Freemasonry In South Africa.

had been one of the founders of the Goldfields Lodge and its Secretary ; he had ably assisted the senior P . M . of the lodge , Bro . Hershfield , in getting together the necessary funds for building the Freemasons' Hall , and had worked very hard for the good of Freemasonry in that country . He was also an indefatigable Dist . Grand Secretary of the Transvaal . The many speeches , letters , and wires from different parts of South Africa testified to the great popularity of the W . M .

The lodge being duly closed , the brethren adjourned to the banqueting room , where a most enjoyable evening was spent . The usual loyal and Masonic toasts were duly given and responded to , and many were the wishes for a prosperous and successful year of office .

Amusing Episodes In "Ancient" History.

AMUSING EPISODES IN "ANCIENT" HISTORY

I am told there is plenty of fun to be had out of Blue Books , and I can well believe it , though I do not go so far as to affirm that this class of publication should be included among the comic periodicals of our time . But of Minute Books , and especially of those which have been compiled by Secretaries and Scribes of Masonic lodges and chapters in times gone by , I am

able to speak from personal knowledge . There are not many who have had the fortune—or , as some perhaps might say , the misfortune—to wade through whole series of these records as I have done , and I can answer for it , that many is the hearty laugh I have enjoyed at the curious circumstances which every now and then are to be found recorded in their pages , and the still more curious manner in which they ate described . Doubtless , had the

minute books been preserved of the lodges that existed in the " Time Immemorial " period , when there were no such things as warrants and consecrations , Books of Constitutions and installations to vex ths soul of a genial brother , no monograde or tri-grade theory to worry him into an untimely grave , and no cantankerous critic to be eternally questioning the accuracy of his statements ; when there was nothing to regulate the proceedings at our

meetings but an Old Charge , and nothing to refer to for guidance in cases of doubt and difficulty but a code of unwritten laws and traditions , which nobody was able to understand , still less to interpret , the number of amusing episodes handed down to us in our Masonic Records would have been legion . But the only minute books that have come down from those days are to be found North of the Tweed , and your bonnie Scot is , proverbially , not a

funny man , while South of lhe Tweed , there are none that date back earlier than the early days of the iSth century . Moreover , when a functionary was at length appointed to record the doings of the brethren at the Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge , that most eccentric of noblemen—Philip Duke of Wharton—made choice of the Clerk of the Parliaments , a man whohowever acceptable he may have been in private life ! must have been ,

, in his official capacity , a walking cyiIoc ; ediaof precedent and statute law , and can have experienced no difficulty in adapting himse'f to the study of Gothic constitutions and the other Masonic literary pabulum that had been prepared for him by the learned Anderson and Desaguliers . Of course , the imrrediate effect of such an appointment was to banish for ever all sense

of humour from the Minute Books of the Regular Masons , nor was it till rrtny jeats later when the genial Dermott appeared upon the scene of his ultimate triumpls in London that anything like a levival of that sense became appsrerit in the lecotds he compiled with to much loving care and such tender solicitude for the fame of the Anciml Craft .

I fancy that I like Laurence Dermott as much as I admiie and respect hirr . Net only was he a clever man , one wl o in his eaily and later caieer -misted a vast sttre ol knowledge , an able organiser , a shrewd man cf the world , and one who could be ( n easy terms with all classes and ccndiiions of men , but he was a thoroughly genial fellow . He could write and sing a « ong as easily as he could interpret an obscure passage in some Old

Charge . He dearly loved a jtke , but he never lost sig ht of the minor details cf his office , and it is in great measure due to the exceeding care with which he transacted business , firstly as Grand Secretary , and subsequently as Deputy Grand Master , that the Society of " Free and Acccepted Masons , according to the O ' . d Institutions , " rose to be such a foimidable power in the world of Masonry . I can hardly

imagine that he cared much fcr forms and ceremonies—as the late Bro . Woodford would have said , qua forms and ceremonies—but he knew well the importance attaching to them in the estimation of others , and \ ou may search the annals ol Freemasonry through and through without finding one who more rigidly insisted on their strict literal observance . But when the heat end burden of the day w ere over , none contributed more heartdy to the

Amusing Episodes In "Ancient" History.

promotion of good fellowship . Others may have loved M isonryfor the advantages it was supposed to confer ; be loved it fcr itse f and for the road he knew it was capable of effecting , arditistohimandtheals ' ty and unflagging energy he exhibited in his various offices tint our splendid system of Freemasonry is indebted for the preservation of its ritual and the . completeness of its rrganisation . Let those who maybe inclined loq'irsli in ihe reality of

Ihis picture spend a few hours in studying the minutes he compiled a-, Secretary , or that were compiled by others under his supervis ' on as Deputy Grand Master , and it will not be long before they become as deepl y imbued as I am with respect for the Irish journeyman painter who , in the course cf a few short years , established on a basis that could not be shaken , the " Ancient" Society of English Masons .

But my present task is not to write of Dermott but of the scenes he has described in his own simple , unpretentious fashion in the records of our " Ancient " h-story . When I sat down to study those records , I was unprepared for the amusement they afforded me . But at times the proceedings of the Grand Committee and subsequently of the G'and Lodge appear to have been the reverse of awe-inspiring . When the strictly business part

of the meeting was over , the brethren comprising the Committee appear to have taken things comforlably , and when Dermott , who was in all things their guide , philosopher , and friend , was not engaged in putting the members through their paces or expatiating on the beauties of same ancient MS ., he seems to have transformed himself into a Grand Entertainer and sang t'em out of their senses or into them just to while away an hoiiror two ; or more

likely still , to win his way into their good graces , and thereby strengthen and confirm the influence he seems to have excerised over them from the first . Thus in the Grand Committee of the 6 th Decembar , 1752 , when it had been resolved to transfer their quarters from the Temple Eating House kept by a Bro . Robert Glave in Shire lane , to the Five Bells in the Stran d , " a place both suitable and reputable , " and after it had been agreed to

await the return of Lord George Sackville to town before inviting any other nobleman to become their Grand Master , the Grand Secretary inquired if there wereanyother books or manuscripts more than had been delivered to him by the W . M . in the chair and their late Grand Secretary , in the eirly part of the year . He was answered in the negative by some , while Bro . S . Quay and others declared that they knew Mr . Morgan " had a Roll of parcriment

of prodigious lenght which contain'd some Historical matters Relative to the Ancient Craft which parchment they did suppose he had taken abroad with him . It was farther said that Many Manuscripts were lost amongst the lodges lately modernized where a vestige of the Ancient Craft was not suffered to be revived or practized And that it was for this Reason so many of them withdrew from Lodges ( under the Modern Sanction ) to support the

true Ancient system . That they found the freemasons from Ireland and Scotland had been initiated in the very same manner as themselves which confirm'd their system as right and just without which none could be deem'd legal though possessed of all the books & papers on Earth . " Then the Grand Secretary rose , and producing " a very old manuscript written or copied by one Bramhall of Canterbury in the Reign of Henry the Seventh ,

which manuscript waspresented to Bror . Dermott ( in 1 74 S ) by one of the descendants of the writer , " proceeded to give a lecture and " expatiated much on the subject of this old MS . to the great satisfaction of the hearers . " Then Bro . Quay proposed a vote of thanks to Dermott ' •for the many pleasing Instructions which he had so often administered to the Brethren . " But Bro . Bradshaw , Bro . Glave , the eating-house keeper , and other friends

of the latter , protested against any such vote " of thanks or even approbation of the Secretary ' s conduct , who , " they asserted , "instead of being useful had actually sung and lectured the Brethren out of their senses , and had then proposed to move the Grand Committee ou ' . < f the House of a wotthy Brother Mr . Robert Glave to the House of a Man who was not a Mason , " and they went on to suggest the appointment of a hew Secretary ,

continue in the house where they then were , and not run into needless expenses at a Tavern which , in the end , would bring ruin on them , and then what would they think of him who had Lectured and sung them out of their senses . " But Bro . Dermott was equal to the occasion . He offered to resign if a more competent brother could be found fc r the office , " without the U . ouble of a General Election , " adding that " it he was so

unfortunate as to sing any Brother out of his senses he hoped that the Worshipful Master in the Chair and the Grand Committee would allow him an hour ' s time and he would endeavour to sing them into their sensts again . " The minutes add— "The request was granted with great good humour and the Secretary made proper use of his time . " By this simple method the malcontent eating-house keeper and his friends in the Grand Committee ivere signally routed , and Secretary Dermott scored his first victory .

At a meeting of emergency held at the King and Queen , Cab ' e-street , Rosemary-lane , on the 13 th July , 1753 , there occurred " an episode in which Dermott figured , as usual , very prominently , and which , though it has more than once bten described , is wcrth reproducing . Grand Committee had

Ad03603

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