The Boys' School.

THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

THF Eighty-fifth Anniversary Festival of the Roya ] Masonic Institution for Boys was held on Wednesday , at the Crystal Palace , Sydenham , under the presidency of the Right Hon . Visconnt Holmesdale , Prov . G . M . for Kent . The result proved in excess of what even the most sanguine friends of the Institution had honed for .

and when we tell our readers that the amount realised was $ 22 , 444 , we feel sure they will agree with ns that every one should be satisfied . This total exceeds by some $ 4 , 500 the largest collection hitherto announced at a

charity festival , and is one of which we , as "Freemasons , can indeed he proud . The total which comes nearest to that of " Our Boys" was subscribed on behalf of the Commercial Travellers' Schools , at a time when the Committee of that Institution were making a somewhat

similar appeal to that which is now before the Craft on behalf of the Boys' School , —Enlargement of Premises . Jf we take into consideration the great nnmber of persons to whom an appeal on behalf of the Commercial Travellers ' Schools could be made , , the immense amount of orsanisaa * " O

. — _ _ _ tion possessed by that class , and the number of subscriptions which would be sent in from large business firms and others , outside the body itself , we may be able to judge of the work which has been accomplished by Freemasons , who have not only equalled this supreme effort of the

Commercials , but exceeded it by £ 4 , 500 odd , or 25 per cent ., and . that , too , at a time when the cry is— " Business is yery bad . " The amount announced on Wednesday represents the work of 391 Stewards , for although there were 402 on the

roll , eleven of them had omitted to send in their lists at the time the figures were totalled . This gives an average of over £ 57 a Steward , an amount much above that usually reached in connection with our charity Festivals .

The greater part of this year ' s total is sent up from the Provinces , the donations from which are more than double the amount of those received from London . The actual figures being : —London £ 7 , 273 . Provinces £ 15 , 171 .

It appears from a rough glance at the totals that the answer to the special appeal of the Institution is pretty general throughout the country , instead of heing confined , as it might have been , to one particular centre , where a more active canvass was possible . This in

itself shows the popularity of the scheme which is proposed , and , coupled with the splendid result achieved , proves that the brethren of England are conscious of the good work done in the School , and are desirous of

extending it . Whether we go to the extreme north , the south , the east , or the west , we find Provinces figuring for sums far in excess of their average , and all vieing with each other for the place of honour . East Lancashire heads the list with £ 2 , 100 . Kent—the Province of which the noble Chairman is the Grand Master—comes next , and although

occupying a secondary position does so only by a very sli ght difference , its total being £ 2 , 000 . . We suppose it ts nnjn 3 t to ask for more , bnt we should very much have hked another hundred guineas from this district , and

snch a donation would have placed it at the head of the Provinces . West Yorkshire follows with a total ° f £ 1 , 500 , and then we have Northumberland , and Westmoreland and Cumberland , each with four figure totals ,

The Boys' School.

the former answering for £ 1 , 230 , and the latter for a level £ 1 , 000 . We thus have a total of £ 7 , 830 from five provinces , an amount exceeding that contributed by London by upwards of £ 500 , and being far in excess of what a few years since would have been looked upon as a

splendid total from the whole of the country , London included . We can thus judge of the great advance which has been made in the support of our Institutions . Following the Provinces we have already enumerated comes that of North and East Yorkshire , with a donation of

£ 879 . We cannot express ourselves too strongly in admiration of this amount , a few years since , North and East Yorkshire was all but unknown at our Festivals , but now , thanks to the continued exertions of a few of its members , and the liberal support they have met with , the

district bids fair to rival most of its neighbours in the amount of its subscriptions . Berks and Bucks sends £ 591 , Leicestershire £ 490 , Oxford £ 459 , Rutland £ 405 , Essex £ 365 , Devon £ 317 , West Lancashire £ 292 , Derbyshire £ 239 , and Cheshire £ 163 . We shall not here attempt any

comparison of these amounts , as it is our intention , next week , to analyse the lists , as we have done in former years . The greatest share of the honour attached to this year ' s result should , of conrse , be given to the Stewards who have collected the total amount , for it must be known that ,

unless good p leaders had been about , the brethren generally would have been ignorant of the wants of the Institution , or , at least , wou . ld have known very much less about them than has been the case . The Board of Stewards this year numbered over 400 , and was the largest ever

known in connection with the Charity , exceeding by some J 70 the average number of the past ten years . In order to show the increase in this particular branch of supporters of the Boys' School we give the numbers of the Stewards who have served at the past twenty-two Festivals ,

together with the amount paid each year as Steward ' s fee . From this latter it will be seen that serving a Stewardship a few years ago was a much more expensive undertaking than it is at the present time , £ 4 and £ 5 being the regular oi tne

amount during rne nrst ten years period . The actual numbers are as follows : — Year No . of Amount of Stewards Steward ' s Pee £ s d 1862 107 4 0 0 1863 115 4 0 0

1864 89 4 0 0 1865 80 5 0 0 1866 109 4 0 0 1867 79 5 0 0 1868 110 4 0 0 1869 205 3 3 0 1870 236 4 4 0 1871 109 4 0 0 iu

1872 12 b a u 1873 173 3 3 0 1874 167 3 3 0 1875 240 2 2 0 1876 282 2 . 20 1877 226 2 2 0 1878 223 2 2 0 1879 200 2 2 0 1880 319 2 2 0 1881 233 2 2 0 1882 269 2 2 0 1883 , 402 2 2 0 As regards the Festival itself—it was a great success j