It affects the

"It has taken up the trade of the literary critic. reputation of the essayist. It writes profound and unintelligible prose. It explains the relations of Freemasonry to the moral and religious element in man and its affinity for the religions of the world.'

"It looks very wise and talks like a philosopher. Many other things, also, it has come to be and to do, away from the purpose of its institution, which, however, we will let pass. This only we will add, that its reports have, in many cases, been made the channels of flattery, usque ad nauseam,' on the one side and of resentment, uncharitableness, and envious disparagement on the other.

6

"Now all these things, except the last, it were well enough to have; nay, indeed, these things, all of them perhaps, we must have; law-makers, judges, critics, censors, and, in the present condition of sublunary things, writers also of unintelligible prose. But in our notion, a Committee of Correspondence is not so constituted as properly to perform these various and incompatible functions. To do so, was not the purpose of its creation, and to attempt so to do threatens to involve in inextricable confusion the history, law, landmarks, and the ancient usages of the Order.

"Holding these views, we think to discharge our duty to the Grand Lodge by simply declaring that we have received no communications during our official term, nor consequently have dispatched any answers which require to be laid before them.

We think that Committee reached a sensible conclusion and took a just view of their duties as laid down in their Constitutions.

Another reviewer (whose Reports we have always read with pleasure and profit), the Grand Secretary of New Jersey, gives his opinion as follows:

"In many of the jurisdictions whose Proceedings we have reviewed, the propriety of continuing Committees on Foreign Correspondence has been seriously discussed. It is greatly to be regretted that, of late years, many exhibitions of improper and highly unmasonic feeling have appeared in similar reports. Personal dissensions, acrimonious controversies, intolerable verbal abuse, and even political allusions of the most bitter and violent character, have been indulged in. All such matters are foreign to the purposes for which such committees are formed; and as soon as we find that Reports on Foreign Correspondence have degenerated into vehicles for personal abuse we shall 'cry aloud and spare not' for their utter abolition."

As evidence of the justice of his strictures, Brother Hough gives the following abstract of the Report to the Grand Lodge of Georgia in 1867:

66

Most inappropriately bound up with the Proceedings of this Grand Lodge, we find an extraordinary document, professing to be written by a Mason, and entitled 'Report of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence.' We have not during this season of political excitement, when the passions of men are necessarily unduly excited, read in any of the secular press, of either political party, such a farrago of malevolence and unstinted abuse on political grounds, as this most exceptionable document presents. The author goes out of his way to speak in the most contemptuous terms of Brother Albert G. Mackey, accompanying the mention of his name with the ejaculation 'Bah!'; alludes to the ravages of the armies of a government professing to be guided by the precepts of Christianity'; refers to the 'murdered Mrs. Surratt'; nicknames Past Grand Master Gilbert, of Iowa, as 'Captain Bobadil'; and denounces some words of that most estimable Brother, John W. Paul, of Connecticut, as 'proving the purity of his descent from the murderers of witches, sinking him beneath the reach of dignified contempt and ranking him with the Marats, Dantons and Robespierres of the past and the Brownlows of the present.' These are but samples of the spirit of a Report the most unmasonic and objectionable of any which we have been compelled, in the discharge of our duty, to peruse.

We think the Brethren generally will unite with Brother Hough in condemnation of this exhibition of bad taste and bad manners. It, however, proves that some of these Committees, to say the least, speak only for themselves, and do not represent the "views of the great rank and file. Each seems to have his own peculiar notions as to the manner in which his task should be performed. In proof of this, we might ete numerous opinions pronounced by this tribunal, superior to Grand Masters and all other Masonic authorities, but one will suffice, that of the Committee of the District of Columbia. It is as follows:

"In regard to the Reports on Foreign Correspondence, there is yet a variety of opinions even among the committee-men themselves. Some think that the report should be merely a synopsis of the Proceedings of the various Bodies, without a word of comment. Others deem it proper to make very extended criticisms, and these, too, some

what after the order of those who were so severe upon Lord Byron in his youth, and which may, and sometimes do, call forth such a reply as his 'Scottish Bards and English Reviewers' (sic). Some take the middle ground, the juste milieu, and with a fair portion of extracts spice them up to proper taste by judicious and fraternal comments.

"We have noticed with pain much asperity in the replies of some, where charity would demand a different reply. This is in very bad taste, if not very unmasonic; and we trust never, to let the pen we wield become a sharp instrument of torture, either to those against whom it may be wielded, or to our conscience, for such uncharitable conduct. Our own opinion is that the reviewer should, where necessary, express his own opinions clearly and fearlessly, and if in his jurisdiction there are varying sentiments on such points he may be able, by his criticisms, to give a proper direction in these matters, by which less informed Brethren may be guided to the truth—'that truth which will make us free.''

"When doctors disagree" so widely as to the manner in which the work should be performed, it may well be doubted whether it were not better left undone. Yet we would not seem ungrateful, for we never take up one of these bulky volumes but we reflect with astonishment and admiration upon the patience and perseverance required for their production. We sympathize most heartily in the trials and tribulations of the writers. Hear one "tell his own experience":

"We trust that we shall have the appreciation of those who know the time and labor required to prepare such reports. It is no trivial affair to look over, even casually, ten thousand pages of printed matter found in forty or fifty volumes; but when the reviewer undertakes to read carefully page after page of Grand Masters' Addresses, to cull from them the choice flowers for his bouquet, the reports on jurisprudence, on grievances, on work, on appeals, etc., to find what actions have been taken on particular questions, sometimes referring backward and forward for a particular report, and which cannot be found without a careful revision of the whole book; then the close and attentive perusal of the Reports on Correspondence, the noting of special matters and searching in various old reports for opinions formerly expressed and decisions given by Grand Lodges-these and a thousand more points all contribute to consume time without the final result being at all clear to the reader that what has been written was but [not?] the work of a few minutes, the dash of a rapid pen.

"Sometimes we have placed ourselves for a good two hours' work, when, upon opening a volume, we have found matters to notice requir ing the absorption of our whole time in searching for information, and at the end of our limited period we have progressed so far as to reach, perhaps, but a single item in the report.''

When we consider the enormous expenditure of time and labor in the preparation of these Reports, the cost of printing them, and the small number of Brethren who read and inwardly digest them, we venture to doubt whether le jeu vaut la chandelle.

We are strongly inclined to the opinion that there is a disposition to print more Masonic matter than is profitable. Perhaps it may be thought that in this respect we are not without sin. If so, we are willing to be corrected and will endeavor to curb our cacoethes scribendi.

We are aware that Massachusetts and Rhode Island are in an almost hopeless minority on this question of Foreign Correspondence, a fact of which we are constantly reminded by the Committees, in the form of intimations that we are "stuck up," and "do not condescend to notice provincials," etc. We respectfully beg leave to plead not guilty to the latter charge, and to explain that our reasons for not falling into the ranks, are our doubts of the advantages of the system and the pressing duties those of us who are willing to labor find to be performed at home. We have not the time to look after our neighbors much and cannot be over-anxious what they say of us.

The conclusion of the whole matter is, that if our Brethren in other jurisdictions can afford to write and print these Reports a question not for us to decide-we shall read them with pleasure, provided they are written in a fair, courteous and fraternal spirit, and show careful consideration and sound judgment. But we cannot admit that their authors speak for anyone but themselves, or as those having authority. They are not above all law, and have no right to "let themselves loose." They must follow the rule laid down for himself by Brother Fisher, of Pennsylvania: "We recognize the dignity of each Grand Lodge and her sovereignty within her borders, and, doing so, we indulge in no unseemly jests of the proceedings of Supreme Masonic Authority, nor cavil at that which we cannot prevent."

The report was accepted and the recommendation unanimously adopted.

JURISDICTION.

M.W. Brother Edwin B. Holmes presented

the following report:

IN GRAND LODGE, BOSTON, June 9, 1915.

The Committee to whom was referred the proposed amendment to Part IV, Article III, Section 9 of the Grand Constitutions relating to jurisdiction have attended to their duty and report as follows:

The proposed Amendment as referred to the Committee reads thus:

Amend Part IV, Article III, Section 9 of the Grand Constitutions by adding the following new paragraph after the words "and he shall attach thereto the seal of the Lodge.

And provided further, that in case a Lodge so requested to release jurisdiction over an applicant and the Lodge requesting such release feels that an injustice is done the applicant or the Lodge; in such cases the Lodge requesting such release of jurisdiction shall have the right to appeal to the Grand Lodge, and in all such cases such appeals shall forthwith be referred by the Grand Secretary to the Commissioners of Trials who shall have full power and authority to make a full and careful enquiry into all the circumstances, and if in their opinion Masonic justice demands, they shall have the right and authority to direct the petitioning Lodge to receive and act upon the application referred to, or if they so decide to dismiss said appeal.

In all such cases the decision of the Commissioners of Trials shall be final.

The seriousness of this subject was referred to by your Committee in its previous report to the Grand Lodge on March 10, 1915, but it is felt that a further reference to the considerations involved will not be out of place at this

time.