This Day's Meeting Of The Subscribers To The Girls' School.

THIS DAY'S MEETING OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE GIRLS' SCHOOL .

THE brethren will observe with much interest tho proceedings at the General Committee meeting of the Eoyal Masonic Institution for Girls , on the 80 th ultimo . It must be gratifying to the whole Craft that the House Committee have in such a short space of time turned their now

purchase to account , by rendering the late Lyncombc House capable of adding twenty-five more girls to the muster-roll of the School . Considering that it is not six months since that the purchase was completed , and that the alterations were , comparatively speaking , extensive , the Committee may

be credited with great activity in endeavouring to relieve the Order of the reproach of having a large number of needy applicants ineffectually clamouring for relief . Now at least that reproach is rolled away , and there will be only twelve candidates out of a list of fifty-four who cannot be

admitted . We trust that there may never again be as long a list of . candidates , and if the motion of which Dr . Eamsay has given notice for the meeting to-day should be carried , a salutary check will be placed to the wholesale crowding of petitioners round the doors of the Institution . We

mention that motion out of its order , as it directly bears on the initial step of placing children on the list of the two Schools . Dr . Ramsay proposes that before a girl should be placed on the list , she must " have a certificate from a clergyman in orders or a certificated teacher that

she can read and write English , and work the first four rules in Arithmetic . " It must be remembered that the Masonic Schools are not infant schools , and that some amount of education , deserving of the name of education , should be possessed by a candidate for the benefits of

either of them . If a brother , the father of the candidate , has been so poor or so neglectful as not to afford his child that advantage , he certainly is a man who ought " not to have been admitted to the Craft , and there are really too many of these at the present day . We look on Dr .

Ramsay ' s motion as a healthful sign , and that the brethren are beginning to wake up to a sense of their true mission . The meeting of last week has also other claims to being long remembered . When the purchase of Lyncombe House was mooted , Colonel Creaton stated that the invested funds would not have to be touched to

provide the £ 6 , 500 purchase-money , or the money required for the repairs . The truth of this statement was verified at this meeting by a resolution being carried to

invest £ 500 in consols , the finances on running account , after all liabilities had been discharged , admitting of that investment . In that respect also the managers of the Institution are entitled to the warmest thanks of the

brethren , and we can but hope that in their future careei they will equally merit approval . Bro . B . C . Mather ' s motion , to raise the maximum amount from £ 20 to £ 40 ,

which the Committee may give towards the advancement of a deserving girl on leaving the Institution , no doubt has many merits , and will probably be freely discussed to-day . If the Committee continue to conduct their business in so

praiseworthy a manner as that which wc have above alluded to , tbe gift of the larger amount may as safel y be left in their hands as the smaller , and we should be sorry indeed to throw any obstacle in the way of an

exceptionally talented girl making her mark in the world , and so reflecting honour on the Institution in which she was educated . The motion of Bro . Mather is ono of the results of the agitation induced by the Masonic Pupils' Assistance

This Day's Meeting Of The Subscribers To The Girls' School.

Fund . We do not look with much approval on Bro . A . H . Tattershall ' s motion . We strongly object to close boroughs , and we do not see why any Institution should depend for its proper management on a few persons who may never bo changed . We approve of new blood being

introduced on Committees , not of entire revolution and sweeping away a wholo Committee . Let new members occasionally be put on , and let them be such that no section of the Craft may say it has no voice in the management of tho affairs of the Institution . Tho Committees

must not be so composed that its members will blindly follow the opinion of one man or of a few men , and at every election it must be a trial of strength between the various sections of the widely-extending Order . Brother

Tattershall ' s motion will scarcely convince the brethren that the object of all will be achieved , although no doubt its honest aim is that the House Committee shall not be mule up of men raw to their work , who would certainly , though unintentionally , materially damage the prosperity of the Institution .

Candidates For The Schools.

CANDIDATES FOR THE SCHOOLS .

THAT the remarks we have lately felt justified in making concerning candidates for the benefits of the Masonic Schools should have been allowed to pass unnoticed is very far from what we expected . Nor has such been the case , as will be seen from a reference to other parts of this week ' s issue , wherein we publish letters we have received

upon the subject . We have , from time to time , pointed out some of the difficulties which present themselves to the seai'cher for an unbiassed opinion on the merits of the respective candidates who are put forward to take part in our School elections , and have expressed ourselves as

reluctant to publish to the world any statement of facts we may become possessed of , lest , on further inquiry , they may prove either exaggerated , incorrect , or it may be entirely untrue . Still , we feel that we have a duty to perform , and however obnoxious may be tho tasks we are occasionally

called upon to fulfil in the execution of that duty , it has ever been our desire to face them fearlessly , but above all to act with the strictest impartiality . Whatever we may have done or said in the course of our editorial career , we think we have the credit of having acted fairly in every

matter that has come under our notice , and not unfrequently have we had the satisfaction of learning that our intervention has been the means of uniting those between whom differences of opinion had caused a break in the friendship and good feeling which should characterise

Freemasons . We say we have the reputation of acting fairly , and we assure our readers this has not been obtained without a great amount of anxious care on our part ; and as—to a very great extent—we owe our success to that reputation , we shall still use every effort in our power to

maintain and uphold it . The task we have lately set ourselves to accomplish is one of the most difficult we have yet approached , and it is only by the' co-operation and support of the subscribers to the Institutions that we can hope that success will attend ns . We have stated , and

to-day repeat , that either through bad management , insufficient restrictions , or from unworthy motives , candidates for our Schools are approved , and even elected , whose friends aro in a far better position to maintain them than are very many of the subscribers to the Schools themselves . While such a state of things exists , we shall