The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

Grand Treasurer , Patron of Institution ; George Lambert P . G . S . B ., P .-Uron of Institution ; Edgar Bowyer Past G . Standard Bearer , Vice Patron of Institution ; among the latter are Bros . Joseph C . Parkinson , J . P ., D . L ., P . G . D ., Patron of Institution ; anil l > ro . Frank Richardson P . G . D .,

Yice Patron of Institution . These , with Bro . Charles Belton , No . 1 , W . M . ] 65 , P . M . 777 , P . P . G . W . Surrey , & c , Vice President of the Institution , as Honorary Treasurer of the Board of Stewards , form the heads of tbe band to which we look for the provision of the coming

year ' s funds . We have often said that much of the success of a Festival depends on tho exertions of each individual Steward , and in such a case as the present , when arrangements which were likely to lead to a successful issno aro

upset by an unforeseen calamity , is this particularly so . It therefore behoves us to urge ou all who have enrolled their names on the list to do their utmost , while to those who have not , we may repeat there is yet time in which to get together a goodly sum .

United Grand Lodge And The Pope's Encyclical.

UNITED GRAND LODGE AND THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL .

THE Pro Grand Master is to bo congratulated on the moderation of the course he adopted when he proposed that United Grand Lodgo should meet tho Pope ' s wholesale denunciation of Freemasonry by n , firm but respectful remonstrance . There is , we fear , too much , reason for believing that , in some conntrics at all events , the

Masonic Lodge is utilised for political purposes , and that plots and conspiracies against lawfully constituted authority are encouraged , if , indeed they are not occasionall y hatched , at these so-called Masonic meetings . Bnt it must be obvious to every ono that the Freemasons of England

cannot be justly charged with tho faults committed by other members of the Fraternity residing ontside its jurisdiction , any more than the Pope himself , and the College of Cardinals , can be held answerable for the iniquities perpetrated by Christians who reject the

teachings of the Roman Catholic Church , or who nominally accept those teachings , yet reject them in practice . The position and influence of Freemasonry in this country will not be weakened because Grand Lodge , which is the guardian of its honour as well as the exponent of its

principles , admits unhesitatingly that all its professed mem - bers in foreign countries are not as jealous of its purity as the obligations they contracted on acceptance into its ranks require them to be . On tho contrary , when it is known that this admission has been made by the Supreme

body which first enunciated the principles of Freemasonry as they are laid down in the Constitutions of Masonry , it is more than probable that the respect in which we are held among earnest sober-minded people' will be very appreciably increased . Those who claim for

themselves and their opinions an absolute immunity from error create a sensation , no doubt , but it is never of a very enduring character . Sooner or later , the weakness of the claim becomes apparent , and the respect they at first excited becomes changed into something very much like

ridicule . Had Lord Carnarvon gone so far as to assert , in respect of Freemasonry as a whole , that the charges laid against it by the Pope and his advisers had no foundation whatever in fact , he would very soon have been reminded that Freemasonry , whatever it may be in theory , is not the

same in practice everywhere . In fact , by the course he has adopted he has succeeded in very cleverly turning the tables upon the author of the Encyclical , who has been unwise enough to anathematise the whole Society , because parts of it are known to have conducted themselves

unworthily . In the speech in which he introduced his motion to the notice of Grand Lodge , Lord Carnarvon exhibited precisely the same spirit of moderation . He suggested no retaliatory course against the Roman Pontiff . Instead of meeting

anathema with anathema , he pointed out that the Pope , as the head of the Romish branch of the Catholic Church , was entitled to our respect , and that in his political capacity as a statesman , who had succeeded to an exalted

position in critical times , and had acted for the most part wisely and with discretion , tbe same measure of consideration was due to him . But having conscientiously discharged this duty , he at once set himself to the comparatively easy

United Grand Lodge And The Pope's Encyclical.

task of exposing the fallacy of the Pope ' s arguments against Freemasonry generally , and tho impolicy into which he bad been betrayed of condemning the whole body for the faults of some of its members . The charges laid against us

were stated seriatim , and , as ho summed them up , included pretty well everything that might legitimately be described as irreli gious and immoral . According to the Encyclical , Masons entertain no respect for matrimony , which they regard as a tie that may be broken at the will of those who

contract it ; they exclndo ministers of religion from taking part in the education and instruction of children , and insist that , in teaching morality , nothing shall be introduced which can possibly havo the offect of binding man to God by the holy sanction of roligion . Other and , if possible , still

moro heinous crimes are laid to our charge , and finally , it is said , onr ultimate purpose is to destroy that social order which Christianity has succeeded in establishing , and erect in its stead a new system based on the principles of disorder . Onr readers know well enough that these charges are

absolutely without foundation , while non-Masons can easily satisfy themselves of the truth of this assertion by referring to our Book of Constitutions , wherein are clearly set forth the principles on which our Society has been established .

It is easy enough to understand why the head of a Church which has ever been distinguished by a bigoted attachment to its cherished dogmas should fall foul of a Society which is as distinguished by the liberality of its respect for all dogmas which are worthy to be respected .

Bnt we confess it is not so easy to understand how it is that a ruler possessing the discretion which is usually ascribed to tho present Pope of Rome should have wantonly exposed himself and the Church of which he is the head to the ridicule of the world at large . Nearly a century and

a-haTt ago the then reigning Pontiff struck , as he imagined , a fatal blow at Freemasonry , bnt it glanced off harmlessly enough , and may even be said to have had an effect exactly the opposite of what was ' intended . At all events , Ereemasonry increased in strength and importance , when it

was known it had been excommunicated by the then Pope . It has gone on increasing ever since , and now with the Queen's eldest son for its Grand Master , and the hig hest and noblest in the land amongst its Grand Officers , it does

strike one as being supremely ridiculous that the present moment should have been chosen for denouncing a Society which has won for itself the respect of well nigh all classes of Her Majesty's subjects .

Freemasonry In South Australia.

FREEMASONRY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA .

LAST week we gave publicity in our columns to an account derived from the South Australian Begister of the establishment of an Independent Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons for that Colony . If for the moment we can divest our minds of all thought of the origin of the Lodges , which have thus united together and

established for themselves a Supreme body , to which henceforth they are pi-epared to pay allegiance , we can have no hesitation in describing the establishment of such a body as being an event that is not only unique in the history of Australasian Freemasonry , but likewise as one that is both

interesting and well calculated to impress people with a strong idea of the inherent vitality of the Craft . It is but the other day , as it were , that South Australia was an unknown country ; now it is a flourishing British Colony with apparently before it a long career of prosperity . Half

a century since , the few Freemasons it was able to boast of were sojourners in the land , without organisation for the practice of their rites ; now the Craft is so numerous and so firmly established , that in the early part of this year the brethren consulted amongst themselves as to the

desirability of setting up a house of their own , the result being the event which was so brilliantly and happily celebrated , as described by our South Australian contemporary , on the 17 th and 18 tb of April last . The proceedings which culminated in this celebration , as well as the celebration

itself , appear to have been conducted with becoming gravity and decorum . They seem to have been taken advisedly and with due deliberation , and what is more important still , to have received the sanction of a vast and overwhelming majority of the members of the three Constitutions . Thirty-two out of the thirty-three Lodges severally