The Province Of Norfolk

interests of our great Masonic Institutions . We know , and onr brethren know likewise , that many of our Provinces are very liberal in the assistance they render to their Charities . They and we are also aware that some Provinces are verv backward in satisfying the claims which these same

charities have npon their support . We shall not specify thost included in the latter class , for it is no part of our duty , noi have we the slightest wish to inflict pain . Mens conscia rei infectce , —the consciousness of ' an unfulfilled duty is burden enough to bear without addino * to its weiVht

But it strikes us it would bo miserably churlish in us if wo did not draw attention to the singular magnanimity of our Norfolk brethren in publicly acknowledging their shortcomings . The state ment that Norfolk did not contribute as liberally as she

was bound to do , and as the wealth of her members enabled her to do , was made deliberately in Provincial Grand Lodge assembled . It was no hasty announcement , educed by a passing fit of remorse , but an honest , open acknowledgment , that the cause of charity had not been properly

supported , that more assistance might be given to our three Institutions , and that moro assistance must be given them . This handsome recognition in public of a duty omitted in the past is an amende honorable it is not often our good fortune to remark , and therefore it is that we lay this great

stress upon the incident . But to pass to tho Norfolk Charities' Committee and its organisation . The subject was introduced at a very early period of the meeting by Bro . Colonel Duff , M . P ., P . G . S . W ., who said there was a wide-spread feeling throughout the Province that the

support accorded to our Masonic Charities was wholl y inadequate . There were present those who would , with the sanction of the Provincial Grand Master , bring the matter before the notice of the brethren . Lord Suffield at once expressed his wish that the question should be fully

considered , and Bro . H . J . Martyn , of Perseverance , No . 213 , forthwith laid the figures and facts of the case before Provincial Grand Lodge , showing' what the contributions from Norfolk to the several Masonic Charities had been during the past three years , and what benefits the Province were

receiving from them . The Province had contributed about £ 100 annually to the three together . On the other hand , there were in the Boys' School four Norfolk boys , in the Girls' School one Norfolk girl , and on the Benevolent Fund three male annuitants from Norfolk , receiving each £ 40

per annum , or , in the aggregate , £ 120 , and the widows of two others receiving together £ 64 per annum ; Thus , in return for the annual contribution of £ 100 , the Province benefitted to the extent of about £ 400 , and Bro . Martyn argued very justly that Norfolk , instead of being a pillar

of support , was , in truth , a burden upon our Charities . We wish all our Provinces regarded these things as clearly and precisely as Bro . Martyn , but , unfortunately , all brethren aro not blessed with equal perceptive power . Be this as it may , the truth thus deliberately enunciated is not to be

explained away by any known process of argument . There it stands out clearly in the light of day . Norfolk has been unintentionally , but none the less actually , a burden upon our Institutions instead of a support , ancl it repenteth Norfolk of this wrongful interchange of places between itself

and them . Nor is this a mere verbal or ephemeral repentance to which the Province ! is now in all sincerity devoting itself . The brethren have girded up their loins . They have resolved henceforth on doing battle , both manfully and Masonically , in support of the sacred cause of

Charity . To this end they have organised a Committee of the whole Province . Every Lodge will be represented and there will be , in addition , a President , Vice-President , Treasurer , and Secretary elected annually . It will be the

business of this Committee to take charge of and promote Masonic Benevolence in the Province , to aid the Charities , and to investigate all real claims and applications for relief . No one , of course , has ever doubted that our brethren of Norfolk were as benevolent as the brethren of other

Provinces , fsow , however , they will shine by the beneficence of their acts as well as by their benevolence . They will figure henceforth—and no doubt conspicuously in proportion to their ability—in the category of active supporters of three of the noblest Institutions ever devised of man .

Nor does this Committee , with its well regulated task already marked out for it , represent the full extent of what Norfolk intends doing . Bro . Baldwin has propounded a scheme not unlike some of those which our worthy Bro . Constable has again and again set going for establishing a Norfolk Masonic Charitable Association , whose object

The Province Of Norfolk

will be to obtain , if possible , from every brother in the Province , the small weekly subscription of one shilling , so that each contributor will , in course of time , become possessed of a Life Governorship in one or other of our three Charities . By payment of four shillings weekly he will

naturally in time become Life Governor of all three . Five shillings paid weekly will entitle him to the benefits of a Vice-Presidency in one or other of them . The term of this Association will extend over four years and then , of course , it will bo time to repeat the experiment in ample form .

We shall add only a few lines to the foregoing remarks . We desire our readers to think chiefly of Norfolk and its well devised schemes of beneficence . But let them endeavour to realise the product of a shilling per week spread

over a wide surface . Twenty thousand contributors of this modest sum weekly will raise amongst them in one year £ 52 , 000 , or about enough for the present needs of our three Institutions . Is this beyond the ability of the Craft ?

Jewish Masonic Disabilities

JEWISH MASONIC DISABILITIES

OUR readers will notice elsewhere in our columns a copy of a petition it is proposed , at the instance of the Montefiore Lodge , No . 1017 , to submit to Grand Lodge , with a view to bring immediately under the cognisance of that august assembly the exclusion of members of the Jewish faith from certain German Lodges . We are always

prepared—we feel , indeed , that it is our duty to meet our German brethren on all occasions with feelings of lovingkindness , to greet them well and heartily , and to act towards them in all things as we would they should act towards us ; but bearance—if we may use the word—and

forbearance have their limits . We may do our duty religiously towards others , but we have a right to expect that others will fulfil their duty towards ourselves . We have no right , from any misplaced sense of weakmindedness , to make ourselves participes enminis , because they are

guilty of a dereliction of Masonic duty , more or less serious . It is beyond all doubt that in some parts of Germany , and notably in Prussia , Jews who seek admission into our ranks are refused all participation in the benefits of Freemasonry ; not because they are unfit , socially or morally , but because these German Lodges are untrue to the instincts of our

Craft , and will only receive into the fold of Freemasonry those who believe in Christ . These difficulties have not arisen for the first time in the history of our Craft in Germany . It is but little more than thirty years since that the same unfortunate departure from true Masonry was

brought under the notice of our Grand Lodge . It was in the Grand Mastership of the late Earl of Zetland , and we believe in the year 1846 , that representations were made to his Lordship to the effect that an English Brother , after having been admitted into a Berlin Lod ge , had been

requested to withdraw when it was discovered that in his religious belief he was a Jew . It was further represented at the same time that two other English brethren , though fortified with their Grand Lodge certificates , had been refused admission on the ground of . their religious faith . This exclusiveness in the conduct of Prussian Freemasons

attracted general attention at the time , and was almost universally condemned by the Grand bodies in other countries . Here , in England , the Grand Master instructed the Grand Secretary to require of the Prussian Grand Lodges to receive aud acknowledge all certificates granted

by the United Grand Lodge of England without regard to the religious faith of those who presented them . The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Royal York of Friendship stated , in reply , that for forty years none but Christian brethren had been admitted into the Lodges under its

jurisdiction , or under that of the other Berlin Grand Lodges ; that no complaint had been made till the year 1838 , since when the question of admitting Jewish brethren had been again and again agitated , and it had been settled to admit them by all but the Prussian Masons . Bnt nothing

was said in answer to the request of our Grand Master that all diplomas issued by the Grand Lodge over which he presided should be recognised , irrespective of the religious faith of the brother to whom it had been granted . Under

these circumstances , the Grand Master protested against the refusal , and recalled Bro . Chevalier Esser from his post of representative of the United Grand Lodge of England at the Grand Lodge Eoyal York of Friendship . At the same