Contents.

CONTENTS .

. , nKRS joj Old Warrants . —XXI . —XXII jo 6 United Grand Lodge of England 506 Provincial Grand Lodge of Cornwall 506 Provincial Grand Lodge of Somersetshire $ 08 Trooortant Decision of Grand Lodge jog Reviews •5 " Notes and Queries Jir RSPORTS OF M ASONIC MMTINGS— Craft Masonry in Instruction Jra Royal Arch Jia Mark Masonry Ji 3 Queensland $ 12

Masonic Ceremonial at Dukinfield . " < jj 3 Address to the Queen by the Grand Lodge of Scotland "U 3 Ladies" Day and Summer Outing of the Cama Lodge , No . aioj $ 13 "Is Marriage a Failure ? " 513 The I-ate Br 0 - John Brand , President of the Orange Free State 5 * 4 Picnic of the Portsmouth Temperance Lodge , No . 2068 $ 14 Obituarv 514 Theatres 514 Masonic and General Tidings JiJ Lodge Meetings for Next Week Ji 6

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THE programme of the business to be transacted at the Unl l ! odgt . Quarterly Communication of United Grand Lodge on Wednesday , the 5 th inst ,, is mostly of a formal character , There are some ten recommendations of money grants by the Board of

Benevolence to be endorsed or otherwise as Grand Lodge may see fit , while the Report of the Board of General Purposes is confined to a statement of the several balances , amounting together to upwards of £ 7000 , in the Bank of England and in Grand Secretary ' s hands on the 17 th August—thc day of the last meeting of the Board of Finance . The Grand Master ' s letter of

sympathy to the Empress VICTORIA of GERMANY , on the occasion of the death of her husband , the late Emperor FREDERICK , Protector of Freemasons in Prussia and the Empress ' s reply , will be read , and an announcement will be made that a complete suit of the clothing worn by a Past Grand Master of United Grand Lodge has been forwarded , in the name and on behalf of

Grand Lodge , to his Majesty the King of SWEDEN , for his Majesty ' s acceptance , as a memento of his recent appointment to that exalted office in English Freemasonry . We note further that the list of 11 lodges , which have been warranted by the Grand Master since the June Communication ,

comprises two lodges which will meet within the London area , a West Lancashire and a West Yorkshire lodge , and seven lodges in foreign parts , namely , one in the Island of Cyprus , one in Queensland , two in Victoria , and three in New South Wales .

* * * WE trust we are not misrepresenting or distorting the argu-Argument . ments advanced by the New Zealand Masonic Journal on the eternal question of jurisdiction ; but it appears to us that in its

attempt to upset our theory that the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland are the only Grand Lodges which have the right to charter lodges in New Zealand and the other British colonies and dependencies in which there are no recognised independent Grand Lodges , it hassgone so far as to declare that the claim to exercise this right of chartering lodges is valid

onl y for so long as no other Grand Lodges object to it . It says ; " We are quite prepared to admit that the Grand Lodge of England may tacitl y hold this view , but we know only too well that it is "ot so held by other Grand Lodges , notably by numerous Grand Lod ges in America , who deem any country unoccupied territory unless

'here is an existing Grand Lodge within its boundaries . " We are inclined to think that in making this statement , our worthy contemporary has greatly exaggerated the views of the " numerous Grand Lodges in America " he "as in mind ; but whether this is so or not , we must take the liberty of Pointing out that the justice or injustice of a person ' s claim to exercise

a certain ri ght or privilege cannot be determined by the mere opinion ° | somebod y else or the fact that somebody else has already set that claim at defiance . It is a general or a particular law which determines a matter of this kind , or in the absence of any general or particular law , general or a particular custom , such as

can be shown b y positive and direct evidence to have existed during a Period of time commonly spoken of as "immemorial , " that is to say , uring which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary . It cannot ° disputed that the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland ave both claimed and exercised for more than a century—that seems , , , enough back to go—the right to charter lodges in the colonies

th p ? . encies of the British Crown—and even in countries not subject to ^ British crown—where there were already established no independent and Lod ges with prior and superior claims to exercise such right . A mere suffi at the Masonic Calendars of England , Ireland , and Scotland will tpri ° t 0 s ^ t ^ tlle Grand Lod ges of these countries have gone on

charthe ^ h l 0 d ges * - *** - different ' British colonies and dependencies during que It ° th ' period without having had their rights to do so called in Q S *? " •Wherever and whenever in any British territory , an independent Mr ,, " Jr * £ e . has been established and recognised as such—as in Canada ,

surre , tla ' South Australia , and elsewhere—our Grand Lodges have of the i " ed the claims the y formerly exercised , only stipulating that , if any ir lod ges preferred remaining in their old allegiance , they should

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enjoy full liberty to do so . Here , then , we have it shown by the indisputable evidence of facts that for a century and upwards the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland have claimed , have exercised , and in certain cases have surrendered the right to charter lodges in the colonies and dependencies of the British Crown ; and it strikes us it

is rather late in the day—and our contemporary must forgive us if we add that it is supremely silly on its part—to deny the existence of a right which has been thus claimed , exercised , and in certain cases surrendered , because during the last two or three years there have been sundry Grand Lodges in America which dispute its validity , while the Great Priory of Canada

has had the hardihood to set up Templar Encampments in one of our Australian Colonies and justifies its conduct on the ground that just now there are no Templar bodies established there , and that , in consequence it is " unoccupied" territory . But by way of showing the absurdity of our contemporary ' s argument , as we understand it , that a right is

non-existent , when or because somebody disputes it , we may mention that not so very long ago , the Grand Lodge of Manitoba—in British North Americachartered a lodge in territory claimed by the Grand Lodge of England to be within its jurisdiction , and on being remonstrated with by the latter , at once withdrew its charter and apologised for its intrusion . The Grand Lodges

of the United Kingdom may surrender their rights in certain cases or annul them altogether of their own free will and accord , but it is nonsense to suggest that they can be deprived of what they have exercised from time

immemorial by laws enacted by other Grand Lodges , or that those rights cease to exist merely because some of the Grand Lodges in America declare them non-existent . .

IT was hardly to be expected that the correspondence which and has been proceeding for many days past in the Daily Telegraph Marriage . on the question recently propounded by Mrs . MONA CAIRO" Is Marriage a Failure ? " —would be continued long without some letters

appearing in condemnation or praise of Freemasonry , in relation to the married state ; and , as will be seen from the letters we reprint elsewhere , this expectation has already been realised . We do not anticipate that any good will result from the correspondence , interesting and even amusing as many of the letters are , which our contemporary has been conducting , and

for this reason , that in certainly eight out of every ten cases the writers have seen fit to generalise from their own individual experiences . They base their arguments in favour of the success or failure of marriage on what has passed in thair own immediate circle . Even those who incline to take a broader view are content with quoting the general experiences of a

particular epoch or country , thus ignoring the fact that al other epochs and in other countries the result may have been or may be directly opposed to their experience . But be this as it may , and confining our attention to the subject so far as it affects Freemaspnry , it is probably not surprising that a " Freemason ' s Wife , " who introduced Freemasonry into the discussion , should

consider that membership of our Society is inconsistent with happiness in the married state . To judge from the tone of her letter , this unhappy lady must possess two out of the three attributes ascribed to women by Sir WALTER SCOTT—himself a brother of the mystic tie . She may or may not be " coy "—we favour the belief that she is not — but , we

imagine there is little doubt from the manner of her writing that she is both " uncertain " and " hard to please . " Nor , it seems , do we stand alone in this opinion , for " Old Freemason " suggests there is in her letter " some degree of malice against her husband ' s Freemasonry and habits , " and recommends her to try " love and forbearance " rather than

"denunciation , which , as he caustically observes , "is apt to gall and em « bitter , and has been tried often without success . " She is probably a woman of the CAUDLE type , with an extra allowance of bile in her composition , and , however much her husband may have been originally disposed to spend his leisure hours at home with the partner for life of his joys and sorrows , it

did not take him long to discover that , if he wished for a few hours' peace and quiet , when his labours for the day were ended , he was more likel y to find them at his club or lodge than in the society of a woman " uncertain " of temper and as " hard to please " as a spoiled child . The chances are that any attentions he showed her when they first settled down as married

folk were received with coldness , either because she expected something better or greater , or because they were not the kind of attentions she wished for generally or at that particular time ; or , as likely as not , for no particular reason at all . Or , the husband may have thought that occasional visits to his club and lodge were not inconsistent with his duties as a married man , and

he may have gone thither , unwisely perhaps , a little too soon after marriage , " et hine ill's lacrymae "—or rather these naggings and snarlings about his selfishness , when if the woman had asked him , in a tone of kindness ,

how he had enjoyed his evening , the club and lodge visits would have remained occasional , instead of becoming more and more frequent , and ultimately a settled part of his daily routine of duty . But , as any stick is good enough to beat a dog with , and as women are no 6