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Untitled Article
is no system - of appointments which may not be open to exceptionj but we very * much doubt whether an alteration on this head would at all conduce to the good working of the Masonic machine , while we are most decidedly of opinion that the management , as it at present stands , is not by any means such as to afford fair ground for reasonable complaint .
One would really suppose , to hear how some persons . " -go-on , " that the affairs of Grand Lodge might very well vie with those of Balaklava harbour , for what is vulgarly termed " bungling . " It is implied that the Grand Master and his Officers may not unfitly be compared to Commissary-general Filder and his associates—that no namesfare too hard for them , no dirt too black to throw at them , no disrespect too great to heap upon them . Yery well , what then ?
Supposing we can find half-a-dozen sane men- —we will not say within the walls of Grand Lodge , but without the walls of Bedlamwho are prepared to assent to this ridiculous proposition , is there any reason , we would ask , why , even upon their own grounds , they should forget all self-respect themselves , and prove to the world , that if , as = they assert , their unhappy opponents can be compared to nothing so aptly as to the " kettle ; " they themselves , by their own showing , are best represented by the " pot ? "
If it be indeed true , as our virtuous censors would have us believe ,, that nothing and nobody is worthy of confidence , it may be a very good reason for their discontinuing their connection with the aforesaid persons , so soon as conveniently may be ; but it can be no reason at all for our stultifying ourselves , and behaving not only without common decency , but with uncommon indecency , towards the
governing body of the Craft , a & long as they continue in that position . If men are not satisfied with their rulers , they have , of course , a perfect right to displace them when they can , and if they can ; but all right-thinking persons will agree in this , that so long as they continue in office , and may therefore be presumed to possess the confidence of their Brethren , they must on all occasions be treated as gentlemen and as Masons .
"What are the facts of the case ? That at the last Quarterly Communication , when the Grand Master announced his intention of proposing a vote to the Patriotic Fund , so unanimous was the feeling excited , so universal were the acclamations , that he actually proposed double the & um he had before intended ! And , to crown all , when a Provincial Grand Officer of Oxfordshire , mistrusting the popular consistency , thought it would be best to strike while the iron was hot , and proposed to take the vote at once , and suspend the standing orders for that purpose , the Grand Master was advised to discountenance the proposal as being perfectly unnecessary . What has happened since to justify a refusal to ratify in March what you carried by acclamation in December ?
Next in the order of dissentients , we have those who object to the Patriotic Fund in particular , —who think that the widows and orphans of our soldiers ought to be supported out of the Consolidated Fund ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
is no system - of appointments which may not be open to exceptionj but we very * much doubt whether an alteration on this head would at all conduce to the good working of the Masonic machine , while we are most decidedly of opinion that the management , as it at present stands , is not by any means such as to afford fair ground for reasonable complaint .
One would really suppose , to hear how some persons . " -go-on , " that the affairs of Grand Lodge might very well vie with those of Balaklava harbour , for what is vulgarly termed " bungling . " It is implied that the Grand Master and his Officers may not unfitly be compared to Commissary-general Filder and his associates—that no namesfare too hard for them , no dirt too black to throw at them , no disrespect too great to heap upon them . Yery well , what then ?
Supposing we can find half-a-dozen sane men- —we will not say within the walls of Grand Lodge , but without the walls of Bedlamwho are prepared to assent to this ridiculous proposition , is there any reason , we would ask , why , even upon their own grounds , they should forget all self-respect themselves , and prove to the world , that if , as = they assert , their unhappy opponents can be compared to nothing so aptly as to the " kettle ; " they themselves , by their own showing , are best represented by the " pot ? "
If it be indeed true , as our virtuous censors would have us believe ,, that nothing and nobody is worthy of confidence , it may be a very good reason for their discontinuing their connection with the aforesaid persons , so soon as conveniently may be ; but it can be no reason at all for our stultifying ourselves , and behaving not only without common decency , but with uncommon indecency , towards the
governing body of the Craft , a & long as they continue in that position . If men are not satisfied with their rulers , they have , of course , a perfect right to displace them when they can , and if they can ; but all right-thinking persons will agree in this , that so long as they continue in office , and may therefore be presumed to possess the confidence of their Brethren , they must on all occasions be treated as gentlemen and as Masons .
"What are the facts of the case ? That at the last Quarterly Communication , when the Grand Master announced his intention of proposing a vote to the Patriotic Fund , so unanimous was the feeling excited , so universal were the acclamations , that he actually proposed double the & um he had before intended ! And , to crown all , when a Provincial Grand Officer of Oxfordshire , mistrusting the popular consistency , thought it would be best to strike while the iron was hot , and proposed to take the vote at once , and suspend the standing orders for that purpose , the Grand Master was advised to discountenance the proposal as being perfectly unnecessary . What has happened since to justify a refusal to ratify in March what you carried by acclamation in December ?
Next in the order of dissentients , we have those who object to the Patriotic Fund in particular , —who think that the widows and orphans of our soldiers ought to be supported out of the Consolidated Fund ,