Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

We do rvot Jiold ourselves responsible for ihe opinions 0 / ow Cor respondents . We cannot undertake to return , rejected commtwwcafions . All Letters must bear the name and address of the Writer , no necessarily for publication , bid as a guarantee of good faith .

QUESTIONS . —WAS WREN A FREEMASON ? To the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' CHRONICLE . DEAE SIR , —At page 168 of tho Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror , for 3 rd Sept . 1859 , we read : — " The Post Boy , No . 5245 , from Saturday , March 2 nd , to Tuesday , March 5 th , 1723 , states : — 'This evening the corpse of that worthy Freemason , Sir Christopher Wren ,

Knight , is to be interred under the dome of St . Paul ' s Cathedral . Is it true that Wren was really a " Freemason " before his death ? and if so , when and where did he become one ? At page 505 of the

Graphic , for 19 th Dec . 1874 , we are told that the Duke of Edinburgh is a Mason , but I fear that is a mistake ; consequently , if the latter scribe is not infallible as regards a living celebrity , I feel justified in doubting the veracity of the former respecting a dead one . Yours , & c . W . P . BUCHAN .

Our Boys' School.

OUR BOYS' SCHOOL .

To t / te Editor O / T FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . Royal Masonic Institution for Boys , Wood Green , N . SiK >—We ask , in justice , to be allowed to say a few words upon bur share of the pamphlet which -was issued in Yorkshire in reference to the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys . That pamphlet

has been condemned by one of your contemporaries , on the ground that it is calculated to injure the interests of this Charity . We wish to show that our letter was written with the express object of protecting these interests , neutralizing a threatened action of the Secretary , which would have been far more fatal to this Institution than Mr . Tew ' s publication . The facts are as follow : —

Some time since a letter arrived hero from tho Secretary , containing the most outrageous charges against tho pupils , calling them a " disgrace and a nuisance to the neighbourhood , " and declaring his intention of bringing the matter before the next meeting of the House Committee . We knew these charges to bo untrue , but we foresaw that were they allowed to go unchallenged , and to be made

pubhe without being refuted , the result would be injurious , not only to our characters individually , but to the school at largo . If the pamphlet is to be condemned because by exposing real abuses it would alienate subscribers , what is to be said of the Secretary who makes a series of charges against the school which it is his duty to serve and guard , charges which he cannot prove , but

which , if true , aro calculated to drive away every subscriber from this charity , and who chooses the time just before the annual festival for such action ? The Secretary made similar charges last year ; an investigation was demanded then , an investigation has been demanded now , and neither has been held . Though it may suit the Secretary to make these charges against one

With whom he is unfriendly , he should not have expected us to allow our characters to suffer at his hands without protest . We know them to be groundless ; all visitors to this institution with whom we have conversed have expressed in high terms their admiration of the state in which they fonnd it ; the examiner of the Syndicate of Cambridge , after three or four days passed in the building , only a week or two

ago , publicly declared himself gratified at the discipline observable among the boys ; at the distribution of the prizes Lord Balfour complimented the Head Master and his staff upon the excellent condition of the institution ; in the report of tho Cambridge Local Examination this shows the greatest number of passes in the Loudon Centres , all these facts show the school to be in an efficient state ; moreover ,

the Head Master has documentary disproof of all the Secretary ' s charges , aud is prepared to prove , by a reference to facts which are absolutely undeniable , that the state of the school is highly satisfactory , and contrasts most favourably with its condition two years ago . There was , therefore , only one course open to us on the receipt of the Secretar \ ' ' s letter ; wo wrote a letter to our Principal , denying these

statements , and sent a similar letter to the Committee , demanding , both for the sake of the school and of our characters , a full investigation ; aud , our patience being fairly exhanstcd with all we had seen , we took the liberty of showing tho obstacles with which Mr . Perrott and ourselves had constantly to contend . The Committee , in reply , called upon us to prove the statements contained in onr

communication , especially those affecting one of the officers resident in tho building . Before the Committee again met they had received Mr . Tew ' s Report , and were probably angry at some of the statements affecting the administration of the funds , for which we were not at all reqoonsible . Be this as it may , we found that the charges affecting the

boys were quite hushed up , and as far as our statements on other matters were concerned , our judges , it seemed to ns , had turned our prosecutors—at least , we loft the room so thoroughly dissatisfied with their proceedings that we at once , though with extreme regret , sent in onr resignations .

On calling ns in to accept onr resignations , the Chairman was pleased to state that wo had been gnilty of a base conspiracy . Before anyone makes so grave a charge he shonld be , at least , prepared to show some probable jam for which the conspiracy is entered into . Now , Sir , we came to the Institution last Christmas , from different parts of the country j we were entirely unacquainted , with

Our Boys' School.

one another , had none of us overheard either of the Rev . Mr . Perrott or Mr . Binckes , and most of us had before been ignorant of tho very existence of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys . We were not appointed only by the Head Master , bnt by the Head Master and the Secretary jointly , and we heard that the former was soon to leave ,

so that , had we consulted onr own interests , we should certainly have fallen in with the powers that be ; because , however , in the interests of justice and of the Institution , we have spoken out plainly , that which we believed has been too long suppressed , we are disbelieved and branded as conspirators .

We came here at a time 01 great difficulty , we have worked hard for six months , and just when we have been here long enough to restore fully the discipline , rudely disturbed by former disputes , and to become attached to the pupils , instead of enjoying the fruits of our

labours , we are compelled to leave the Institution . Intentionally , or unintentionally , this is an instance of great injustice , both to us and still more to tho boys , who must suffer materially by this constantly changing of masters .

We are , Sir , your obedient servants , THE FOUR RETIRING MASTERS . P . S . —Since the above was written the Report of the Cambridge Examiner has appeared . Speaking of the discipline , he makes the following unqualified statement : " The conduct of the boys was

so uniformly good , and highly disciplined , that it is plain no ordinary pains have been taken with them in this respect . " This is tho opinion of an unprejudiced observer , after four days' experience , and is somewhat different from that of Mr . Binckes , —that the pupils are a " disgrace and a nuisance to the neighbourhood . "

Reports Of Lodge Meetings.

REPORTS OF LODGE MEETINGS .

To the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —I am glad that the subject of public Reports of Meetings has been broached , and think the correspondence in your columns likely to be productive of good . There can be no harm , but rather the contrary , in the publication of judicious reports ,

and it is only when details of an unnecessary character appear in newspapers that any objection can be made against them . Annual banquets aud installations , with names of officers , may be reported with benefit , providing a Masonic discretion be exercised in the compilation of the reports , but names of candidates , with hints as to the

ceremonial , must surely be regarded as antagonistic to the spirit of the Constitutions . I have forwarded to you a copy of the Cumber , land Pacquet for 6 th July , containing two lengthy reports of installations , which , however , aro so judiciously arranged ns to be free from the slightest objection , and calculated to place the Craft in a fair position before the public eye . I am , Sir , Yours fraternally , T . B . WnVTRHEAD . 8 th July 1875 .

REVOLVING STORES . —Cyclones , or revolving storms , are atmospheric disturbances by virtue of which large masses of air aro endued with a rapid rotary motion round an axis more or less vertical , revolving in a direction contrary to the hands of a watch in the northern , and in tho direction of the hands in the southern , hemisphere ; while at tho same time these masses of air are carried forward with a con .

sulcrablc velocity in a parabolic orbit . These storms , in fact , bear a strong resemblance to whirlwinds of dust raised by tho wind with which we are all familiar , which , like cyclones , move bodily forward at the same time that they revolve rapidly about an axis . All the great oceans , with the single exception of the South Atlantic , are the scenes of their activity . In the North Atlantic they rage between

tho 10 th and 50 th parallels of latitude , and the 50 th and 100 th meridians from Greenwich ; the Indian Ocean from the coast of Australia as far as Madagascar , between tho 6 th and 40 th parallels of southern latitude . In the Persian Gulf and Bay of Bengal they are to be found extending northwards from the 10 th degree of latitude ; in the China Sea , between the latitude of 12 ° or 15 ° as

far north as 50 , but generally not beyond the longitude of 140 E . ; and the Northern and Southern Pacific Oceans are not exempt from their ravages . They take their origin for tho most part between the 5 th and 20 th degree of latitude in tho regions of maximum temperature , and move in directions moro or less inclined to the equator iu a north-westerly or south-westerly direction , and describe

a parabolic path sometimes not distinguishable from a straight line , and after reaching the apex of their parabolic path , which iu the North Atlantic Ocean is generally situated about latitude 30 ° , thoy describe thb second branch of their orbit towards the north-cast or south-east . In the North Atlantic Ocean this branch sometimes reaches tho coasts of Europe . — "Naval Science" for July .

THE OLD MASONIC CONSTITUTIONS . —On perusing tho several manuscripts through , I came to the conclusion that they wore neither more nor less than the rituals of the the pve-1717 Masons . Of course , the secret words , tokens , & c , were witheld from the written rituals , nor can we learn the precise fashion of riding the goat in the 17 th

century , but nevertheless these manuscripts wore rituals , and they were kept out of reach of the uninitiated . Even Anderson informs us that , when he requested the brethren to give him their

manuscripts from which to compile a constitution for the Grand Lodge , the old Masons were so shocked with the idea of printing them , that they went to work and destroyed their manuscripts . They destroyed , no doubt , manuscripts of the same character as that of Dowland ' j and tlie rest of the series , —Bro , Jacoi Jforton ,