The Benevolent Institution And Grand Lodge.

THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION AND GRAND LODGE .

IT will be remembered that some three months since a proposition was submitted to Grand Lodge , by Bro . Kaynham W . Stewart P . G . D ., to increase the grant made

to the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and Widows of Freemasons by an addition of £ 800 per annum . At the time this proposal was before the Craft we took occasion to refer to what the R . M . B . I .

had done m the past , and what it was doing in the present ; how that it -was really the means of considerably lessening the claims made on the Fund of Benevolence , and how , in return for votes sent to every Lodge in the

kingdom ( now far in excess of the number at the time the last grant was made ) , it was fairly entitled to some addition being made to the grant it receives from Grand Lodge . These and similar considerations had their weight

with the brethren present at the December Communication of Grand Lodge , at which the proposal was submitted , and the vote was agreed to , not by a small majority at a thinly-attended meeting , but by the unmistakable voice of a fairly representative assembly of brethren . In due

course the proposition came on for confirmation at the ¦ Communication on Wednesday last , and with the result that so much of the minutes as referred to it were rejected , it being then decided , we may say unanimously , that a Committee should prepare a statement of the income and

expenditure of Grand Lodge , in order that the Craft might be ablo to decide , before it became too late , whether it had acted judiciously or otherwise in passing a vote entailing so heavy an additional outlay as £ 800 per annum . For onr part we think the inquiry can have but one result ,

and that will be favourable to the Benevolent Institution . We do not approve of Grand Lodge rushing headlong into ; expenses beyond its means , but to say that it cannot afford : Wns additional vote of £ 800 per annum is simply absurd . I . Had the brethren present on Wednesday heard the

acl counts of Grand Lodge more fully detailed , we do not t . "' ^ ere would have been found many to vote on behalf I of -pro . Philbrick ' s motion for non-confirmation . i . It may be as well to review what actually took place . brother Philbrick , immediately on the reading of the

j , minutes of the December meeting , asked permission to in-| quire of Grand Secretary the amount of the funds at the comman d of Grand Lodge , and being answered to the ^ eftect that the sum referred to amounted to about £ 15 , 000 , I J > e proceeded formally to move the non-confirmation of

I * at portion of the minutes relating to the grant in questIQ n . He could but think that before Grand Lodge made I , jKklition to its expenditure of £ 800 per annum the I rethren shonld know what was the income of Grand I , » - what its funds , how thnsn fnuds -WPVP . invested , and

f . Y \ ! ^ permanent source of revenue , so that they i ( . lght kn ° w whether , in the present position of the Craft , I i , a matter of prudence and propriety to make such a I St srant ' . An vei 7 wel 1 s 0 far ; and had Bro - Philbrick -thiTiw ' i ! ^' rase ^ with arguments of this character , we he r , " ' * have served his purpose equally well ; but d r P loc « ecIed to explain to the brethren how the finances | ; r and Lodge really stood—or rather he referred to just

« o much of them as served to support his view of the question , entirely ignoring , as Bro . Stewart remarked later on , several items with which he must have been fully acquainted . The income derived , he said , from tho invested funds of £ 15 , 000 or £ 16 , 000 would amount to something like £ 500

a year ; but we would remind Bro . Philbrick that Grand Lod

at the December meeting believed that tho state of the funds was very different from what tho Grand Secretary had just stated . How , he asked , could they , a body ot Masons who charged every initiate entering tho body to

let prudence direct his steps , not only give away more than the actual income of the property of the fund , but also pledge and mortgage future income , drawing as it were a bill upon the future ? On the old principle that all is fair

in love or war , we imagine Bro . Philbrick felt himself justified in representing the case as he did ; but we Avould ask our readers , and particularly those who are interested in the question of Grand Lodge support to our Institutions , to examine for

themselves , and judge how far they havo been led away on the present occasion . As it may be difficult even for those who desire to do so to refer to tho accounts of the Fund of General Purposes of Grand Lodge , we have prepared a summary of the last eight quarterly statements , from which it will be seen that Grand Lodge , so far from

being anything like poor , has accumulated no less a sum than £ 8 , 383 18 s 6 d on this account during the past twe years , and yot brethren are scared by tho assertion thai the invested capital of the Fund of General Purposes ol

Grand Lodge produces but £ 500 a year . The actua ! amount , according to these accounts , invested in Government Stock is £ 11 , 150 , besides which there has been invested , during tho last two years , £ 8 , 750 in the purchase of freehold property , and £ 2 , 300 in the erection of

additional premises , all of which should yield as large a rate of interest as money invested in the Funds . But we think it is of little use to say much now in reference to the summary wo give ; we simply ask our readers to study it , them that at distant date shall take

assuring no very we the opportunity of again referring to the question . [ For Table , see next page . ]

Application has been -made to the Secretary of State for War , for a site for a building for the accommodation of the Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar Lodge , No . 1903 . A memorial , containing the grounds on which Mr . Childors is appealed to , haa been signed by Commander Lord Charles Beresford , who , although the requirements of his profession havo compelled him to leave England , takes a lively

interest in the progress of this young but flourishing Lodge , which , though only a few months old , has a hundred members on its role . The site applied for is at the Edinburgh-road end of Alfred-road , opposite the Roman Catholic Church . The memorial has been forwarded throngh H . S . H . Prince Ed ward of Saxe-Weimar . At tho

next monthly meeting , Bro . H . R . H . Prince Leopold Dnke of Albany ( who was recently presented by the members of this Lodge with an address of congratulation on his approaching marriage ) is to bo balloted for as an honorary member . H . R . H . having been proposed by Bro . H . W . Townsend the acting WM ., and seconded by Bro . E . Page S . W . —Portsmouth Times .

The Benevolent Institution And Grand Lodge.

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