The Abuse Of Masonic Charity.

The ABUSE of MASONIC CHARITY .

BY BRO . CHALMERS I . PATON , Author of " Freemasonry in Relation lo Civil Authority and the Family Circle . " We have received information of a practice prevailing to some extent in Glasgow—and nerhans also in other parts of Scotland , although

of this we are not certain—which cannot too soon be exposed , and the exposure of which , we trust , will be sufficient to put an end to it , for it is highly prejudicial to the interests of

Freemasonry and to the honour of the Masonic Order . Our Scottish brethren are particularly bound to look to it , as it is confined to their bounds , and the very possibility of it depends upon points in their s \ 'stem or mode of conducting their affairs ,

to which we will presently advert , in which they differ , and we think unhappily differ , from their English brethren . A club is formed , the members of which make weekly payments of one shilling each to its funds , in order to raise the

money requisite to be paid on the admission of any of their number into a Masonic lodge . When two or three pounds have been collected , lots are cast , and the member of the club who is fortunate on this occasion receives the money

and employs it for tlie purpose of obtaining admission into a lodge . He is made a Freemason , and if he has any virtuous principle or feelings of honour , he goes on to make payments to the club as before , at least until his payments

have equalled in amount the sum which he has received . He ought , rather , to continue his payments until every member of the club has received the requisite sum , and has been made a Mason , or has applied for admission into a

lodge and has been rejected . But possibly he is a stranger from a distant part of the country , merely working for a time as a journeyman in the city where the club exists , and after having received his Masonic certificate he goes away to

work somewhere else , and is no more heard of by his fellow-members of the club . We have heard , on authority which we deem worthy of credit , that many men have obtained admission into lodges through the aid of these clubs who have never afterwards made any payment to the clubs

or maintained any connection with them . It might be supposed that this would be enough to put an end to the existence of the clubs ; but such is not the case—they go on as before , new members probably joining them , the chance of success forming their inducement , as in any gambling affair .

The man who has obtained admission into a lodge carries off his certificate , and proceeds to claim the enjoyments of all Masonic privileges wherever he may go . In particular , if visited with sickness or calamity of any kind , he is

prompt to claim the charitable aid of his brethren , which men thus obtaining admission are more apt to claim and more likely to need than any others , as they seldom are men of high character or of industrious , sober , and provident habits . It

ought to be expected that every candidate for admission into the Masonic Order should be industrious , sober , and provident ; and in the case of a working man , some proof of this would be found in his being ready to pay the money

requisite for his entrance into a lodge . But the case is entirely altered if a man is admitted in virtue of a few payments to a club . He who lays up his money in a savings' hank , and draws it on the occasion of his admission to a lodge ,

is , generally speaking , a very different man , and far more worthy of respect than he who comes forward with the money of tlie club in his hand , obtained by the casting of lots , and without regard to the number of shillings which he has

paid . 1 he system is attractive to a class of men who ought never to be admitted into the Masonic Order at all , and of whom , when they are admitted , their brethren have no reason to be proud .

It has long appeared to us to be a weak point in Scottish Freemasonry that no inquiry is made into the circumstances of applicants for admission . AVe re such inquiry made , as it is in all English lodges , there would be no such clubs as we have described , nor would persons such

The Abuse Of Masonic Charity.

as are ordinarily their members ever find admission into the Masonic Brotherhood . The admission of such persons brings discredit on the Order , and is , in fact , an injustice to all its reputable members , who find themselves called upon

more frequently than they otherwise would for tlie relief of necessitous brethren ; and often when they cannot think that these ought ever to have been numbered amongst their brethren , or that their necessities are tlie result of such

unforeseen and unpreventable misfortune as ought to call forth their charity . There is a tendency in such circumstances to the restriction —perhaps even to the undue restriction—of that charity which Freemasonry requires all members of the Order to cultivate , and to display one towards another . But if Freemasons often find

themselves called upon to give pecuniary assistance to persons who are evidently not of sober and industrious habits , they almost of necessity begin to hesitate about giving , or give less liberally than they otherwise would ; ancl trulydeserving brethren , sufferers from calamities

which could neither be foreseen nor prevented , may receive the less because of the importunities of those who ought never to have been received into the Brotherhood at all . For , certainly , no man ought to be made a Mason who is not of good reputation , as sober ,

industrious , decently providing for his own support and that of his family—or , if a young and unmarried man , apparently in circumstances such that he may reasonably be expected to maintain a family when he shall have one . The laws of Freemasonry require that he who shall

be admitted into the Order shall be a man having all the members of his body perfect and unmutilated . It is no disgrace to a man to have lost an eye or a limb ; and if this happens to be a Freemason , he is received in his lodge with as much honour as before , but it would be a complete

disqualification in a candidate for admission , the ancient law which determines this—one , in fact of the landmarks—being evidently founded upon a regard for the symbolisation of that perfection at which it is the object of Freemasonry to aim . It is even more important ,

however , that the avenues of Masonic lodges should be closed against those who are morally imperfect , the slothful , and the dissolute . Moreover , tlie understanding on which men join the Brotherhood , and become subject to the obligation of contributing to the relief of

distressed brethren , is that all who are admitted are men in reputable circumstances—not men at present in need , or likely to be soon in need of charitable assistance . Tlie ancient landmark just referred to requires that tlie man who is to be made a Mason should be sound in body and

mind , hale and healthy , and able to do a good day ' s work . But it is notorious that many who have been admitted in Scotland were not so at the date of their admission ; but were both physically and morally disqualified , their habits of life making the moral disqualification

too evident . Wc know that men sometimes apply for admission into lodges in Scotland with the very purpose of taking advantage of the Masonic law of charity , and that some within a few weeks after being admitted have gone to

their Masonic brethren to beg . Is it wonderful that in such circumstances the fountains of charity are at least partially dried up , or that its streams How less freely than they otherwise might ancl ought ?

There is a great contrast between Scottish and English Freemasonry in the points to which wc have referred . The practice of , we believe , all the lodges in Scotland is , as we have described it , to make no inquiry into the circumstances of candidates for admission , and no

declaration on this subject is required of the candidate , or of those who propose or introduce him . In England , on the contrary , we believe there is no lodge in which such inquiry is not made . The candidate for admission is asked

if he is in reputable circumstances , and makes a declaration , amounting in solemnity to an oath , that he is . The brethren who propose and introduce him make a similar declaration on his behalf . It is not enough that iie merely pays the fees , In Scotland , this seems to be all that

The Abuse Of Masonic Charity.

is required . No question is asked . Another difference between the Scottish ancl English systems on which we think judgment must be given in favour of the latter system , is this : that in England there is in every lodge—we believe it is the case in every lodge—an annual test of

membership in the payment of fees , the amount not being less , in any lodge that we have heard of , than eight shillings . In Scotland , there is nothing of this kind . No annual payment is required . The initiation fees being paid , the Mason is liable to no further demands . And

what are the consequences ? The lodge must have money to sustain its expenses , and the money being only to be obtained from the fees at initiation of members , there is necessarily a disposition to admit all who apply , and many are admitted who ought not to be admitted .

Opportunity is thus given to needy and unscrupulous persons to take advantage of Freemasonry , and , in particular , of its great law of charity , for their own behoof . A German Jewwe mention a class of cases not unfrequentapplies for and gains admission into a lodge , and

forthwith he obtains the names ancl addresses of all the Freemasons in the district , visits them , makes himself known as a brother , and asks them to purchase trinkets , etc ., which they sell at a pretendedly cheap rate , but really a price far above the value of the articles . Nothing

can be more discreditable to Freemasonry , ancl it is not to the honour of the Scottish lodges that their practice affords opportunity for it . AVe hope our Scottish brethren will adopt some rule of inquiry into the character and circumstances of candidates for admission , such as

will render it impossible for any man to take undue advantage of that law of charity which is a distinguishing glory of Freemasonry . AVerc such a rule adopted by all the Scottish lodges , there would be a speedy end of the Glasgow clubs to which we have referred , ancl of all such

clubs , if they exist elsewhere than in Glasgow . There would be also a more general confidence amongst brethren as to applicants for assistance that their cases are really proper for relief and a greater readiness and liberality in giving , whilst the honour of the Order would be

maintained by tlie exclusion . The clubs only serve the purpose of bringing into the Order men whom for its very honour it would be most desirable to exclude—inferior workmen , such as are well-known in Scotland as botches—men who cannot do a good day ' s work and very generally care little about doing it .

The High Degrees.

THE HIGH DEGREES .

I have read with a good deal of interest the notes bearing on the above subject that have appeared at intervals in this year's FREF . MASOX , and as it appears to me that the Craft in

England is settling down more or less into a state of things that lias for a long time been normal here in Ireland , I may perhaps be permitted to say a little on the subject from an Irish point of view .

lhe readers of Tin-: 1 < RKKMASOX will have learned from the sketch of our Irish Constitution , contributed by Bro . Hughan , that the Society of Freemasons here , including as such all the degrees , is governed by four bodies , namely , The Grand Lod ^ c , the ( irand Roval

Arch Chapter , the Grand High Knight Templar Conclave , and the Supreme ( Irand Council of Rhes . Those four bodies are in alliance with each other , and mutually support cacli other's authority . So that , for instance , if a brolhcr should lie suspended or expelled by any one of

them , the mere official notification of the fact to any of the others ensures his suspension or expulsion from the body so notified , without any further riu / itiry and without the right of appeal to such branch of the Order . The Supreme Grand Council of Rites has

for a long time assumed the entire control of all the degrees beyond the H . K . T ., and while a brother may , without impropriety , request to have his name sent forward to a Royal Arch Chapter or a Knight Templar Encampment to lie balloted for as a member , the mere fact of his seeking admittance to a Rose Croix Chapter