' resting upon an absurd parody of an old saying and direct defiance of Masonic custom and lasvs , as far as sve have had to enounce them in England , has been in Nesv South Wales and Victoria . In the former a fesv Irish and Scottish lodges ( no English lodges though forming the majority ) formed themselves into The

Grand Lodge of Nesv South Wales , svhich some American Grand Lodges and the Grand Lodge of Quebec and others have been in a vast hurry to recognize . Assuming that the lodges of either jurisdiction , separate or united , could forma jurisdictional Grand Lodge , it is quite clear that they

could not compel the lodges of the majority to come in , and so long as the English lodges remain firm in their present position , the Grand Lodgeof England never can or svill recognize so ill egally formed and unmasonic Grand Bodies .

As regards Victoria—the svhole question is a farce and an absurdity . There are 75 English lodges , not one of svhich has joined the movement , despite any statement to ihe contrary , and a fesv Irish and Scottish lodges , not even the totality of them , form themselves into the Grand Lodge of Victoria . Had they have called themselves indeed the Irish or Scottish

Grand Lodge , or both united , of Victoria , 110 one would probably have said a svord ; but to call themselves The Grand Lodge of Victoria on such a basis of action is both an impertinent assertion of untenable Masonic principles , and a direct insult to the Grand Lodge of England . I am not asvare that that really great body has es'er distinctly decided the form and

lasvs of recognition of Grand Lodges . It svould probably say if it svere appealed to that it svould recognize a legal majority of English lodges in a colony forming themselves into a Grand Lodge , ( alsvays saving the just rights of the minority ) , or in the case of Irish , Scottish , and English lodges , a clear majority in each jurisdiction . But it might demur to legislating for other jurisdictions , and ss'ould simply decide as to its osvn .

My paper has run on to such a length that I must leave to next sveek the vexed question of " unoccupied country . " I hope I have said enough hosvever to convince your readers that the old assertion that three lodges anysvhere under any circumstances can form a Grand Lodge is utter nonsense in itself , as our American brethren ss'ould say , a "fraud , " and utterly

unsupported , except perhaps by some hasty and ill considered dicta of Masonic ss'riters , by any Masonic lasv or precedent we wot of in this " svorn out ' Old England of ours . At the same time I say this , I am inclined to think that in a country svhere there are three legal lodges , and only three , and they lorm themselves into a Grand Lodge , they can fairly claim

recognition as a legally formed body on this ground . The aggregation includes all possible constituent members . But each case must stand or fall by its own peculiar circumstances and actualities . An abstract ri ght of three lodges , and svith other known lodges around them , othersvise simply to meet and call themselves a Grand Lodge must be rejected by all Masonic jurists .

Amendments Carried At Special Grand Lodge

AMENDMENTS CARRIED AT SPECIAL GRAND LODGE

IN BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS WHICH SEEM TO REHUIRE ALTERATION ON CONFIRMATION . Paragraph 80 . —The addition as to joining Past Masters becoming members of Provincial or District Grand Lodges , if the new rule giving status be confirmed , should not stand in form of an order to a Provincial Grand

Lodge to pass a bye-law svhich is absurd , but might run as follows : " Past Masters joining lodges in any province or district lrom other English lodges outside such province or district shall , on so joining , and as long as they continue members thereof , become members of the Provincial or District Grand Lodge to svhich their nesv lodge belongs . "

Paragraph 81 . — " In many respects" should be restored , as a Provincial or District Grand Master have not quite the same position in the province or district svhich the Grand Master has—his rulings being subject to appeal and not having the right to confer Past Provincial Grand rank .

Paragraph 119 . — Qualification of Past Wardenship for Mastership of a nesv lodge should be confined to England , as in India and the Colonies such a rule svould be impracticable , and would throsv all nesv lodges into the hands of other jurisdictions , svho have no qualification of any kind .

Paragraph 130 . —Bro . Tombs' amendment , giving a margin of seven days in provincial and district lodges for election and installation will interfere with the one year qualification of Masters and Wardens . It does not extend the privilege to London , which is unfair , and it seems to g ive