The Anacalypsis Of Godfrey Higgins.

of England , all foreign Lodges constituted under English auspices , hailing from London , so that London Bite is what they follow , " conclude the first portion of this most interesting paper . The remainder we shall sketch next week .

Masonic Portraits (No. 15.) A Merchant Prince.

MASONIC PORTRAITS ( No . 15 . ) A MERCHANT PRINCE .

" Our heroes are of nobler stuff ; They tunnel the mountains , and bridge the seas ; Delve in the earth , and , from her massy ribs ,

Wrench out the shining ore ; they spin , and weave , And clothe the world ; send stately ships across The deep , and from torrid , or from frigid climo Bring back great store of treasure . "

MR . RUSKIN , and men of his school , have preferred some serious charges against the tendency of society of the present day , which have scarcely merited the attention they have received . The great art critic tells us , in passionate language , that , in the pursuit of wealth , we are forgetting everything that is beautiful and true ; that we

are turning England into a huge factory , the workshop of the world , and while the population has increased , the people have become brntalised by ignorance or degraded into machines . Mr . Ruskin , of coarse , sees but one side of our social life , and in his passion for aesthetics he is content

to ignore the daily wants and wishes of humanity . Art , indeed , is necessary for the development of a health y national life , but bread is one of the first necessaries of existence . The people must live , although Mr . Ruskin may not see necessity for their existence . He who

paints great pictures is , cceteris paribus , as much a teacher as he who drills a crowd of children in a school . Man does not live by bread alone , nor does he live by art , and perhaps the enterprising capitalist who sinks a mine or opens a factory is a greater benefactor of his species

than Leonardo or Turner . The man must be well clothed and fed before he thinks of gratifying the longing of the eye , and art can only flourish in a state of societ y where there is a leisurely class with more than enough of this world ' s goods to spare . The English capitalists are a

much abused class , but it is to their enterprise that we mainly owe our proud rank amongst the nations . They have bridged the Atlantic with lines of vast mail steamers . Their ships cover every sea , and the meteor flag of England is at this moment floating in the breeze in

every port in the world . The silly people who , in their mad rage for art , are ready to declaim against the triumphs of modern civilisation , care little for the comforts of the common people . What is it to them that the masses , so far as mere physical comforts and enjoyments are concerned ,

are in the position which was occupied by the middle classes two centuries since . What is it to them if the houses of the middle classes are furnished more luxuriousl y , if not more elegantly than the mansions of the nobles of the time of Elizabeth . A man who has a craze about art would

probably sacrifice much if he could roll back the tide of civilisation or inspire his countrymen with those instinctive ideas of the beautiful which were the common property of the poorest of the Greeks . We should be the last to decry art , but we do not forget that the necessaries of life

are more essential than a few yards of painted canvas , or a few cubic feet of chiselled marble . The great deficiency of the English mind is familiar enough to us , but we still hope the day may come when our countrymen will learn how to combine the beautiful and the useful in due and

propeiproportions . Some of us may live to see railway bridges that are not absolutely hideous , and public monuments that are not absolutely grotesque . But we are a practical people , and our greatness is unique of its kind . Carthage , and its parent , Tyre , pale before our commercial

activity and our naval strength . The vices of a commercial community are indeed ours , but no one can reproach us , as the ancient world did Carthage , for mendacity . Punic faith was a bye word with the Greeks and Romans , but the word of an Englishman is still respected , and his bond is still an equivalent for gold .

Here , for example , is a great merchant prince , who has done more to aid on the material prosperity of hiicountry , than a host of the superfine critics who talk moonshine in the guise of wisdom . He is one of those

Masonic Portraits (No. 15.) A Merchant Prince.

giants of capital whose greatness far surpasses that of any feudal lord . His mines afford employment for an army of toilers . His foundries are the centre of animated industry ; and he pays each week of his life a sum , in wages alone , which would liave eroue-far to furnish an outfit for the

enthusiasts who marched to the first crusade . Our great art critic , doubtless , regards such a man as the enemy of the principles he seeks to inculcate , but he is nevertheless a merchant prince in the truest acceptation of the term , and has not in all his great enterprises sought alone his

own personal advantages . Mere profit has not been his only object in life . In times of depression he has kept hia works going at great loss to himself , and has cared little for the account on the wrong side of the ledger . To give

bread without pauperising the community—this is the problem which has puzzled the wisest—but he has solved it often enough , while seeming to do only his duty . And yet our merchant prince is no friend of that great Manchester school which has claimed for itself the credit

for all the good works which have benefited the people . He was born in 1830 , and educated at Winchester College In politics he is a Conservative ; although , socially , he is most liberal , aud he has sat in Parliament as member for Truro since 1865 . He is the second baronet of a family which is

perhaps more highly respected for its personal worth than for its great possessions , or its high social position . He is a man of mark in the West of England , respected and loved by all who know him ; he is one of the best-hearted and truest of Masons , and second to none in his

appreciation of the princip les and objects of the Fraternity . He was initiated , January 1863 , in Lodge No . 331 , and is a member of Lodges 10 and 1159 , London , D . P . G . M . Cornwall , a representative of the G . O . of Portugal , and P . G . M . of the Mark Lodge for Cornwall . He has been a bountiful

friend of the Charities , and his princely liberality in this respect has placed him in the front rank of the Order . He is the largest contributor to the Cornwall Masonic Annuity Fund , and his purse-strings are always relaxed when cash is wanted for any special purpose . On his installation as

the first Provincial Grand Mark Master , he presented the district with some magnificent jewels , which are highly prized by the brotherhood . But our brother is valued not alone for his princely contributions and for his zeal as a Mason , but for the high personal qualities which shine

resplendent in his character . Socially he is everything that could be desired , and politically he is no mere partizan , but possesses that rarest of all gifts—a judicial mind . He readily sees good in the side which is not his own ; he can place himself in the stand point of his political opponents ,

and is no mere upholder of institutions which have no other claim to consideration but their antiquity . He is indeed a conservative of that type which , to our thinking ,

is one of the outcomes of recent social and political changes ; a reformer , where reform is really needed , but no mere clap-trap tribune of the people . He would scorn to mount to fame and distinction on the shoulders of the

masses , and he is not the man to repeat a political cry because it happens to chime in with the wants and wishes of party . Intellectual conservatism was once the dream of a small knot of young politicians , who have now grown grey in the service of the State , and after

ceaseless political changes it at last stands a chance of being realised . Masons , as such , care not for parties , but in reviewing the career of a distinguished brother , whose life has been a political one , it is impossible to avoid reference to contemporary history , and we note

the fact with pride that our Masonic legislator is , in the largeness of his sympathies , and in the breadth of his views , not merely member for Truro , but for all England . Yet our hero is no brillant talker , and cares not to air his oratory either in the House or on the stump . But when he speaks

he always talks good sound sense , and his speeches read like essays rather than orations . Perhaps if he could not speak at all we should like him better . We tire of the continual stream of talk which overflows the land , and are thankful for silence , and can only excuse the breaking of it when the

orator has something to say . The idle chatter of politicians is becoming one of the nuisances of the day , and we reo-ret to see that the talking mania has invaded the sacred arcana of the Lodge . A sound practical man , who talks

little , but who is strong in common sense—or rather uncommon sense , for the faculty is by no means generally diffused—is a treasure ; and we respect our brother as much for his " brilliant flashes of silence , " as for his occasional words of wisdom ,