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Untitled Article
lain dormant many years , certain Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment of Baldwyn , Bristol , assisted by the only surviving member of the dormant camp , agreed to revive it , as they were in possession of the warrant and all the ancient books , which prove without a shadow of doubt that this encampment is and ever was a free , grand , and independent one , it never having paid any dues to or
acknowledged the supremacy of any grand conclave , much less of one which is , like the present one , barely ten years old . After its revival , our acting P . M . and several others were installed , and he is now the Commander , and the latter end of last January our present S . W . was admitted into the Order . So much for the veracity of " A . Z . "
I admit that the Brother of whom I write , who is our P . M ., was offered the collar of G . Beg . and refused it ; but " A . Z . " and Sile" suppress this fact , which is well known , as it was told to our B . W . Prov . G . M . by the Brother himself , that the Prov . G . M . sent out his deputy from the ante-room to offer our P . M . this office , and he politely declined it twice ; and you may guess his astonishment
when he was called upon in open Prov . Grand Lodge , to take that which he not an hour before had refused . Was any other course left open to him ? I am instructed to deny the accusation made by " A . Z ., " that he did not deem it of sufficient importance for the dignity of his position . What right has he or any one else to attribute such motive to any one , much less to one who has laboured like this Brother ? Is this the Masonry of your correspondent ?
As to our acting P . M . having repeatedly thrown odium and discredit on our Prov . G . M ., and endeavoured to weaken his authority , this I can with truth emphatically deny . The circumstance to which your correspondents refer is as follows : —Just before the last Prov . Grand Lodge was held , this Brother called together his Lodge , and , as their representative , asked them for their instructions ,
which they gave to him ; and at the next Lodge which he held afterwards , he recapitulated what had occurred , and commented upon the fact that one of the highest offices in the province had been given to a Brother who made his application for the purple not to our Prov . G . M . or his deputy , but to the " Alter ego " of the former , whose boast is "that he can do what he likes with the Prov . G . M . "
He furthermore said , that it seemed very strange that his Lodge for the last three years had only received the collar of Organist on two occasions , while a highlyfavoured Lodge in this city , to which the Prov . G . M . belongs , received the highest honours . He also commented on the fact , that he was the only representative of a Lodge , out of all those present , who was not sent for to ask if any member would
receive the purple , and said , that it was a very great pity that dislike to himself for having done his duty should be visited on his Lodge as a body , but this he attributed entirely to the influence of a clique over the mind of our Prov . G . M ., who belong to a sister Lodge in this towu , two of whom sat , one on the one side and one on the other side of the Prov . G . M . during his interview with those
Brethren of the province they wished to be sent for . If doing a duty and speaking the truth be casting odium upon and endeavouring to weaken the authority of the head of our province , then our acting P . M . must plead guilty to the charge . I will now proceed to answer the lengthened letter signed " Sile ; " and in the first place I would call the attention of your readers to page 70 of the Book of the Constitutions , wherein it is expressly stated that " real worth and personal merit shall form the ground of all Masonic preferment , and that no Brother shall be nominated to any office merely on account of seniority or rank ; " and yet " Sile " would combine his ideas of zeal and integrity with rank , as forming a good claim for Masonic honour .
I regret to say that this parade of rank is carried , by a highly-favoured Lodge in this town , to a ridiculous extent , which will not admit any one who is in business ; but physicians , surgeons , architects , in fact any one who does not keep a shop , is by them called a gentleman , and entitled to the rare and exalted privilege of admission to this the youngest Lodge but one in the province . The present Prov . G . Treasurer , himself a member of this Lodge , has been known to say , that there ought to be Lodges for tradesmen , and Lodges for gentlemen , and that one ought not to associate with the other ; and yet this same Brother has been heard , in his post-prandial speeches , to dilate at length upon all hanks meeting on the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
lain dormant many years , certain Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment of Baldwyn , Bristol , assisted by the only surviving member of the dormant camp , agreed to revive it , as they were in possession of the warrant and all the ancient books , which prove without a shadow of doubt that this encampment is and ever was a free , grand , and independent one , it never having paid any dues to or
acknowledged the supremacy of any grand conclave , much less of one which is , like the present one , barely ten years old . After its revival , our acting P . M . and several others were installed , and he is now the Commander , and the latter end of last January our present S . W . was admitted into the Order . So much for the veracity of " A . Z . "
I admit that the Brother of whom I write , who is our P . M ., was offered the collar of G . Beg . and refused it ; but " A . Z . " and Sile" suppress this fact , which is well known , as it was told to our B . W . Prov . G . M . by the Brother himself , that the Prov . G . M . sent out his deputy from the ante-room to offer our P . M . this office , and he politely declined it twice ; and you may guess his astonishment
when he was called upon in open Prov . Grand Lodge , to take that which he not an hour before had refused . Was any other course left open to him ? I am instructed to deny the accusation made by " A . Z ., " that he did not deem it of sufficient importance for the dignity of his position . What right has he or any one else to attribute such motive to any one , much less to one who has laboured like this Brother ? Is this the Masonry of your correspondent ?
As to our acting P . M . having repeatedly thrown odium and discredit on our Prov . G . M ., and endeavoured to weaken his authority , this I can with truth emphatically deny . The circumstance to which your correspondents refer is as follows : —Just before the last Prov . Grand Lodge was held , this Brother called together his Lodge , and , as their representative , asked them for their instructions ,
which they gave to him ; and at the next Lodge which he held afterwards , he recapitulated what had occurred , and commented upon the fact that one of the highest offices in the province had been given to a Brother who made his application for the purple not to our Prov . G . M . or his deputy , but to the " Alter ego " of the former , whose boast is "that he can do what he likes with the Prov . G . M . "
He furthermore said , that it seemed very strange that his Lodge for the last three years had only received the collar of Organist on two occasions , while a highlyfavoured Lodge in this city , to which the Prov . G . M . belongs , received the highest honours . He also commented on the fact , that he was the only representative of a Lodge , out of all those present , who was not sent for to ask if any member would
receive the purple , and said , that it was a very great pity that dislike to himself for having done his duty should be visited on his Lodge as a body , but this he attributed entirely to the influence of a clique over the mind of our Prov . G . M ., who belong to a sister Lodge in this towu , two of whom sat , one on the one side and one on the other side of the Prov . G . M . during his interview with those
Brethren of the province they wished to be sent for . If doing a duty and speaking the truth be casting odium upon and endeavouring to weaken the authority of the head of our province , then our acting P . M . must plead guilty to the charge . I will now proceed to answer the lengthened letter signed " Sile ; " and in the first place I would call the attention of your readers to page 70 of the Book of the Constitutions , wherein it is expressly stated that " real worth and personal merit shall form the ground of all Masonic preferment , and that no Brother shall be nominated to any office merely on account of seniority or rank ; " and yet " Sile " would combine his ideas of zeal and integrity with rank , as forming a good claim for Masonic honour .
I regret to say that this parade of rank is carried , by a highly-favoured Lodge in this town , to a ridiculous extent , which will not admit any one who is in business ; but physicians , surgeons , architects , in fact any one who does not keep a shop , is by them called a gentleman , and entitled to the rare and exalted privilege of admission to this the youngest Lodge but one in the province . The present Prov . G . Treasurer , himself a member of this Lodge , has been known to say , that there ought to be Lodges for tradesmen , and Lodges for gentlemen , and that one ought not to associate with the other ; and yet this same Brother has been heard , in his post-prandial speeches , to dilate at length upon all hanks meeting on the