Can A Warden Initiate ? &C.

CAN A WARDEN INITIATE ? & c .

TO THE EDITOR OS TEE FKEEJTASOIfS' JTAGAZISE AWD MASONIC MIEEOE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —No doubt you remember the popular story of some limb of the law whose instructions to counsel ran thus : — " No case .- abuse plaintiff ' s attorney "—a course Bro . Blackburn has adopted , in his ! ast letter , covering his retreat .

Tho original question was , " Can a Warden Initiate ?" Bro . Blackburn says "No ; " I say "Yes . " He and I both bring forward those evidences which , we each think , tell for our own respective views ; but if we both write " tyll daye of doome " we cannot settle the matter , for Euclid tells us that two parallel lines continued to infinity can never meet ; and thus Bro . Blackburn and must

myself " agree to differ" until some competent authority shall step in , and , by intersecting our similar courses , give us the chance of again becoming united on a general principle . . We are all more or less apt to rely upon certain authorities of our own choosing for the derivation of words , f cited Johnson . Bro . Blackburn replied by throwing a somewhat °

unknown " Cragg" in my way , and thinkshe has given me cause to stumble . To this I must reply by hurling at him a passage from Old Barclay ' s Shippe offfooles , printed in the 15 th century , which clearly indicates what a Warden was then understood to be ; and as it is likely Bro . Blackburn does not indulge in " foolish " literatureit maybe new to himBarclay "He

, . says , was a wardeyn hatting charges of all wardeinrie under hys maistres priuatie ; " and if Bro . Blackburn can shew me that a Warden , such as the one just cited , is an irresponsible Master on his own account , I am willing to be written down the veriest ass in Christendom .

Bro . Blackburn is somewhat disingenuous in several of his statements , making me say , " in 1813 , two Grand Lodges with identical landmarks , but differently constituted ; " instead of which my words are , — "The regulations of these two systems were as widely different as their respective governments , "—a sentence which I submit cannot corroborate , under any amount of augmentation , diminution , or involution , Bro . Blackburn ' s assertions .

Bro . Blackburn says , "But ' M . C " writes an imaginary case but founded on those of daily occurrence ;" and then adds , parenthetically , ( "How a case can be imaginary which is founded on daily occurrence is as unintelligible to mo as my comparative philology to him . " ) Perhaps so ; but if Bro . Blackburn will reconstruct my sentence , which he has so unmercifully hacked

and dismembered , he will find that I founded an imaginary case on those of daily occurrence , i . e ., I could not say Bro . So-and-so , of such and such a place , did this , or that , but imagined that some one did ( what is done daily throughout the length and breadth of the land ) officiate for the Master in his absence . Fair quotations of a writer ' s words are always admissible as arguments

against him , but garbled extracts only show the weakness of his opponent ' s defence . I am one of the curious , and , with all due deference , Bro . Blackburn is another . He says , " the curious may satisfy themselves by reading the exploits of many of these Lord Wardens in the , good old feudal times . " Where ? that is my puzzle , and nob to know that the Lord Warden was the king ' s officer .

Bro . Blackburn thinks he quietly settles me by stating that " a Warden has nothing to keep , nothing to guard , nor is he a head officer . " Taking his view of a Warden ' s powers to be , that he can only rule the lodge in tho absence of the W . M ., a Warden certainly must ; be supposed to keep one very necessary thing—order . The Junior Warden also has to keep strangers and cowans

from being allowed to enter , and he has to guard the lodge by going out to examine all those unknown brethren who present themselves for admission . That I conceive is something to guard .

Can A Warden Initiate ? &C.

That a Warden is a head officer is equally clear . He has a Deacon under him to run and carry for him , and if one officer is above another in rank , the highest must be head , or chief , over the inferior . As a proof also that a Warden is recognised as a head officer in more places than one , his very title of premier , or seconde , surveillant amongst Freemasons in France

is , literally , first or second overseer , overlooker , or inspector , any of which terms can only apply to a superior over other officers . In German , too , we find a Warden to be an Aufseher , overseer ; Yorsteher , superintendent , or inspector , —literally one who stands before ; and Hauptmann , a headman . In Latin , such an officer is termed custos or

guardianus , which is keeper or guardian , and has been used in the following formulas in numerous old documents : — Portuum custos , Wardenof the Ports ; guardianus quinque portuum , Warden of the Cinque Ports ; sacronem custos , a Churchwarden ; and guardianus prisonas domini Regis de la Fleete , Warden of the Fleet Prison . In each and every case these Wardens are but substitutes or

deputies under higher powers . Bro . Blackburn has evidently been studying Ackerman ' s Oxford , or the Oxford University Calendar , for his elaborate details of the body corporate of some colleges thabhave ras heads of their houses , an officer called a Warden . His earliest date 1274 is fatal to his inference . The

, , term Warden had been in use centuries previous amongst the city and various corporate guilds , and as most of colleges cited ivei'e founded by confraternities of secular monks , the term Warden was adopted for the head officer , and was really equivalent to that of Master , from which I deduce the opinion that it was equally as

competent for a Warden as for a Master to receive or initiate . Where Bro . Blackburn finds " 14 Past Masters" upon the foundation at Merton College I should like to know , because such information would be exceedingly valuable to those interested in the question of " The Antiquity of Masonic Degrees . " Perhaps Bro . Blackburn really means Post Masters , and taking post , in its old signification ,

to be after or passed , he may have , jocularly , turned them into Past Masters . Bro . Blackburn tells us "the ancient charges were extracted from all the known records of lodges in the world , and contain the most important landmarks of the Order , which may not be touched . " Well ! I should say there must have been some tidy folio volumes as the

result , instead of two pages octavo ! and , if the important landmarks arc so sacred , ib would be generous in Bro . Blackburn if he would kindly point out some less holy , so that at least we may write about them , if they are too brittle to be handled . I am neither lugubrious nor an agitator , but call things by their right names . If Bro . Blackburn denies the

effects I imputed to tho patchwork of 1813 , I am willing to meet him word by word , step by step , in every degree , and prove my conclusion . To seek for truth is not to agitate , and the real Freemason will not bolster up an untenable system by a set of legends devoid of authenticity , any more than he will claim for its laws an infallibility not even inferioras some sayto the Word of God

, , itself . Thanking Bro . Blackburn for a good many hearty laughs , and hoping to enjoy many more with him personally , I am , dear Sir ancl Brother , Yours truly and fraternally , ' M . C .

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A MAX will daily pass unheeding scenes of beauty which fill another with delight , simply because he lias never cultivated habits of observation and comparison ; and yet it is obvious that the latter enjoys without expense or labour the most abundant and varied source of pleasure from which the former is shut out . Let all , then , and especially the young , cultivate habits of observing , admiring , and loving nature .