Extension Of Grand Lodge Honours.

EXTENSION OF GRAND LODGE HONOURS .

THERE are many brethren who feel that the Masonic honours -which fall to the share of the metropolis are greatly out of proportion to those enjoyed by Provincial brethren , and no doubt the remainder—or a largo proportion of them—would endorse this opinion if they

gave the matter full consideration . There can be no question that London is far behind the Provinces in regard to Masonic honours , while it is also badly off in regard to the Grand offices it is possible for its representatives to

secure , but the difficulty is to decide how this can bo remedied . We venture to think that any proposal to remove the inequality , which should appear practicable , and not entail too violent a departure from existing

arrangements , would receive sufficient support to ensure adoption , and this is the view entertained by many who are warmest in advocating an alteration ; they recognise the

difficulty which has to be overcome , and for that reason have to be content with things as they are . An oftrepeated argument in favour of this view is that London has Grand Lodge alone to look to for its honours , whereas

brethren outside the metropolitan area have their Provincial Grand Lodge first , and then Grpnd Lodge , from which to receive promotion , and it not infrequently happens that a large proportion of the bretL . annually

selected for Grand Lodgeoffi . ee have previoi . ; . _ , jceived high honour in their respective Provinces ; it is indeed usually an exemplification of the old principle that to those who have shall be given .

A few years since a proposition was made to form a Prov . Grand Lodge , or series of District Grand Lodges for London , wherein Metropolitan brethren might receive promotion in the same way as in the several Provinces and

Districts nnder the Grand Lodge of England , but the suggestion did not have any result , and things have gone on much as they were before . Another proposition was , that the office of Grand Treasurer should be made an

elective one , and that it should be filled year after year by a London Mason—chosen from the ranks—whose preferment would be recognized as some compensation for the absence of honours similar to those of the Provincial

Officers . Although the Grand Treasurership has become an elective office , it has also been made a cosmopolitan one , and therefore it can hardly be considered as any special compliment to London .

The case was very plainly put a few days since by Brother the Rev . R . J . Simpson P . G . C , who , in response to the toast of the Grand Officers , on the occasion of the consecration of the Derby Allcroft Lodge , expressed an

ardent hope that the honour conferred by the purple might ere long be given to a larger number than can at present possibly possess it . Bro . Simpson then pointed out that a very large increase had been made within the

last few years in the number of Masonic Lodges—they had doubled , he said , within the last forty years—but there had been no corresponding increase in the number of

appointments . He felt there was a very large number of Masons deserving of the highest honours for whom no appointments were available ; and this is the opinion of all who consider the matter . As we have said , the difficulty whioh has to be surmounted is , —that of finding a means of increasing the

Extension Of Grand Lodge Honours.

number of offices ; and although we cannot believe that to be an insurmountable obstacle , we know it is a difficult one to overcome . Would it not be possible to make more than one set of appointments each year ? that is , invest

one set of Officers at , say , the September Communication , and another at tho time of the present Grand Festival . If such an arrangement could be made ifc would at once throw open a number of appointments

each year , it would afford the means of honouring a number of deserving Masons , and it would be accepted as a happy solution of a difficult problem . No doubt there are other methods of overcoming the obstacle which will suggest

themselves to our readers . We shall be pleased to hear from any who may desire to make their views more generally known through the medium of our correspondence columns .

Royalty And Freemasony.

ROYALTY AND FREEMASONY .

IT is an old story tbat there is nothing new under the sun , and Masons would hardly look for any new ideas in association with the toast of the Queen and the Graft , which , as we are being so frequently reminded just'Kiow ,

has been regularly proposed day after day for close on fifty years . Yet one does occasionally hear a word or two which sounds fresh to even a well-seasoned visitor , and such has been our experience on two occasions during the

last few weeks . We do not desire to lay claim to anything like general knowledge of all that has been said in association with this time-honoured toast , but we feel we have a fair experience , acquired by continuous visits at various

Lodges during the past twelve years—a period which many will doubtless consider short ; still we are in a measure capable of recognising any departure from the beaten track followed in proposing Tho Queen .

The Queen , said the brother under consideration , has given unmistakable signs that her sympathies are with Freemasonry , and had the Order been thrown open so as to allow of the admission of ladies , she would have been

among the first to seek a participation in its mysteries . Another brother lately argued that , bearing in mind the relationship of her sons toward the Order , we might reasonably feel that Her Majesty had some idea that

Freemasonry had been of some use in raising her people to their present high position . We do not claim for these views that they are new—there is nothing absolutely new —but they possess a freshness which no doubt will be

appreciated by many of our readers , especially when wo have evidence day after day that the views thus enunciated are in accord witb the every-day life of our Queen and the every-day actions of her family . We have seen her sons ,

or all but one—and his absence we can fully appreciate — taking the liveliest interest in Freemasonry , and as soon as her grandson comes of age he follows in the same coarse , and gives us repeated evidence that Freeraasmry

is something more than a mere name . Only this week we have had an instance of the interest which Prince Albert Victor takes in the good old Institution—Freemasonry , and he has given us an additional proof that he may be

regarded as one likely to fill the void in the Craft so suddenly created by the death of his lamented uncle , the late Duke of Albany . On Wednesday H . R . H , Prince Albert Victor , who is at