Loyalty And Charity.

LOYALTY AND CHARITY .

THOSE of us who saw the Prince of Wales installed Grand Master of English Freemasonry will never forget the scene or the event . It was indeed a fitting and glorious ending of a period of great anxiety for our excellent and Loyal Order .

Under the presiding auspices and energy of the Heir Apparent to the Throne , English Freemasonry could now move on , fulfilling its mission and extending its stakes , and despite many antagonists and vituperative slanderers , hold the " even tenour of its way " against all comers . And those of us who can still recall the cheer which

greeted the Grand Master ' s assurance that he " never should forget that day , " will also agree with us that no promise has been better kept in the unchanging interest he has taken in Freemasonry , and the open adoption and illustration he has from time to time afforded to the world

of the time honoured principles and precepts of our Craft . On that memorable occasion he gave us a watchword

that may well serve the present generation of Freemasons , as most truly expressive of the esoteric teachings of Freemasonry on two great heads , at any rate of didactic morality , Loyalty and Charity .

Both words are very expressive , far-reaching , and full of meaning and vitality . They aver abstract and concrete truths , very dear to

the mind and heart of Freemasonry , and such as are intimately , and intensely , and unchangeably bound up with its most cherished traditions ancl its most direct

practice and its most beneficial teaching . With these words ever before it , emblazoned in golden letters on its elevated banner , Freemasonry to-day is marching on , north , south , east and west , a compact and fraternal phalanx ,

smiling at the fears of the timid , reproving the calumnies of the mendacious , confronting the weapons of the hostile , intent simply on its own great aim and work , increasing the store of human happiness , and in the name of God and of religion , enforcing the mild lessons of true toleration and

expansive benevolence , and advancing the peace , happi . ness , civilisation , and union of all children of the dust . Our Grand Lodge will have before it , at its next

Quarterly Communication , two motions covering the ground these very Masonic averments and duties are intended to illustrate and develope .

Grand Lodge will be asked at its next meeting , in the name of the Grand Master , both gracefully and befittingly , to make a grant to aid in relieving honest poverty and expressing sympathy towards the really unemployed . It

will further be invited , on the motion of the Deputy Grand Master , to vote a sum of money to celebrate with Masonic loyalt y and affection the Silver Wedding of our Royal

Grand Master and the Princess of Wales . Both of these propositions appear to us singularly appro priate and well-timed .

They seem thoroughly to represent the true idea of such grants when proposed and made , namely , being both reasonable and seasonable , judicious ancl well imagined . There are times and seasons in our lives and in the procsb

g- OT sublunary events , when we teel more or less moved to do this or do that , more or less inclined to evidence by unmistakable acts , that our hearts are in our works , our sympathies in accord with our professions .

Loyalty And Charity.

And such seems , for many reasons , our present position in the current of human affairs , and the passing onward of our Masonic life , and therefore it is we deem such proposals worthy of the occasion , and fully deserving the fraternal support of an unanimous Grand Lodge .

In the family happiness and peaceful prosperity of our Grand Master and his charming consort we shall all of us feel tho most abiding and loyal interest . Whilst as regards the wants of many honest sufferers , in the present

agricultural and commercial depression , especially affecting our great metropolis , we shall , on the truest principles of Freemasonry , agree with the motives and ideas of such a wellintended motion . Indeed , it will be matter of pride to us

all , that our Grand Lodge , rising above any narrow , or limited , or sectional consideration , whether of technical or constitutional objection , will appear before the Order and the world , faithful to its motto of Loyalty and Charity ,

ready and gratified to be enabled to avow its unchanged fealty to its Royal Grand Master and his family , dear to us as Freemasons and citizens , and as willing and pleased

to be permitted to express its fellow sympathy with many on whom privation and trial , sickness and want , have laid a heavy and painful hand .

The Use Of Grand Representatives.

THE USE OF GRAND REPRESENTATIVES .

ONE of our Correspondents puts it in this way : " What is the nature of the office of Grand Representative ? What are the functions of the officer—if he is

an officer ? What are his powers , when and where does he exercise them ? Is he a minister plenipotentiary , a consul , or what ? And if ho has no powers , what ' s the use of such appointments ?"

We have seen these questions , perhaps not as tersely presented , in many reports on Correspondence and otherwise , and we propose now to answer all hands in a few sentences .

The system of Grand Representatives between Grand Lodges , Grand Chapters , Grand Commauderies , the National Bodies , et al , is of decidedly modern origin , for it

is within our personal recollection when it was not . Bufc it has gradually increased in favour until now it extends to all regular Grand Bodies throughout the habitable globe .

This brings us to the first question above stated , and the answer to it really covers the whole ground , namely , that it is to represent by an individual named with the concurrence of the Body from which the Representative

presents his credentials , and that to which he is accredited the assurance of mutual amity and esteem . Nothing more . The Representative has no powers or prerogatives except those of fraternal courtesy . As for instance , when at the

Annual Communication of the G . L . of New York , we are present , Louisiana presents through us as her Representative her kindest and most fraternal regards , andin like

, manner , New York , throngh her Representative in Louisiana sends loving Brotherly greeting to the Brethren of that jurisdiction . This and nothing more .

We are neither minister plenipotentiaries nor even Consuls , but only the representatives of that mutual good will and kindly feeling that ought to exist among Brethren bound in the indissoluble embrace of the mystic tie .