The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

which the applicants number upwards of five for each two vacancies ; while , as regards the Female branch , the proportion is over nine for two vacancies . We do not think any good would result from even a brief outline of the past history of the several candidates appearing in our pages , as

each of the voters has been supplied with particulars , and most are by this time acquainted with tho position of the applicant they intend to support . We cannot individualise any case concerning which further particulars are needed , nor do we feel justified in selecting any one as calling

for universal support ; each must depend on personal friends . We trust , however , at the head of the poll will be found those who are truly the most deserving . We echo the regret of very many brethren when we say we are sorry an election is necessary , but until the annual

income is very much increased , or the number of calls for assistance very much reduced , these annual contests will be necessary , and so long as they continue there will always remain a great amount of hard work for those who seek a participation in the benefits provided by the Institution .

The business to be transacted at the Annual General Meeting of the Institution , which is held previous to the Election , is of the usual routine character , with the addition , on this occasion , of a feature which will doubtless receive every consideration . This feature takes the form of a

proposition b y Bro . Charles Lacey ( V . P . ) , P . M . 174 , to reduce the limit of income disqualifying applicants , and also the amount of the annual annuities . Tbe proposed alterations are as follows . In Law 2 , ( Male Fund ) page 22 of the Rules and Regulations , which reads

II . No Brother having ati income of £ 40 per annum , or who is otherwise in a situation to provide for himself , shall be admitted to the benefits of the Institution . to substitute £ 30 in lieu of £ 40 . In Law 4 ( Male Fund ) page 22 , which reads

IV . The amount of the annuity shall be £ 40 per annum , to substitute £ 32 10 s in lieu of £ 40 . In Law 2 ( Widows' Fund ) page 23 , which reads II . No Widow having an income of £ 30 per annum , or who is otherwise in a situation to provide for herself , shall be admitted to the benefits of the Fund .

to substitute £ 24 in lieu of £ 30 , and In Law 4 ( Widows' Fund ) page 24 , which reads IV . The amount of the annuity shall be £ 32 per annum . to substitute £ 26 in lieu of £ 32 . By this it will be seen that the idea of Bro . Lacey is to

reduce the actual outlay of the Institution as regards individual recipients for the purpose , as he states , of allowing a larger number to be benefitted without a greater expenditure of money than is at present possible . This is

a matter that requires , and it will undoubtedly receive , full consideration , and we are convinced will be approached in that spirit of calm deliberation which should at all times characterise our assemblies .

United Grand Lodge.

UNITED GRAND LODGE .

A SPECIAL Grand Lodge was held on Wednesday , at the Fitzwilliam Hall , Peterborough , for the purpose of laying , in Masonic form , the chief corner-stone of the central tower of Peterborough Cathedral . After the Grand Lodge had been opened , it was adjourned to the Cathedral ,

where the ceremony of laying the stone was performed by the Earl of Carnarvon Pro Grand Master , in the presence of a large number of Masons of the Province of Northampton and Huntingdon , and the neighbouring Provinces

of Lincoln , Norfolk , Suffolk , and Cambridge . Lord Holmesdale , Lord Cremorne , the Lord Mayor , Col . Shad well Clerke , Captain Philips , H . B . Marshall , and most of the Grand Officers of the year were in attendance . The stone

was laid with all the ceremonial usually observed on these occasions , and in the afternoon a luncheon was served . The Bishop of Peterborough proposed the health of the Earl of Carnarvon , who was present that day as the

representative of the Most Worshipfnl Grand Master , who , in consequence of that family and national affliction which all deplored , was unable to be present .

The Earl of Carnarvon in reply said he felt greatly the honour of the cordial welcome that they had been p leased to give him . If he might say so , he felt that it was a delig ht that those words of welcome should have been made to him

United Grand Lodge.

by one whom he honoui'ed and prized so highly aa the ri ght reverend prelate who presided over that diocese . When he listened to him he felt , at least , the satis , faction that the illness from whioh he had been so mercifully raised up had taken nothing from him

of his old eloquence , of his old wit , and of his personal kindness . His first duty that day in the few remarks he had to offer was to discharge the commands of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , and to express for him his deep regret that in consequence of that great family

bereavement to which allusion had been made he could not be present that day . He had deputed him to attend , and so far as the shadow could do duty for the substance he had endeavoured to fulfil the task which the Grand Master himself should havo executed . The Bishop of Peterborough

had given so minute a history and so accurate a description of all that concerned Freemasons , and of all that went on within the secret Lodge , that he had deprived him of one * half of the speech which he had otherwise intended to have made to them . The Bishop had done , he humbly thought ,

only justice to the Craft ; but there was also another point of view to which the Bishop did not advert . There was a connection , and the closest connection , between the work which the Freemasons had done that day and their Craft . Freemasonry was no new art or profession . Those cathedrals

to which the Bishop had alluded had in by-gone ages owed mnch to the chisel , mallet , compass , and square of the Freemason . During the Middle Ages all throngh Europe , from end to end of the great Continent , they might trace the footsteps of Freemasonry . They could read their eloquent

and artistic record in the face of the great cathedrals , and in the foliage of the windows , in the delicate carving of the buildings , in the capitals of the columns , they might trace alike their history and their work . They numbered amongst their ranks in former

times many Royal personages , and if the Prince of Wales had been present that day he would have simply dia . charged a duty which in former times many of his Royal predecessors might have executed . It was impossible for any one like himself to take part in that ceremony and not

to recall as he gazed upwards upon the architecture of that cathedral some of its earl y history . It was impossible not to think how , in the earliest days , the Peterboroug h Minster rose on the edge of the Fens ; how subsequently it grew through all the dull period of the Saxon times till he

believed it acquired the name of the " Golden Borough . " It was impossible not to think that it went on growing steadily through those rugged but noble times which made England as we know it now . And now there came the restoration of that building . Times were very much

changed . Our Saxon and Norman ancestors built that cathedral , bnt still the same instincts were there , and the character of the country and the people are still the same . He thought , as he looked upon the architecture of that building , that in the consolidation and combination of all

the different styles , the early Norman , the early English , and the perpendicular , each fusing with a certain harmony into each other , there was , as it were , a type of our English history and society . Those times had gone by , and the days in which we lived were very different .

Some would tell them , indeed , that we were travelling on towards the ignoble gulf in which all that past was to be lost and forgotten . Others would tell them , and he thought more truly , that they were passing though an important phase , such as we had passed through before ,

in which , as he firmly trusted , the true instincts of the English people would prevail , and would remember the great past of England , and that possibly a still greater future was at band . That was the true spirit in which , he believed , they were called upon to face the period in which we lived , and in that spirit he could not doubt of a successful issue .

Emergency Meeting Of G. Mark Lodge.

EMERGENCY MEETING OF G . MARK LODGE .

WE last week briefly referred to the emergency meeting of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons , which was held on the 25 th ult ., for the purpose of adopting addresses of condolence to the Queen , the Prince of Wales ,

ancl the Duchess of Albany , on the death of H . R . H . the late Duke of Albany . The M . W . Grand M . M . M . Lord Henniker in addressing the brethren , after the formal opening of the Grand Lodge , said he had considered it his duty to call the