The Eve Of The Festival.

THE EVE OF THE FESTIVAL .

rflHE time is now fast approaching when the Festival of - *•the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls will bo held-Before another issne of tho FREEMASONS' CHRONICLE appears

most of its readers will have been made acquainted , either by personal attendance at the Festival , or by reports in the daily papers , of the result of this year's appeal on behalf of " Our Girls . " Little remains to be said in

addition to what has already appeared in these pages concerning the general arrangements , all of which havo been made with that care and regard for the comfort of visitors which

has characterised similar gatherings in the past . The Festival will take place on Wednesday next , at Freemasons ' Hall , London , the hour of the banquet being fixed at 6 p . m . Lord Brooke , M . P ., R . W . Prov . G . Master Essex , will

occupy the chair , and although the number of Stewards who will support his Lordship will not be so large as many wished , it is yet hoped they will prove themselves none the less hearty in the good . cause than those who have

preceded them in years gone by . It is idle for us to speculate as to the result , for , as we last week pointed out , there appears to be little chance of arriving at a correct estimate . We have said what amount we should like to see

sent up by Essex , and a similar scale might be applied to the other Provinces , with the best of results , but in any case we hope the total will be sufficient to provide for all the expenses of the coming year , even if it is not large enough to allow

of something being added to the invested funds . The annual visit of the stewards to the Institution at Battersea is this year fixed for Monday next , the 19 th inst ., when the usual entertainment will be provided by the

pupils , and the prizes will be distributed . We have very great pleasure in tendering onr thanks to the Baroness Burdett Coutts , who has kindly consented to distribute the prizes , and "whose support of any good cause—always so

readil y given—is ever received with gratitude . We have no doubt that the Institution will long have occasion to remember the interest she and her husband ( who is the Treasurer of the Board of Stewards ) are taking in this

year ' s Festival , not only on acconnt of the monetary benefit it will derive , but also from the remembrance of having enlisted the sympathy of one who is justly entitled to be ranked among England ' s benefactors .

The first part of the entertainment on Monday will com mence at 4 . 30 p . m ., and will conclude at 6 . 30 , by which time the company will be ready for the refreshment usually Provided by the Committee . At 7 . 30 the Calisthenics and

Marching Exercises will be gone through , and after an hour or two spent with the pupils , the guests will return to their respective homes . The applications for tickets of admission to this entertainment are , as usual , far in excess of the

number at disposal , and if a few are disappointed at not receiving the coveted admissions , they mnst content themselves with the feeling that it is not the fault of the execut've that the number has to be limited , but rather that tbe

space available will only accommodate so many , and thereore it would be unjust to the stewards themselves to issne sn ch a number of invites to others as to inconvenience all who attend .

The History Of Freemasonry.

THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY .

( Continued from page 293 . ) WE havo been very careful to point out in this case of Wren ' s alleged membership of our Society that it has never yet been proved to be a fact by any of the recognised methods employed by historians in demonstrating their several propositions , and no one would have been

surprised had Bro . Gould completed his examination of the circumstances by tendering the Scotch verdict of " not proven . " But it will doubtless have occurred to many of those who have carefully read this portion of his work , as indeed it has occurred to us , that he has set himself dead

against the theory of membership , for some unexplained reason , but probably because ho conceived it to be his duty to approach as close as he dared , having the fear of Masonic susceptibilities before his eyes , towards a summary rejection of this tradition on the ground that thus far at all

events it was incapable of being proved by direct evidence of a perfectly trustworthy character . This will , perhaps , explain why , after a very careful study of the whole , as well

as of the several parts of Chapter XII ., we seem to have been insensibly forced to the conclusion that Bro . Gould baa momentarily forgotten himself as the historian and betaken himself to the role of the advocate . It is certain that he baa

missed no opportunity of enlarging on the merits of whatever evidence is opposed to the tradition ; while he has made light of such as favoured it , and ignored altogether , or very nearly so , those reasonable probabilities which almost justify our acceptance of it as a fact . The passage in Aubrey

is " obscure ; " the statements in Dr . Anderson ' s Constitutions of 1738—though this , as we have stated , is only a matter of opinion— " are quite irreconcilable with those in his earlier publication of 1723 . " Then , in the latter , while Inigo Jones and Sir Edward Coke are " included in the

category of Freemasons , Sir Christopher Wren is only mentioned in a professional capacity , " from which " it may safely be inferred , that the triumvirate "—Anderson , Payne , and Desaguliers— " charged with the preparation of the firat code of laws , and the first items of Masonic history ,

published by authority , had at that time no knowledge of his ever having been a member of the Society . " Again , " between 1723 and 1738 , though a large number of Masonic books and pamphlets were published , in none of these is Wren alluded to as a Freemason ; " " the newspapers during

the same period , " to the extent of Bro . Gould ' s researches , and with the few exceptions he notes , " are equally silent upon the point under consideration , and there is no reference to Wren in the Rawlinson MSS . at the Bodleian Library . " As to Wren ' s Grand Mastership , we are told that he conld

not have occupied in the 17 th century a position which was not created till the second decade of the 18 th , while , as to his membership of Antiquity , its extreme unlikelihood is asserted on the ground of the inferior social rank of its members as compared with those enrolled in the fourth of

the " Four Old Lodges , " which had among its seventy-one membei-s "ten noblemen , three honourables , four baronets or knights , seven colonels , two clergymen , and twenty-four esquires . " Of course , the remark about the Grand

Mastership is quite natural , if we are to assume that Anderson intentionally applied it in the sense in which it had been understood sinco 1717 ; indeed , we arc not unwilling to concede for the sake of argument tbat the author ' s propositions , whether taken separately or cumulatively , are not without