GRENADA, Oct. 7, 1848, Post tenebras lux.- Mount Herodim Royal Arch Chapter.—At a stated convocation of the Mount Herodim Royal Arch Chapter, No. 54 on the registry of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland (being the festival of the autumnal equinox) the annual election of office-bearers took place, when the following companions were declared duly elected :-Bros. W. Stephenson, as Z.; T. Boog (Proxy), Z.; J. M. Aird, H.; D. W. Gibbs, J.; M. G. Stephenson, E.; J. Wells, N.; and J. B. Lundy, Principal Sojourner.

Sept. 29.-Mark Master's Lodge.-A lodge of this degree and title was formed under the sanction of the charter of the Mount Herodim Royal Arch Chapter No. 54.

ST. LUCIA.-The governor has issued a proclamation for the establishment of a library and museum; and, through the influence of Masonry, has confided the order for books to Bro. Spencer; masonic works have not been forgotten.

PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.-A grand masonic meeting has been held; a late Deputy Master was in the chair. So numerous was the meeting that the Town Hall was overcrowded. The masonic address of the chairman was admirable, and should be published in the "Freemasons' Quarterly Review."-[If favoured with a copy, we will gladly insert it.-ED.]

MONTREAL.-The attack on the "Freemasons' Quarterly" has struck us here in the distance with surprise; we trust, however, that the editor will not discontinue his labours, so materially does that work contribute to aid Masonry. We are of opinion that, although certain home truths may not be palatable, that the Craft should officially patronise it, and at once declare it to be its accredited organ. Here we are working well; but it is not too much to say that we are indebted greatly for our knowledge of the true spirit of Masonry to the intelligent editor of the "Quarterly."

AMERICA.-UNITED STATES.

We are altogether without our usual report.

(CIRCULAR.)

"Extract, Pittsburgh, Pa, Sept. 8, 1848.-To the M. E. G. C. Officers, and Sir Knights of all Regular Encampments of Knights Templar and Knights of Malta of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem throughout the world, greeting,-At a stated meeting of the Pittsburgh Encampment, No. 1, held on the 6th September (working in Pittsburgh, Pa., under a charter granted by the G. C. Encampment of the U. S. A.), the M. E. G. C. gave information of the existence in Philadelphia, Pa., of a clandestine body of men styling themselves an Encampment of Knights Templar and the appendant Orders, working under what they claim to be a revived charter of an encampment legally constituted many years ago by the then Grand Encampment of Pennsylvania. This latter body was organised in 1814 by delegates from

the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, but has been extinct for many years, while the subordinate one (which is now pretended to be resuscitated) has ceased to labour for the last twenty or twenty-five years, and is therefore condemned as an illegal body by the constitution and by-laws of the Grand Encampment to which it originally owed its existence. "M. E. Sir A. M'CAMMON, G.C.

"Sir A. G. REINHART, Recorder."

INDIA.

The Agents in Calcutta for this Review are-Messrs. LATTEY, BROTHERS & Co., Government-place; and Messrs. THACKER & Co., St. Andrew's Library. Madras, Bro. PHAROAH.

It is with the most poignant regret that we are compelled to advert to a serious misunderstanding between one of the lodges in the district of Bengal, the Lodge Kilwinning in the East 740, and the R. W. the District Grand Master, Bro. John Grant, whose urbanity and known character for masonic zeal and competence of ability to preside over his district, have met with merited approbation-still all men are fallibleand it does appear to us that in the course pursued by the R. W. Brother, he has acted from a mistaken view of this case, and committed an error in judgment; it will be a relief to our own feelings to alter our own opinion on this point; but justice to those who have severely suffered by the result, demands that the facts should be stated. Our rcaders will please to understand that we have endeavoured to acquaint ourselves as far as possible with the general particulars, and that we have not solely relied on the statements advanced by those who consider themselves aggrieved.

The statements and correspondence are very voluminous, but the following abbreviated remarks may we believe comprise the substance.

The members of the Lodge Kilwinning in the East, No 740, made application to Companion Dr. Grant, Grand Superintendent, for a dispensation to hold a chapter, and to forward the application to the Grand Chapter, who, if any objections were raised by such body, would doubtless have been accompanied by reasons; and their objection would have been obeyed as a law, but Dr. Grant declined either to grant the dispensation, or to forward the petition. The members then applied to the Grand Chapter of Scotland, and succeeded in their object, every requisite form having been complied with, to the perfect satisfaction of such Grand Chapter.

The mass of correspondence details many episodial points, which may hereafter be referred to; but in the present state of the question it may be better to avoid entering upon them; indeed, we hope that ere our next period of publication, the perusal of this article may lead all parties to a reconciliation. We have no hesitation however in stating unequivocally our opinion, that such correspondence weighs greatly in favour of the lodge, both in masonic arguments and principle, which is simply

charged with setting up an authority in opposition to the Grand Lodge of England, whose authority, as well as that of the Grand Chapter of England, they were most desirous to respect and uphold; whereas Dr. Grant has made himself responsible for the acts his want of forbearance and judgment compelled the members to adopt; to prove this, they sought to have their chapter named the "Zetland."

The following extract from a letter from Companion Morris Leon, Scribe E., of the Grand Chapter of Scotland, will be conclusive evidence on a most important point.

66

Respecting the charter granted to the E. C. Townsend and others in Bengal, called Chapter Kilwinning in the East, No. 64 on the roll of the S. G. R. A Chapter of Scotland, the said charter was granted upon a proper application made in the usual manner as prescribed by the laws, all the forms &c. being faithfully complied with, and no other means were used than were legal and constitutional."

After much severe recrimination, a Provincial and District Grand Lodge was held, the minutes of which we feel it necessary to give at some length.

Extract from the proceedings of the Provincial and District Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Bengal and its Territories. At a quarterly communication holden at Freemason's Hall on Saturday, the 24th of June, 1848. Read a circular issued to the several Calcutta lodges on the 15th inst., cautioning their members against joining a Royal Arch Chapter, which, the Prov. Grand Master had been informed was attempted to be set up, under a charter obtained from the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland, of which Worshipful Bro. Townsend, Master of Lodge Kilwinning in the East, No. 740, was to be the First Principal.

With reference to this circular, which the Provincial Grand Master stated he had caused to be issued, lest any brother should unwittingly identify himself with the chapter alluded to, and with those brethren who, unmindful of the allegiance they owe to him as the representative in this province of the Most Worshipful the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, had offered him an insult, by procuring a warrant from a body which could exercise no authority whatever in a province appertaining to the Grand Lodge and the Grand Chapter of England. The Prov. Grand Master alluded to an application which had been made to him in course of the past year, for a dispensation to hold a Royal Arch Chapter in connection with lodge Kilwinning in the East, which, for good and sufficient reasons, he had declined to grant at that time, and he further considered that Chapter Hope was sufficient as regards Royal Arch Masonry for the city of Calcutta for the present; but under any circumstances, in the event of another chapter being formed, the youngest one in Calcutta, which Kilwinning in the East was, would not have been the one selected to have joined it to, to the prejudice of older and better lodges, which had much stronger claims to such an honour. Subsequently a worshipful brother, John Cameron (one of the applicants for the dispensation, and Past Master of Lodge Kilwinning in the East), when proceeding to Europe obtained from him a letter of introduction to the Grand Secretary in Scotland. He was not a little astonished, therefore, to learn that Bro. Cameron had apparently made use of that introduction, in the face of his express interdiction, in sending out a charter from the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland for

the constitution of a chapter in Calcutta. The first regular intimation he (the Prov. Grand Master) received on the subject was about three weeks ago from Bro. Townsend himself, applying for permission to hold a meeting of the brethren who were to be members of the new chapter at the Freemasons' Hall. Here, indeed, was a most cool proposal, that not only within the bounds of his province, but in their very hall, practical effect should be given to a document irregularly, indirectly, and surreptitiously procured; for he felt satisfied that when the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland became informed of the discreditable manner in which this intrusive chapter was endeavoured to be got up from the beginning, that it would withdraw its sanction from a province where it never ought to have extended its authority. Of course Bro. Townsend's very modest request was refused compliance with, and the requisite measures were adopted, at a convocation of the Prov. Grand Chapter held on the 16th instant, to counteract the highly irregular proceedings of Bro. Townsend, and those who acted with him. Bro. Townsend and his coadjutors were not aware, it seems, that he held the dignity of Grand Inspector under the Grand Council of Rites in Scotland. Accordingly he, in his capacity of Grand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masonry, having come to the knowledge that, after having been refused meeting in Freemasons' Hall, as also in the rooms of Lodge Humility with Fortitude, in Fort William, the misguided brethren had assembled at a private house, a letter was addressed to Bro. Townsend, on the 17th instant, requesting him to furnish the names of the brethren who were present at the meeting alluded to, and also a statement of the ceremonial that took place on the occasion, but to which, to this moment, no reply has been received; thus adding further disrespect to the previous insult.

The Prov. Grand Master then observed-in this the only place where he could meet Bro. Townsend-that, though he always had a kindly feeling towards that brother, he could not, consistently with his duty and the dignity of the offices he held under the Grand Lodge and the Grand Chapter of England, as well as the Grand Council of Rites in Scotland, suffer this attempt which had been made to set his authority at defiance, without taking such measures as would effectually end in disappointment and disgrace to those brethren who, holding the warrant of their lodge from the Grand Lodge of England, were acting thus disrespectfully and unconstitutionally. The Prov. Grand Master adverted to the sister Grand Lodges of Madras and Bombay (the latter being under the Grand Lodge of Scotland), between whom and the Prov. Grand Lodge of Bengal there never had been any clashing of authority; and he took this opportunity to remark, that the most worshipful brother, Lord Dalhousie, who had recently become patron of the Craft in Bengal and its territories, highly disapproved of what had occurred in reference to the conduct of Bros. Cameron, Townsend, and others, and that it was his lordship's intention himself to write on the subject to the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.

The Prov. Grand Master then stated that Bro. Townsend, who had been hitherto permitted to attend the meetings of the Prov. Grand Lodge as a PAST Grand Superintendent of Works, by courtesy-there being no past rank attached to that office-had been prohibited from again appearing in that capacity, but desired to restrict his attendance as Master of Lodge Kilwinning in the East; and as such, one of the representatives of that lodge in the Prov. Grand Lodge.

The Prov. Grand Master also intimated that as Bro. Davidson, the Tyler of the Prov. Grand Lodge, and Janitor of the Grand Chapter, had likewise been a party concerned in the matter of the Scottish Chapter, he had deemed it proper to dismiss that brother from both those offices.

Bro. Townsend being in his place as Master of Lodge Kilwinning in the East, protested against being charged with unmasonic conduct, and with behaving disrespectfully to the Prov. Grand Master, as what he had done in the matter of this chapter, of which he had been nominated a Principal, had been solely for the benefit of Masonry in this country. He was not aware why he should have been singled out, while he was acting with others; and why he should be punished by the deprivation of past rank in the Grand Lodge, to which he had, according to his patent, conceived himself to have a right, and that, under all these circumstances, he saw no reason for being so harshly treated.

The Prov. Grand Master then asked the brethren whether they approved of what he had done under the disagreeable circumstances stated, on which the whole body of the Grand Lodge rose up, and in a most unmistakeable manner evinced their satisfaction by saluting the Prov. Grand Master. It was then formally proposed by Right Worshipful Bro. Clarke, seconded by Right Worshipful Bro. Birch, and resolved, "That the cordial thanks of this Grand Lodge be tendered to the Right Worshipful the Prov. Grand Master for the prompt measures adopted by him to check the attempt which had been made to submit his legitimate authority within his own provinces, and pledging itself to support that authority at all times."

The Prov. Grand Master acknowledged the compliment and the vote, and calling up Worshipful Bro. Harris, Master of Lodge Humility with Fortitude, to the East, observed that he was gratified to learn that he Bro. Harris had refused the use of the lodge rooms in Fort William to Worshipful Bro. Townsend, thereby giving a proof of his disapproval of the impropriety of that brother's conduct in the matter already adverted to. There had been some differences between the Prov. Grand Master and Bro. Harris, but he begged to assure him that they were now to him as if they had never been. He knew Bro. Harris to be a worthy man and a good Mason, and he earnestly looked for the continued support of stanch men and Masons like himself, and hoped he would so guide his lodge as to add to the real strength and respectability of the Craft.

(A True Copy.) JOHN CAMERON, P.M. 740.

It is clear that to discuss, or permit to be discussed, Royal Arch matters in Craft Masonry, is a wee-bit unusual, and although Dr. Grant may quote Lord Dalhousie's reproof of the conduct of any brethren, such reproof will hardly be held as being satisfactory of his own; furthermore Dr. Grant brings in head and shoulders his own diploma as S. G. I. G. 33°! what on earth this has to do with the question is difficult to conceive, unless to hamper the P. G. Master himself.

That no insult was intended towards Dr. Grant as Grand Superintendent, is clearly shewn by the course taken by the brethren in soliciting him to forward their petition to the Supreme Grand Chapter of England, as Prov. District Grand Master, he has nothing else to do with the matter; he is in fact, hors de combat, or out of court, as the lawyers phrase it.