Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

in the mode of dealing with brethren charged with Masonic offences : lodge trials began more generally to be conducted before committees specially . appointed to the work , the financial affairs of the lodge falling also to be attended to in committee

—visiting brethren , however , being allowed to sit in open lodge during the discussions following ¦ ¦ upon the presentation of reports affecting the position of members or having reference . to financial affairs , during the exercise of discipline , and at meetings for the election of office-bearers . It is still not unusual to find the

'accused put upon trial in the face of an open lodge ; and even under such circumstances the . exclusion of visitors is not of universal practice . Indeed the custom of excluding sojourners on any . ground other than their inability to satisfy the

lodge as to their being Freemasons of good standing , appears to have been introduced into this district Avithin the last twenty years . Old Masons , some of them octogenarians , assure us that to shut the door of a lodge in the face of a

worthy visiting brother was a thing- never in their day thought of ; but whether such an act would have been viewed as an encroachment on the . rights of visitors , or as a breach of fraternal courtesy , our aged informants cannot determine ,

they never having heard the question raised . While the rights of visitors in daughter lodges have never been authoritatively defined by the Grand Lodge of Scotland , the power which any individual member of that august body possesses ,

at any time and without discussion , to order the retirement of visiting brethren , may be held to rule the action of subordinate loda-es as rea'ards the presence of visitors at any of their meetings , save those summoned for the celebration of

Masonic rites . Nevertheless , among the thirtytwo lodges in the province the exclusion of visitors is but rarely , and then only under very peculiar circumstances , resorted to . Again , so far as the practice of Grand Lodge can be accepted as a

precedent for the exclusion of visitors by lodges when engaged on business alleged to be private , those who advocate the right of lodges at pleasure to receive or to decline the visits of stranger brethren , may , we think , strengthen their

position by a reference to the law anent Grand Visitations , whicli enacts " that , previous to such visitation taking place , the Master of the lodge to he visited shall send notice to the Masters of all the lodges in the district , requesting their

attendance along with their brethren;—but when visitations are purely of a business character , and made for the purpose of inquiring into the mode of conducting the lodge , examining its books , etc ., no notice of such visits require to be

sent to the other lodges in the district . " In addition to the eminent authorities quoted recently in the MAGAZINE in support of the view that in particular circumstances a lodge can deny admission to visitors , Bro . Dr . Rob . Morris , one

of the greatest of living Masonic jurists , may be cited : he says , " During the hour of elections , and during the more delicate passages of trials , & c , visitors should , of their own accord , withdraw . . . . In trials of a delicate case , in which moral

standing and character are involved , it will sometimes occur that the members prefer to be private and without visitors . In such case the Master will direct all visitors to withdraw . A Mason visits lodges by courtesy , not by right . " The subject

under notice has in various forms and at divers times been discussed in these pages— -the editorial voice being more than once found re-echoing the sentiments of those who would set a limit to the

rights of visitors . For our own part , and notwithstanding the array of law and usage advanced against it , we are of opinion that whenever the ring of the gravel has proclaimed the existence of an open lodge of Free

and Accepted Masons , within the inner lines of that circle any worthy brother , known to be such , has an undoubted right to be present , there ( should he so choose ) to remain until the communication terminates . And we humbly think that to urge

private business as a plea for the exclusion of visitors betrays a suspicion of transient brethren scarcely in unison with the principles of a fraternity by whom that Charity which thinketh no evil is esteemed as chief of the Masonic virtues , and is

calculated to present a barrier to that undisturbed flow of fraternal communion whicli should ever and in all circumstances characterise Masonic communications . If it were not told us in so

many words , the impression left on our mind on being made , was that in no circumstances could a worthy Craftsman feel otherwise than at home when knocking for admission to a Mason lodge . But if when so presenting himself the applicant

finds that he is excluded merely because the brethren within do not choose to admit visitors , how could he be blamed for regarding the muchvaunted universality of the brotherhood ' s love as