Modern Writers Upon Freemasonry.—I.

nients that we should " to a well informed ancl accomplished mind , add elegance of manners ?" But , now , to turn to what ive may term the more legal or ( not in its usual sense ) political part of the book . There is really here much that is worthy of praise . On page 31 we find this head : —2 . " Candidates should apply to the nearest Lodge ; " ancl the doctor then proceeds

to state that " the application of a candidate to a distant or strange Lodge , has a suspicious appearance , although he may have very good private reasons for it . " We here quite agree with him , and could much wish that some clause were added to the Book of Constitutions

to obviate the evil arising from the practice . The fault is not with the candidate , or with the Lodges in or near his place of residence , but with the Lodge which admits him . No Lodge ought to admit any person apjilying to them from a distance , or proposed from a distance for initiation , without first having , from himself , a good and sufficient reason for wishing to join them , in preference to the Masons of the Lodges in his own town or neighbourhoodancl from the

, brethren of such Lodges , an assurance ( in conformity with the requirement of the Constitution ) that his circumstances are reputable , ancl that they , as a body , ivould not object to receive him were he to apply to them . Common courtesy , we should have thought , would dictate such a course , but as , inadvertently or otherwise , the evil is sometimes alloweda clause to this effect in the Book of Constitutions would

, certainly have a beneficial effect . We know of more than one instance in which a very respectable Lodge has been seriously annoyed by the initiation , elsewhere , without any inquiry , of persons who have been informed , or to whose proposer it has been intimated , that the black ball would certainly be freely used if they came to the ballot , and by tbe visits afterwards of

these objectionable persons ; ancl thus the comfort , not merely of a Lodge , but more or less of a whole province or district , may be effected . We must more especially complain of the prevalence of this objectionable practice in Scotland , where a man , refused in England , may go , ancl on declaring that he is about to leave the country ( almost a sufficient reason we should think for refusing to admit at all an

unknown individual , as likely perhaps to inflict an objectionable person on the brethren of another country ) , be initiated , passed , and raised in an incredibly short time ; ancl , to the annoyance of those who would have refused him here , come home a full blown Master Mason . Surely , with a representative from ancl at the Grand Lodge of Scotland , the latter of whom is our own Deputy Grand Master , who is both an English and a Scotch Masonand of rank and influence in

, both capacities , some plan might be devised for stopping those serious evils . But if we complain of Scotland , so do some of our colonial brethren of England , ancl we have a letter from one of tbe West India Islands , which , though not written for publication , we find so a propos , that