Colonial.

adopt towards that body . Not one single charter has ever been demanded ; not one single seceding Brother has been suspended from masonic privileges ; not one atom of masonic law has been brought to bear ; and even your Lordship ' s term of "rebellious" ( if we are to believe the only printed periodical that comes regularly to this Province , viz ., The F . M . Magazine , published in London ) was not suffered to be uttered by you in G . L . without a sneer ! " Your Lordship states that you have felt astonishment , not un-Biingled with indignation , at the course pursued by the late P . G . M .

of Upper Canada , in demanding the warrants of the Lodges in your name . Will you be pleased to state what he ought to have done ? I was by Sir Allan MacNab ' s side ( and can bear witness to his anxiety to act rightly . I am of course open to conviction , and we are all liable to error , bnt I believe I should have followed the same course , and so I told Sir Allan . Your Lordship says , that you see a wide distinction between the breaking up of a Lodge , and the surrender of its warrant by the free will of the Brethren composing it , and the subsequent formation of new Lodges under another authority ; and

the formation of an independent and antagonistic jurisdiction , who are still the holders of the warrants of that G . L . whose authority they are determined to subvert , & c . My Lord and M . W . Brother , the Lodges could not first be broken up , and the warrants surrendered , or a G . L . could not have been constituted ; for it is Lodges , not Brethren , who form the component parts of a G . L . Your Lordship likewise says , that the P . G . M . not only assumed a power as your representative which you had no authority to exercise yourself , but acted in direct opposition to the Constitutions ; what do the Constitutions say?—art .

Private Lodges , sect . 27 : — 'If a Lodge be dissolved , the warrant shall he delivered up to the G . Master , ' & c . Sec . 30 : 'If all the members of a Lodge withdraw , the warrant becomes extinct . " I would therefore ask your Lordship , who was the proper officer to require the surrender of the warrants of the Lodges , upon their formally declaring that they withdrew from under the jurisdiction of England , or , in other words , dissolved themselves , a ' s far as their charters were concerned , and received in lieu thereof dispensations from their own local head ? Surely , the P . G . M . was bound to call for them , for the purpose of complying with the Constitutions , and restoring . them to you , the G . M . Sir Allan MacNab , in common with the Brethren at large , could only understand by your Lordship ' s address to the G . L . of England , that after a declaration of

independence , the retention of your warrants specially constituted an act of rebellion ; and it was with direbt allusion to your Lordship ' s own words , that the P . G . M . addressed the meeting as he did . Upon referring to the P . G . L . proceedings , you will observe , that in the concluding address praying for recognition , the surrender of those charters is specially mentioned , and their return asked for , that they might be cherished as mementos of the original source from whence wo derived our masonic existence , and which we regarded with warm affectionalthough we felt that self-governmentfrom various causes

, , , was imperative . The P . G . M . used no compulsion ; but he had to exercise his discretion , and , in the absence of any advice or directions from the fountain-head ( a & hough the contemplated movement was known in London ) , the course he pursued was certainly the most straightforward one , and , under the circumstanoee , more in accordance with the Constitutions , as quoted above , than any other method would have been ; and I know that no Brother felt more acutely the painful position in which we were all placed than Sir Allan MacNabM

. y Lord , it seems a "paradox "—that the Independent G . L . should be denounced for withholding the English warrants , and the Anlient G . L . of C . for surrendering them . "You , M . W . G . M ., declare that recognition of either of the bodies which have recently assumed the power of erecting themselves into a G . L ., is impossible ; and that even were it accorded , it would lead only to increased confusion . No Brethren lament more sincerely the state of Masonry in this Province than those residing herewho have

, been all along the real sufferers , and they have shown this by their actions and their urgent appeals to England to remedy it . I believe I echo their sentiments , by repudiating the justice of any attempt to fasten the blame upon them . The documents they have drawn up show , in truthful language , who were the originators of the confusion ; and I would ask your Lordship certain plain questions : Why has not the course adopted by the G . L . of Ireland been solemnly protested against ? and why , when that sovereign body upheld and encouraged b

y recognition those English Lodges which first withdrew from allegiance to you , did you continue on the same terms of intimacy as before , when you could not be blind to the serious importance of the proceedings of Ireland , and must have been conscious that half a victory was thereby gained by those whom your Lordship simply styled " rebellious 1 " It is asserted that the G . L . of Ireland did seek information from England ; but , like other correspondents , it met with no notice , and therefore acted as it thought best . Whether this be

true or not , the recognition by a part of the empire , and the mutual appointment of representatives by that portion and the seceding body , must have had a damaging effect on the permanent continuation of your masonic supremacy here . Yet I believe the G . L . of England has not ventured any objection or remonstrance . "Your Lordship says that you know that many of the delays complained of by Lodges , originated from the neglect of Provincial Officers . I know nothing of this myself , but it is indignantly and positively contradicted . This is another new charge , made at a late

hour , and the Provincial Officers justly complain of its being held back . The G . Secretary ' s Office , they say , is the Augean Stable that required cleansing , and that its waste paper basket could for years have told talcs . My Lord , I was conversing lately with a Brother not long from Loudon , and who says he is or was a Member of a Red Apron Lodge , —an old friend of his , and an attendant at G-L ., designated its proceedings for some time past as a solemn farce , and London Free Masonry—as a peculiar system of eating and drinking , veiled with a table clothand illustrated by knives and forks!—I

, dare say that I am not the only one to whom this has boon stated , and whether correct or not , the impression left must be injurious . " I told you in a former paragraph , that I hoped to prove that dissatisfaction here had been occasioned by parties in Loudon , and connected with G . L . itstelf . I propose now to do this by way of conclusion , and trust that your Lordship will not feel annoyed at me , if I place , as I conceive it to be my boundeu duty , offensive expressions before your eyes . Your Lordship probably may not see the " London F . M . Monthly Magazine , " published by Brother Warren , a prominent

attendant upon G . L . Meetings , although it has been lately formally authorized by you to publish G . L . proceedings ; but it has a large circulation here , and is greedily perused , as the scanty official reports emanate from the G Secretary at very uncertain times . We should have known very little of what was occurring at Head Quarters , had it not been for the Magazine . I will not go back beyond the December Number for 1855 , and I commence there , because it heralds the formation of the Independent G . L . under Bro . Wilson . There is an Editorial entitled , " Severance of the Canadian Lodges from the G . L .

of England . " The article is too long to insert at length , but your Lordship can doubtless procure it . It commences by saying , " So important do we consider the step ' which has boon taken , and we consider justly , by our Brethren in Canada , " & c . " And concludes as follows : ' Not gefean answer from the G . Secretary ' s Office , quotha ! Bah ! aswell get the G . M . to attend upon any public Masonic occasion , except indeed , the nomination to office of some Whig protege is mooted , then indeedhe is punctual . The presence of our excellent Brother Dobie

, , with his sound practical head , and talents for business , has been the shield of Ajax over and over again , behind which the incapables , Lord Zetland , Brother White , and Co ., have been glad to cower . Their dullness it is which has lost us Canada , and for which the West Indies is already threatening Severance—let the system go on , and the development of Masonry will shortly be reduced to two individuals , the placeman and the toady ; whilst the G-L . will in all probability be removed to Newmarket , the only place whence no plea operates to withhold our G . M . '

[ In a postcript , Bro . Harington alludes to the action of the G . L . of Ireland , as described by Bro . Furnell , P . G . M . of North Mmister . ] "' Laying aside all feelings of disappointment or pique , the G . L . of Ireland approached the discussion of the question with a very calm , dignified , and unprejudiced spirit . Its first step was to communicate with the G . L . of England and Scotland , asking what decisions had been made upon the subject . After waiting for a reply until it could not , in common courtesy , longer delay its answer to the Canadian

Declaration , the G . L . of Ireland was obliged to set about making up its mind on the matter , without knowing how the G . L . of England and Scotland had acted , or would act . We had sought the aid of their opinions , but had never deemed ourselves incompetent to draw our own conclusions , —a difficult task , perhaps ; but wo did not shrink from it . ' "After pointing to the formation , in 1717 , of the G L . of England , as one precedent—and herself , and other G . L . as all having been established by the suffrages of the very bodies they were to rule

, Brother Furnell proceeds to say : "' We also could not bnt feel that the Canadian Lodges ought best to know their own wants and their own resources ; and that if the moment had arrived when they had attained strength and maturity to support themselves , it was an idle and childish attempt to keep them in a state of pupilage and dependence . ' " Again : ' We therefore resolved to accede to the proposition of our Brethren , because it was both reasonable , and , as we deemed , consisted with usage , so far as usage existed to guide us . '