"Address To The Craft, By A Past Master."

"ADDRESS TO THE CRAFT , BY A PAST MASTER . "

" " | 7 "EEP me from my friends , " is an adage , which if JA _ it he old , has the advantage of truth , and never more so , we believe , than on the present occasion . Often indeed within the last month must this have occurred to W . Masons on the Dais , upon a perusal of a singular document which has been sedulously circulated through

the Craft , as their self-constituted apology , under the title of " Address to the Craft . " When first we heard how severely our columns were taken to task , and were favoured with a copy of this voluminous epistle , we must own to a feeling of dismay at the three folio pages of close printbristling with precedentscriticismdark

, , , sayings of Bacon , and a somewhat trite quotation of Horace . But second thoughts are best , and on a careful perusal we must admit that nothing we have ever said or thought of the Dais is one-quarter so self-stultifying , or so self-condemnatory to them , as is this notable composition . The feeble allegations , the

unanswered charges , the avoidance of weak points , the statement of irrelevant topics , are so remarkable , that in justice to ourselves , we must disclaim any covert share in its fabrication , as an ingenious method of advertising our own opinions . We should however have preferred to pass it by in silenceand to have

, trusted the respective merits of ourselves , and our anonymous contemporary , to the judgment of the Craft , but for the allegation of inaccuracy brought against our report of the proceedings in G . L . In replying to this we think it due to ourselves to touch—though as briefly

as we can—upon the other charges preferred . These fall under six distinct heads . We are accused— -1 . Of inaccuracy in our reports . 2 . Of " an antagonistic spirit , " which we have evinced . 3 . Of a misrepresentation cf the character and measures of the Dais . 4 . Of factious conduct in asserting for G . L . the right of adjournment . 5 . Of sanctioning an

aggression on the Craft by one Lodge . And 6 , of publishing—for we have never written one line in favour of —the details of a Provincial Mess . I . The inaccuracy of our Report . We deny the charge in toto , and when thus pressed we must sacrifice delicacy to truthand with regret we must replthat

, y the Past-Master says " the thing which is not . " Were we to deviate by one hair ' s-breadth from a faithful statement of the proceedings , we should stand self-convicted , and our circulation , as a paper , would be gone . But if we may reveal to our readers some of the mysteries of the printing house , there is a yet more practical

refutation to the charge in the fact , that the reports of the G . L . proceedings were furnished to ourselves , and to the "Magazine " ( on which the Past-Master lavishes so much praise ) , by one and the same very able and accurate person . A comparison of the two publications will prove the absence of any real discrepancy . But if the

full reports are thus shewn to be true , the fairness of the summary can be tested at the pleasure of the reader . We are at his mercy , and he has only to turn the pages and to compare the accounts in full and in brief . We will however deal with the instance which the

Past-Master cites against us , and which he evidently thinks conclusive . He states as a proof of the misrepresentations contained in our second number;— -1 . " That the Dais opposed the appointment of a Colonial Board of General Purposes . " S . " That it opposed the circulation throughout the Province of the business to be brought before G . L . " And 3 " That a noble brother

, moved to refer the communication of the M . W . the G . M . to the Board which you have appointed . " Now with the exception of the third allegation we are prepared , with the utmost confidence , to reassert these statements . That third instance , which is quoted with so much triumph is , as we should have thought it was self-evident ,

—a typographical error . At the adjourned G . L . of October , Lord CARNARVON , in a speech on the Canadian claims , had moved and carried , " To refer the G . M . ' s communication to the Board which had been ajrpoiuted ;" and when the re-appointment of that Board was reconfirmed in the special G . L ., of Nov . 19 ththe G . M .

, agreed to that proposal in the words which the Past-Master quotes . The paragraph which follows in our columns upon this is headed , in undeniably large type , " Circulating the Paper of Business in the Country , " as the heading of another speech of Lord CARNARVON on that subject ; but an inadvertence on the part of the

printer—for even the best-regulated printers are like other mortals , liable to err — the concluding words of the G . M . have been repeated . We will not speak so meanly of the Past-Master ' s penetration as to say that he believes the transparent fallacy which he thus utters , but as he is fond of Latin quotations , we will make to him the reply which was once made to the most mendacious hero of

antiquity" Hon tali auxilio nee defensonbus istis Tempus eget . " The two other cases we may safely leave to the discrimination of our readers . We do not hesitate to re-affirm them . We repeat that the Dais did oppose the appointment of the Colonial Board , when Bro . DOBIE twice , Bro . HALL once , and Bro . HAVERS twiceduring the

, course of the debate , objected to the motion . Neither did we state , on insufficient grounds , that the Dais had opposed the motion for the circulation of the business paper among the country lodges , when Bros . DOBIE and HAVERS twice interposed , in a vain attempt , to defeat the measure , and even the G . M . was induced to cover

their retreat by expressing his entire dissent from the proposal as it stood . II . As to " the antagonistic spirit " which we have evinced , and other similar generalities , it is not so easy to bring the Past-Master to book , as when he imprudently commits himself to the region of hard facts , which

are susceptible of proof or disproof . But the expressions of " party , " of " faction , " of " assumption of public position , " and such like , unequivocally betray a belief in some other " party , " whose notions are at variance with the constitutional maxims which we have advocated , in official honours , to which the profane must not aspire , and hi an exclusive right to speak and act in the affairs of the Craft . "When I ope my mouth let no dog dare