A Board Of Past Masters.

A BOARD OF PAST MASTERS .

WE reprint from the South African Freemason : —In a recent leading article wc made a passing allusion to the functions at present accorded to a Board of Past Masters at Installations as coming , inter alia , under the class of Masonic make-believe against which wc felt it to be our duty to inveigh .

The desire of the thinking class of Masons of to-day is to make Freemasonry a clear and logical system , with potentialities higher than those possessed by a mere eleemosynary and festive association . And in following out this ideal , your true progressist has the inestimable advantage , not possessed by those of the

cognate school of thought and politics , of being at the same time a reformer and a thorough conservative , inasmuch as the progressive and amending Mason has nothing to do but to go back to the ways of our ancestors for the standard at which he aims-. Slight adaptations , verbal alterations , and the like , are

necessitated , because tempora mutantur ct vice inutantiir in ill is ; but although the paths may alter a little , they can be trodden after the same manner , and in a direction leading to the same goal . Masonic abuses arc , for the most part , if wc only look back far enough , found to be mere perversions of the customs of old times .

And applying this principle to the subject with which we are particularly germane to-day , we are content to believe that wc have the best warrant for assuming that the functions of a Board

of Installed Masters at Installations were in former days of a very much more real character than they are to-day . In Anderson ' s original Constitutions of 1723 , general directions are given for the conduct of the ceremonies of Installation and Consecration , and it is therein distinctly stated that the Grand Master shall ask

his Deputy "if he has examined him and finds the Candidate Master well skilled in the noble Science and the royal Art , and duly instructed in our Mysteries . " In connection with this it may be observed that Anderson ' s Constitutions pre-supposed that Installations should always be performed

by the Grand Master , his Deputy , and the Grand Wardens , the only Lodges then under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge being in London . At a later date it became necessary to extend the power of Installation to any three Past Masters . But it is perfectly clear that the spirit of the old

Constitutions demanded an actual examination of the candidate on the part of those officers who were charged with the duty of installing him . The ritual in common use to-day is somewhat less definite , but it does thus far copy the wording of the old Constitution as to lay down as a necessary qualification for the

chair of K . S . that the candidate " shall be well skilled in the Noble Science , " and further on wc arc told that he must be " able and willing to undertake the management of the Work . " Although it docs not , like Anderson , specially indicate any machinery for giving practical effect to these requirements ,

yet , judging from analogy in other portions of Masonic ceremonial , we are forbidden to assume that the compilers of our ritual had so little veneration for the Royai Art as to put into the mouths of its votaries words which , if devoid of meaning , would be nothing less than nonsense and the

worst of shams . And lest any one should endeavour to find a loophole of escape from this position by falling back on the assumption that the ritual recognised the prior passing of the various degrees and the serving of the office of Warden as sufficient guarantees of proficiency , we would point out that all these

qualifications are categorically stated separately and distinctly from the qualifications we have quoted , and were certainly regarded as metaphorically sailing under their own flags . And further , if it be necessary , we would meet the hypothesis with a flat negative , and remind any critics that service as Warden is no

guarantee whatever of proficiency in the ritual duties of W . M ., and that our ancestors were perfectly well aware of the fact . We arc , then , fully justified in assuming that in Anderson ' s day , and probably for a very long time after , a Board of Installed Masters was supposed to examine every candidate for Installation as to

his actual proficiency in the work . The present Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England arc silent on the point at issue , but that docs not count for much , vox ct prcetcrea nihil having been for years the revered motto of Great Queen-street . However , the voice of the past is sufficiently clear , and the voice of common

sense echoes it . Surel y it is only reasonable that some means should be taken to ascertain , before election , the fitness of past Wardens for the Chair , the duties of which are so complex , and so essentiall y different to anything that has gone before . If a man conscientiously means to fit himself for the exalted post of

Master , he cannot surely be averse to submitting his acquirements to test by those brethren whose peers he aspires to become . And is it reasonable that a brother should only begin to learn his work just when his term of office is half ended , or that some other brother , pitchforked into the chair because of his well-filled

pockets , and his popular reputation of being " a jolly good fellow , " should go through his year without ever performing the duties at all , and should be obliged to have recourse to an obliging P . M . whenever a degree is on the tapis ? The sights one is compelled sometimes to witness on the dais are a disgrace , and the only way

to avoid them is to compel every candidate for the chair to submit himself previous to election to examination by a competent Board of Masters . And not only would the dignity of the Chair and the credit of the Lodge be advanced thereby , but a collateral advantage would be gained in the increased interest felt

in Lodges of Instruction , which would receive an amazing fillip if such a reform were brought about . And it is workable , for a correspondent of the Masonic Star of March 7 quotes a by-law of a Greenwich Lodge , which he says has been in operation with good effect for the last twenty-two or twenty-three years . It runs thus :

— " No brother shall be eligible for the office of W . M . unless he is capable of opening and closing the Lodge in the three degrees , and working the ceremonies ; the qualification of such candidates shall be certified by a Board of Past Masters prior to his election . " The correspondent states that during the whole of the aforesaid

twenty-two years they have only had one case in which the P . M . ' s could not recommend the S . W . for election , simply because the nfcrior officers knew perfectly well what was before them . Now , failing a regulation like this being made a Constitutional Rule , it is open to any private Lodge to pass a similar by-law , which

would doubtless be sanctioned now as it was in the case of the Greenwich Lodge . A crying evil would be met , and an improvement practicably immeasurable effected in Lodge working . Nobody supposes that such a Board would insist on absolute letter perfection , but it would require a competent knowledge of the work of the dai's .

A beautiful little story is going the rounds regarding the kindness of our Princess Christian . A certain kindly - disposed old man was escorting an unfortunate young person to a home where it was thought her evil ways might , by better associations , be discarded . The pair were seen by the Princess at a London terminus , and she

recognised in the " unfortunate" a previous servant of her employ . Enquiries were evidently made , for two days after the old gentleman received a letter from the Princess , who , with a few kindly remarks , enclosed the sum of ^ 3 to pay the expenses of the young girl . The Princess Christian has a heart that is big enough to hold the good opinions of the whole world . She is a Past Grand Mistress of all that is beautiful in the refinement of human nature .