Grand Lodge.

GRAND LODGE .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 3 , 1864 .

The business of Grand Lodge on Wedn esday next certainly does not promise to be of any great moment—and that will be matter of little regret at this dull period of the year . The report of the Board of General Purposes

does not contain a single point of importance , lest it be a censure on the members of the Lodge of Justice ., for having forwarded a recommendation of a petitioner to the Board of Bene \ 7 olence , " purporting to be signed by the Master , Wardens ,

and majority of members in open lodge assembled , Avhereas such recommendation had not been signed in open lodge , as required by the ' Book of Constitutions / p . 96 , art . 6 . The Master and Wardens having been summoned to answer the

complaint , attended with other members of the lodge . No mention of the 2 Detition ap 2 > eared in the minute book of the lodge ; and ifc was admitted that the petition had never been before the lodge at all , but that the recommendation had been signed out

of lodge . " Upon this the Board report— " The Board considering such a breach of the laAV hi ghly reprehensible on the part of the W . Master and the other

brethren who had signed the recommendation , and as tending to mislead the members of the Lodge of Benevolence , and possibly to lead to a AA rong application of the funds of Grand Lodge entrusted to their distribution , severely reprimanded the

Master and the other members Avho had attached their names to the recommendation , and warned them to be more cautious for the future . " All falsehoods , all breaches of the law are reprehensible ; but AVO would ask Avhether the question

raised under this complaint does not in truth point out the necessity of some revision in the rules which govern the Board of Benevolence ? A brother gets into temporary difficulties , and wants immediate relief ; but as his lodge only meets five

months in the year , it may possibly happen before he can apply to his lodge for a recommendation six months must elapse , aud then another month before his petition goes before tbe Board ; and should substantial relief be granted ,

probably tAA *~ o months more before it can come before Grand Lodge—and then , if the relief is really substantial , three months more before the A ote is confirmed , during which time the brother may starve , or go to the workhouse , for anything *

our beautiful laws ( all inquiry into which is strongly ' resisted by our conservative brethren , Jones , Brown , Robinson , and Co . ) will do for him . He ought not to fall into distress out of season . It may be urged that the lodge might hold

an emergency for the purpose of signing tho petition ; but are brethren to be taxed for such a purpose ? and would it not be better to put their hands into their pockets at once and relieve the brother , than so to Avaste their

time and dissipate the funds of the lodge ; for , should AVO suppose the lodge to be held at the Freemasons' Tavern , we cannot calculate the average cost of a lodge of emergency at less , than £ 2 2 s ., whilst some tAventy or thirty brethrenwill be called from their homes to transact business

which , where the petitioner is well known to the brethren , can be equally as well , if not better performed at their houses or offices at the cost of a few pence or , at all events , shillings . But such a course might tend to the production

of three or four more petitions in the course of a year , and give half-an-hour ' s extra work to the great "WE" who ai * e annually re-elected or re-appointed to the Board , and become the sole dictators of the manner in Avhich tha

funds of the Board shall be distributed—their principal claim to such re-election or reappointment being that , having * constituted themselves such dictators , they may become troublesome to the " authorities" in Grand Lodge should they be

passed by or superseded . The report of the Colonial Board is principally occupied with the details of the dispute with the Grand Lodge of Canada relative to the nonrecognition of the St . George ' s Lodge , working

under the English Constitutions . The report , however , ivas scarcely in our hands when we received the annual address " of Bro . Harington , the Grand Master of Canada , showing that the dispute had been amicably settled , and that he

recommended the Grand Lodge of Canada to recognise the lodge . This satisfactory decision has been arrived at through the exertions of Bro . Brackstone Baker , one of the members of the Colonial Board , who , being in Canada on business , took

the opportunity of seeing Bro . Harington , and by personal explanations did more in a quarter of an hour to set the matter right than would one hundred of the turgid , red tape communications ofthe Grand Secretary . It is a pity , in appointing a representative to