Cheshire Benevolence.

CHESHIRE BENEVOLENCE .

THE first anniversary festival of the Cheshire Masonic Benevolent Institution took place on Wednesday , at the Prince of Wales Hotel , Southport , the event being celebrated by a banquet , attended by

about eighty guests . Brother the Eev . C . W . Spencer-Stanhope Past Grand Chaplain of England presided , and was supported by a large number of influential local Craftsmen .

The usual loyal toasts having been honoured , Bro . J . Clayton proposed His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales M . W . G . M .. and the Grand Eulers of the Craft .

He spoke highly of the services which the Prince of Wales and other Eulers had rendered to Masonry . Bros . Sillitoe and Salmon replied . Bro . Andrews proposed the E . W . P . G . M . for Cheshire ,

the Eight Hon . Lord Egerton of Tatton , and the Prov . Eulers of the Craft . He expressed his regret that Lord Egerton was not present . - Bro . T . C . Thorburn responded .

Bro . G . H . Brown submitted the toast of the evening , Success to the Cheshire Masonic Benevolent Institution . He mentioned that that was the first birthday of the Institution , and he was sure the directors had the most earnest sympathy and support of those whom he was

addressing . That such was the case was evinced by the large number who had attended that festival . It was only fitting that when they were met to rejoice they should call their neighbours together to rejoice with them and he thought those who were with them that day would

rejoice that they were able to give a good report of what had been done during the twelve months . He thanked them all most sincerely for the encouragement they had given to the Brethren of that Province in endeavouring to consolidate and build up an Institution which

represented to the outside world one oi the grandest facts upon which their noble Institution was founded—that of helping one another in time of need ; and though they did not profess to be a charitable society , still they were a society of self-help and help towards one another . In

the Province of Cheshire , as distinguished from the other districts of England , they had been endeavouring to establish a fund upon which their decayed and indigent Brethren might draw in times of need and sorrow . He was sure , after so noble an effort , and after having put

their hands to the plough in connection with it , they would not look back . The Proviuce to which they were proud to belong had for years past gained a name second to none in the cause of Masonic charity , and when the claims of an Institution of that sort was made upon the

Brethren they were sure they would always be heartily responded to . He expected that in years to come the seed they were sowing would have grown into a gigantic tree , and , that when people saw its wide-spreading branches they would wonder how such a result had been brought about .

Bro . Newhouse read the list of subscriptions , which amounted to £ 310 4 s . Bro . Cookson , in responding to the toast , said that the amount subscribed that year would enable them to relieve the declining years of such aged Brothers and

Widows as might be directed to the fund , and he mentioned that in November next they would be enabled to appoint four annuitants . The question of relief to the aged poor was receiving the attention of eminent statesmen , and their Worshipful Grand Master , the Prince of

Wales , had taken an active part in the matter . He assured them that the funds of that Institution had been , and would continue to be , safely employed , and he prophesied that the Institution would have a successful future . —" Liverpool Courier . "

The " South African Masonic Eecord" for May makes a strong appeal to Eand Masons to establish a United Grand Lodge for the Transvaal , as a step , presumably , towards a United Grand Lodge for South

Africa , but also as a safeguard against the admission of improper persons into the mysteries of the Craft , a tendency to which the " Eecord" has denounced for many months .

Freemasonry In Torquay.

FREEMASONRY IN TORQUAY .

( Continued from p . 182 . ) THE BE are several very remarkable records in the old minute book , as well as a very meagre notice of the general business transacted . Whether it is to the latter defect that we find on several occasions there were

only some three or four Brethren present to transact important business in the Lodge , we are unable to state ; but I believe that within the past 40 years it has been a difficult matter sometimes for the Brethren to collect the necessary seven members to make the Lodge perfect .

Our indefatigable Brother Melluish often found it advisable to personally wait on the Brethren to urge on the members the importance of attending the meetings , and , ii he found in the town an unaffiliated member of our Order , that Brother was sure to receive a very

pressing invitation to visit the Lodge . I suppose that it was under such circumstances as these that our W . Bro . Morgan was often called upon to attend the meetings in order that a properly-formed Lodge might be held , until eventually Bro . Morgan was proposed as a joining member

on the 6 th of January 1868 . Doubtless the limited number of members in those days made it very difficult matter to form a Lodge ; with regard to there being only some three or four members present to transact important business , that might , in the remote past , be allowed to go

unchallenged by Brethren less fastidious than ourselves . Still we cannot help admiring the Masonic perseverance of the Brethren under such a trial of their fidelity to our Order , in keeping the Lodge free from an unworthy or questionable element , when there was such a strong

incentive to increase the number of the members of the Lodge . Another remarkable deviation from our present usage of proposing a candidate for initiation appears on the minutes for 22 nd February 1855 , where it is recorded that Bro . Wyatt , who was one of the oldest P . M . ' s , and also

the Secretary of the Lodge , proposed , and Bro Thomas seconded , " That Mr . Henry Banks , master mariner , at present residing at * Sulyarde Terrace , is a fit and proper candidate for initiation into the mysteries of Freemasonry , and a Lodge of Emergency be called for that purpose to-morrow at 7 . " On the following day we find this

minute , dated 23 rd February 1855 , Bro . Thomas , W . M ., P . T ., and P . M .: — " The minutes of the last Lodge were read and confirmed ; a ballot then took place for Mr . Henry Banks , of Sulyarde Terrace . Mr . Banks was unanimously elected and duly initiated into the first degree of Freemasonry . " The foregoing evidently points

to the fact that the time allotted for notice , and the form of business in connection with a Lodge of Emergency , are not such as regulate our present usage . There was another feature in the past that we do not recognise in connection with the re-election of an installed master

as W . M . of a Lodge . If we take , for instance , so recent a date as the 27 th December 1867 , we find " that Bro . Bowden was W . M ., and that the Brother Melluish ' proclaimed ' him W . M . for the ensuing year , he having been re-elected W . M . by a majority of one vote in the Lodge on 2 nd December . ' The ceremony of installation not

having to be repeated , Bro . Bowden cordially thanked the Brethren for the honour of re-electing him W . M . for the next year . '" This statement clearly proves that the usage with regard to re-elected installed masters differs from the rule that now regulates the Craft . Judging ,

however , from the few members that were in the Lodge , we need not wonder that the same Brother should so often fill the chair of W . M ., and it also . appears that on such occasions he was " proclaimed " and not installed for the ensuing year .

Having noticed some of the peculiarities that marked the remote past , let us now trace some of the leading features that led to the present satisfactory financial condition of the Lodge . As we have already stated , to the Building Committee belongs the credit of the erection

of this Masonic Hall ; the Committee also had the opportunity and the good fortune to let the lower portion of the building to the Natural History Society . From this source of revenue came the funds to pay the interest

of the money which was expended upon the erection of the building , and which amounted to some £ 700 . In addition to the rent from the Natural History Society paying the interest on the borrowed capital , the Committee were able also to gradually reduce the debt ,