Honorary Grand Officers.

HONORARY GRAND OFFICERS .

ILONDOS ] SATURDAY , DECEMBER 14 , 1881 .

"We respectfully direct the attention of the M . W . Grand Master to the fact that at the last meeting of the District Grand Lodge of Bengal , the officiating Prov . Grand Master , Bro . J . J . L . Hoff , conferred the honorary rank of Past Proy . Grand Deaconon no less than

, fiA e brethren—all of Avhom , we donht not , are worthy of this , or perhaps even higher distinction , if bestowed legally , Avhich we maintain , under the present law , cannot be the case so far as Provincial or District Grand Masters are concerned .

We are aware that the power of granting honorary rank has . long been claimed , and acted upon , by the District Grand Masters and their deputies in India , though not justified by the Book of Constitutions , the power of granting honorary rank having been especially reserved to the United Grand Lodge

itself until within the last few months , when it was extended to the M . W . Grand Master ; and that the poAver was never intended to attach to Prov . Grand Masters was all but unanimously affirmed by Grand Lodge last week . Prior to the resolution granting the

power to the Grand Master , there could be no pretence whatever for Prov . or District Grand Masters claiming the privilege , they being clothed by their appointment with similar powers within their districts to those

possessed by the Grand Master over Masonry in general ; but having none of the privileges reserved by the JBooh of Constitutions to Grand Lodge , which has no voice in the appointment . We repeat what we have before stated , that if there

is any portion of the English Masonic Jurisdiction where the power of the Grand Master to create honorary members might fairly be extended to the District Grand Masters , it is in India , in consequence of the distance of the outlying stations , and the want of those facilities

of locomotion Avhich we possess in this country ; but the privilege , before being acted upon , should be asked for and obtained—as it no doubt would easily be—from the Grand Lodge of England , ancl we trust the M . W . G . Master will cause a communication to that effect to be

addressed to his representatives in our distant possessions , so that the practice throughout the Craft may be well defined and understood .

A Suspension In India.

A SUSPENSION IN INDIA .

We publish in another page from the Indian Freemason's Friend a rather fuller account of the District Grand Lodge of Bengal than we should otherwise be induced to do , because Ave conceive that _ n injustice has been done to a brother , and we believe it to be our duty

to endeavour to protect a brother from injury , however distant he may be from the parent Grand Lodge to which lie owes allegiance ; and the more especially so in

the present instance , as in India there is no independent organ of Freemasonry to lift up its voice on his behalf . We are as great sticklers for the maintenance of the laws laid down in the Booh of Constitutions as any brethren can be , but we are also bound to look not only at the exact

letter of the law , but the manner in which it is carried out in the Grand Lodge of England ; and with the recollection that if one of our cardinal virtues be justice , we are also taught to temper it with mercy . From the proceedings of the District Grand Lodge it would

appear that Lodge 740 , Kilwinning in the East , was , for some cause unknown to us , extinguished some time since , and the warrant returned to the District Grand Lodge ; and Bro . Douglas , Avho had been Master of the lodge , is now summoned for arrears of dues under the

law in the Boole of Constitutions , which says" The fees or dues received on account of , and payable to , the Grand Lodge and Provincial Grand Lodge , shall be kept separate and distinct from the moneys belonging to the Lodge , and shall be deposited in the hands of the Master instead of the Treasurer of the Lodge , and shall be transmitted to the Grand Lodge and Provincial Grand Lodge at such times as the law requires . "

We all know that , notwithstanding the law , the usual practice is for the Treasurer to keep the funds ; and the separation only takes place when the accounts are made up prior to the retiring Master making his returns , either personally or through the Treasurer or Secretary , to Grand Lodge , on handing over his gavel to his successor ; and that there must have been some laches here is

evident ; but it would appear to us that the Prov . Grand Treasurer is certainly quite as much to blame as Bro . Douglas , and therefore the penalty should not fall altogether on the head of that brother ; for Bro . Douglas explains that before surrendering the warrant of the lodge he called upon Bro . Clark and enquired whether

anything was clue to the District Grand Lodge , and was informed that there was not , ancl Bro . Douglas was further confirmed in the impression thus created , that there was nothing owing , by Bro . Clark , writing to Bro . dinger , the Secretary of the lodge , " that there were

two classes of bad paymasters , namely , those who were too slow and those who were too quick , " and that Bro . Clinger belonged to the latter class . To this statement Bro . Clark replies that he does not know what is due by the lodges until they have furnished returns to the Prov .

G . Secretary . That is , no doubt , true enough ; but instead of telling Bro . Douglas that there was nothing due , he should have told him to what date the dues were paid , and the surrender of the lodge warrant should not have been accepted without the returns , ancl Bro . Douglas

being informed what Avas then clue , as up to that period he was clearly liable , and might , perhaps , before the surrender of the warrant , have been enabled to obtain the clues from the brethren . But when the District

Grand Lodge had accepted the surrender of the warrant , and the brethren were dispersed , Bro . Douglas was placed in a very different position , and , to our thinking , morally , if not legally , released from his obligations with regard to the lodge dues . But on Bro ,