Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To His Royal Highness The Duke Of Sussex.
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX .
MOST WORSHIPFUL SIB , THE events which have recently taken place in Freemasonry , the present disunited state of the society , and the party feeling which has usurped the place of Brotherly love , call imperatively on the Brethren to declare to your Royal Highness , fearlessly and candidly , the causes of the evil , and the only mode by which it may be remedied .
Is there among all your Royal Highness ' s friends and adherents one bold enough to do this ? 1 fear not , and therefore take the task upon myself . Four years since the Brethren were united as one family—they reverenced your Royal Highness as their father—your least wish was to them as a command , and their greatest pleasure was to gratify it . Is this the case now ? The proceedings at the Grand Lodge on the 3 rd of
June will answer the question . How this change has been brought about it is my duty to relate . It is no secret to the world that the objects of Masonry are Friendship and Charity , and the Brethren best consult the welfare of the Order , who assist the most in carrying out these principles . With this view certain Brethren , seeing the partial inefficiency of one of the present Charities , the Board of Benevolence , suggested about four
years since the propriety of providing pensions and a home for their Aged Brethren , in distress , and called the proposed Charity " The Aged Mason ' s Asylum . " The idea was not new ; it had been in practice by other societies for hundreds of years , and had worked well ; but it was
new to Freemasonry . The plan , if not perfect , was at least reasonable , and deserved fair and impartial consideration . Your Royal Highness ' s first error was your opposition to this charity without due consideration ; your second was the mode of conducting that opposition . As the head of the Masonic body , it is the duty of your Royal Highness to carry to their fullest extent the principles of the
Fraternity-Charity and Friendship ; and upon the proposition of another Charity , it was incumbent upon you to investigate its merits openly , to hear all that might be said in its favour , to give your opinion to Grand Lodge , and then to support or oppose it as Grand Lodge should decide . You adopted another course ; you concealed your objection to the Charity ; you informed some of the Brethren privately that you approved the princilebut you secretlopposed its success . When it was
p , y brought before Grand Lodge for its approval in December 183 T , you expressed by letter that you approved the principle , but only feared that there was not room for another Charity in Masonry , and that its introduction must necessarily injure each of the other Charities to the extent of one-third of their subscriptions . This course was neither candid nor wise . It was not candid ; because your Royal Highness now say that you always did object to the Charity ,
and if so , the proposers hail a right lo hear those objections , and to answer them . It was not wise ; because the only objection then stated by your Royal Highness has been proved to have no foundation . On the 6 th of December 1837 , Grand Lodge came to an unanimous
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To His Royal Highness The Duke Of Sussex.
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SUSSEX .
MOST WORSHIPFUL SIB , THE events which have recently taken place in Freemasonry , the present disunited state of the society , and the party feeling which has usurped the place of Brotherly love , call imperatively on the Brethren to declare to your Royal Highness , fearlessly and candidly , the causes of the evil , and the only mode by which it may be remedied .
Is there among all your Royal Highness ' s friends and adherents one bold enough to do this ? 1 fear not , and therefore take the task upon myself . Four years since the Brethren were united as one family—they reverenced your Royal Highness as their father—your least wish was to them as a command , and their greatest pleasure was to gratify it . Is this the case now ? The proceedings at the Grand Lodge on the 3 rd of
June will answer the question . How this change has been brought about it is my duty to relate . It is no secret to the world that the objects of Masonry are Friendship and Charity , and the Brethren best consult the welfare of the Order , who assist the most in carrying out these principles . With this view certain Brethren , seeing the partial inefficiency of one of the present Charities , the Board of Benevolence , suggested about four
years since the propriety of providing pensions and a home for their Aged Brethren , in distress , and called the proposed Charity " The Aged Mason ' s Asylum . " The idea was not new ; it had been in practice by other societies for hundreds of years , and had worked well ; but it was
new to Freemasonry . The plan , if not perfect , was at least reasonable , and deserved fair and impartial consideration . Your Royal Highness ' s first error was your opposition to this charity without due consideration ; your second was the mode of conducting that opposition . As the head of the Masonic body , it is the duty of your Royal Highness to carry to their fullest extent the principles of the
Fraternity-Charity and Friendship ; and upon the proposition of another Charity , it was incumbent upon you to investigate its merits openly , to hear all that might be said in its favour , to give your opinion to Grand Lodge , and then to support or oppose it as Grand Lodge should decide . You adopted another course ; you concealed your objection to the Charity ; you informed some of the Brethren privately that you approved the princilebut you secretlopposed its success . When it was
p , y brought before Grand Lodge for its approval in December 183 T , you expressed by letter that you approved the principle , but only feared that there was not room for another Charity in Masonry , and that its introduction must necessarily injure each of the other Charities to the extent of one-third of their subscriptions . This course was neither candid nor wise . It was not candid ; because your Royal Highness now say that you always did object to the Charity ,
and if so , the proposers hail a right lo hear those objections , and to answer them . It was not wise ; because the only objection then stated by your Royal Highness has been proved to have no foundation . On the 6 th of December 1837 , Grand Lodge came to an unanimous