Brother T. Massa And The Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

BROTHER T . MASSA AND THE ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR GIRLS .

IT was only last week we drew attention to tlie difference that has been so long pending between Brother S . B . Wilson and the Eoyal Masonic Institution for Boys . Now ,

both from papers we have received , and from the Notices of Motion which appeared in connection with the Quarterly General Oonrt to be held this day ( Saturday ) , in our Advertisement columns last week , it seems a difference

has arisen between the House Committee of the Girls ' School and Bro . Thomas Massa , who is still , or till quite recently was , Architect to the Institution . The gist of Bro . Massa ' s complaint , if we understand him aright , is , that the services of a builder had been called into request ,

m order to design and erect a staircase in the Infirmary ; whereas , when in 1871 Bro . Massa ' s designs for the Infirmary were accepted , ono of his plans marked D for a separate staircase , though not carried out , was retained by the Institution . From that period till recently , Bro . Massa

has been employed as Architect , and he very naturally feels aggrieved that after his plan had been accepted , and in consideration of his services as Architect , his right to superintend the direction of the staircase should have been overlooked in favour of an outside builder . He justly

concludes , that such treatment as this is a slur on his professional reputation , and is the more galling to a sensitive man from the fact , in the Ancient Charges it is enjoined as follows : — " None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother , nor supplant him , nor put him out of his

work , if he be capable to finish the same ; for no man can finish another ' s work so much to the lord ' s profit , unless he be thoroughly acquainted with the designs and draughts of him that began it . " But there is something worse still . Bro . Massa the Architect having been superseded in favour

of a builder , it turns out the builder ' s design was likely to be a disfigurement to the Infirmary , and the House Committee , instead of falling back on the approved services of Bro . Massa , it seems , are desirous of obtaining the services of a non-Freemason Architect ; of one , indeed , who is of

necessit y an utter stranger to the Craft , and who , as a matter of course , can have no especial claim upon their consideration . This course , it is needless to say , has not tended to improve the relations between the House Committee and Bro . Massa , whose designs for the Infirmary

were accepted in 1871 , who personally superintended the carrying out of those designs so far as the Committee ordered them to be carried out , who , in the time that has since elapsed , has acted in a professional character in connection with the other additions that have been made

to the Schools , is now overlooked altogether and his claims to be employed ignored entirely . We can very well understand that , in the circumstances we have described , atiy one occupying a similar position would have sound reasons for feeling himself most seriouslaggrievedBro

y . . Massa tells us he was eleven years with the late Brother »¦ Barton "Wilson , and for the nine years that have elapsed since 1871 , when his designs for the Infirmary were accepted in preference to those of the other competing Architects

, he has rendered much valuable assistance to the Institution for Girls in his professional capacity . He 3 S °° w overlooked , and the Committee having tried a builder jWcl found him wanting , consider it is not derogatory to themselves or the Craft generally , to solicit the services of a uon . Freemason .

Brother T. Massa And The Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

This , as far as we can explain it , is the statement in full detail of the difference which has unfortunately arisen between the House Committee of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls of the one part , and Bro . Massa of the other . We are far from saying that it is a matter of the same

serious proportions as the quarrel between the House Committee of the Boys' School and Bro . Wilson ; nor do wo think that Bro . Massa , whom , for the sake of convenience we will style the plaintiff , has conducted his side of : the case , as Bro . Wilson has clone , with a full sense of the

respect that was due , not to himself only , but to the Committee likewise , who may be noted down as the defendant party . Bro . Massa ' s letter of the 23 rd ultimo , which was read out at the last meeting of the General Committee ,

cannot possibly have enhanced the sympathy with him in his present difficulty of those who heard it . Nothing could possibly have been in worse taste than to have mixed up the Lodge of Antiquity , the Editor of the Freemason , and the late Grand Treasurer with a difference of the character

we have described . Nothing whatever is gained by introducing extraneous matter , or suggesting that certain people have adopted a certain course of conduct , when there would be a serious difficulty , if not an absolute impossibility , in proving it . But if Bro . Massa has been so

unwise as to weaken his own case by writing ill-advised letters , it does not alter the circumstances of the dispute , and it strikes us the House Committee are under the impression that all they have to do is to lay down the law , and the rest of the Craft must bow down and accept it .

We are far from saying that a Committee has no right to an opinion , but it should have some respect for persons , and especially for those who have clone good suit and service to Masonry . We do not want too much of the commercial spirit in the conduct of our Masonic Institutions .

If Bro . Massa has worthily done his duty as architect to the Girls' School , then the House Committee have not the shadow of a reason for seeking the assistance of some other member of the profession . Nor have we any desire to see the government of any one of our Institutions

conducted in the spirit in which it would be administered by a martinet drill-sergeant . Masons profess to have about them some degree of enlightenment , some little kindliness of spirit , and something which may be set down as a spirit of thankfulness for past services . We shall begin to think

that Masonry must be undergoing some change , when we find the House Committee of the Boys' School declining to accept its architect ' s charges , or his offer to submit those charges to arbitration , and that of the Girls' School superseding its architect—Bro . Massa tells us his appointment

as Surveyor to the Infirmary is in writing—in so paltry a matter as the erection of a separate staircase , without condescending to assign any reason for so doing . If the Demon of Discord must of necessity make his appearance occasionally in our Lodges , let us keep him from entering within the sacred precincts of our Charitable Institutions .

Prince Leopold Lodge of Instruction , No . 1445 , formerly held on each Monday , at the Mitford Tavern , Sandringham-road , Dalston , has been removed to the Moorgate

Hotel , Finsbury-pavement , B . C . The first meeting there will be held on Wednesday next , at 7 o ' clock sharp Meetings will be held each YVednesday from 7 to 9 p . m ., under the Preceptorship of Bro . W . H . Myers P . M . 820 and 1445 .