Royal National Life-Boat Institution.

and silver medal for models or drawings of a propelling power suitable for the self-righting boats of the Institution . Last year the Life-boats saved 601 lives and 33 vessels . Besides this , 160 lives were saved from shipwreck by shore-boats and other means , all of which servioes were rewarded by the Institution , making up a total

of 761 lives rescued during the year . Thirteen Silver Medals , 1 second service clasp , 32 binocular glasses , 35 votes of thanks on vellum , and £ 6 , 630 were granted by tho Committee in rewards and grants to widows and orphans of Life-boat men drowned on duty during the year . Altogether from its foundation the Institution has

voted 97 gold medals , 987 silver medals or silver clasps , 94 binocular g lasses , 15 telescopes , and £ 93 , 500 in cash , for saving 32 , 671 lives from shipwrecks on our coasts . The financial statement , which was produced at the meeting , has been audited and signed by Mr . Lovelock , chartered accountant : it furnishes full details of the items of receipt

and expenditure . The subscriptions , donations , dividends , & c , amounted during the past year to £ 43 , 014 , which sum included £ 9 , 116 in special gifts to defray expenses connected with varions Life-boat establishments . Several legacies were also received . The total expenditure for the past year was £ 47 , 066 . The gallant services

performed by the coxswains and crews of the Lite-boats were gratefully acknowledged , as well as the valuable assistance received from the Local Committees and their Honorary Secretaries , tho Coast Guard , aud the Press of the country . The Committee have decided , with the sanction of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen , the

Patroness of the Institution , to place on tho coast and maintain in perpetuity a Life-boat to be named the Queen Victoria . Iucreased help is more particularly needed at the present time , owing to the decision recently arrived at by the Committee , after many weeks ' careful inquiry and deliberation , to remove from the coast , with as

little delay as possible , all self-righting Life-boats which will not pass far more severe tests than were formerly considered necessary , and which are not provided with such of the latest improvements as they deem to be of the greatest importance . The cost of this work will

be very great , but the Committee are confident that in carrying it out they will not only meet with the full approval of the British Public , but will be supplied with the funds they so urgently solicit and require for the purpose .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Gorrespondents . All Letters must bear the name and address of the Writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

— : o : — THE BORROWING OF VOTES .

To the Editor of the FREEMASON s CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —Not long ago I saw in the FREEMASOIVS CHRONICLE an article which set forth that the borrowing or forestalling of votes was " to be deprecated in every possible way . " I fail tu see , however , how the borrowing , or rather the exchange , of votes is

always to be avoided ; and , seeing that all such transactions are entered upon in good faith , they must in the end be mutually advantageous . Supposing , for instance , a Province knew itself to be too weak in votes to enanre the snecess of its candidate , where is the harm in the system so frequently adopted of asking the assistance

of a neighbouring Province , and borrowing all the available votes for that particular election ? They would be repaid at the following contest , and probably with interest , on the principle that " one good turn deserves another . " The same rule would apply to individuals who choose to borrow and ' lend votes , so that I can scarcely follow

you in the opinion you expressed that the system is to be utterly condemned . There is , however , one matter in which I confess I am in somewhat of a fog , and perhaps you may be able , in your usually kind manner , to help me out of it . You are aware that at the approaching Eleotion of candidates to the Girls' School all who are on the list will be

admitted without a contest . This may be a very wise thing for the Executive to do—in order to mark their devotioa to the Queen , and to commemorate Her Majesty ' s Jnbilee year—but will it not seriously interfere with the holders of votes for the various Institntions ? For instance , taking my own as a particular case ; long before any one

knew , or thought of snch an arrangement , I borrowed a hundred Girls ' votes , on the promise of repayiug them by an eqnal number of Boys' votes , later on . But this decision of the Special Court upsets my apple-cart altogether . My Girls' votes are of no use to me . seeing that there is no contest ; but I suppose I shall be expected

to recoup tho brother from whom I borrowed the Boys' votes , and in the way agreed upon . You may argue that I ou ^ ht to be very well satisfied , inasmuch as the candidate in whom I was personally interested has been admitted to the bouefits of the Institution . So I personally am ; but the case might have been different . Suppose

there had been a contest this time , my votes would have come in very useful , and I should have felt bound , even more than I do under present circumstances , to return them . But let us also suppose the possibility of a " walk over" for the Boys' next time , the hundred votes would be of no value to the Brother from whom I borrowed

them , and I only should have benefited from the exchange . This seems to me likely to be the experience of a good many of us in the coming Election of the Girls' School , and I should be much obliged if you can point to any means whioh will tend to reduce our inconvenience and uncertainty to a minimum .

I reniaiu , Dear Sir and Brother , Yours fraternally , A LIFE SUBSCRIBER

Reviews.

REVIEWS .

All Books intended for Keview should be addressed to the Editor of The Freemason ' s Chronicle , Belvidere Works , Hermes Hill , Pentonville , London , ~ N .

— : o : — Freemasons' Manual for Kent , 1887 . Edited by Thomas Samuel Warne , Kochester , P . M . andP . Z . No . 20 , Prov . G . S . W . Kent , & o . IT is only to be expected that with snch a roll of Lodges and Masonio organisations as the Province of Kent possesses , the Calendar , or

rather " Manual , as the editor designates it , should be a somewhat more bulky form than are most of its companion works . In a book of some 160 pages , Bro . T . S . Warne ha 3 brought together a vast amount of information which is essential to the brethren of the Province , and the compilation is as complete , we should say , as it ia

possible to make one . After devoting sufficient space to the record of the Officers of the Grand Lodge of England , the Grand Stewards , the Board of General Purposes , the Colonial Board , and the Board of Benevolence , the names are given of the Officers of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Kent who were invested in Provincial Grand

Lodge held in July last , at Folkestone , under the presidency of Bro . the Earl of Amherst Prov . Grand Master . Then follows a roll of the fifty-fiva Lodges in the Province , with their dates and places of meeting ; months in which installations are held , and towns in Kent in which Lodges meet , with days

of meetings in each month . A record is kept of the Provinoia Grand Festivals that have taken place since the year 18601 and facing this is a list of the Provincial Grand Masters of Kent , dating from the year 1773 . The Lodges to which centenary warrants have been granted by Grand Lodge are enumerated . The

number of members subscribing to Kent Lodges is tabulated , reaching in the aggregate to 3 , 174 in 1886 , as against 2 , 857 in 1883 . Similar information is given respecting the Provincial Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter , giving the dates of the Festivala held nnder the present Grand Superintendent , Bro . Earl Amherst , the towns in

which Eoyal Arch Chapters are held , <& c . The bye-laws of the Provincial Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of Kent are printed in full , and abstracts of accounts are given relative to the various Masonio organisations in the county . There is a large amount of information also respecting the " higher" grades of Freemasonry ,

and Bro . W . J . Hughan contributes a few short notes on the Royal Kent Lodge of Antiquity , No . 20 , Chatham , which is the oldest in connection with any Provincial Grand Lodge , and is the tenth oldest Lodge in England . The little work is admirably compiled , and contains all that the brethren in the Province require to know from a local standpoint .

Dr . Frankin s Newspaper accounts of Freemasonry , 1730-l 7 o 0 . Edited by Clifford P . MacCalla . Philadelphia : Masonio Publishing Co . IN this little brochure has been collected a series of early news , puper accounts of Freemasonry in Pennsylvania , England , Ireland , and Scotland , which are reprinted from the Pennsylvania Gazette , with

illustrated comments by the editor . Dr . Benjamin Franklin , the author of the accounts , was mado a Mason in the St . John ' s Lodge , Philadelphia , in 1731 , and the Secretary's Ledger of that Lodge , discovered in 1884 , gives the records of Franklin's Lodge life from that Year until 1783 . Wa dfiiM say many of onr brethren have perused

the articles as they appeared from time to time in the pages or our contemporary , The Keys ' one , but Bro . MacCalla has done well to collate them into a handy book of reference , which is far more convenient than reading through the file of a Masonic journal , when

enquiry upon any point might be deemed necessary . The little work contains very interesting chapters aud anecdotes which will be hailed with cordiality by Masons on both sides of the Atlautic , and forms a welcome addition to our stock of Masonio literature .

Life of Colonel Daniel Cose , the Father of Freemasonry in America . By Clifford P . MacCalla . THE same remarks apply in reference to this work as to the above , so far as its general utility is concerned . There are , however , many , features of the life of Colonel Coxe which are of peculiar interest to

English Freemasons . It appears that Daniel Coxe , afterwards Colonel in command of all tho forces in West Jersey , Associate Justice of tho Sopreme Court of Now Jersey , and the Prov . Grand Master o ? Masons in the Province of New York , New Jersey , and Pormsvlvania , was born in London in 1673 , the date of his

baptism being registered in St . Botolph ' s Church , Aldersgate . He was the son of Dr . Daniel COXP , of London , the phys cian to King Charles II . and Queen Anne , unci from 1687 to i (! 91 the largest landed proprietor in , and the Governor of , the Province of West Jersey — " a man of large we » lth , gifted intellect , varied

acquirements and remarkable enterprise . " The story of the Coior . el s romantic marriage , aud his subsequent career , to thj latter portion ofwhicii Bro . H . Sadler has contributed much information , will bo read with interest , especially as it throws li ^ ht upon the history of the Craft in this country , and the pamphlet forms a companion work to Franklin ' s " Accounts * , " noticed above .

Ar00503

Ohjmpia . The Official Programme . THE management of this leviathan establishment at Kensington , which will i" futuro be known as the "National Agricultural Hall , " have recently issued a bulky shillingsworth , containing , in addition to the ordiuary programme of entertainments to be given there , several chapters of readable matter on a variety of subjects . In the opening pages is a concise and interesting account of " Olympic '