Eastern Division South Wales.

Subsequently Bro . Clarry and Bro . T . Matthews were presented each with the Charity Jewel , which they are entitled to wear , Bro . Clarry having acted as Steward for two of the central Institutions , while Bro . T . Matthews has acted as Steward for the home charities . The Officers of the Provincial Grand Lodge for the ensuing year were then invested , as follow : —

Bro . J . H . Taylor 1573 .... Senior Warden James Radley 960 ... . Junior Warden Rev . W . Lewis 1578 - - - } n , ,. „ Rev . Joseph Barker 36 - - - } Chaplains Owen Owen 1573 .... Treasurer A . G . P . Lewis 2570 - - - Registrar

W . Whittington 364 - - - Secretary B . D . Jenkins 1992 ... Senior Deacon H . Geo . Davies 237 ... Junior Deacon Ohas . A . Young 1754 - - - Superintendent of Works Vaughan John 833 ... Director of Ceremonies E . Johnson 2357 .... Assistant Dir . of Cers .

Thomas Wake 110 .... Sword Bearer 0 . T . Evans 2382 - - - - 1 < .,. „ , . . , -RQOM , W . Lowrie Baker 960 - - - } Standard Bearers W . H . Jones 1857 - - - - Organist J . D . Llewelleyn 364 ... Assistant Secretary Charles Jones .... Pursuivant

J . Thorney 679 .... Assistant Pursuivant T . R . Phillips 2570 F . J . Harries 110 - Jos . E . Fisher 1323 - - - •Stewards George Durston 2547 J . P . Gibson 2606 - - - - ' George Bullerwell 237 - - - Tyler .

In the evening the Brethren met around the hospitable board at the Park Hotel . Lord Llangattock presided , and he was supported by the Deputy Prov . Grand Master and all the Provincial Officers . The usual Masonic toasts were submitted and enthusiastically received . — " South Wales Daily News . "

Sussex.

SUSSEX .

THE local Freemasons are considering arrangements for the reception of the Duke of Connaught , who is expected to attend a grand meeting of the Craft in Hastings in about a month ' s time . It will be recollected that H . R . H . was prevented by illness at the eleventh hour from making an arranged visit last year . — " Hastings News . "

French Masons.

FRENCH MASONS .

FREEMASONRY appears likely to play a more active part than ever in French politics , to judge by the resolutions passed at the annual meeting of the Grand Orient , composed of delegates from all French Lodges . The more important of these request Brothers who are members of Parliament to support the measures tending towards : Eeplacing the present Reactionary

and Clerical Government ; organizing free and complete State education ; separating the Church and the State ; protesting against the favours granted at the public expense by railway companies to religious bodies ; increasing the salaries of the humbler categories of public servants who may have three or more children ; creating a Board of Labour Arbitration and a Ministry of Labour . — " Morning Post . "

English and Scotch Freemasons will be glad to hear that the Atheism or Agnosticism which for years had dominated French Lodges , especially those of the " Grand Orient , " is markedly decreasing , and that a powerful movement is on foot within the

Grand Orient itself to restore to their rite a profession of belief in the " Great Architect of the Universe . " If this measure of reform be carried out the English and Scottish Lodges will be ready to readmit into fellowship the French Freemasons whom they have felt constrained to deny . — " Liverpool Courier . "

The Freemasons are once more to the fore . The " Convent " •which they have just held at the Grand Orient has been brought to a close by M . Hubbard , Deputy for the Seine-et-Oise , and one of the high dignitaries of the ancient Order , who delivered a noteworthy speech on the occasion . After having described the

Masonic doctrine as " one and simple , tbe marvellous inspirer of the Great Revolution , the fruitful preparer of the Social Evolution which all hearts desire and all egoisms fear , " M . Hubbard reminded the world that , ever since the middle of the last century , it was Freemasonry that had been the vanguard of political progress . " It was that renowned order , " continued

the speaker , " that succeeded in passing into the legislation of the Third Republic its military and scholastic laws , its liberty of the Press , and right of meeting , which nobody dares to mutilate , unless it be done indirectly , or by stealth . " Finally , M . Hubbard dealt with the electoral question , and declared that Freemasonry would know how to do its duty by turning all false democrats

French Masons.

out of the Republic , and freeing France from ecclesiastical servitude . The " Figaro '•' takes a different view of the subject . " What the Freemasons want , " says that journal , "is to become masters of the political situation . This was also the wish of the

Jesuists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . It needed the intervention of a Pope , Clement XIV ., to bring the latter to reason . A simple Minister would suffice to frustrate the designs of the Freemasons . "

To return to the Freemasons , who , as I have already told you , have just held their annual " Convent , " some idea of the nature of the discussions which took place may be gathered from the following resolutions which were passed : —The Masonic members of Parliament are called on to support the measures destined to

advance the Republican movement by replacing the reactionary and clerical government from which we are suffering ; the suppression of all sinecures ; the abrogation of the law concerning multiple candidates ; the study of means to organise national , free , and comprehensive instruction ; the separation of churches

from the State ; to abolish the Concordate ; to create infant ' s homes in every commune ; to establish professional schools ; to protest against the favours accorded to religious corporations ; increase of wages to small employes and workmen in the public administrations ; and the nomination of a council of arbitration .

Before breaking up , a manifesto was composed , and will be published by all the Lodges throughout the country . It is entitled a " Declaration of the Council of the Order of Freemasons . " Here is an extract from it : — " The Freemasons disdain the attacks , insults , libels , and calumnies of their

traditional enemies ; they pursue , in peace and confidence , the moral , intellectual , political , and social reforms which past generations have bequeathed to them . They know no other truths than those founded on reason and science , and it is with the result obtained by the latter that they combat the

superstition and prejudices on which Churches found their authority . Their primordial law is tolerance . They have solemnly inscribed at the head of their Constitution the respect of all beliefs , all ideas , and all opinions . They impose on their adherents no

dogma of any sort ; all they ask from them is to be sincere and loyal . Their ethics are not chained either to any religious belief or any philosophical theory , and they do not seek for the origin of good and evil iu pretended divine revelations or in the conceptions of metaphysics . "— " Globe . "

The Friars Lodge of Instruction , No . 1349 , held at the Plough Hotel , Mile End Road , will resume its weekly meetings on Thursday next , 7 th inst ., at 8 p . m . o o o ' The weekly gatherings of the Faith Lodge of Instruction

No . 141 , will be recommenced on Tuesday next , 5 th inst ., at the Victoria , Mansions Restaurant , Victoria Street , S . W ., where , as we have previously mentioned , most desirable quarters are available for gatherings of the Crafc .

The Royal Jubilee Lodge of Instruction , No . 72 , has resumed its weekly meetings for the season , and will now . be opened each Wednesday evening , at 8 o ' clock , at the Crown , Lambeth Road , where Bro . E . W . Lewcock the Secretary of the Lodge , and other member ? -, will be pleased to extend a fraternal welcome to visiting Brethren .

Under the heading , * ' Improper publication , " Grand Master M . H . Henderson , in his closing address to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , delivered 28 th December 1896 , expressed his mind in regard to the undue publicity often given to Masonic affairs . He says : " Our Fraternity is unlike any other organization or

society . It has traditions , laws , customs and methods of procedure peculiar to itself . It is so old , so firmly established ^ that it is not obliged to resort to means to perpetuate itself wh ' ch other more modern societies find it necessary to adopt . Freemasonry does not advertise itself . It seeks no one . It

must be sought . Any attempt to force it under the public eye is so repugnant to its traditions as to be prohibited by constitutional enactment . Masonic matter's should not be mingled with the gossip of communities , and he who talks about the affairs of his Lodge to chance acquaintance in public places has no proper

conception of his Masonic obligations . He who prints anything concerning Freemasonry without proper authority violates our " Ahiman Rezon . " After noticing some of the wavs in which

the rule is often departed from , he says : " Persistently making Masonic affairs material for news-mongers and street gossips is reprehensible enough for punishment . Let us have no more pf it . "