Next Week's Festival.

NEXT WEEK'S FESTIVAL .

ON Wednesday the Eoyal Masonic Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and Widows of Freemasons -will celebrate its Anniversary Festival at the Freemason ' s Tavern , Great Queen-street , London , under the presidency of the Bight Hon . the Earl of Euston , E . W . Provincial Grand Master of Norths

and Hunts . In accordance with a time-honoured custom with us—a custom we should be very sorry to gee discontinued , or in any way interrupted—we sneciallv address a few words to our readers in

reference to the event ; not , perhaps , with a view of causing any immediate benefit to the Institution , but with the hope that our remarks may be read , and remembered to such good purpose as to induce some

of our readers to one day support the Charity in a manner that will prove that our efforts have not been wholly thrown away . We know that the remarks which have appeared in our pages in years gone by ,

when we have attempted to arouse a little enthusiasm on behalf of the Institutions , have not been in vain , and why should they be now , simply because , as representatives of the free and unfettered press of the

country , we have recently given public utterance to uncomplimentary as well as laudatory remarks in connection with the Charities of Freemasonry ? We do not believe in " fair weather friends , " neither do we trust the companion who has nothing but praise

to offer , with never a word of criticism or friendly warning . We cannot be always right , and if no friendly voice warn us of our faults , we have to face the severe and unkind chastisement of enemies , with

results far more disastrous and troublesome than would arise from the outspoken , though perhaps unsavoury , criticism of our well wishers . We are pleased to find that the prospects for

the coming Festival are of an encouraging character . The Board of Stewards is far beyond the total of last year , and there is no reason to fear the average per Steward will be less than usual , so that a grand

result may be confidently expected . This is most gratifying , as at the present time the calls on the Charity are of so pressing a nature as to induce us to hope that it will be found possible , at no very distant date , to still further extend the work of the

Institution , although it must be remembered that at the present time the expenditure in Annuities alone is upwards of £ 15 , 000 per annum . This vast sum is

distributed periodically among the 428 Annuitants on the Funds , and the amount of good which results is really impossible of being estimated . Here we have a small army of Aged Brethren , or their Widows ,

receiving from the bounty of the Craft sufficient to keep them in comfort during the closing years of their lives—indeed in many cases the amounts secured from

the Benevolent Institution is the only source of income possessed by the Annuitants , who , without it , would have no alternative but to accept the cold

Next Week's Festival.

shelter of the poor house , or perhaps die—as many a poor creature does—at our very doors , from lack of the common necessaries of life . It is , then , to prevent such calamities that the Eoyal Masonic Benevolent Institution primarily exists , and with such a work

before it it should never have to appeal in vain to the Craft for assistance . We have so often pointed out the particular claims of this Institution that it seems hardly possible to find anything fresh to say in regard to it , and

perhaps , after all , the old arguments are the best we can use . It is founded for the express purpose of relieving the distress of old age , of helping the aged Brother or his Widow in the hour of their adversity , and , it may be , of repaying the kindness of years ago , when , under more favourable circumstances , the

applicants themselves were able to render assistance to the needy of their day . It is peculiar among the three great Charitable Funds of the English Craft , as beinsf the onlv one that is interminable , excent bv

death ; and as a consequence its liabilities may be said to be unlimited—at least for a considerable period . But , in face of this heavy responsibility it has no adequate reserve fund to fall back upon ; in the event of voluntarv subscriptions failing or falling

v JL O O short , its income from invested funds and from permanent contributions is less than one-fifth of its present annual expenditure . Is it then to be wondered at that an urgent appeal is annually addressed to the Craft , or that the past supporters of the

Institution are deeply concerned as to the success or failure of each succeeding year's Festival ? But it is not only on behalf of the 428 annuitants already on the Funds of the Institution that appeals

are necessary . At the present time there are , in addition , 140 Aged Brothers or Widows applying for the benefits of the Institution , all of whom have been approved as worthy of such assistance as the laws

allow , but for few of whom it will be possible to provide , unless something unforeseen occurs . It is not necessary that we should say more in regard to the means which can afford relief to these numerous

candidates than to point out that the death of present annuitants is the only way by which ordinary vacancies can arise . Surely , much as our readers would like to see a large number of these candidates admitted

at the next election , they do not desire to see them relieved at the cost of the lives of present annuitants . There is only one other way open to the Craft—to subscribe such a sum as will warrant the creation of

additional annuities , and thereafter subscribe , year by year , sufficient to maintain such annuities . We wish it were in our power to do all that we desire to make known the wants and the claims of

the Benevolent Institution , but , like many more of its true friends , we can only do a very small modicum of what we feel is its due . We have supported it in

years gone by , are anxious to benefit it at the present time , and intend to do as much as lies in our power to help it in years to come . With such sentiments *