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Article THE MASONIC PRESS AND GRAND LODGE. Page 1 of 5 →
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The Masonic Press And Grand Lodge.
THE MASONIC PRESS AND GKAND LODGE .
Witkik the last few days a Circular , signed by " A Past Master , " has been addressed to the various Lodges , on a subject of deep interest to ourselves and them , which its extreme length , and the tone adopted towards a contemporary , alone prevent our publishing .
At the same time it comes before the Craft with such an appearance of semi-official character , that we cannot pass it over in silence . We shall not attempt a conjecture as to who may be its author or authors—for it bears internal proof of more than one hand having been engaged upon it—but at once give w hat we believe to be conclusive evidence of the source whence it emanates . In the
first place , it issues from the press of the printer to Grand Lodge , Bro . Norris , as is evident from the type ; secondly , it is printed on paper manufactured expressly for Grand Lodge , so that the largest possible sheet might pass through the post-office for a single postage , a regulation now no longer necessary ; thirdly , it is directed in the same handwriting which we are accustomed to see on the Quarterly Communications . Having given our reasons for regarding this letter of "A Past Master" as a semi-official communication , we shall proceed to examine the document itself . The " Past Master sets out by saying : —
" Preemasonry has witnessed within the last eighteen months the development of an antagonistic spirit , which is calculated not only to do the most serious mischief to the Fraternity and to sever those ties of mutual dependence and brotherly confidence , to which it owes alike its prosperity and its means of doing good , but which also , if unchecked , may lead to its ultimate downfall . The spirit appears to have originated with a particular party , and to be fomented by the publication of papers which profess to give an account of the proceedings of Grand Lodge . It can be shown that this spirit
existsthat these publications contain not only not the Truth , but the very reverse of Truth—not only , not fair reports of the proceedings in Grand Lodge and of the speeches made therein , but garbled and imperfect accounts of both , suited to servo party purposes alonethat they are criticised in an unfair , malicious , one-sided or sectarian
spirit . Ifitisfrom these publications that a . large portion of our Brethren derive their only information of what is passing in Grand Lodge , it will be for the Craft to decide whether they shall be suffered longer to exist—for the authorities to determine bow they shall be dealt with . ' Of course it must be from such works as the Freemason ' s Magazine , that a large proportion of the Brethren derive their information
as to what is going on in the Craft ; and wo ' porfectly agree with "A Past Master , " that the reports should be fair and ungarbled , and if
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Masonic Press And Grand Lodge.
THE MASONIC PRESS AND GKAND LODGE .
Witkik the last few days a Circular , signed by " A Past Master , " has been addressed to the various Lodges , on a subject of deep interest to ourselves and them , which its extreme length , and the tone adopted towards a contemporary , alone prevent our publishing .
At the same time it comes before the Craft with such an appearance of semi-official character , that we cannot pass it over in silence . We shall not attempt a conjecture as to who may be its author or authors—for it bears internal proof of more than one hand having been engaged upon it—but at once give w hat we believe to be conclusive evidence of the source whence it emanates . In the
first place , it issues from the press of the printer to Grand Lodge , Bro . Norris , as is evident from the type ; secondly , it is printed on paper manufactured expressly for Grand Lodge , so that the largest possible sheet might pass through the post-office for a single postage , a regulation now no longer necessary ; thirdly , it is directed in the same handwriting which we are accustomed to see on the Quarterly Communications . Having given our reasons for regarding this letter of "A Past Master" as a semi-official communication , we shall proceed to examine the document itself . The " Past Master sets out by saying : —
" Preemasonry has witnessed within the last eighteen months the development of an antagonistic spirit , which is calculated not only to do the most serious mischief to the Fraternity and to sever those ties of mutual dependence and brotherly confidence , to which it owes alike its prosperity and its means of doing good , but which also , if unchecked , may lead to its ultimate downfall . The spirit appears to have originated with a particular party , and to be fomented by the publication of papers which profess to give an account of the proceedings of Grand Lodge . It can be shown that this spirit
existsthat these publications contain not only not the Truth , but the very reverse of Truth—not only , not fair reports of the proceedings in Grand Lodge and of the speeches made therein , but garbled and imperfect accounts of both , suited to servo party purposes alonethat they are criticised in an unfair , malicious , one-sided or sectarian
spirit . Ifitisfrom these publications that a . large portion of our Brethren derive their only information of what is passing in Grand Lodge , it will be for the Craft to decide whether they shall be suffered longer to exist—for the authorities to determine bow they shall be dealt with . ' Of course it must be from such works as the Freemason ' s Magazine , that a large proportion of the Brethren derive their information
as to what is going on in the Craft ; and wo ' porfectly agree with "A Past Master , " that the reports should be fair and ungarbled , and if