Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Obituary.
in Cheshunt have lost a liberal benefactor , and private society a zealous friend . He was a widower , Mrs . Harrison having died some years since . He survived his brother , Sir George Harrison , and his lady , but a few months , and these bereavements too probably depressed his spirits . We believe he has left a son . < > f his professional attainments ive leave his contemporaries to speak . He held several lucrative appointments , ivhich he resigned a few months sincewhen he retired from practice .
, He had the reputation of learning , and possessed a valuable library . It is said that he did not die rich . Brother Harrison ' s career in Masonry has been singular , and is not without its lesson . In the 72 nd year of his age he was initiated in the Salisbury Lodge , Waltham Cross , ancl as soon as could be permitted , he passed tbe chair , and was appointed Prov . G . R . of Herts by the Marquis of Salisbury . He also passed the three chairs of the Royal Arch , or
rather had attained the third chair at the time of his decease . The period of his initiation was somewhat late for the examination of our mysterious profession : to him , however , the first truths quickly revealed streams of light . We have heard him express his wonder at the radiance , and his regret that he had not earlier in life sought the fountain . Last year he was appointed Grand Registrar , aud President of the Board of General Purposes
. A speedier elevation to active and ' responsible honours in English Freemasonry is altogether without parallel ; but the times were urgent , and the tact of an enterprising lawyer was considered as too important to be overlooked : special pleading could supersede the construction of Masonic law . Was it to be wondered at , then , that during Brother
Harrison ' s career all that legal ingenuity could devise was at least attempted ? As Freemasons , we differed with hiin on important points ; and , consequently , were not fortunate enough to obtain his good opinion ; but we can with sincerity acquit him of intentional error of the head in the too ready ancl unkind prejudice with ivhich he listened to the slanderer . The office of Grand Registrar , as recently propounded , partakes in
reality more of the Pro-Grand Mastership than the Pro-Grand Mastership itself , and , therefore , requires in the " official" a perfect knowledge of Freemasonry—not as a lawyer , but as a Masonic juris-consult . Now Brother Harrison had scarcely been four years a Mason , when he was called on to determine the principle of Masonic law , its practice and discipline ;—was it to be expected that he could satisfactorily perform the consequent duties with such a limited experience ? His predecessors
did endeavour to veil , under a seeming- practice of equity , the pressure of law ; but with him , either the instructions in his brief , or his own legal views , perhaps both , led him to act in direct contradiction to this Masonic principle . He was not a good judge , however ready as a prosecuting counsel , in preventing justice from being tempered with mildness in the administration of its power . He proved , by his own case , that the following observation of L'Estrange had its foundation : "Of
all injustice , that is the greatest ivhich goes in the name of the law ; and of all sorts of tyranny , the forcing of the letter of the law against equity is the most insupportable . " This erring principle was ever predominant . He could not bear opposition , and at times was uncourteous . Generosity to an opponent was not among his foibles .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Obituary.
in Cheshunt have lost a liberal benefactor , and private society a zealous friend . He was a widower , Mrs . Harrison having died some years since . He survived his brother , Sir George Harrison , and his lady , but a few months , and these bereavements too probably depressed his spirits . We believe he has left a son . < > f his professional attainments ive leave his contemporaries to speak . He held several lucrative appointments , ivhich he resigned a few months sincewhen he retired from practice .
, He had the reputation of learning , and possessed a valuable library . It is said that he did not die rich . Brother Harrison ' s career in Masonry has been singular , and is not without its lesson . In the 72 nd year of his age he was initiated in the Salisbury Lodge , Waltham Cross , ancl as soon as could be permitted , he passed tbe chair , and was appointed Prov . G . R . of Herts by the Marquis of Salisbury . He also passed the three chairs of the Royal Arch , or
rather had attained the third chair at the time of his decease . The period of his initiation was somewhat late for the examination of our mysterious profession : to him , however , the first truths quickly revealed streams of light . We have heard him express his wonder at the radiance , and his regret that he had not earlier in life sought the fountain . Last year he was appointed Grand Registrar , aud President of the Board of General Purposes
. A speedier elevation to active and ' responsible honours in English Freemasonry is altogether without parallel ; but the times were urgent , and the tact of an enterprising lawyer was considered as too important to be overlooked : special pleading could supersede the construction of Masonic law . Was it to be wondered at , then , that during Brother
Harrison ' s career all that legal ingenuity could devise was at least attempted ? As Freemasons , we differed with hiin on important points ; and , consequently , were not fortunate enough to obtain his good opinion ; but we can with sincerity acquit him of intentional error of the head in the too ready ancl unkind prejudice with ivhich he listened to the slanderer . The office of Grand Registrar , as recently propounded , partakes in
reality more of the Pro-Grand Mastership than the Pro-Grand Mastership itself , and , therefore , requires in the " official" a perfect knowledge of Freemasonry—not as a lawyer , but as a Masonic juris-consult . Now Brother Harrison had scarcely been four years a Mason , when he was called on to determine the principle of Masonic law , its practice and discipline ;—was it to be expected that he could satisfactorily perform the consequent duties with such a limited experience ? His predecessors
did endeavour to veil , under a seeming- practice of equity , the pressure of law ; but with him , either the instructions in his brief , or his own legal views , perhaps both , led him to act in direct contradiction to this Masonic principle . He was not a good judge , however ready as a prosecuting counsel , in preventing justice from being tempered with mildness in the administration of its power . He proved , by his own case , that the following observation of L'Estrange had its foundation : "Of
all injustice , that is the greatest ivhich goes in the name of the law ; and of all sorts of tyranny , the forcing of the letter of the law against equity is the most insupportable . " This erring principle was ever predominant . He could not bear opposition , and at times was uncourteous . Generosity to an opponent was not among his foibles .