Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS , 3 Ji Supreme Grand Chapter « . ¦¦ .... 372 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Cumberland and Westmorland ' . . .. ; .. 372 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Berks andOxon 372

Consecration of the Henry Levander Lodge , No . 2048 . ' ... 373 English Freemasonry before 171 J . —No . IV . 373 History ' of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys ( Continued ) 373 The Recent Mark Benevolent Fund 374

Presentation to . Bro . I . D . Allcroft , Past Grand Treasurer .... ' 375 Summer Outing of the Chaucer Lodge of Instruction , No . 1540 375 Testimonial to Sir J . 13 . Monckton , Past President Board of General Purposes ... 37 s Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 375

. CORRESPONDENCEA Useful Warning .... 375 " . ' A Verv Hard Case 377 A Find ., .- 377 The . Inquisition ' ..... 377 Reviews 377 Notes and Queries 378

REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry ' . ¦ ..-..... ' . 378 Instruction " . 37 S Mark Masonry 379 Rosicrucian . Society . 379 Red Cross , of Constantino , 379 Soutli Africa . ' 370

Consecration of the Wharton Lodge , No . 2045 •'•379 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 379 Picnic of the Everton Lodge , No . 823 .. „ .. 379 South Middlesex v . London Rifle Brigade 379 Masonic and General Tidings 380 Lodge Meetings for Next Week Cover .

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THE question connected with the rights of a minority in a lodge is a very important one , so important that it has for . some time been a leading law of English Freemasonry . •It sometimes happens that a lodge is broken up by internal disorder , the action of some unprinci pled egotist , or of an active " caucus . " Majorities are not always right , and very often are altogether

wrong . The justice and the equity . remain . very often with the minority . Under , these circumstances , the Grand Lodge of England , in its Constitutions , very wisely safeguards the " legitimate rights of the minority , and especially is such a provision and protection needful when , in abnormal movements abroad , the old jurisdiction is given up , and a new jurisdiction is sought

after . The charter of the . lodge was originally granted , be it remembered , in faith of the loyalty of the petitioners to the English Grand Lodge . In process [ of time that loyalty becomes wavering or extinct , and it seems almost a matter ' of necessity and of duty that the unchangeable law of English Freemasonry for many years should be adhered to , and if there-is

a minority still wishful to stand by the charter , and uphold connection with the warranting Grand Lodge , the old law of English Freemasonry should be ' invoked , and upheld . Our distinguished ; Bro . WHYTEHEAD asks us why we used the words needless and baseless reasons in ' respect of a new Antipodean Grand

Lodge . We reply we read the controversy and followed the agitation catefully , and the keynote of the strain which affected the English lodges out there was this : " Be . independent , —you will manage your own concerns , and save for your own ¦ purposes a large amount of money which goes to England for benevolence and other purposes , " We called attention to the

specific allegations made professedly to fan the agitation at the time , and our Femarks and the verbiage complained of can be found on the files of the Freemason , so we need not repeat them . Practically , in our opinion , a large number of brethren were misled by statements which were without the slightest foundation in ] fact . Like Bro . WHYTEHEAD we see the difficulty

of governing distant colonial bodies , but there is a right way and a wrong " way of doing everything , and we have no pretence to desert those loyal members of ours who , unallured by excitement , and uninfluenced by sophistry still adhere in Masonic fealty to the jurisdiction of . the Grand Lodge of England . The Book of Constitutions makes special provision for the

minority question , and we are forced to adhere to laws wise in themselves , and whose value and stability many passing years have-tested and proved , and which we have only recently revised . If there is a minority in any English Lodge , whichf declares ' to give np the charter , our authorities are compelled " nolentes volentes" by the law . to

uphold their . privileges , and vindicate their rights . We- are not ourselves , like our old Grand Master , Lord ZETLAND , favourable to this- intense multiplication of Grand Lodges . They become a source of weakness instead of strength ; a stumbling-block instead of a benefit to Freemasonry . They open a door for personal ambition and hurtful agitation .

The little bnet authority / decorations and rank , the tinsel grandeur of the hour ,-have great attractions for many weak minds , and too often these magnificent movements are the outcome of an insignificant caucus , and assume the appearance often of a deliberate " job , " to promote the advancement of some particular personage who had far better have been

left in his original insignificance and obscurity . But as such movements seem to be inevitable—all we have a fair ri ght to ask is that the requirements . of Law , Order , and Justice should be complied with . Where , for any reason , good or bad , or even no reason at all , for Truth does not

always go with numbers , a majority determines in a distant dependency to sever itself from the English Grand Lodge , all we can look to is that that majority is a distinct and deliberate one . And then we yield to such ah expressed wish made in a proper way . But we are not forced to express our approval of it , especially if we think we see in it signs of weakness

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or note the existence of serious defects . Mushroom bodies have risen and disappeared before ; even now the same process of disintegration and decay is going on in organizations thecreation of yesterday ; and , therefore , surely it is but wise and becoming and needful on the . part of the Grand Lodge of

England , the mother , be it remembered , of nearly all existing Grand Lodges on the face of the earth , in words of kindly warning and sober experience , to say to all such movements and to many hustling nobodies , " Festina lente . " ¦ ¦ ¦ •- '¦

< WE made some remarks about the Grand Lodge of Ontario as it terms itself some time back , and asked for information . This , the Editor of . the Canadian Craftsman has now kindly given us , and we think it but right and fair to acknowledge it , and to print it . The Grand Lodge of . Canada claims

Masonic Jurisdiction over the Province of Ontario , from its original position as the Grand Lodge of all Canada . The-Quebec Grand ' Lodge is formed of the Province of Quebec , and certain Freemasons claim to be the Grand Lodge of Ontario as a Province , leaving the Grand Lodge of Canada out in the cold . As aGrand Lodge can however only be formed

legally . The history as given by the Craftsman , of the alleged Grand Lodge of Ontario , certainly contains in it not one element of Masonic legality and Masonic regularity . The following the Craftsman says are the true facts of the case : " Eden Lodge , London , Canada , was chartered in 1875 , by the then acting Grand Master , M . W . Bro . J . K . KERR , and in his address to

the Grand Lodge of Canada , on the nth of July of that year , held in the City of London , he duly reported the same to Grand Lodge . The Board of General Purposes , to whom the address was in due course referred , recommended warrents to thirteen lodges , U . D . ; postponed the granting of a warrant to Harman Lodge , Toronto , and reported , " In the application for

the issue of a warrant to Eden Lodge , London , the Board recommend that a warrant be not granted , but that the W . M . the GIU . VD MASTER be requested to issue his dispensation authorising the officers and brethren named therein lo pass and raise those already initiated in that lodge . " Grand Lodge endorsed the recommendations of the Board . This gave dire

offence to those brethren , and a few months afterwards , the GRAND -MASTER refusing to grant a fuller dispensation than that ordered by -Grand Lodge , some ten or twelve Masons , only three or four of whom were Past Masters , organised themselves into the Grand Lodge of dnlario . " Subsequently lo this the bddy was incorporated by Act of Parliament , ( so much for

legislative action making Masonic bodies legitimate or otherwise ) , added a sick benefit fund like any other secret charity association , —Oddfellows , & c . We are further told that " not a single'lodge on the Grand Lodge of -Canada rollover joined them , but that they now have a number of lodges in Ontario , though not a single Grand Lodge recognizes them . " We do not see on

Masonic . principles how a body so formed can be considered a legal Grand Lodge Masonically ; the Incorporation of the State may make it a legal body as before the law of the land , but cannot make it Masonically a Grand Lodge . The point taken as regards " legislative action , " of course "in re Quebec " understood , is very badly taken , as a legal prohibition of

Freemasonry as a secret society is a prohibition no loyal Freemason ever overlooks , however reluctantly he may bow to the " decisions of the Supreme Legislature" in that respect . We think it a great pity that the Grand Lodge of Canada did not take the name of the Grand Lodge of Ontario , at the time Quebec was formed , but its legal jurisdictional claim are

indisputable , though curiously enough , it was at one time an illegal body by the laws of the land , on account of its severance from England , and required a legalizing and rehabilitating act . So there is something in old mother country ' s connection after all , which we say respectfully , " Bene nolanda est , " by somo good friends of ours in all parts of the . world ,

. * * * WE quite agree with our confrere the Editor of " Loomis '" interesting magazine in the following emphatic words : •" One of the most unjust and un-Masonic proceedings on the part of a Grand Body was the issuing of a circular by the Grand Lodge of Illinois , containing a list of the rejections of

applicants for membership during the last quarter , in addition to the expulsions , suspensions , and reinstatements . To the . three latter no objections could be made ; but to publish the names of a number of men who have been unable to gain admission into the Fraternity , many of them , no doubt ,

gentleman who have been rejected through feelings of personal enmity , is in direct violation of established Masonic law . " We doubt very much the good or the right of all this publication . It is a very weak spot in American Freemasonry . In England such a course would be " actionable , " and we think the sooner such a system is put a stop to the better . WE call attention to a letter elsewhere , signed J . II . LIVINGSTONE , which