Modern Writers Upon Freemasonry.—Iv.

any one or more individuals , but by Grand Lodge and Grand Lodge only—is scarcely enough insisted on . "Library , " ( pp . 345 , 346 ) . This library plan vras a failure ; still there is no reason that a Masonic library of reference should not exist , and be useful too . " When tlicy liad read every published work on the Order" said the Grand Registrar" what good ivould it do them ?"

, , What good indeed ?—if , as some people think , there arc no books connected with Freemasonry , but Dr . Oliver ' s works , Lawrence Der-. niott ' s " Ahiman Rezon , " and somo sermons by Jethro Inwood , Harris , ifcc . But thero arc a vast number of works , if not absolutely on Freemasonry , yet on kindred subjects , or subjects not alien to it , both ancient and modern , which might be and ought to be in a Masonic

library of reference . The number of volumes HOAV the property of the Craft may be about a hundred ancl twenty , but the room in which these books are kept , and the ivant of a person to attend to it , renders them practically useless . " Brethren eligible for Grand Office" ( pp . 349-50 ) . " No brother who has not actuallserved his year as the Master of a Lodge" says

y , Dr . Oliver in this place , " can legally be elevated to thc purple . " Practically , most Grand Officers are Past Masters , but this need not be the case according to Dr . Oliver's dicta on pages 360 , 364 , 367 , and 368 , in which , lie respectively names as necessary qualifications , that a brother to be Grand Pursuivant , Organist , or Sword Bearer , must be a Master Mason . For the offices of Grand Director of Ceremonies

and Superintendent of AVorks , and one or two others , lie specifies no qualifications ); to be a Grand Deacon one must be a Past Warden of a Lodge ( p . 36-1 ) , while the Grand Registrar , Treasurer , and Wardens , must be Past Masters . Yet , in enumerating the several qualifications , these are all who he says must be Past Masters , though he says afterwards , that " no oue can be legally elevated to thc purple till he

has actually served his year as the Master of a Lodge . " It is well known that the Book of Constitutions is now silent witli regard to thc qualification of Grand Wardens , ancl that practically thoy are not usually Past Masters . Again , at p . 373 he speaks of tho " violation of the laiv , which restricts any brother from liaving more than one qualification for a

vote in Grand Lodge . " Surely this is a contradiction , or something very like one , of his statement ( p . 134 ) that "it is inexpedient , though not absolutely illegal , for a brother to hold cither of these oihcea , ( vi- / , Worshipful Master by dispensation , or AVarden ) in duplicate , " and ( not forbids , but ) recommends that thoy be not so held , * ' because , by so doing the Lodwould lose a vote in Grand Lodge . "

ge Again , at page 373 Dr . Oliver says , " If Past Grand Officers bo Officers of private Lodges , they are not deprived of their privilege to sit and vote in Grand Lodge as Past Grand Officers ; but they must depute some other person belonging to each particular Lodge to represent them as the Officers of that Lodge at the " quarterly communication . " HOAV can they do so ?¦ They cannot depute any one who is