Notes On The Old Minute Books Of The British Union Lodge, No. 114, Ipswich. A.D. 1762.

ready recorded , we gather that a special Lodge could be convened anywhere at any time , within two days of the regular Lodge meeting , when candidates could be proposed for initiation , —a plan which must prove detrimental to the best interests of masonry , ancl which we are glad

to know is illegal now , whatever it might have been at the beginning of the century . In March of this year we find " a school of Instruction" was held , at which a number of candidates were proposed , and were elected , initiated , and passed to the

second degree all in one night . At the next meeting in April John ] N orman , Ancient Mason , was proposed and balloted for , but rejected . In May , at a convened meeting at Bro . Bowman ' s , a Mr . Thomas Meadows ancl another candidate , were proposed , accepted , and

initiated , and another candidate was rejected . A convened meeting was held at Bro . Pollard ' s on June 10 th , 1805 , when two candidates were proposed , who were , so says the Minute , objected . This would be a proceeding to which they would doubtless object .

Four days afterwards another Lodge was held we presume , at its proper place of meeting , the Golden Lion , when Thomas Manning , John Manning , ancl Samuel Manning , pirobably brothers , were all initiated ; and George Crisp ) waiter " was

, , presented with the secrets of Masonry . " At a previous meeting 7 brethren were passed as fellow Crafts , four of whom were initiated the same evening . Verily , candidates were coming into Masonry with a rush at this time . So

ends the fifth volume of the Minutes of this old Lodge . ( To be Continued . )

The Question Of The Coloured Freemasons In The United States.

THE QUESTION OF THE COLOURED FREEMASONS IN THE UNITED STATES .

BY THE EDITOR . AVE are among those who reject the legality of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge , as , indeed , we cannot see how it can be upheld . Its history is this : —it was chartered from

England as a private Lodge—to make pass , and raise masons , and to remain a lawful , regularly warranted Lodge so lonoas it conformed to the laws of the Grand Lodge of England . After a tune , it sent no returns—fell into a dormant state—and was finally erased for making no returns .

How could it be revived 1 Only by the power which first caUod it into Masonic life , and then only as a private Lodge . In no sense of the word could it ever become a Grand Lodge , ( let us mark this ) , or issue warrants on its own account .

Now , sujjposing that owing to disordered times and political convulsions it could claim to exist separated from its parent tree , it could only be as a private Lodge" de bene esse , " as the lawyers say—or a " fact accompli . " Ancl if it was revived

after a lapse of years , it could only be as a private Lodge , which , under exceptional circumstances , had maintained or revived its own Masonic life . Further it could not go . To call it a Grand Lodge is alike a misnomer ancl an impropriety , and any warrants issuing from its " non authority " are clearly illegal , spurious , and valueless ! The Lodges working under such

pseudowarrants are clearly not regular Lodges . Rut then comes in the practical question —what is to be done 1 There are many coloured Freemasons in the United States in Lodges under so-called Grand Lodges . AA hat are we to do with them 1 Are they all to be healedby re-initiation or

re-obli-, gation ? Such seems to us—we speak in all deference—an impossibility , and to speak the truth , a very unpractical proposal . Now we venture to suggest a solution of the difficulty which has occurred to our mindsthinking over the

, question , ancl which has this advantage of a compromise , that in all things essential it maintains the rights of all concerned . " Adopt the provisions of the English Book of Constitutions in respect of District Grand Lodges , and make these so-called

Coloured Grand Lodges , District Grand Lodges of Coloured Freemasons for Ohio , etc . "—or the various States under Grand Lodges . If the provisions applying to District Grand Lodges are carefully perused , it will be seen that they empower the District Grand Lodge to have its own byelaws , subject to the General Book of