The Grand Festival.

THE GRAND FESTIVAL .

THIS day ( Saturday ) being St . George ' s Day , the Annual Grand Festival of the United Grand Lodge of England will be held , in accordance with the Constitutions , on Wednesday . At the meeting of Grand Lodge , the G . Officers for the year will be appointed and invested with

the insignia of their respective offices , and afterwards the brethren will dine together , in accordance with the timehonoured custom which prevails in this country in conection with everything that possesses or may be supposed to possess even a small modicum of public interest , of

consummating the work of the day by a gathering at the festive board . Everything will be done to give honour to the event , and in accordance with a very proper rule , there will be a complete absence of Lodge meetings in the

metropolitan district . One Grand Festival , however , i 3 so much like another , that to say anything new in connection with it is well-nigh impossible . Were there any reason to supposethat His Royal Highness the Grand Master would preside in person , there is no doubt the meetino * would be

on a larger scale than usual ; but having regard to the fact of the Court being in mourning for the late Emperor of all the Russias , there is little likelihood of His Royal Highness being present . Indeed , the number and variety of the Prince ' s engagements make it extremely difficult for

him to appear often in his place in Grand Lodge . Naturally the Craft would be intensely gratified if he _ were able to preside morefrequently , but they know that his interest in all that relates to Freemasonry is very considerable . Nothing of importance is done until it has been submitted

for , and received , his sanction . Not a few Grand Masters have thought they conferred sufficient honour on the Craft by nominally presiding over its destinies and discharging their duties by deputy . But the Prince of Wales has no such

iax ideas as to the position he occupies in Freemasonry . He is aware that , if the Grand Lodge is honoured b y Baying him , the heir apparent to the British crown , for its chief , he , too , is equally honoured by being

annuallrey elected Grand Master of the oldest and most splendid Masonic jurisdiction * the world has ever known . Hence , though it cannot be doubted the Craft would rejoice at seeing him more frequently present at the Communications of

wand Lodge , they are perfectly satisfied that in his hands the honour and well-being of Freemasonry are in safe keeping . But if we cannot say much that is new in connection with the Grand Festival , it offers a convenient opportunity for

glancing at the events of the past six years . His Royal Hig hness the Prince of Wales accepted the G . Mastership of the United Grand Lodge of England in September 1874 , | "it it was not till the month of April of the following * year that he was formally installed into office bv the Earl of

Carnarvon in the presence of the largest , as ' it was also the most brilliant , gathering of Freemasons ever held in this country . However , the events of that memorable day when our Grand Master was installed in the Royal Albert Ton K - ensIn S fcon ' in tuo presence of between 8000 and -WJOOO brethren , are too fresh in the recollection of our

Readers to need they should be reconnted in these columns , bet us rather note what has since happened—the progress * oat has been made , the e * ood that has been done iu Eno * lisli

Masonry since Albert Edward , Prince of Wales , was ' first sa mted and proclaimed Grand Master . A mere recital of ^ at has taken place during the brief period of his wand Mastershi p will serve to show that English

The Grand Festival.

Freemasons have reason to bo thankful at their choice of a ruler . Mere increase in the number of Lodges and members does not necessarily indicate a commensurate increase in strength ; but wo are justified in assuming that in this

respect the progress made by Freemasonry in the last half dozen years has been in the main satisfactory . Without , then , laying too great stress on numerical increase , we note with some degree of pleasure that sixty-six new Lodges were constituted in 1875 . The year following the increase

was even greater , the number of Lodges for which warrants were granted being sixty-nine , while in 1877 no less than seventy-three Lodges received Avarrants of constitution . It was hardly , however , to be expected , or even desired , that so rapid a rate of progress should be maintained ; and in

1878 there was visible a slight falling off , only sixty-five Lodges being added to tho roll of Grand Lodge . In 1879 this diminution was maintained , and but fifty-three warrants were granted ; while in 1880 , up to the time when the Grand Lodge Calendar was published , but

thirty-three warrants were issued . Thus , in the six years under consideration , no less than 359 new Lodges have been added to the roll of Grand Lodge . London , the Provinces , and Districts abroad have had each their share in the increase ; but what is most gratifying is , that the

Provinces and Districts have benefited most largely , only about one-fourth of the whole 360 being located in the Metropolitan area . It is , indeed , this very fact of the bulk of the new Lodges being established in the country and the colonies and possessions of the British Crown , that

impresses us most favourably with the belief that , in this respect , Freemasonry has acquired a real and substantial accession of strength . Especially satisfactory is it to note the creation of so many new Lodges abroad—in India , in

South Africa , and in our Australasian Colonies ; and we think it was a wise policy which has confined , for the time at least , the issue of fresh warrants for Lodges to the Provinces and foreign Districts . A further increase in the number of our Metropolitan Lodges is unnecessary for the

present . We have said that the Grand Master is not as often present in Grand Lodge as the brethren would like to see , and that we know this is due , not to his lack of interest in the Craft , but to the heavy demands that are being made

upon his time—demands which it must severely tax even the amazing energy of His Royal Hig hness to satisfy . But if he has only twice appeared in Grand Lodge since his Installation—once at an Especial Communication , when he

appointed and invested Lieut .-Colonel Shadwell H . Clerke as Grand Secretary , and once when his brother-in-law , the Crown Prince of Denmark , honoured Grand Lodge with a visit—there are several occasions on which he has taken

part in the work of Masonry . Thus , in his capacity of patron of the Grand Lodge of Scotland he laid the foundation stone of the new Post Office at Glasgow . On his way to India he performed a similar function in respect of the new Market at Gibraltar , and one of the earliest of his

public acts , on arriving in India , was the laying of the foundation stone of the new Docks at Bombay . Since then he has installed Lord Suffield , K . C . B ., as Provincial Grand Master of Norfolk , and laid the corner stones of Truro Cathedral , the last occasion on which he has shown his

interest in Masonry being his visit to , and entertainment by , the Graud Master ' s Lodge , No . 1 , which met for the occasion at the Mansion House , in the Mayoralty of Sir Francis Truscott , Grand J . Warden of England . Thus in the six years he has been Grand Master there are nearly a dozen