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Article THE GRAND MASTER AND THE "MASONIC OBSERV... ← Page 7 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Grand Master And The "Masonic Observ...
TO THE EDIT 011 OF THE FREEMASONS * MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . Dear Sir and Bkotiiek , —I was surprised , indeed , to find in your last , one of the most disgraceful outpourings of envenomed spleen that it has
been my lot to see—an eternal disgrace to the hand that penned it , and the head that dictated it . It was doubtless written before my note of the 8 th appeared ; hut even that can be no excuse for so gross a libel and so vile an outrage upon good taste . The animus evinced is certainly not the property of one who is within the u pale of honourable society , " and should indeed draw down upon him the u ignominy of the Craft . "
Xour foot note so completely exonerates me from the motives" so freely imputed , and the charge so disgracefully made , that I am not called upon to add one word . My Masonic Brethren throughout the length and breadth of the country , will deem one course only open to the writer of that attack , and their own proper inferences will be drawn if thai course is not
honourably pursued—the more especially as they well know that my name has never been paraded in . the pages of the Magazine , and that duty alone—duty to myself as well as to the purity of that press which u P . M . No . 813 , " so praises ( but which P . Ms , of No . 813 have before now so energetically contemned)—compelled me to forward you my note of the 8 tli inst .
Two things , however , demand notice . In reference to a local newspaper * I most indignantly deny that I was ever mixed up with it as " ' commercial manager , " or indeed with commerce of any kind , at any period of my life . That I lost both time and money in endeavouring ( with seven or eight other Brethren— -two of undoubted literary talent and rejoicing in classical distinctions ) , to procure for this neighbourhood a good paper—is true ; and I have yet to learn ( when none of us thought for one moment of profit ) that
there is anything dishonourable , or which calls for reproof , in such an endeavour . You , Sir and Brother , connected as you are so intimately with one of the leviathans of the press , can well answer this . And as to the paper itself , the best judges and at the same time its bitterest enemies ( parties pecuniarily interested in its downfall ) , allowed it be a good one . As to uproarious parish meetings—I never attended a'f parochial meeting
until elected churchwarden of the parish in 1857 ( re-elected in 1858 ) , and then I found the meetings noisy , but did not make them so . Indeed , so annoyed was I with one in particular , at which I was only a spectator , that , in conjunction with my co-warden , I promoted as far as possible the adoption of the Act 18 and 14 Vic , c . 57 , which removes all such meetings from vestrys and the precincts of churches .
The barefaced allusion to the u Masons of Dudley" forcibly reminds one of the Three Tailors of Tooley street , " and also of the fable of the Frog and the Bull . " I shall however , exercise the first point by remaining silent upon much that is rather tempting , especially as I . have not yet forgotten there is a fifth point peculiar to the third degree . As to u literary attainments , " it is a sign that " P . M ., No . 313 , " reads but little else than his own u dubious local newspaper " as he has so
eloquently termed it I am , dear Sir and Brother , Yours most fraternally , Wm . WiaoiNTON , F . I . B . A ., J . W ., No . 819 ; and P . G . SJB . for Worcestershire . Dudley , OcL 23 , 1858 .
* This is not defmwt—having been amalgamated with another , and retaining its own name . ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Grand Master And The "Masonic Observ...
TO THE EDIT 011 OF THE FREEMASONS * MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . Dear Sir and Bkotiiek , —I was surprised , indeed , to find in your last , one of the most disgraceful outpourings of envenomed spleen that it has
been my lot to see—an eternal disgrace to the hand that penned it , and the head that dictated it . It was doubtless written before my note of the 8 th appeared ; hut even that can be no excuse for so gross a libel and so vile an outrage upon good taste . The animus evinced is certainly not the property of one who is within the u pale of honourable society , " and should indeed draw down upon him the u ignominy of the Craft . "
Xour foot note so completely exonerates me from the motives" so freely imputed , and the charge so disgracefully made , that I am not called upon to add one word . My Masonic Brethren throughout the length and breadth of the country , will deem one course only open to the writer of that attack , and their own proper inferences will be drawn if thai course is not
honourably pursued—the more especially as they well know that my name has never been paraded in . the pages of the Magazine , and that duty alone—duty to myself as well as to the purity of that press which u P . M . No . 813 , " so praises ( but which P . Ms , of No . 813 have before now so energetically contemned)—compelled me to forward you my note of the 8 tli inst .
Two things , however , demand notice . In reference to a local newspaper * I most indignantly deny that I was ever mixed up with it as " ' commercial manager , " or indeed with commerce of any kind , at any period of my life . That I lost both time and money in endeavouring ( with seven or eight other Brethren— -two of undoubted literary talent and rejoicing in classical distinctions ) , to procure for this neighbourhood a good paper—is true ; and I have yet to learn ( when none of us thought for one moment of profit ) that
there is anything dishonourable , or which calls for reproof , in such an endeavour . You , Sir and Brother , connected as you are so intimately with one of the leviathans of the press , can well answer this . And as to the paper itself , the best judges and at the same time its bitterest enemies ( parties pecuniarily interested in its downfall ) , allowed it be a good one . As to uproarious parish meetings—I never attended a'f parochial meeting
until elected churchwarden of the parish in 1857 ( re-elected in 1858 ) , and then I found the meetings noisy , but did not make them so . Indeed , so annoyed was I with one in particular , at which I was only a spectator , that , in conjunction with my co-warden , I promoted as far as possible the adoption of the Act 18 and 14 Vic , c . 57 , which removes all such meetings from vestrys and the precincts of churches .
The barefaced allusion to the u Masons of Dudley" forcibly reminds one of the Three Tailors of Tooley street , " and also of the fable of the Frog and the Bull . " I shall however , exercise the first point by remaining silent upon much that is rather tempting , especially as I . have not yet forgotten there is a fifth point peculiar to the third degree . As to u literary attainments , " it is a sign that " P . M ., No . 313 , " reads but little else than his own u dubious local newspaper " as he has so
eloquently termed it I am , dear Sir and Brother , Yours most fraternally , Wm . WiaoiNTON , F . I . B . A ., J . W ., No . 819 ; and P . G . SJB . for Worcestershire . Dudley , OcL 23 , 1858 .
* This is not defmwt—having been amalgamated with another , and retaining its own name . ;