Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
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which they reside , and to which we referred in our issue of last week , it greatly strengthened by a circumstance mentioned by him in his annual address in dealing with this question . The case which was brought under the notice of the Grand Lodge of Iowa in 1877 was that of a resident in Iowa who was made a Mason during a visit he was paying to Scotland , and was furnished with a diploma by the Grand Lodge of that country , " for
the purpose of permitting him to join the lodge in his own country , and at his own home . " But on the brother—a Dr . HUGHES , of Keskeckendeavouring to affiliate to a lodge located in that city or town , the question involved became the subject of a correspondence with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , and the letter to its Grand Secretary reached the hands of the R . W . Master of the Scottish lodge in which Dr . H UGHES had been made .
The said Master stated , in his reply , that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had " no power , according to its laws , to hinder a Master under its jurisdiction from making a worthy man a Freemason , to whatever country he may belong , " and , after adding that the practice of American jurisdictions in respect to this matter was not in harmony with the laws of Scotland , he said : " I , therefore , beg to declare , with all due respect , that we shall
continue to make all good men from Iowa Masons in our lodge , and give you full liberty to do the same in regard to Scotchmen living in Iowa . " No answer was returned to this , but in the course of the subsequent correspondence with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , its Grand Secretary , at the instance of Grand Committee , reported that that body were " not prepared to recommend the adoption of the rule
to which the Grand Secretary of Iowa refers . " The constitution of our Grand Lodge does not permit of any interference with daughter lodges in their initiation of American residents in this country ( temporarily or permanently ) , any more than with the practices of American and other Grand Lodges as to the initiation of British subjects . " The matter does not seem to have been carried further , but Bro . GRANGER ' point is this , that up to
the time referred to there had been no interchange of representatives between the Grand Lodges of Iowa and Scotland , but at this time an interchange of such was made between the two Supreme Authorities , which , as Bro . GRANGER very sensibly points out , " would never have been made at such a time on our part but for an inner consciousness that Scotland was
right and ourselves wrong . '' We quite agree with that brother , and are not surprised that he should have adopted the course of recommending the abrogation of the law of Iowa relating , to the re-obligation of brethren made such when sojourners in other jurisdictions . We are indebted for the circumstances to Bro . GRANGER ' S address , from which we have derived them without alteration or modification .
«*» THIS approval of the course pursued by the Grand Lodge of Quebec towards the three Anglo-Montreal lodges furnishes just another instance of the value of practice as the only true criterion of the value of precept . In this instance the Committee have been making haste in a hurry without having fully mastered all the circumstances . In no other way can we count
for this endorsement of conduct , which we do not hesitate to describe as opposed to the principles of the Craft . As we have said times without number , absolute freedom within the prescriptions of the Masonic law is the undoubted right of every member of our Society . Yet by countenancing and approving the conduct of Quebec , this Committee disallows the right of the English lodges in Montreal to exeicise this freedom . Again , how
can those same lodges be clandestine , and those lodges which were constituted by the same supreme authority—the Grand Lodge or Lodges of England—but afterwards had a hand in establishing the Grand Lodge of Canada , and are now part and parcel of the Grand Lodge of Quebec , be not clandestine ? A lodge may have been created irregularly , and afterwards become absolved of its irregularity ; but there can be no " ex post
facto" irregularity of creation about a lodge which has been created regularly , nor is there any irregularity of conduct when a lodge obeys the prescriptions of the laws laid down by the authority which created and still governs it . Therefore the Grand Lodge of Quebec is stating the thing which is not when it pronounces our Anglo-Montreal lodges clandestine . But it is hardly worth while pursuing a subject which has already been worn
pretty well threadbare ; but , by way of showing how absurd is the claim of the Grand Lodge of Quebec to be supreme over lodges which were in existence before it was established , we will take the liberty of pointing out that if the three English lodges in Montreal are clandestine , then many of its own lodges must be clandestine likewise , having been constituted by the Grand Lodge or Lodges of
England . In this case . Jit must follow that the Grand Lodge or Lodges of England must have been clandestine—in the sense of irregular—or have exercised its or their authority clandestinely in these and all other similar cases , the result of which position would be that the whole of Freemasonry derived from English sources—that is , by far the greater section of the whole Fraternity throughout the world—must be clandestine likewise . Of course ,
this is not so , and we only set forth this self-proposition in order to show to what lengths we may be carried , and in what difficulties landed , if we accept the diction of the Grand Lodge of Quebec that the three lodges in question in Montreal are clandestine . We agree with the statement in the introduction to the excerpts ftom the proceedings of our Grand Lodge at the Quarterly Communication in June , 1885 , which are given in this Report ,
pp . xlvi .-liii . — "that Grand Lodges of the States of the United States should at least inteligently understand what effect their recognition of such colonial Grand Lodges will produce . " We further see the force of the argument in the proposition that " if brethren undertake to form Grand Lodges in these geographical districts , orjcolonies " —that is , of the United Kingdom— " of
course , difficulties are created . " We also hold that if other Grand Lodges fail in grasping the position of Masonic affairs in these matters , and do no take the sound advice of their Committee on Correspondence "to make haste slowly "—more difficulties will be created , and the last condition of Freemasonry will be worse than the first . It is because the Committee have not followed their own advice that we have dwelt on this matter at such
length . # * # WE offered some remarks lately on certain objectionable insinuations in a recent number of the Toronto Freemason . But though these insinuations were made by our contemporary against the Grand Lodge of New York
in the interests of the Grand Lodge of Quebec , it is evident it has no very high opinion of the Quebec brethren . We judge so , at least , from its greeting 10 the Masonic ~ Neivs , of Montreal , the first number of which was published on the 10 th July last , and has been kindly transmitted to us . The Toronto Freemason in bestowing its sympathy on its new contemporary writes , " There are only some two or three thousand Masons in all Quebec ,
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and as only a small percentage of the Craft in that jurisdiction will subscribe , it is evident the new venture will have a big job on hand to exist . " The " new venture " very sensibly retorts " that Montreal is not exactly a suburb of Toronto , and that the Craft in Quebec are not quite so mean as he thinks . " A fair retort and courteous withal . But if our Toronto friend has so very low an opinion of the Quebec brethren , and the support they
are likel y to extend to a Masonic newspaper , Why is it so hot in its sympathy with their Grand Lodge in the Quebec-England difficulty ? There are , of course , numbers of brethren who never ( rouble themselves about Masonic jurisdiction , and we have no intention of mixing up questions of Masonic law with the support or non-support extended to a " new venture " in the line of Masonic newspapers . But it is clear the Quebec Masons are thought meanly of in this respect , and meanness is not oiten confined to one class of
conduct or conduct in one class of transactions . This makes it the more astonishing that the Toronto Freemason should sacrifice its own character for courtesy and the plainest decencies of criticism by attributing sordid motives to the Grand Lodge of New York , when the Grand Lodge of Quebec , to whose preposterous claims New York objects , is composed of brethren of whom the Toronto journal in question has formed so poor an estimate .
United Grand Lodge Of England.
UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND .
The September Quarterly Communication of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England and Wales was held in the Temple , Freemasons' Hall , Great Queen-street , on Wednesday evening . Bro . the R . W . General John Studholme Brownrigg , C . B ., P . G . W ., Provincial Grand Master for Surrey , occupied the throne . Bro . Hugh D . Sandeman , P . D . G . M . of Bengal , acted as Deputy Grand Master ; Bro . the Rev . C . J . Martyn , P . G Chap ., D . P . G . M . of Suffolk , as G . S . W . ; and Bro . the Rev . J . S . Brownrigg ,
P . G . Chap ., D . P . G . M . for Berks and Bucks , as G . J . VV . There were also present—Bros . Rev . J . N . Palmer , G . Chap . ; D . P . Cama , G . Treas . ; T . Fenn , Pres . Board of Gen . Purposes ; Col . Shadwell H . Clerke , G . Sec ; E . E . Wendt , G . S . ( G . C . ) ; Sir Bruce Seton , G . S . D . ; Ralph Clutton , G . J . D . ; J . E . Le Feuvre , G . J . D . ; Sir Albert Woods ( Garter ) , G . D . C . ; R . G . Glover , Dep . G . D . C . ; E . D . Davis , G . S . B . j A . Lucking-, G . P . ; W . H . PerrymanA . G . P . ; Rev . H . Adair Pickard , P . G .
, Chap . ; Rev . Canon Portal , P . G . Chap . ; Rev . VV . K . R . Bedford , P . G . Chap . ; Rev . R . N . Sanderson , P . G . Chap . ; Peter de L . Long , P . G . D . ; Frank Richardson , P . G . D . ; Brackstone Baker , P . G . D . ; Robert Grey , P . G . D . ; Raynham VV . Stewart , P . G . D . ; Baron de Ferrieres , P . G . D . ; J . M . Case , P . G . D . ; F . Davison , P . G . D . ; Henry Maudsley , P . G . D . ; C . W . C . Hutton , P . G . D . ; J . S . Peirce , P . G . D . ; J . Glaisher , P . G . D . ; R . W . Wheeler , P . G . D . ; Jabez Hogg , P . G . D . ; Magnus Ohren , P . A . G . D . of C ; T . Lewis Thomas , P . A . G . D . of C . ; Raymond H . Thrupp , P . A .
G . D . of C ; Lieut .-Col . J . E . Taylor , P . G . S . B . ; Major G . Lambert , P . G . S . B . ; Edgar Bowyer , P . G . S . B . ; Butler Wilkins , P . G . S . B . ; Henry Garrod , P . G . P . ; James Brett , P . G . P . ; C . A . Cottebrune , P . G . P . ; H . Sadler , G . Tyler ; and others . Grand Lodge having been opened in form , Grand Secretary , Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE , read the minutes of the Quarterly Communication of the 2 nd of June , which were confirmed , with the exception of the grant of £ 100 to a brother of No . 186 , London , Grand Secretary informing the Grand Master in the chair that information had come to him that since the
last Quarterly Communication the brother had died . The following grants , recommended by the General Board of Benevolence , were then made : — The widow of a brother ot the Cestrian Lodge , No . 425 , Chester £ 75 o o A brother of the Royal Albert Lodge , No . 907 , London ... ... 50 o o The widow of a brother of the St . George ' s and Corner Stone Lodge , No . 5 , London ... ... ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Domatic Lodge , No . 177 , London ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Zetland Lodge , No . 1005 , Gloucester ... ... 50 o o The four orphan children of a brother of the St . Maurice Lodge ,
No . 18 S 5 , Plympton . ... ... ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Lodge of Unity , No . 1 S 3 , London ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Lodge of Israel , No . 205 , London ... ... 150 o o A brother ot the Prudent Brethren Lodge , No . 145 , London ... 100 o o A brother of the Lodge of Foititude and Old Cumberland , No . 12 , London ... ... ... ... ... ... 100 o o The following Report of the Board of General Purposes was taken as read , and was received , and ordered to be entered on the minutes : —
3 . —REPORT OK THE BOARD OV GENERAL PURPOSES : To the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England . The Board of General Purposes beg to report that they have received an application from Messrs Malb y and Sons , the tenants of the premises in Middle Yard , for a renewal of lheir present lease , which expires September , 1889 , for a term of 21 years .
The Board having considered the application , recommended that a renewal of the lease until the 24 th June , 1905 , be granted at the present rental of ^ 150 per annum . ( Signed ) THOMAS FENN ,
Freemasons' Hall , London , VV . C . President . 17 th August , 1886 , To the report is subjoined a statement of the Grand Lodge accounts at the last meeting of the P'inance Committee , held on Friday , the 13 th day of August inst ., showing a balance in the Bank of England ( Western Branch ) of £ 3650 3 s . id ., and in the hands of the Grand Secretary for petty cash . £ 100 , and for servants' wages £ 100 , > d balance of annual allowance for library £ 14 17 s . 3 d .
Bro . THOMAS FENN , President of the Board , said he had now to propose , according to the recommendation of the Board , that Grand Lodge should grant a renewal of the lease to Messrs . Malby and Sons , of premises in their possession , to the 24 th June , 1905 , at the present rental of £ 150 a year , these premises had been in the possession of Messrs . Malby since 1868 , they had built for their present purposes , and they were called upon now by the Government to spend £ 300 or £ 400 for a strong room , for the
better security of the maps and plates of which they were printers , engravers , and lithographers . The Board recommended that instead of a 27 years lease , which was asked for , a lease should be granted to June 1905 , which was the period when the lease of the Tavern would' terminate , and the Board desired that , if possible , the other leases granted by Grand Lodge should terminate at the same period in order that they might at the
termination of the lease of the Tavern , be free and unfettered with regard to their other property . He therefore proposed that the recommendation of the Board be adopted . Bro . C . F . HOGARD seconded the motion . Bro . RAYNHAM W . S TEWART , P . G . D ., wished to know if the lease was lo be granted free of all charges , such as land tax , and title . They were
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
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which they reside , and to which we referred in our issue of last week , it greatly strengthened by a circumstance mentioned by him in his annual address in dealing with this question . The case which was brought under the notice of the Grand Lodge of Iowa in 1877 was that of a resident in Iowa who was made a Mason during a visit he was paying to Scotland , and was furnished with a diploma by the Grand Lodge of that country , " for
the purpose of permitting him to join the lodge in his own country , and at his own home . " But on the brother—a Dr . HUGHES , of Keskeckendeavouring to affiliate to a lodge located in that city or town , the question involved became the subject of a correspondence with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , and the letter to its Grand Secretary reached the hands of the R . W . Master of the Scottish lodge in which Dr . H UGHES had been made .
The said Master stated , in his reply , that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had " no power , according to its laws , to hinder a Master under its jurisdiction from making a worthy man a Freemason , to whatever country he may belong , " and , after adding that the practice of American jurisdictions in respect to this matter was not in harmony with the laws of Scotland , he said : " I , therefore , beg to declare , with all due respect , that we shall
continue to make all good men from Iowa Masons in our lodge , and give you full liberty to do the same in regard to Scotchmen living in Iowa . " No answer was returned to this , but in the course of the subsequent correspondence with the Grand Lodge of Scotland , its Grand Secretary , at the instance of Grand Committee , reported that that body were " not prepared to recommend the adoption of the rule
to which the Grand Secretary of Iowa refers . " The constitution of our Grand Lodge does not permit of any interference with daughter lodges in their initiation of American residents in this country ( temporarily or permanently ) , any more than with the practices of American and other Grand Lodges as to the initiation of British subjects . " The matter does not seem to have been carried further , but Bro . GRANGER ' point is this , that up to
the time referred to there had been no interchange of representatives between the Grand Lodges of Iowa and Scotland , but at this time an interchange of such was made between the two Supreme Authorities , which , as Bro . GRANGER very sensibly points out , " would never have been made at such a time on our part but for an inner consciousness that Scotland was
right and ourselves wrong . '' We quite agree with that brother , and are not surprised that he should have adopted the course of recommending the abrogation of the law of Iowa relating , to the re-obligation of brethren made such when sojourners in other jurisdictions . We are indebted for the circumstances to Bro . GRANGER ' S address , from which we have derived them without alteration or modification .
«*» THIS approval of the course pursued by the Grand Lodge of Quebec towards the three Anglo-Montreal lodges furnishes just another instance of the value of practice as the only true criterion of the value of precept . In this instance the Committee have been making haste in a hurry without having fully mastered all the circumstances . In no other way can we count
for this endorsement of conduct , which we do not hesitate to describe as opposed to the principles of the Craft . As we have said times without number , absolute freedom within the prescriptions of the Masonic law is the undoubted right of every member of our Society . Yet by countenancing and approving the conduct of Quebec , this Committee disallows the right of the English lodges in Montreal to exeicise this freedom . Again , how
can those same lodges be clandestine , and those lodges which were constituted by the same supreme authority—the Grand Lodge or Lodges of England—but afterwards had a hand in establishing the Grand Lodge of Canada , and are now part and parcel of the Grand Lodge of Quebec , be not clandestine ? A lodge may have been created irregularly , and afterwards become absolved of its irregularity ; but there can be no " ex post
facto" irregularity of creation about a lodge which has been created regularly , nor is there any irregularity of conduct when a lodge obeys the prescriptions of the laws laid down by the authority which created and still governs it . Therefore the Grand Lodge of Quebec is stating the thing which is not when it pronounces our Anglo-Montreal lodges clandestine . But it is hardly worth while pursuing a subject which has already been worn
pretty well threadbare ; but , by way of showing how absurd is the claim of the Grand Lodge of Quebec to be supreme over lodges which were in existence before it was established , we will take the liberty of pointing out that if the three English lodges in Montreal are clandestine , then many of its own lodges must be clandestine likewise , having been constituted by the Grand Lodge or Lodges of
England . In this case . Jit must follow that the Grand Lodge or Lodges of England must have been clandestine—in the sense of irregular—or have exercised its or their authority clandestinely in these and all other similar cases , the result of which position would be that the whole of Freemasonry derived from English sources—that is , by far the greater section of the whole Fraternity throughout the world—must be clandestine likewise . Of course ,
this is not so , and we only set forth this self-proposition in order to show to what lengths we may be carried , and in what difficulties landed , if we accept the diction of the Grand Lodge of Quebec that the three lodges in question in Montreal are clandestine . We agree with the statement in the introduction to the excerpts ftom the proceedings of our Grand Lodge at the Quarterly Communication in June , 1885 , which are given in this Report ,
pp . xlvi .-liii . — "that Grand Lodges of the States of the United States should at least inteligently understand what effect their recognition of such colonial Grand Lodges will produce . " We further see the force of the argument in the proposition that " if brethren undertake to form Grand Lodges in these geographical districts , orjcolonies " —that is , of the United Kingdom— " of
course , difficulties are created . " We also hold that if other Grand Lodges fail in grasping the position of Masonic affairs in these matters , and do no take the sound advice of their Committee on Correspondence "to make haste slowly "—more difficulties will be created , and the last condition of Freemasonry will be worse than the first . It is because the Committee have not followed their own advice that we have dwelt on this matter at such
length . # * # WE offered some remarks lately on certain objectionable insinuations in a recent number of the Toronto Freemason . But though these insinuations were made by our contemporary against the Grand Lodge of New York
in the interests of the Grand Lodge of Quebec , it is evident it has no very high opinion of the Quebec brethren . We judge so , at least , from its greeting 10 the Masonic ~ Neivs , of Montreal , the first number of which was published on the 10 th July last , and has been kindly transmitted to us . The Toronto Freemason in bestowing its sympathy on its new contemporary writes , " There are only some two or three thousand Masons in all Quebec ,
Ar00201
and as only a small percentage of the Craft in that jurisdiction will subscribe , it is evident the new venture will have a big job on hand to exist . " The " new venture " very sensibly retorts " that Montreal is not exactly a suburb of Toronto , and that the Craft in Quebec are not quite so mean as he thinks . " A fair retort and courteous withal . But if our Toronto friend has so very low an opinion of the Quebec brethren , and the support they
are likel y to extend to a Masonic newspaper , Why is it so hot in its sympathy with their Grand Lodge in the Quebec-England difficulty ? There are , of course , numbers of brethren who never ( rouble themselves about Masonic jurisdiction , and we have no intention of mixing up questions of Masonic law with the support or non-support extended to a " new venture " in the line of Masonic newspapers . But it is clear the Quebec Masons are thought meanly of in this respect , and meanness is not oiten confined to one class of
conduct or conduct in one class of transactions . This makes it the more astonishing that the Toronto Freemason should sacrifice its own character for courtesy and the plainest decencies of criticism by attributing sordid motives to the Grand Lodge of New York , when the Grand Lodge of Quebec , to whose preposterous claims New York objects , is composed of brethren of whom the Toronto journal in question has formed so poor an estimate .
United Grand Lodge Of England.
UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND .
The September Quarterly Communication of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England and Wales was held in the Temple , Freemasons' Hall , Great Queen-street , on Wednesday evening . Bro . the R . W . General John Studholme Brownrigg , C . B ., P . G . W ., Provincial Grand Master for Surrey , occupied the throne . Bro . Hugh D . Sandeman , P . D . G . M . of Bengal , acted as Deputy Grand Master ; Bro . the Rev . C . J . Martyn , P . G Chap ., D . P . G . M . of Suffolk , as G . S . W . ; and Bro . the Rev . J . S . Brownrigg ,
P . G . Chap ., D . P . G . M . for Berks and Bucks , as G . J . VV . There were also present—Bros . Rev . J . N . Palmer , G . Chap . ; D . P . Cama , G . Treas . ; T . Fenn , Pres . Board of Gen . Purposes ; Col . Shadwell H . Clerke , G . Sec ; E . E . Wendt , G . S . ( G . C . ) ; Sir Bruce Seton , G . S . D . ; Ralph Clutton , G . J . D . ; J . E . Le Feuvre , G . J . D . ; Sir Albert Woods ( Garter ) , G . D . C . ; R . G . Glover , Dep . G . D . C . ; E . D . Davis , G . S . B . j A . Lucking-, G . P . ; W . H . PerrymanA . G . P . ; Rev . H . Adair Pickard , P . G .
, Chap . ; Rev . Canon Portal , P . G . Chap . ; Rev . VV . K . R . Bedford , P . G . Chap . ; Rev . R . N . Sanderson , P . G . Chap . ; Peter de L . Long , P . G . D . ; Frank Richardson , P . G . D . ; Brackstone Baker , P . G . D . ; Robert Grey , P . G . D . ; Raynham VV . Stewart , P . G . D . ; Baron de Ferrieres , P . G . D . ; J . M . Case , P . G . D . ; F . Davison , P . G . D . ; Henry Maudsley , P . G . D . ; C . W . C . Hutton , P . G . D . ; J . S . Peirce , P . G . D . ; J . Glaisher , P . G . D . ; R . W . Wheeler , P . G . D . ; Jabez Hogg , P . G . D . ; Magnus Ohren , P . A . G . D . of C ; T . Lewis Thomas , P . A . G . D . of C . ; Raymond H . Thrupp , P . A .
G . D . of C ; Lieut .-Col . J . E . Taylor , P . G . S . B . ; Major G . Lambert , P . G . S . B . ; Edgar Bowyer , P . G . S . B . ; Butler Wilkins , P . G . S . B . ; Henry Garrod , P . G . P . ; James Brett , P . G . P . ; C . A . Cottebrune , P . G . P . ; H . Sadler , G . Tyler ; and others . Grand Lodge having been opened in form , Grand Secretary , Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE , read the minutes of the Quarterly Communication of the 2 nd of June , which were confirmed , with the exception of the grant of £ 100 to a brother of No . 186 , London , Grand Secretary informing the Grand Master in the chair that information had come to him that since the
last Quarterly Communication the brother had died . The following grants , recommended by the General Board of Benevolence , were then made : — The widow of a brother ot the Cestrian Lodge , No . 425 , Chester £ 75 o o A brother of the Royal Albert Lodge , No . 907 , London ... ... 50 o o The widow of a brother of the St . George ' s and Corner Stone Lodge , No . 5 , London ... ... ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Domatic Lodge , No . 177 , London ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Zetland Lodge , No . 1005 , Gloucester ... ... 50 o o The four orphan children of a brother of the St . Maurice Lodge ,
No . 18 S 5 , Plympton . ... ... ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Lodge of Unity , No . 1 S 3 , London ... ... 50 o o A brother of the Lodge of Israel , No . 205 , London ... ... 150 o o A brother ot the Prudent Brethren Lodge , No . 145 , London ... 100 o o A brother of the Lodge of Foititude and Old Cumberland , No . 12 , London ... ... ... ... ... ... 100 o o The following Report of the Board of General Purposes was taken as read , and was received , and ordered to be entered on the minutes : —
3 . —REPORT OK THE BOARD OV GENERAL PURPOSES : To the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England . The Board of General Purposes beg to report that they have received an application from Messrs Malb y and Sons , the tenants of the premises in Middle Yard , for a renewal of lheir present lease , which expires September , 1889 , for a term of 21 years .
The Board having considered the application , recommended that a renewal of the lease until the 24 th June , 1905 , be granted at the present rental of ^ 150 per annum . ( Signed ) THOMAS FENN ,
Freemasons' Hall , London , VV . C . President . 17 th August , 1886 , To the report is subjoined a statement of the Grand Lodge accounts at the last meeting of the P'inance Committee , held on Friday , the 13 th day of August inst ., showing a balance in the Bank of England ( Western Branch ) of £ 3650 3 s . id ., and in the hands of the Grand Secretary for petty cash . £ 100 , and for servants' wages £ 100 , > d balance of annual allowance for library £ 14 17 s . 3 d .
Bro . THOMAS FENN , President of the Board , said he had now to propose , according to the recommendation of the Board , that Grand Lodge should grant a renewal of the lease to Messrs . Malby and Sons , of premises in their possession , to the 24 th June , 1905 , at the present rental of £ 150 a year , these premises had been in the possession of Messrs . Malby since 1868 , they had built for their present purposes , and they were called upon now by the Government to spend £ 300 or £ 400 for a strong room , for the
better security of the maps and plates of which they were printers , engravers , and lithographers . The Board recommended that instead of a 27 years lease , which was asked for , a lease should be granted to June 1905 , which was the period when the lease of the Tavern would' terminate , and the Board desired that , if possible , the other leases granted by Grand Lodge should terminate at the same period in order that they might at the
termination of the lease of the Tavern , be free and unfettered with regard to their other property . He therefore proposed that the recommendation of the Board be adopted . Bro . C . F . HOGARD seconded the motion . Bro . RAYNHAM W . S TEWART , P . G . D ., wished to know if the lease was lo be granted free of all charges , such as land tax , and title . They were