Provincial Grand Lodge Of Cornwall.

PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF CORNWALL .

THE annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodgo of Cornwall waa held on Tuesday , at Liskeard . The Parochial School Rooms were fitted up for the occasion , and the gathering was very numerous . The P . G . Lodge having been opened in due form , the minutes of the late meeting were confirmed . Bro . W . Tweedy P . G . T . presented tho financial report . At the last meeting there

was a balance of £ 32 against the P . G . Lodge . The receipts since obtained from various sourcos amounted to £ 226 , and , after meeting all liabilities , a balance of £ 6 12 s 4 d in favour remained . Bro . W . J . Hughan forwarded his twelfth and last report as manager of tho votes for tho great Masonic Charities . In so doing he had much pleasure in thanking the Prov . G . M . and the other

subscribers who promptly forwarded their voting papers . There were still a few who either knowingly or carelessly were defaulters . There were two brothers strongly supported as candidates by Hayle 450 and Fowey 977 for the Eoyal Masonic Benevolent Institution . He felt that as the two brethren were strongly supported by their Lodges , the better plan would be to get both eleoted . This he

accordingly did in May 1881 , on their first application , and without a printed circular being issued for either . It was the first time in the history of the Province that such a result had been aohieved , and it afforded an apt illustration of the value of the system commenced in 1868 of uniting the votes for the general good of the Province . There were now four annuitants of £ 40 per annnm , and two widows

of £ 32 per annum , on the funds of this Institution in Cornwall . He left the management without owing a single vote on behalf of the Province , though to seoure the election of those two brothers he polled a total of 2 , 141 votes , and yet only received 150 votes from Cornwall for the Institntion . The balance was made up of loans repaid and exchanges . Bro . Controller Bake acted as Steward for

the Boys and Benevolent Institution this year , and was ready to do so again . Bro . J . Coombe P . M . Hayle 450 had engaged to represent the Province and Lodges in Cornwall as Steward for the Royal Masonio Benevolent Institution for Aged Masons in February 1882 , and he hoped the P . G . Lodge would vote the sum of fifty guineas to be placed on his list so as to set a good example to the Lodges

generally . Ho much wished that the funds would allow twice as much . He begged most positively to decline re-election as manager , but promised bis successor all the aid in his power . Brother E . T . Carlyon P . G . Secretary read his report . There were now twenty-eight Lodges in the Province . During the year there had been an increase of eight in the number of initiations as

compared with 1879 ; there had been a decrease of five in joining members , a deorease of eighteen members , the present total being 1463 . There was consequently no great change in their numbers , bnt he had received a petition for the consecration of a new Lodge at Wadebridge . Of this the Provincial Grand Master had approved , but the warrant as yet had not arrived . In presenting this , his last , report

to the Province , he took that opportunity of thanking his Lordship and the brethren generally for their great kindness and courtesy towards him . Bro . Crewes presented the report of the Cornwall Masonio Annuity and Benevolent Fund . The receipts had amounted to £ 460 , and there was a balance of £ 125 in favour of the year ' s account .

The capital invested amounts to £ 3 , 287 . By the recent death of a brother , the number of annuitants was reduced to three . The vacancy could not be filled until next year . There were at present four educational grants of £ 15 a year each . No petitions for relief or other grants had been received . Since the last meeting the capital account had increased £ 148 , and there was an increase of

£ 2 19 s in the annual subscriptions as compared with the corresponding period of last year . Brother E . T . Carlyon submitted the report of the Committee of Relief . They had granted during the year several sums to deserving cases , and recommended further grants to new applicants . Bro . W . Tweedy read the report of the Truro Cathedral Fund

Committee . £ 241 has been received , and of that sum £ 219 has been invested by the purchase of £ 220 Consols . The P . G . M . thought it a matter of much gratification that the Fund was steadily growing . As Cornishmen , they would be glad to learn that the stone to be employed in the erection of the Cathedral would consist very largely of Cornish granite , and not , as was originally supposed , of stone

procured outside the county . At this point the brethren adjourned to attend church . A procession was formed , headed by the Liskeard and Moorswater bands , and organised by Bros . E . A . Courtenay and E . Rowe P . P . G . D . 's . The sermon was preached by Bro . the Rev . P . H . Newnham , M . A ., P . M . 195 , Yicar of Maker . The Rev . gentleman took the text from

Epbesians ii , part of the 10 th verse , and asked , What is the real use of Masonry ? To be really of use , an Institution must supply some want or do some work which no other Institution was capable of doing equally well . If it did this , it might be accepted as really useful to the world . He claimed that Freemasonry did fill this purpose in two different ways . God had laid a plan of the ages running

throughout all ages , and that was gradually to educate the mind of men up to a clearer , deeper , sterner knowledge of Himself . Thousands of ages before Abraham and Solomon the minds of the heathen world were feeling after God , and the best of the heathens always believed in one sole God , and in the immortality of the soul ; but the advanced thinkers who worked on these models could not tell them to

everybody , therefore they founded private societies among them , and expressed their highest hope and belief by symbols and old ceremonies full of meaning to them . These old symbols and ceremonies were handed down to them , and were embodied in the lecture and ritual of their various degrees . However modern the arrangement of

those degrees might be , the symbols and ceremonies themselves were world-wide and world-old . Masonry marked the progress of tho belief in God and a religions faith . As Masons compare education to the work of the chisel , which gives the . shape to stone rough from the quarry , so Freemasonry had been God's

Provincial Grand Lodge Of Cornwall.

chisel , at work shaping the rough ashlar of the world , and preparing it for the fuller use of the hereafter ages ; and , to keep up the simile , the symbols and ceremonies known to Masonry were fragments of the old infant mind of the world struck off and left as relics of faitha long passed away . The study of these was called religious archaic * logy , but no one save a Mason could fully combine all these fragments

and perceive their full mutual relation to each other . In a word , Masonry enabled them better than any other Institution to trace the purpose of the age in the development of religious faith . The future Mason had a work to do . The plan of tho ages involved tho bringing the world into a futm * e state of realizing what true brotherhood meant . Class habits , religions habits , political habits , now kept men

asunder , and society suffered in consequence . Religious motives ought to bind us , but they failed . Philanthropic work stood still because men of one oreed wonld not work with men who worshipped in a different building . Freemasonry had the inherent power of lessening the discords . Oa the floor of the Lodge caste , class religion , and politics all ceased , and man met man , and brother brother . It

might be only for an hour at a time , but the repeated dropping of water wears away any rock . Aud in time the result might come that Masonry might thus be God' -s ohisel shaping out the purpose of the ages . Every Mason thus might , if he so willed , become a fellow worker with God . And no other Institution in the world in the pre . sent state of society offered similar or equal possibilities for true

work in this way . Might God bless one and all thus to see to work with Him . On resuming business in the Lodge , the Committee of Relief was appointed as follows : —Bros . C . Trnscott ( to act as manager of the Charities ) , G . Pearse 1450 , J . Penrose 589 . In supporting Brother Truscott ' s election , Bro . Sir C . Sawle spoke highly of his services in

the St . Austell Lodge . The Provincial Grand Master expressed his gratification at the choice made , and Bro . Trusoott , in acknowledging the compliment , remarked that , although he accepted the responsi . bility with some diffidence , and . felt much difficulty in following so distinguished a brother as Bro . Hughan , be hoped he should sue . ceed iu devoting his best efforts to properly direoting the votes of

the Province . The Provincial Grand Master remarked that the circumstances of the Province in regard to the Masonio Charities were somewhat straitened . One brother , who had desired hi 3 name not to be men . tioned , had given ten guineas to the Boys' Institution , whioh would give the Province a perpetual vote .

A communication was read in reference to the proposed memorial to Bro . Hervey , until recently Grand Secretary of England . The Provincial Grand Master thought that some small contribution might gracefully be devoted to this object , whioh would in some form or other partake of the charitable . The brethren subscribed . The P . G . M . then drew the attention of the brethren to the fact

tha ' t the brethren in Devonshire were at present engaged in raising a fund to establish a memorial to the memory of the late Bro . Rev . John Huyshe P . G . M . of that county . During his tenure of office there were one or two ocoasions on which Devon and Cornwall were intimately associated . The two Provincial Lodges were united to receive the Grand Master H . R . H . the Prince of Wales on the occa .

sion of his visit to Plymouth , to open the Guildhall there . Bro , Huyshe installed him , and there had always existed the greatest affection and brotherly feeling between the Provinces . He had no doubt that the Province of Devon would easily raise the sum they required , but it seemed to him that it wonld cement the kindly and genial feeling that had so long existed between the brethren of the

two counties , and a small contribution would tend to display a sym . pathy which would be highly appreciated . He should be happy to ask the W . M . ' s of the different Lodges to appeal for a nominal donation to the fund . Bro . Penrose thought it was desirable that a dona , tion shonld also be made from the Prov . Grand Lodge funds , and he moved that the sum of five guineas shonld be devoted to that

purpose . The suggestion was adopted by acclamation . It was then proposed by Bro . Andrew that the sum of fifty guineas should be contributed to the funds of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution . In supporting the resolntion , Bro . J . Thomas said he should be glad if some means could be devised of linking the gift with the name of Bro . Hughan , to whom they were under the

greatest obligation for the services he had rendered the Province , It was decided that the amount proposed should be voted , and that it should be left to the Provincial Officers to ascertain how best the desires of the Provincial Grand Lodge could be carried into effect . Bros . Tweedy , Chirgwin , Crewes , were re-elected tbe Committee of Management of the Charities , and Bro . Smith and Thomas as

Auditors . The Provincial Grand Master then proceeded to invest the Officers with their collars . The duty , he mentioned , was one which increased , for whilst the number of Lodges and Masons increased , the number of Officers increased also . He particularly had to regret the fact that Brother Carlyon , who had for so long a period given

unmitigated assistance as Provincial Grand Secretary , had now finally asked to be relieved of those duties . He had more than once asked to be relieved of those duties , and he had always felt that , when the resignation did take place , he would be deprived of most valuable assistance . He fully believed , however , that although the time had arrived for this collar to be transferred to a younger brother ,

Brother Carlyon would be delighted to render such assistance as might be necessary to the perfect discharge of the onerous duties he was resigning . He felt that they" were not in the least likely to be parted as brother officials , and their communications wonld continue as before on all matters having relation to Masonry . He bad to thank Bro . Carlyon most cordially for all the help that he had

rendered him . Bro . Carlyon said he should content himself with saying a few words in acknowledgment , inasmuch as the manner in which the P . G . M , had referred to his services had touched him deeply . I * . true he had done bis utmost for some years to carry out the duties of P . G . S ., but he had reluctantly come to the conclusion that it was