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London.

London .

THE MASONIC

Itll / STRATEP

.THE Metropolitan area , from the Masonic point of view does not justify the claim to perfection of organization which can be reasonably made by nearly every other area into which the Masonic empire is divided .

None are so conscious of that fact as Londoners themselves , but unfortunately their views on the subject are necessarily coloured by the feelings of regret they must experience when they consider how small is the chance of any individual Mason ever receiving recognition outside his own lodge ; and though not the most important t \ uesWon

involved , this is a very serious one . It is the hope of reward that sweetens labour , and our London brethren are to be congratulated that they do not measure their Masonic zeal by that consideration , for in that case they would make but a poor show . Whereas they set an example of good work and of good results , upon which the whole constitution may

profitably meditate . Out of 2 , 607 lodges at present on the register , no less than 591 ( nearly a quarter of the whole , ) are within the London District and make their returns direct to Grand Lodge . That is to say , compared with the provinces and districts abroad , they are but a conglomeration of atoms ,

with no essential bond of union and with no rallying point . They have none to guide , praise , nor rebuke-them , and the vast majority have no incentive to look beyond the doorstep of their own lodge . There is far less visiting among the rank and file than is to be found in the provinces , and the high

officials are unknown to them except by name . When it is remembered what London does for the charities even under its present conditions , one can onl \

fu ' ntly imagine what might result as the outcome of efficient organization . The metropolis would well bear sub-division into at least a dozen provinces , and even then the new provinces would rank amongst the largest in the country , in fact , they would come next to East and West Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire . A parallel may be drawn

between Masonic London and Municipal London before the creation of the County Council . But in those days there was never absent some form of local organization , if it were but the parish vestry . It is not our brethren alone who suffer by the present condition . The fact that Londoners have no

provincial honours to which to look forward to has always to be taken into account when grand honours are distributed , and ( hough provincial brethren do not complain , still there remains ihe injustice . It is just as if Imperial Parliament persistently refused the local government to Liverpool , Leeds

and Manchester which it grants to nearly every parish in ihe kingdom , and insisted on dealing in detail with all the problems presented by those big cities , to the possible neglect of Imperial demands . A striking proportion of London lodges are of ( he " class " '

description . A good many are practically metropolitan rallying points for country brethren , and of these the Empire is an excellent example .

But whilst such lodges as these owe their existence to perfectly understood considerations , the large number of purely class lodges leads to an undesirable inference . That is , that the community of interest in such lodges is not in the first instance , nor indeed at all necessarily , Masonic . Professional and commercial sympathies were the first attractive

force , and there is nothing in the Masonic atmosphere of London to strengthen the Masonic tie . Again , brethren having no assembly in which to congregate , must , if they wish to know what is going on at all , go to Grand Lodge , and here , as we have before pointed out in these columns , they can , if

they wish , practically control legislation . Having this power , how is it , it may be asked , that they do not draw attention to their anomalous position . The reply is that they do not recognize that it is anomalous . They have no experience of a Masonic federation such as obtains everywhere else under the Grand Lodge of England , They have no charitiessave such

, as are common to the whole craft , no interests , in rivalry or in common , with neighbouring lodges , no honour list to look forward to that concerns any but the leading lights of the leading lodges . And yet , with such insufficient equipment our brethren can at any time command a majority in Grand

Lodge and settle the most momentous questions . All this could of course be altered by the Grand Master , by a stroke of his pen . Article 82 concedes , as part of the prerogative of the Grand Master , the right to appoint Provincial Grand

Masters , and the Provincial Grand Lodge follows , according to Article 77 , as an " emanation . " At the same tune , it is a part of his prerogative he would scarcely exercise without some strong desire , expressed . But the sub-division of London would be a very easy matter compared say , with that of East Lancashire , the partition of which has been suggested . It

may be interesting to glance at the distribution of lodges in the London District , which according to Article 15 ^ , covers a circle twenty miles in diameter , that is of ten miles radius from headquarters . No less than eighty-one meet ( or did meet before the temporary closing of Freemasons' Tavern ) in Great

Queen Street , and three hundred and twenty-seven meet in well known restaurants and hotels in Piccadilly , Holborn and the like . East and west , the district extends from Plumstead to Brentford , and between north and south , from Harriet to Mitcham . Of the total of 59 r lodges , sixty-two , —about ten per

per cent , meet -south of the Thames , and a further consideration of numbers shows that 408—more than two thirds of the whole—meet within a mile of Freemasons' Hall . If , for any reason notimmediately apparent , i ( be considered desirable that the characteristics of the London District be preserved , these

figures seem to show that a reduction of the area so as to include only the lodges referred to would preserve all those characteristics , and the remaining 200 would come under the government of some half-dozen provinces which could well bear the strain . A very great number of members of what we may call " city " lodges , belong to other lodges in addition . If London