Reports Of Meetings.

dignity to the office , and Bro . Richards added great reverence . With the utmost sincerity it was with great pleasure he gave the toast of the Installing Master . He was a busy man ,. but he hoped to have a chance of coming to the Lodge , because he did love Masonry . He called their attention to the high and noble principles of Freemasonry , which , like the jewels and regalia they possessed , were worthless unless adorned by their lives .

Acknowledging the toast Bro . Grant said that was the twelfth successive year he had installed the W . M . of St . John ' s , an honour for which he cordially thanked the brethren ; and Bro . Richards heartily reciprocated Bro . Henning ' s sentiments respecting Freemasonry . Bro . Crowe , in a neat and appropriate speech , gave the health of the I . P . M . and other Past Masters , whose services to the Lodge and Craft he extolled highly . With a tinge of sadness he recalled the fact that during the year two of their Past Masters had gone to the Grand Lodge above .

To the very able and capable hands of Bro . Chapman was entrusted the toast of the Charities , and he commented favourably on the position of the Lodge , which , with its members , held over 500 votes in the different Masonic Institutions . The usual collection was made , and the sum . of five guineas was contributed for the Devon Masonic Educational Fund , The I . P . M . submitted the toast of the Visitors , for whom tho visiting Masters responded .

. From the chair came the toast of the Officers of the Lodge , on whose behalf Bros . Crowe , Dolbear , and Greenslade replied . With the Tyler ' s toast a most enjoyable evening was concluded , the speeches being interspersed with musical contributions by Bros . Crowe , Waycott , Richards , Dolbear , & c .

MANCHESTER LODGE , No . 2554 . A T the regular meeting of this Lodge , recently held in the Masonic Hall , Cooper Street , Manchester , there was a good attendance , some of the more prominent being Bros . Thomas Plumpton W . M ., Wm . Charlton , J . P ., ¦ S . W ., W . A . Boyer J . W ., A . 0 . K . Smith Treasurer , Arthur Jefieris P . M . P . P . G . W . Secretary , Da Cunah , Burt , Still , Haddad and Large .

The W . M . opened the Lodge in due form , and after the reading and confirmation of minutes the name of Bro . John Jordan , late Trafiord Lodge , No . 1496 , was introduced as a probable Joining Member , and he will be balloted for at the next meeting .

Lodge . having been closed , the Brethren adjourned to a most sumptuous banquet , where they were joined by visitors ( Masons and non-Masons ) , and lady friends to the number of forty , and as a dispensation had been granted for Brethren to wear their clothing and jewels they could almost vie with the fair sex in picturesqueness of costume .

A capital musical programme had been arranged , consisting of glees , songs , & c , Miss Jessie Moorhouse , Bros . J . W . Maltby and 0 . Blacow , all of the Manchester Concerts , especially distinguishing themselves . The toast list was a well-selected one , the proposing of these chiefly devolving upon the W . M . We had almost forgotten to state that during the evening the ladies , actuated , perhaps by feminine curiosity , paid a visit to the Lodge room , and expressed themselves pleased by the beauty of its surroundings . The company did not disperse until a late hour .

MARK MASONRY .

LANGLEY LODGE , No . 28 . THE annual meeting was held at the Masonic Temple , Cardiff , on Thursday , 4 th inst ., when Brother S . O . Williams Prov . G . J . W . W . M . advanced Bro . Dobbs , and invested the Officers for the ensuing year . Feeling allusion was made to the absence ( through sickness ) of Bro . Marks P . M ., and Bro . Munday P . M ., the former having , as stated by P . M . Sheridan , not previously absented himself from the annual meeting for thirtytwo years .

At the close of the Lodge an excellent dinner was served in the banqueting hall by Mr . Dunn ( Bute Dock Hotel ) . The usual Mark toasts having been honoured , Bro . Taylor , in an interesting response on behalf of the charities , remarked that when these were first set afoot 700 guineas was thought good for a yearly subscription , but now it amounted to the magnificient sum of £ 70 , 000 annually , ana was still increasing . During the evening an excellent musical entertainment was rendered .

A Vision Of Masonry.

A VISION OF MASONRY .

AMID the anxieties , of business and the monopolising cares of private life , how few of us have the leisure , or the disposition , to think upon the deep significance of Masonic history , or even to keep up with the current of its fugitive and ephemeral literature . But Masonry , in some of its various developments , has existed almost coeval with man , certainly with the record of his needs and sympathies . If this is so , then there has been a contemporaneous history , which must be interesting and eventful , and a flow of- literature' not only from those participating in its benefits and mysteries , but also from those who have ignored or been denied its associations .

Assuming here the work of evolution , as everywhere in all earthly matters , we may peradventure display to view some of the features that have characterised its progressive course , and so perhaps minister instruction and comfort to many Brethren . ; ' . Analysing this development there is found the primitive idea of helpfulness , and needed assistance uninfluenced by any social motives , a

help where the work was too heavy , too complicated , or too hazardous for a single person . To this arose , next , a help with a feeling of interest or sympathy ; - sympathetic help , which has continued to preside as . a prime characteristic of all the life of Masonry , speculative as well as operative . These fundamental features of assistance and sympathy joined have never in the . long ages of Masonry been obliterated or ceased to have a dominant influence .

In-the course of events . Masonry found it expedient to enlarge the scope of her activities . Sympathetic helpers must be multiplied and utilised , and so she engrafted upon her development , education in a well developed progression . First , an education of tbe technique , or the practical science of the- art ; second , in general information , to render the novitiate generall y worldly wise , competent for a wider application of artistic principles

A Vision Of Masonry.

and the correlations of his art ; third , socially for correctness and grace in the more promiscuous life outside of his own calling ; and fourth , in : the duties and principles of religion . In short there was added the feature of intelligence in all the qualities that uplift and bless man . Having added a manly intelligence to their previous attributes , the impulse was felt towards a full citizenship to enable them to preserve and maintain the acquirements already held ; and , hence Masons and Masonry

became factors in the limited politics of society , by their intelligence securing the best opportunities for their guilds , improving . the quality and style of handicraft , and liberalising the institutions of the municipality under which' thoy lived . This brought in and made essential ah additional feature , the adoption and enforcement of maxims , principles , law ' s ,-and ultimately of obligations which should be binding alike upon the individual member , and the guild as a compact unity . During this epoch of political influence

the guilds were so assumptive of power that they became directly , and by indirection , trespassers upon the prerogatives of the royal power , and in pursuance of thoir rights and liberties , as they understood themj gradually assumed the authority of final direction . They were unmindful of hereditary limitations and consequently invoked the displeasure of the state . As a consequence they brought upon themselves the supervisory writs of the crown whereby and as well by the disquiet and danger of ; continued

membership , very many associations were deprived of their franchise and the Fraternity became obnoxious to the charge of political radicalism , under which they suffered for a time , and under the odium of which they were for a while opposed and denounced as objects of suspicion . By these experiences they learned a useful lesson , and eliminated from their assemblies the two disqualifying and disturbing topics of politics and religion forever . They now restricted themselves to the role of working or Graft guilds , 'formulated rituals for the regular and systematic guidance of their apprentices , and long

continued their peaceable and useful careers . After many unimportant modifications of teaching , ceremonial and membership , they advanced the guild so called to Lodges of so called Masonry , using the working tools of the former industry as symbols of the new advanced , andmbre scholarly , life which the new age demanded . With an amplification of steps , with groups of instruction , and an extended and purified ritual , with more judicious care in the associates of the various Lodges , we are brought- ; hear to the Freemasonry of our day and practice .

ITrom this summary survey we may generalise the results , and infer the lessons they teach . In all examples of well defined evolution , the features which it has successively put on in the progress of the development may be traced with more of less distinctness . ... Masonry is ^ not . ail . exception . In speculative Masonry the various characters assumed in-the earlier stages of its development may easily be traced . They must riot be looked for however under tho narrow habitudes of their earlier existence * nor with the

same mental or moral outlooks , nor governed by the same motives . What then was merely transitory and in the material relations , simply becomes now lifted wholly out of these confinements into the realm : of . manly beneficence , a universal duty , a moral and hurnan charity . That which was local and selfish , becomes universal both in its application to individuals arid its ministries of liberty and culture . . The temporary union of ; -men ; . ; has become , the Brotherhood of man ; the help , of the hour has developed into that unostentatious charity which the good Mason ministers ^ alike "to his

Brethren of every race and clime wherever the case is exigent . ' Hence ; also , that general intelligence required oven for ¦ tho' admission to •Masonry . Hence , also , that sincere belief in God and a universal-benevolent providence which is the indispensable prerequisite to every affiliate . . . / Thus , the technique , intelligence , and ethical principle involved" in early Masonry is present in the advanced , with amplified relations , converted i ' nflueficesy ' aM a more sacred sanction . Besides these there are the working ritual ; -illustrative ceremonial , and the duties and obligations appropriate to . the speculative character of the Craft . . . .

We are not to look upon Masonry as having reached its growth '' o ' r ' its latest form of development . Its concurrent' factors will enlarge" atid- new ministries be sought as the exigencies of the Graft and the changcd . times shall demand . Let every Mason hold himself oxien and liberally disposed towards all future requirements of the Order . —Edwin Wright , in " . Freemasons'Repository . " ' . '

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