Approaching Festival Of The R.M. Benevolent Institution.

APPROACHING FESTIVAL OF THE R . M . BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

IT is quite time we directed tbe attention of our readers to the Festival of the Koyal Masonic Benevolent Institution . The event is fixed for Wednesday , the 28 th instant , and the chair will be taken by E . W . Bro . General Brownrigg , C . B ., Provincial Grand Master and Provincial

Grand Superintendent of Surrey , a Province which , if it has not enjoyed the distinction of raising a very large subscription at any particular Festival , has been invariably represented by one or more brethren as Stewards , and has

pretty impartially distributed its favours among the three Institutions . On the present occasion we may take it for granted that it will put forth special exertions , nofc only for its own sake , and from the interest it takes in the R . M . B . I .,

but also in order to show the respect it entertains for the chief who has guided its destinies since 1871 , and during whose period of government the Craft has gone on increasing , in prosperity by such gradual but certain steps . Speaking-. Masonioally , perhaps , the County is not a strong one .

A portion of it is included within the Metropolitan district , and the sums subscribed by the Lodges located in this portion will go to swell the London total . The extra-Metropolitan section of the County can boast of as many as six and twenty Lodges , but there are in it no important

industrial centres , and Croydon and Kingston-on-Thames , each with four Lodges , and Surbiton , with two Lodges , are the Masonic strongholds of the Province . Still a great deal may be done when there is so popular a chief as Brother General Brownrigg , so zealous a Deputy as Brother the

Rev . 0 . W . Arnold P . G . Chaplain , and so experienced a Secretary as Bro . Charles Greenwood , Past G . S . B ., not to mention such as Bro . Magnus Ohren P . G . A . D . C . and others , who have already on several occasions taken upon themselves the responsibilities of Festival Stewards , to the

great advantage of the Institutions whose cause they have advocated . That the Surrey Lodges in the London area will be only too ready to help their Provincial brethren may be taken for granted , and we may look to see some

extra zeal displayed by the immediately adjacent Provinces . In fact , the circumstances all tend to justify our belief that so far as Surrey and its immediate neighbours are concerned , the Festival of the 28 th instant will compare favourabl y with its predecessors .

That such a consummation is most necessary is within the knowledge of all our readers . The Benevolent Institution , though the youngest of our three Charities , has grown to J & e -thei most exigent of them all in respect of the funds it is required to disburse ; andwhat is to be very

, much regretted , the demands on its resources are , at the present moment , exceptionally heavy , there being only thirteen vacancies to be filled up at the election in May next and no less than a hundred and thirty-one candidates to compete for them , and even this unusual number may

be still farther increased in the course of the present month . The sum annually disbursed among the annuitants is , as Bro . Terry very recently pointed out , £ 11 , 600 , and to this must be added the expenses of the management in the shape of salaries , office expenses , maintenance of build-

Approaching Festival Of The R.M. Benevolent Institution.

ing , & c , & o . ' , so that we shall not be far out in estimating the total amount required from year to year as quite £ 15 , 500 . This , of course , is a liability which it is within the competency of the Craft iu England to satisfy . London and the Provinces muster together over 1300

Lodges , and a contribution of £ 10 from each , added to the permanent income of the Institution , would cover the liability , and leave a balance to be carried forward to another year . Unfortunately , the burden of providing the necessary funds for this and our other Charities is not

as evenly distributed among the Lodges as we should like to see it . Some contribute regularly and some frequently , but others do so only on very rare occasions . Were this unequal distribution of support the result of a correspondingly unequal distribution of ability , we should studiously

avoid making any comment . Charity is enjoined on all Masons at the very outset of their career , but they are at the same time bidden to be just to themselves and their families before being generous towards those who may need assistance . Still , when we have made allowance for

those who cannot spare of their means , we fear there will be found a strong array of brethren who are not as strongly imbued as they should be with the Masonic virtue of Charity . Indeed , the published lists of successive Festivals place this statement beyond question , and a mere glance at them will show that the same Lodges , the same Provinces ,

and , so far as they are made known , almost the same brethren , go on figuring Festival after Festival , while other Lodges and Provinces are as invariably absent . We are aware , in saying this , we are only repeating an old complaint , on which for years pasfc brethren of distinction have

insisted . But the frequent iteration of the complaint , thongh it has not been without its effect in diminishing the evil complained of , has by no means removed it altogether , so that , with the increased and increasing expenditure of our three Institutions , those who recognise and act up to

their obligations find that the task of providing the necessary means is one of unusually increasing difficulty . We have said before , and we see no reason why we should nofc repeat it on the present occasion , thafc all difficulty in

raising the necessary provision for our Charities would disappear if only every subscribing member of a Lodge would set aside annually the modest sum of five shillings as his contribution towards the maintenance of each .

Ofcher opportunities will no doubt present themselves between now and the day of the Festival , for impressing on brethren the claims on their support of the Benevolent Institution ; but we must not close these remarks without referring to the special circumstances of the present year .

We have stated the sum annually required for distribution among the annuitants and expenses as being fully £ 15 , 600 , and though there are 325 old brethren and widows to

whom annuities are given , there are no less than 131 applicants for admission—eighty widows and fifty-one brethren —while there is yet time for this number to be increased . These old men and women once lived in comfortable

circumstances , but through misfortune they have been reduced to a state of comparative , or absolute poverty , while many of them have other burdens to bear ; in other words , many of these unfortunate old people have the difficulty of supporting themselves intensified by the necessity

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