At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar

At the Sign of the Perfect Ashlar

The September Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge is not usually so largely attended as the other meetings of the year , but the Temple was fairly tilled on the qth September , and no vacant seats on the dais were noticeable . The business transacted was important , inasmuch as it included the erasure of over forty lodges from the roll , and a vote

which practically has the effect of severing all connection with the Grand Lodge of Hamburg , a body with which the Grand Lodge of England has for a long period maintained amicable relations .

¦• $ > " ® < s > The appearance of so many lodges recommended for erasure on the business paper at the last Quarterly Communication is very unusual , but the greater number were accounted for by the secession of the whole of the lodges

recently comprising the District Grand Lodge of Western Australia to form a Grand Lodge in that colony . In this instance , we believe , the action of the lodges was unanimous , and we shall therefore be spared the spectacle of one 01 more lodges remaining under the old jurisdiction and thus too often forming a nucleus of litigious and discontented members unfortunately to be found in every community .

The traditional relationship between the City of London and the Craft will be amply exemplified next year . It will be noticed that V . W . Bro . Sir Joseph C . Dimsdale , Past G . Treas ., Alderman of the Cornhill Ward , and the junior representative of the City in Parliament , is Lord Mayor next in rotation , and that one of the Sheriffs elect is V . W . Bro . Horace

Brooks Marshall , M . A ., Grand Treasurer . A busy day is in prospect at the Guildhall on the last Saturday in September , when the swearing in of the new Sheriffs , the election of a new Lord Mayor , and the Shrieval breakfast will take place in succession .

' - ? , ' ' ¦& «? Bro . Sir Joseph Dimsdale has been Alderman of Cornhill Ward since June , 18 91 , succeeding in that capacity his partner , the late Bro . Sir Robert Fowler , M . P . He was Sheriff in 18 94 , and received knighthood in

commemoration of the opening of the Tower Bridge , and the birth of an heir to the throne in the direct line . He has been Master of the Grocers' Company and a Member of the London County Council . At the last Parliamentary General Election he was chosen as member for the City in succession to Sir Reginald Hanson . He is a partner

in the old banking house of Messrs . Prescott , Dimsdale and Co ., and will be the first Etonian to fill the office of Lord Mayor for about 130 years . Of Bro . Dimsdale's Masonic career we need say but little . He is , perhaps , best known to the Craft as having tilled the office of Grand Treasurer in 18 94 , during the year 'of his Shrievalty , but

notwithstanding his many and pressing public engagements he has found more opportunities for Masonic work than many men with infinitely fewer calls on their time .

«> $ Grand Lodge paid a well-deserved compliment to Bro Frank Richardson , Acting Grand Director of Ceremonies , and to those who were associated with him in carrying out the arrangements for the installation of the Grand Master at the Royal Albert Hall on the 17 th of July . In organising power

and capacity for work Bro . Richardson has proved a worthy successor to the late Bro . Thomas Fenn , who , on the three previous occasions of great meetings at the Royal Albert Hall , directed and successfully carried out the arrangements .

The erasure of the lodges which had seceded from the Grand Lodge of England and had resolved to place themselves under the newly-formed Grand Lodge of Western Australia , may be regarded as a purely formal proceeding , the lodges in question having suffered no break in their continuity of working and , except that the warrants under

which they now work bear a different number and are signed by other hands , everything is much the same . Opinion was absolutely unanimous as to the desirability of forming themselves into a Sovereign Grand Lodge , and the home authorities placed no obstacles in the way of their path to self government .

We must confess we are at a loss to understand , much less to justify , the action of the Masonic authorities in Hamburg in warranting a lodge in a territory where , by all the canons of international Masonic law , such an act is the rightful prerogative of the Grand Lodge existing within its borders , and we have therefore a grave suspicion that there

is more in it than meets the eye . Can it be that the antisemitic prejudices so rife on the continent of Europe have invaded the neutral zone of Freemasonry ?

V . W . Bro . the Rev . Dr . Welldon , whose appointment to the rank of Past Grand Chaplain was one of the most popular honours conferred on the occasion of the Grand Master ' s installation , is well known for his immense energy and exceptional mental qualities . He was created Bishop of Calcutta three years ago , but it was of course as the head

master of Harrow school that he became known . Physically as well as intellectually Dr . Welldon was admirably fitted for the great work which he so admirably performed at Harrow . Although his tine presence was calculated to till the school boy with awe , the iron hand was well concealed in an exceptional gentleness of manner which more truly displayed the real tenderness of his disposition .

Considering the large number of lodges now under the Grand Lodge of England the depiction from that number , by reason of the falling off in membership and other causes , is astonishingly small . Until the last Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge there had not , for the past ten years , been more than some half-dozen lodges erased for

any reason other than that of having become absorbed in a newly-formed Grand Lodge , and we have reason to believe that of the lodges at present on the Registrar of Grand Lodge not a dozen are in arrear in making their returns , at least , of the installation of Masters and appointment of Officers .

This argues a very healthy state of things as regards the stability of English Masonry , and it onl y remains for those in authority to take measures to ensure excellence in the material of which the whole structure is composed to secure our great Institution for all time against any peril that may menace it .

V W AS R . W . Bro . Montague Guest , the popular Provincial Grand Master for Dorset , who has ruled over that province for upwards of a quarter of a century , is now slaying , states a contemporary , at Devonshire House , Weymouth . Bro . Guest

who is a brother of Lord Wimborne , was born in 18 39 , and has never married . For many years past he has been a noted yachtsman . He has just returned from Cowes , where he is a member of the Royal Squadron Yacht Club , and acts as its librarian , where he may often be found at the post of duty in

its handsome library . His Majesty the King , when Prince of Wales , and Grand Master of our Order , has on several occasions been entertained by Bro . Montague Guest at Weymouth , as also have other members of the Royal Family . Bro . Guest ' s popularity in the metropolis is testified to b y the constitution of the well-known lodge and chapter , No . 1900 , which bear his name .