Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

admitted into the Act in consequence of my assurance to Mr. Pitt that nothing
could be deemed a Lodge which did not sit by precise authority from the Grand
Lodge and under its direct superintendence.” 122
On 30 November 1808, the Grand Lodge of Scotland submitted an
application for an interdict against the meetings of the Associated Lodges and a
Bill of Suspension. 123 Additionally, the Bill of Suspension stated the intentions
of the Grand Lodge to establish itself as the “only legal, in its fullest meaning,
body in Freemasonry in Scotland.” 124
In December 1808, the Courts granted the interdicts. However, the
Associated Lodges appealed to the Second Division of the Court of Session on
11 February 1809. During the appeal, Lord Justice Clerk Hope stated his
disapproval over the admission as evidence of a letter written by Moira which
implicated the Prince of Wales. According to the Lord Justice, “a most serious
improper attempt had been made by the complainers to influence the decision of
the Court, by production of, and founding upon, the letter from the Earl of
267
Moira, containing the opinion of the Prince of Wales.” 125 Subsequently, Moira’s
122 Grand Lodge of Scotland Minutes, 11 August 1808.
123 Wartski, “Secret Societies,” 54. The Grand Lodge submitted the application “on behalf of
certain interested individuals.” As Wartski writes, the Grand Lodge of Scotland “had no locus
standi in judicio due to its status as a voluntary organization. Thus the Bill of Suspension had to
be issued in the name of specific masons,” Ibid.
124 Ibid, 55.
125 From the Edinburgh Star, quoted in Petition and Complaint, 6-7. The Lord Justice asserted
that if the “letter alluded to had been authorized by the Prince, and written by the Noble Earl,
with the view of inducing their Lordships to decide the cases before them in one way or another,
he would certainly move…that the letter should be burnt by the hands of the common
executioner,” Ibid. Lindsay notes that “as, however, it was a confidential letter to Mr. Inglis, the
Agent responsible for its inclusion in the Process would appear at the Bar to give an explanation.
Inglis…offered to accept the whole responsibility, although he submitted that the letter formed
part of the Record for the Grand Lodge party, and was, therefore, a proper production. On the
top of this the three Whig Counselors for the minorities (John Clerk of Eldin, John Greenshields