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but ( we are told ) " it would not be to the advantage of the Craft . " Surely this is a most unwarrantable assumption . As to the bugbears of " confusion and abuse , " if Bro . HAVERS ' opinion were with ours on the abstract issue , his ability and experience would , in five minutes , devise an organization for the reception of proxiesas orderly and pure as that of our present

, system of voting . We do not blame the Board for expressing their opinion on the subject ; we agree with the D . G . M ., that courtesy to their memorialists demanded such notice , but it is a matter of regret that so sensible a suggestion of reformso inoffensive an infant ideashould not

, , receive a word of hope or sympathy from the Executive , but be committed to be nursed on aprons of blue , and reared among the discontented harangues and naughty cnndnct of tlifi indfinfinrlfint . rfifnrmflvs .

It is no part of our duty to urge our Provincial Brethren to bestir themselves in this matter . If it be to the satisfaction of Lodges in Westmoreland or Cornwall to forward respectively their financial benefactions , and go to sleep while the same are distributed by Trustees , not of their appointment : if Beaumaris and Pembroke be content to accept their chief ( theoretically

elective ) at the dictation of the oligarchy who hear the bells of Bow , and to recognize the orations of Bro . COTTERELL , as expository of their own feelings , we wish them joy of the humility of their aspirations . We do but argue , as journalists , a question of right . If to our lotas years go byshould ever fall

commu-, , nion with " a Lodge in some vast wilderness , " far from the turmoil of democratic discontent , and the despotic dictation of the Dais , let us have , as compensation for our estrangement , from the active field of Masonic politics , the pleasing consciousness that we may still , to some extent , participate in the government of our Order .

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EVERYTHING connected with the subject of Masonic Reform tends to bring us back to that word with which we commenced our two last papers , " Patronage . " This time , however , we have to consider the word in a rather different aspect . The Ministerialists in Grand Lodge have insisted , very strongly , upon retaining all the patronage of the Craft in the

hands of the Grand Master , ( as they showed by their rejection of Bro . BARRETT ' motion last June , with respect to the appointment of an Assistant Grand Pursuivant , )—ececeptis excipiendis , —that is what they choose to keep for themselves . For the Ministerialists of Grand Lodge are virtually the London Past Masters

, Wardens , & c . It is notorious that not a twentieth part of the country lodges are represented ; and , although there are plenty of lodges and brethren in the country who would , if they could spare the time and money , come up to London and speak their mind , it is not in their power to do so ; andconsequentlyLondon holds

, , its own , and virtually governs the Craft . How so ? Why simply because it is London that elects the Grand Master and the several Boards , and the Grand Master naturally enough selects his Grand Officers chiefly from

among the London brethren ( and we blame him not for doing so ) , not so much from any feeling of gratitude for his re-election year after year , but simply because he sees and hears certain men over and over again in Grand Lodge , he sees their faces and becomes familiar with them , he recognises their zeal in Grand Lodge businessand he hears their , arguments or assertions in

, favour of his own views , and naturally enough , whether it be Lord ZETLAND or ( the Lord quoted by Dickens ) the Lord No Zoo , he selects his Grand Officers from among their numbers . Now , what is the remedy ? Why that the country have a voice as well as London in the appointment of

the Grand Master and the election of the members of the several Boards , and affairs will forthwith assume a different aspect . " What nonsense you ' re talking , " says some angry Ministerialist , " they have a voice in all these elections . " Have they ? They might as well be without it , for all the practical good they get from it .

Distance , and time , and money are all against its use , and do prevent it . Let them have voting papers for the elections of the Grand Master and the several Boards , forwarded , according to the number of members of of Grand Lodge in each lodge , to the several country lodge secretaries , and let those papers be filled up or have the votes recorded on them ( in a manner to be determined on hereafter ) , iu the several lodge rooms

m the country ; and then , if a Grand Master stayed in for fifteen years , it would indeed be a proof that he had the confidence of the country ; then it strikes us a different set of names would be found on the several Boards , and the Grand Lodge patronage might be rather differently bestowed than at present . Under what pretext can this right of voting by papers be denied to our

country brethren ? They vote in this way for candidates for admission to the Charities of the Order . For these they pay tlm- subscriptions , and are entitled to votes , which they are not pulled up to London to record . They pay Grand Lodge dues , ( really exactly equal in amount to those paid by the London district ; for

, though the country Grand Lodge dues are only half the amount paid in London and ten miles round , the country has certain Provincial Grand Lodges to support , which equalises the matter . ) and are therefore entitled to all the privileges attaching to such payment . As justly might their proxy papers for the Charities be

withdrawn from them , as voting papers for the election of the Grand Master and the Boards be longer witheld from them . And yet the Board of General Purposes have just decided , on receiving a petition to this effect , from Lodge No . 90 , at Winchester , that the adoption of such a course " might lead to confusion and injustice !!!" How so ?

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NEITHER GATTON , nor OLD SARUM , were very anxious for their own reformation . The Board of General Purposes is not more so for theirs . Chosen nominally by the London Brethren , really by the clique who enjoy the confidence of the whigs , it is not