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^^^ ftj ^^ g Wa-OTPB-WaBg HM ^ SATUJIDAY , 2 . VD SEPTEMBER 1803 .

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Although not by any means so prolific as the Cornwall Charity Association , to which we referred last week , the similar fund in Herefordshire is doing a

good work , as is evidenced by the details given at the loth annual meeting , a report of which appoars-clsewhere . We notice the Committee make a strongappeal for further support for the Fund , " in order

that the ancient Province of Herefordshire—which has received so much from the Masonic Institutionsmay occupy a position of credit in their annual reports . " It is a very good sign when the leaders of a district recoo'uiso that bavino * vnfieivp . rl mnch fvmn

the Masonic Institutions in the past , they should do something to make up for it in the future , for although the benefits of our Institutions are not strictly limited to those districts which have previously subscribed it

is none the less gratifying to see some regular return for the amounts distributed year by year .

In a recent issue we propounded the query—Can a

Master err ? and we argued it out fchat he could not ; but like every other question there seems to be two sides to this , the opposition being taken up in our

present issue Dy " A Provincial Member , " who lias evidently come to tho conclusion that an editor as well as a Worshipful Master is quite as liable to do wrong as other mortals—and should readily admit it . Wc like to see ourselves as others sec us ( sometimes !) and have Ollite oniovf > d t . hfi cvit . U' . ism nf nnr Prnvinp . isi . l

friend . He has not , however , yet convinced us that we are wrong , and we are open to further argument on the subject . Wc may have failed to express our ideas on this point , but briefly they may be summed up as recognising the liability of a Master to err in practice , but not in theory .

The question as to who is the oldest Freemason is one that crops up with even greater regularity than the sea serpent or the monster cooseberrv . It is not

a freak oi the dull season , but one of continued and world-wide popularity , and it is one of real importance , or at least of general concern to those members of the Craft who take more than a superficial interest

nitliQ past history of Freemasonry . Wo are not surprised , therefore , to receive an enquiry , based on our paragraph of the l !) th ult ., respecting the death of Bro . Ernest Smith , of New South Wales , who was reputed to bo the oldest Colonial Freemason , asking , —who is entitled to the distinction in England ' ?

The answer to this query may well be divided under two heads , first , as regards thc Officers of thc Grand Lodge ; ancl-second , as to private members . Under

tho first division there appears to be no question that the distinguished honour belongs to the Moolavie Mahomed Ismael Kahn , who was appointed Senior Grand Warden in 1830 , while he is followed bv the

Grand Chaplain of 18-14 , Bro . Bev . Sir John Warren Hayes , Barfc . It is to this latter brother to whom belongs the distinction of being the oldest Mason in England , he bavins buen initiated in 1819 , the year

m which Her Majesty and the Duko of Cambridge

were born , so that he has been a member of the Masonic Order for seventy-four years , of which period he has been for nearly fifty years an Officer of Grand

Lodge , receiving his appointment at the hands ot the Earl of Zetland . Sir John Hayes recently entered on his ninety-fifth year , and is now residing at Arborfield , Berkshire .

The offices of Senior and Junior Grand Warden and Grand Chaplain of England appear to be conducive to longevity , for in addition to the two distinguished brethren referred to above there are several others yet living whose appointments in Grand Lodge carry us

back to the fifties ; the other appointments being singularly deficient in this respect , there being only an Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies of 1858—in the person of the present distinguished holder of

tho superior position , Sir Albert W . Woods , who , by the way , is also a Past Grand Warden—and the Grand Pursuivant of 185 G still among ns , the remaining living Past Grand Officers having been appointed

iu 1860 , or subsequent thereto . In this connection we do not include out- Provincial Grand Masters , though were we to do so it would only add ono or two names to the list of—ancients , may we call them ?

Iu another part of this issue we give the text of a Lecture recently delivered by Bro . H . Sadler Grand Tyler , at tho Clarence Lodge of Instruction , which meets every Tuesday at the Midland Grand Hotel . We feel sure the Lecture will be found very interesting to the general body of our readers , although the

second part of the discourse , dealing as it does with the question of Tracing Boards , their original uses and construction and their present day forms and uses , may lose some of its impressiveness because we

cannot put the unique and peculiar symbols oi the Tracing Board before our readers piece by piece as Bro . Sadler is enabled to do when explaining the points of his Lecture . This peculiar Tracing Board

is particularly interesting , especially to Masonic students , and will well repay for examination , which we feel sure Brother Sadler will allow any interested members of the Craft to make if thev desire it .

This Clarence Lodge of Instruction , which we

believe is an offshoot of the Emulation , seeks to do its work in a better style than many of its fellows , and it will probaly attract a different class of brethren to its meetings than arc to bo found under ordinary

conditions . Ono feature that has lately been carried out is to devote the latter part of each meeting to the rl , Mf . nf ( fiir-i « f \ (¦ ' r . /^ i-v \ r \ rvr 4-li / - \ -nrto n-i-w -m n n 1-1 -i -in rt a - \ trli-irtl , 1 , r , WIIU II

ILLOUlliSmUU Wl OU 1 J . IU Oi lUlU JUillllJ JLUUCIIU IUJ ^ O J 1 XV under the surface of the ritual , and some enjoyable and instructive comments have been the result . We have often advocated such work and believe its extension would be most beneficial in many ways .

To thc many missions which Freemasonry has to perform the newly installed Grand Master of New South Wales has added thafc of assisting—in this age

when labour and capital are competing all over the world—in softening tho asperities and lessening the breaches dividing the social classes . He docs so

" because thc Masons were the ancient trades

unionists , who recognised no superiors . " The mission may bo a worthy one , but we can hardly believe the connection can be traced in the way suggested . It may have been thc boast of tho earlier

Masons that they had no superiors in their work , but they fully recognised thafc sonic of their number were better informed and better able to direct than others ,

and these they rewarded by appointment to positions of trust and responsibility , but wo do not think there is anything in common between such a creed and thafc of modem trades unionism . We consider it is unwise to attempt to associate Freemasonry with such ideas as that of trades