Grand Lodge.

GRAND LODGE .

It only occasionally happens that the scene in Grand Lodge is as animated as it was on Wednesday evening . Thc business which is submitted for the consideration of brethren at our stated Communications is mostly formal , with now and again a resolution or an appeal which is calculated lo excite the interest , not of the general body , but of the limited circle of those whom it

more immediately concerns . On this occasion , however , the Agenda contained two or more items of importance—in one instance to those who take a special interest in the administration of our Institutions ; and in another , to those who busy themselves with the affairs of Masonry in our Colonies , and the relations which now or may hereafter exist between United Grand

Lodge and the local Grand Lodges which at different times have been established in different parts of the British Empire . Moreover , it was the meeting appointed by law for the nomination of candidates for the office of Grand Treasuer during the year 1895-6 , and the experience of the last ten or a dozen years has sliosvn that this is always an attractive

feature in ihe evenings programme and one that is certain to bring together a larger attendance of brethren than usual . As for this last item we may as well slate at once that three candidates were nominated for the office , namely , Bros . Alderman VAUGHAN MORGAN , W . M . STILUS , and C . H . HUDSON , and of ihese the last two named svere candidates at

the election in March last , when Bro . Alderman and Sheriff DIMSDALE was placed at the head of the poll . We may therefore look forward to a similarly keen contest at the Quarterly Communication in March , 1895 , when the three brethren who entered the lists on Wednesday will strive among themselves as to which of them shall win the much-coveted honour of serving

this distinguished office during next year . The next item to which it is our duty to allude will be found in the Report of the Board of General Purposes , in which it was announced that , owing to the serious state of his health , Bro . A . A . PENDLUBURY , Assistant Grand Secretary and Chief Clerk in the Grand Secretary's ollice , had felt it necessary to resign after upwards of

thirty years' service , and the Board recommended that he should be assigned a retiring pension of . £ 400 per annum . The recommendation was adopted instantly amid general expressions of sympathy with Bro . PENJILEBI ' in his enfetbled stale of health and with the sincerest good wishes for his recovery . The other

recommendation of the Board—that Bro . W . LAKE , P . M ., P . Prov . G . Registrar of Cornwall , be appointed to the vacant office of Chief Clerk at a salary of £ 400 per annum , rising by annual increments of £ 20 to ; £ S °° —was likewise adopted unanimously ; and so , too , were the amendments of Articles 83 , 8 7 and 262 of the Book of Constitutions to which we alluded more

fully in our Article of last week . Item No . 9 , in which an addition to Article 23 of the Rules and Regulations of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , as agreed to at a recent special meeting of its Committee of Management , is stated at length and submitted for the approval of Grand Lodge , and was , after considerable discussion , very properly

adjourned , the almost universal feeling among the bre . hren present being that the Benevolent Institution and our two scholastic Institutions should be on a footing of complete equality in respect of the rights and privileges they are permitted to g-, * int to Subscribers and the several grades of donors ; it being , however , at the same time and fully recognised that as the Benevolent has

only one election in the year , while the Schools have two , the money qualifications for the several grades of donors , such as are granted to individuals or lodge ? , chapters , or other Masonic bodies , shall carry with them double votes for the one election of the former , and only single votes at each election of the latter . Thus , by way of example ,

a donation of 10 guineas to the Benevolent Institution , will , as now , carry with it four voles at its oue yearly election , while an equal donation to either ° f the Schools will entitle the contributor , as now , to two votes at the spring election , and two at the one held in the autumn . So , too , with a donation of 400 guineas by a lodge to either of the Schools , as it entitles the

" untributing body to 80 votes at the Spring and 80 votes at the Autumn Section , 'it must be manifest to everyone that if more than 1 O 0 votes are accorded to a Iodge donation of equal value to the Benevolent Institution , 'he Schools , in their endeavour to win support , will be at a very serious disadvantage .

The other item of interest , to the discussion of which a large number of brethren had been looking forward , was the notice of motion by Bro . KII ' HARD EVE , Past Grand Treasurer , in reference to the resolution passed

ty Grand Lodge in June , 1893 , and the brethren who claim to be thc English Cambrian Lodge , No . 6 56 , Sydney , N . S . W . In respect of this and he long discussion it evoked , we feel we are not called upon to say more '" an this , that though Bro . EVE exhibited all his wonted ability , and was , if

Grand Lodge.

possible , rather more plausible than usual , there was no resisting the clear and concise and telling arguments of the Grand Registrar , admirably supported as they were by Bro . WII . KINSO . V , Deputy G . Registrar , and Bro . the EARI . or J ERSEV , svho , as a Past G . Master of New South Wales , must of necessity speak with the ; weightiest authority . Grand Lodge

at once grasped the bearings of the svhole question , and—to use a form of expression svhich is constantly to be met with in old minute booksthe motion passed in the negative . For the full details of this and previous discussions , we refer our readers to the report of the meeting which appears in another part of our columns .

"Masonic Union."

"MASONIC UNION . "

The Indian Masonic Review , in its issue for last month , has an article on this subject , in which it expresses its belief that the time is fast approaching " when something will have to be done tosvards unifying the various constitutions which are now working in Greater Britain . " It points out that both here and in India , these various constitutions are to be found working side

by side " and often with a certain amount of rivalry . In the course of this rivalry some very objectionable features are occasionally developed . A feeling of jealousy sometimes arises , and one constitution is apt now and again to claim a certain superiority over the other constitutions . Hence the tendency which has lattetly made itself fell in Australia and New Zealand ,

as it had previously made itself felt in British North America , tosvards establishing a number of local Grand Lodges . " All this , " says our contemporary , " points to an element of separatism , which , if it increases in strength , will gradually but inevitably lead to Masonry being , not a bond of union , but of disunion amongst those who should be Brethren . "

Accordingly , it goes on to suggest that " the three Constitutions should be joined under one Supreme Head , " and that that Supreme Head should tu the Prince of VVales . It does not consider that such a union under his Royal Highness would render necessary the abolition of the Grand Lodges in the United

Kingdom , and their respective territorial jurisdictions , and it thinks a modus vivendi might easily be arranged for the colonies and India . It argues that if such a scheme were adopted , all questions of rivalry and superiority would forihsvith disappear , and that all things would go smoothly where now there is often found to prevail a considerable amount of friction .

In reviesving these suggestions of our contemporary , we have to consider , in the first place , whether any such scheme is practicable , and in the next place if , in the event of its being found practicable , any such beneficial consequences as are anticipated may be expected to follow . In respect of the first of these points , the only guide we have is to be found

in the case of the United States , where every State and Territory either has already , or as it grosvs strong enough Masonically , will in all probability constitute for itself , a Grand Lodge with supreme authority over the lodges located within its territorial limits . There exist among these Grand Lodges substantial differences of procedure , and there occasionally arise conflicts

of jurisdiction amongst them , chiefly upon matters of which we in England are very disinclined to take any account . Yet about the last thing in the world whicii our brethren who dsvell under the Stars and Stripes are desirous of constituting is a supreme authority over the whole body of their Grand Lodges . They have a General Grand Chapter

for the Royal Arch Degree , and a Grand Encampment for the Order of the Temple , but they do not desire a General Grand Lodge ; and when the Masonic Congress was held in Chicago in 1892 , during the great International Exhibition , we believe it was a special instruction to most , if not all , of ihe delegates who represented the different Grand Lodges that any

scheme for establishing such . 1 General Grand Lodge should be severely left alone . Hence , it strikes us as being not unreasonable to assume that if in the United States , which is a continental power without any outlying territories or dependencies , and in which there are some 50 Grand Lodges , with differences of procedure existent amongst them , which now and again provoke

conflicts of opinion , it is held to be undesirable that there should be one central supreme authority , it must be still more undesirable that any such central power over the whole of Masonry should be created in the British Empire , where there are any number of outlying territories and dependencies , in the majority of which there are either local Grand Lodges or District

or Provincial Grand Lodges holding under the Grand Lodges in the United Kingdom . But though a scheme may be undesirable it does of necessity follosv that it should be impracticable . No doubt it would be very satisfactory if , as we have a Prince of Wales who happens to be a Mason , a plan could be devised by which his Royal Highness , if he were minded to accept the position , were constituted " Supreme Sovereign of United Masonry