The Cost Of Our Charities.

THE COST OF OUR CHARITIES .

IT has been suggested to us that we ought not to have allowed the letter of CEITIO to have appeared as it did in our pages last week . Had we exercised to the fullest extent the powers with which we are invested it would have

been better , we are told , to have consigned it direct to the waste paper basket , failing which it is urged we ought to have added , an explanatory paragraph pointing out the absurdity of our correspondent ' s arguments and comparisons .

We cannot , however , accept the blame in this matter , as we are in no way responsible for the opinions of our correspondents , and if we began to exclude every communication that did not wholly coincide . with our own views we should cut away one

of the planks of the platform on which we stand , and which we have always prided ourselves upon—a free and independent paper , open to each and every side of Masonic opinion .

"We know full well , and we imagine the ordinary member of the Graft is also aware , that the two Educational Institutions of English Freemasonry are conducted on very high principles , the aim of the managers of the two funds

being to turn out the pupils , not as pauper children , but rather as little ladies and gentlemen , fit to take their place in the world side by side with any member of the upper middle classes , and we believe the majority of those who

support the Funds agree that such a course is the best one to pursue , although , as is almost natural in connection with so important a work as that referred to , there are Brethren

who entertain a different opinion , some urging that- much more good might be done by extending the field of operations , even if by so doing some of the "luxuries , " to which our correspondent refers , had to be curtailed .

It is not our present intention to make an elaborate comparison between the Orphan Working School and the Masonic Institutions , because we are of opinion that any one who is really interested in the matter can easily find out

enough to convince himself that there is really no comparison possible between them . In the case of the Orphan School children are eligible from infancy , and , as a matter of fact , we believe there are so many very young children on the

fund as to materially reduce the " average " cost per pupil . In the case of the Girls and Boys Schools of Freemasonry the children are not admitted until what may be really termed the expensive period of a child ' s education and maintenance

commences , while the cost at the Masonic Schools may be still further defended on account of the fact that in each ease the age for leaving is far beyond what is the limit at the Orphan Working School . *

Independence Run Wild.

INDEPENDENCE RUN WILD .

TT has become a matter of common practice to look to - * - America for big things , and apparently Freemasonry is no exception to the general run in- this respect , the latest proposal

Independence Run Wild.

from across the Atlantic being a 3 stupendous a suggestion as was ever submitted to the notice of the Graft , even if it is not far beyond anything of the past , and really entitled to .

be described as a wild scheme , being none other than the proposed formation of an independent Grand Lodge by the Lodges of a Bingle city , although , all told , they total up to only ten Lodges .

It is true the state of things which , from the paragraph we reproduce elsewhere from the " Masonic Advocate , " appears to exist in the city of Detroit has had its counterpart in other parts of the world , but we question if the ten Lodges there

interested have not established a " record" in desiring independence . Much the same has often been urged in regard to London itself , but in that case there are now upwards of 400 Lodges , many of which occasionally feel themselves

" snubbed" because there is no provision for conferring the " purple" on their more prominent members , such as exists in the Provinces and Districts outside . Proposals have often been made to divide London into " Districts , " so as to create the

means of promoting its leaders , but so far without success Perhaps some of our more enterpising spirits may take a lesson from their Brethren of Detroit , and set about the promotion of an independent Grand Lodge for the metropolis

of the world . If it is possible for a city with ten Lodges to talk of adopting 'such a course , it ought to be feasible for one with upwards of four hundred to do far more than talk . This proposal of the Detroit Lodges seems to be about as far

fetched as anything we remember having met with . - Perhaps , after all , it is merely a huge joke , but supposing that it is really made in earnest , who is to "stop them ? What is there to prevent ten or a dozen Lodges in any city starting an

independent Grand Lodge ? It is true they would be left unrecognised—for a time—but perseverance and persistency might eventually get over even that' trouble . Now , in 1897 , we regard the suggestion as an absurdity , but what will the

Masons of the next generation say to it ? Will our children live to see Freemasonry so popular that the chief cities of the world will occupy about the same position as Provinces or Districts of to-day ? Even if they do it will not be a much

greater advance , comparatively speaking , than many of those now alive have seen in connection with the Craft ; in fact , it almost seems to come within the bounds of the possibilities of extension , the limits of which , viewed in the light of the century ' s progress , it seems to be impossible to even estimate .

Freemasonry And The Licensing Laws.

FREEMASONRY AND THE LICENSING LAWS .

THE alarm some of our Brethren must have experienced when they heard the decision of the magistrates at Bristol , that the police possessed powers to force themselves into rooms occupied by a Lodge of bhe Antediluvian Order

of Buffaloes—and , on the same principle , into a Lodge of Freemasons—has been dispelled during the week by the decision of a Divisional Court , presided over by Mr . Justice Gave and Mr . Justice Lawrance who , on the appeal of the