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ties may exert themselves , their efforts will be in vain if ever the system pursued in G . L . comes to be adopted in their management , and an impression is created that persons on the spot have any advantage whatever , in making or altering the laws by which all are equally affected , over those at a distance . In WEST YORKSHIRE , a Provincial Board of General

Purposes has been appointed , from whose deliberations and suggestions the greatest benefit to the Province may be confidently expected . The D . P . G . M ., Bro . S ' EARNLEY , has displayed much tact and firmness in bringing this matter to so successful an issue .

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FOR magnificent specimens of proficiency in the art " how not to do it" commend us to the Executive of the Grand Lodge of England . What pains-taking , earnest , zeal seems to characterize their efforts to monopolize the honors of that delightful clolce far niente

pm'suit , the attainment of perfection in which appears to be the highest object of their ambition . The last display of their peculiar talents occurred on Wednesday the 1 st inst ., and to the circumstances connected with it we invite attention . The Board of Masters to which was submitted the business to be transacted in Grand Lodge was held on the 18 th of August . Some few days after this the official minutes of the last Quarterly

Oommnmcation and of the special Grand Lodge of the 16 th of June , with the agenda paper for the ensuing Meeting , containing portions of the correspondence between the authorities in this country and Bro . HARINGTON , late P . G . M ., of Quebec were duly circulated . At the Grand Lodge on the 1 st inst ., on the' minutes

being put for confirmation , Bro . Lord CARNARVON attempted to direct attention to the letters published in the report of the proceedings of the Special Grand Lodge , but was told he coidd not do so without notice regularly given at the Board of Masters . Later in the evening the same noble Brother and also Bro . WHITMORE

endeavoured to direct attention to the letters appearing on the agenda paper , and were met by the objection that similar notice was requisite . Mark the practical absurdity of this . The correspondence laid before the Special Grand Lodge of June lGth comprises Bro . HARINGTON ' S letter , dated April lith , the reply thereto dated June Wth .

" His Lordship , " says the minute , " has since given directions that these letters be printed for the information of the Craft . " The Board of Masters was held , as before stated , on the 18 th August , and not until some days subsequently are these letters , or those contained in the agenda paper , being Bro . HARRINGTON ' of July Wth , and the reply " of August 12 th , printed and published ,

though perhaps the latter were read at the Meeting of the 18 th August , attended as is necessarily the case , by a very small proportion only of W . M . ' s of Lodges . Compliance with the stated requirement was in the one case simply impossible , in the other impracticable . It cannot be denied that these letters are deserving of

serious consideration , the sense of their importance being evidenced by the " directions " g iven that they " be printed for the information of the Craft ; " and yet the members of the Craft in Grand Lodge assembled are prohibited from using the information with which they are furnished , and documents appearing on the

authorized published minutes are held to form no portion of such minutes , all action upon them being forbidden without such notice as would delay their consideration to a period , when if not useless it would in all probability be inoperative . Can anything more tnischevious be conceived than such a system , or to use the

favourite expression , " course of practice " as this ? It is idle to seek for its justification by an attempted analogy between the proceedings of Parliament meeting and adjourning as it does from day to day , and those of a body holding its sittings once in three months . Rules

of business , admirable and tending to good order in the one case , become ridiculous and even obstructive in the other .

On the discussion of Bro . WHITMORE ' resolution , Bro . BINCKES sought to enlarge its scope by the insertion of words which would have the effect of permitting what had been attempted in the earlier part of the evening , basing his arguments on the necessity of a prompt consideration of the letters referred toquoting

, Bro . HARINGTON ' words— " The Canadian Craft desires the deliberate decision of the Grand Lodge of England , not the opinion of the M . W . Grand Master , "—and complaining that this wish of our Canadian Brethren , urged by Bro . HARINGTON with a due regard to , and , — as we believe—in accordance with the letter and spirit

of the Constitution , should be denied immediate attention owing to an obstinate adherence to forms involving delay , the consequence of which had already been but too clearly indicated . The M . W . G . M . declined to receive such an amendment , declaring , that he " should regard it as a breach of his privileges . " Thus are the

best interests of our noble institution imperilled , and the affections of distant Brethren alienated , by a slavish observance of a ridiculous routine . Trammelled by the usages of a Procrustean " course of practice "—submitting itself tamely to an irresponsible dictation—enduring with patience the bland superciliousness of some—and

even applauding the unabashed effrontery of others—Grand Lodge lays itself prostrate at the feet of an Executive which has raised itself above the Constitution to which it owes its existence , and by virtue of