Freemasons' Quarterly Review

THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW. SECOND SERIES—DECEMBER 31, 1847. SURRENDER OR NO SURRENDER OF MASONIC BULWARKS, Facilis descensus Avprni , Sect revocare gradum , superasque evatlere ad auras, Hie labor, hoc opus est. "Nor shall a higher degree in Masonry be conferred on any Brother on the same day, nor shall a higher degree in Masonry be conferred on any Brother at a less interval than one month from his receiving a previous degree, nor until he has passed an examination in open Lodge in that degree. " No DISPENSATION CAN BE GRANTED TO SUSPEND THE OPERATION OP THIS LAW. " All Lodges are particularly bound to observe the same usages and customs ; every deviation therefore from the established mode of work- ing is highly improper, and cannot be justif ied or countenanced. " Great discredit and injury having been broug ht upon our ancient and honourab le Fraternity from admitting members, and receiving candidates without due notice being given, or inquiry made into their characters and qualifications ; and also from the PASSING AND RAISING of Masons without due instructions in the respective degrees , it is determined that in future a violation or neglect of any of the following laws shall subject the Lodge offending to ERASURE, because NO EMER - GEN CY can be allowed as a justif ication. "A DISPENSATION CANNOT IN ANY CASE BE GRANTED ." '• OUR admiration at the readiness of the Grand Master to study and to act on the lesson presented to his observation, in the case of the offence committed by the Grand Lodge of Berlin against such Brethren of our Order as did not profess the Christian faith, has scarcely settled down into a feeling of grateful recollection that the Grand Lodge of England had:; maintained the glorious universality of our venerated systems of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols—scarcely, we say, has our admiration reached a settled point, when we are called upon to stand forth and to maintain our rights and privileges that are threatened VOL. v. 3 E with a more deadly foe—no less than a positive direction from the Masonic throne of England to surrender a law of the most stringent nature, whether it is looked on as a question of discipline and practice, or as a law that renders it necessary to give outward and visible sign of an inward and sp iritual grace. We call it in unqualified terms A SUR - RENDER OF ONE OF OUIl CIIIEPEST DEFENCES. To term it merely a relaxation of the law in favour of the colonies, is to mark the colonial Masons with the stamp of degradation , if we preserve the law intact here at home;—but shall we preserve it here ? Time will show what must inevitably result if " this hill do pass." We call on our readers to peruse most intentl y the extracts which we have prefixed to this article; they are copied verbatim from the Book of Constitutions ; then let them ponder over them for a few moments ere they venture to read the following statemen t and general remarks thereon. At the Grand Lodge held on the first instant, after his nomination had been carried nemine dissentiente, the Grand Master directed three letters to be read, in support of the necessity of relaxing the law that limits the conferring a higher degree to an interval of one month, and that in future the Provincial Grand Masters on colonial and foreign stations should have power to grant a dispensation that superior degrees may be conferred at intervals of one week ;—and what said the letters ; why simply this, that where there existed Lodges holding of the Scottish and Irish Grand Lodges, a week's time was thought sufficient by such Lodges, and that in consequence numerous wayfarers, particularly those who are engaged in the military, naval, and the commercial maritime services, have not time to wait three months for their full degrees ; and that it follows that such parties prefer to join a Scottish or an Irish Lodge, to the evident prejudice of the prosperity of the English Craft. Ridiculous absurd i ty all this, and only equalled by its specious sophistry ! Did it ever occur to the Provincial Grand Masters for New Bruns- wick, and the Bahamas, and to the governor of the latter colony—for these are the worthy Masons who assume to direct the attention of the Grand Master to the subject—that if a man is once initiated, and is compelled by his professional pursuits to leave a district, he can use his certificate as a passport elsewhere to ensure all Masonic privileges, even to the conferring of degrees, on being properly entitled ? Did it occur to these worthies respectfully to draw the attention of the Grand Master to the-necessity of making this grievance known to the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland that those august bodies, may consider the grievance sustained by Freemasonry from so manifest a discrepancy in their own rituals, as contrasted with that of England ? No, they did no such thing : and we cannot help at this moment referring to the conduct of the present Governor of the Bahamas on the subject of the past election of the present Grand Master in London, when, although appointed by his lordship as Junior Grand Warden , he had the modesty to move the nomination of another nobleman, and even voted against the Earl of Zetland. It is odd enough, that after so clear a proof of want of courteous construction of discipline, he should by a letter have succeeded in placing the Earl of Zetland in no enviable position. But to the case. We regret that the Gran d Master should not himself have seen the necessity of correspondence with their Graces of Leinster and Athole j for certain we are that those truly noble Brethren would have most cor- dially united with their noble colleague in giving to this subject their gravest consideration ; indeed the more we reflect on the " contretemps " the more we regret the opportunity that thus presented itself for a searching enquiry into many points that, for want of a pressing necessity, are passed over not for a day, but for all time. Our Grand Master may exclaim with Titus, " I have lost a day." What bis lordship has lost besides we dread to consider ; it is our duty to examine into and to report even upon his conduct. There are not wanting many who look on the attempt to relax the law as a desire to share in the more easy mode of obtaining " intrants " into our Order. We say such reasoners are not wanting ; but we at once exempt his lordship from so base an imputation. What we differ from him in is the too simple admission into his thoughts of a false reasoning, totally at variance with decency and common sense—not so much by degrading the English ritual and discipline to a standard DENOUNCED BY ITS OWN CONSTITUTIONS ; but by losing the opportunity of endeavouring to raise the ritual and discipline of the sister Grand Lodges to a rivalry in perfection with that of England. Will his lordship believe that we, " the denounced," have alread y received intimation from Brethren of high standing in Scotland and in Ireland, that they most sorrowfully regret the result of the motion of the 1st of December, 1847 ; that they had looked forward with hope that a new light might break in on themselves : and, instead of that, what does the Grand Master of England propose but to relax the wholesomeness of a law, a proposition at which all experienced Masons shudder with fearful foreboding. Freemasonry has enemies enough amongst the bigotted of Roman Catholicity, as well as among those of Protestant intolerance, without having to grieve over this insidious attack on its defences—we do not say " landmarks," because those are secret things, the knowledge of which, if ever imparted to his lordship, we are pretty certain has not been imparted to the supporters of this treason against the Order, or they would not have dared to act as they have done, inasmuch as they are not, like the Grand Master, protected by " irresponsibility " in acts. Bad as is the law Masonic, it would reach them. They are, however, to be dreaded, inasmuch as their votes may continue to tell against the defences of Masonry. Masonic persecution may follow our freedom—so be it. I( Let the galled jade wince—our withers are unwrung." Freemasonry—pure and holy Freemasonry—is our creed and out- hope, and we will peril all in its defence. " if I 'm a traitor, think and blush , thou tyrant, Whose injuries betrayed me into treason. For what purpose, we ask, were those stringent directions of the Con- stitutions promulgated but to secure the stability of our system by a wholesome preparatory state of probation through the several degrees ? It has been imputed, forsooth, that men's minds are so constituted that one man can learn in a week more than another man can in a month ; and that, therefore, it is an injury in proportion to retard the degrees ! We do not hesitate to reply to this inuendo, that the man who can learn more in a week than can his fellow man in a month, may still study, and still advance himself in Masonic knowledge; but the truth is, that these levellers of our system from wholesome discipline to a reckless indifference, perceive neither duty nor pleasure in conforming to the dictates of truth and reason : they view such things with vision obli- quitous, and judgment perverted.

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