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CONTENTS . PAGE LEADERThe Recent Appeal Case ... ... ... ... ... G 43 Provincial Grand Loc ' ge of Northumberland ... ' ... ... ... G 44 Provincial Grand Lodge of Derbyshire ... ... ... ... G 44 Consecration of the Chingford Lodge , No . 2 S 59 ... ... ... G 45

SCOTLANDGrand Lodge ... ... ... ... ' . » ... G 4 <"> Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... G 4 G Instruction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ' " '• 19 MASONIC NOTHS—. Meeting of the Committee of Management of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution ... ... ... ... ... G 51 Recent Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Ledge of

Cambridgeshire ... ... ... ... ... ... G 51 Annual Sleeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Derbyshire ... G 51 Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Northumberland ... G 51

Correspondence ... ... ... ... ... ... G 52 Reviews . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... G 52 Masonic Notes and Queries ... ... ... ... ... 652 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... G 52 Annual Supper of the Prosperity Lodge of Instruction , No . G 5 ... ... 65 G The Craft Abroad ... ... ... ... ... G 5 G Science , Art , and the Drama ... ... ... ... ... G 5 S

The Recent Appeal Case.

THE RECENT APPEAL CASE .

Grand Lodge appears to have been at its very best at its recent Quarterl y Communication on the 4 th instant . There was a full house , and when the appeal b y the Regent ' s Park Lodge , No .

2 . m ? , against a decision of the Hoard of General Purposes came up for discussion , the arguments of the several speakers />/ -0 and con . were followed with the closest attention . The Grand Registrar

—Hro . JOHN STRACHAN , K . C . —as the legal adviser of Grand Lodge , moved the rejection of the appeal in a closely-reasoned speech , but resting his case chiefl y on the precedents he was able to adduce in support of his contention . On the other

hand , Hro . Sir JOHN H . MONCKTON , who mentioned that he had been a member of the Hoard for some 3 ( 1 years , and , as Grand Lodge Calendar shows , was its 1 'resident for 10 years , look

a broad and general view of the circumstance-, and moved as an amendment that the appeal be allowed . He was seconded b y Hro . FRANK RICHARDSON , Past Dep . G . Registrar , and after

hearing Grand Registrar ' s reply , Grand Lodge decided b y a substantial majority of 75 in favour of the amendment of Sir J H . MONCKTON in . preference to tht ; course recommended b y

Grand Registrar . The circumstances of the case may be briefl y staled . A brother was appointed to the office of J . W . in the Regent ' s Park Lodge , the installation meeting of ., which falls in June , but ,

owing to his compulsory absence with his regiment during their period of training , the brother in question was unable , to attend to be invested , nor did his investiluiv lake p lace till the next meeting of the lodge in October . Thus his actual service as J . W . lasted

onl y eig ht months instead of the one full year , as required b y Article 130 of the Hook of Constitutions . At the next installation meeting of the lodge the same brother was appointed S . W ., but , owing to the same enforced absence for his Yeomanry

training , h ¦ was unable to be present , and was not invested till the October meeting . Thus , in his year of oil ice as SAW , as in that as J . W ., his actual service extended over a period of ei ght months , and the Board of General Purposes decided that these

two broken periods of eig ht months' service each—firstl y as J . W . and then as S . W . and separated as they were from each other b y an interval of lour months , during which there was admittedl y lio service at all—did not constitute the one year required b y

The Recent Appeal Case.

Article 130 , Hook of Constitutions , as a qualification for election to the Master ' s chair ; and consequentl y thai his election as Worshi p ful Master , which followed his second broken period of service , was void . The authorities which Grand Registrar

adduced in favour of the Hoard ' s decision were certain dicta of the late Pro . MclNTYRE , Grand Registrar from 1802 to 1 SS 4 ; of Bro . Pllll . BRICK , K . C , Grand Registrar from ISS . L to 1 S 9 S ; and of the late Bro . TllOMAS FKNN , who was President

of the Hoard of General Purposes from 18 S 4 to 1 S 94 . The weig ht of such acknowledged authorities as these on the law and practice of the Craft is undeniably great , but with all deference to Grand Registrar , their dicta , as quoted b y him , appear to us

to have been intended to define what constitutes the qualifying period of one year ' s service as a Warden , il being or having been the opinion of many brethren of wei ght and influence that a Warden who had not served as such for a lull term of 12

months on the day set apart in the Lodge Bye-laws for the election of a Master did not tlie 11 possess the necessary qualili- ¦ cation and was inelig ible . The die I a quoted b y Grand Registrar

and Article 130 itself—since the insertion of the words " or previousl y to the installation of such Master shall have " between the words " have " and " served " in the fourth line —•

have set all doubts upon this' point at rest , but ( here is nothing in them to show that the year ' s service as . Warden . must necessarily be wholly in the chair of J . Warden of in that of S . Warden ; or , in other words , that the year may not be served partly in one

chair and partl y in the other . I he late Bro . Dr . Oi . iVKR in his "Masonic Jurisprudence "—edition 1851 ) , pp . 1 J 7 , i . | 8—lay sit down that a Warden " will be eli gible for election to that ol ' lice "—• that of Master of the lodge— " even though the service shall have

been under two separate Masters . " Again he says— " If a Warden should die during his year , the Worshi pful Master is competent to appoint another brother in his place ; but the substitute will not be qualified for the chair , as he will actually

have executed the office for a part of the year onl y ; and his qualification can only be completed b y his re-appointment to the oflice at the succeeding election . " We know it is ( he fashion to pooh-pooh Dr . OLIVER as an authority on Masonic history , but

we see no reason why , owing to his long experience as a Mason , and as Dep . P . G . M * ,, for several years of Lincolnshire , and liis familiarity with Masonic law and usage , his authorit y in a matter of this kind should not be considered entitled to respect ' .

But to return to this cast : of the Regent ' s Park Lodge . The decision of the Board of General Purposes was to the effect that its election to the Master ' s chair of a brother who , through no fault of his own , had served the office of

Warden , not for one year—that is , from one installation meeting to the next ensuing—as either S . W . or J W ., bul for two broken periods of eig ht months each , and separated I ' rnin each other by an interval ol lour . . monlhs ,. the liiM <• ii _> 111 mouths

as J . W . and the second as S . W . —was void . Be it ohseryed thai in ( his case there- was continuityol appointment , if mil ol M nice . The brother in question was appoint * d J . W . at the inM illation meeting in June , but owing to his enlorccd absence on military

duty , not invested and placed in his chair till the next meeting of the lodge in October . Ai the installation in the following June he was appointed SAV ., ' but again and for ' . he sime reason

was not invested and p laced in his chair till ( leloher . Gr ., nd Registrar contended that the second interval from June to October deprives the if ) months' service of this brother of its qualif y ing virtue , and that , as two separate periods of ei ght