The Benevolent Institution Elections.

THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION ELECTIONS .

THE result of the elections for the benefits of the two branches of the Boyal Masonic Benevolent Institution will , as a matter of course , be a source of pleasure to some , while to others it means

disappointment for at least another year . The meeting of last Friday was held for the purpose of electing 20 Men from an approved list of 61 candidates , and 12 Widows from an approved list of 55 candidates . These appointments were made up as follows : —In

the Male Branch of the Fund there were originally twelve vacancies , five others were afterwards caused by death , and the usual three deferred cases . In the Widows' branch we find originally seven vacancies , two more were declared through ' death , and the three

deferred . It was early to be seen that to secure one of the coverted places on the list of successful a very large number of votes would be required , and when we state that in the Male branch the highest polled 5 , 056 and the lowest successful 2 , 650 , and in the

Female branch the highest 6 , 175 and the lowest 4 , 414 , it will be understood what a tremendous amount of working a case required . Looking through the Male list we find that the Provinces gained no less than fifteen of the coveted places , while London only obtained four , one case

—Brother Fredk . J . Bubie—was omitted from the list of candidates , in error ; we cannot say whether he belongs to London or the Provinces , no particulars being at hand . In the other branch the country candidates are equally as fortunate , they claiming nine of the twelve vacancies . This is indeed a

splendid record for the Provinces , and one that should make the London brethren feel how desirable it is becoming to combine , and have a centre the same as is now done in the majority of the Provinces .

We are sorry to see that the applicants who have applied so many times for the benefit of the Institution are again unsuccessful , so that unless death comes to relieve them from their sufferings they will again come forward to seek election . We find that one fourth , four third , two second , and thirteen first Male

application cases managed to secure election ; this latter must be most galling to those unfortunate candidates who have come forward year after year for the last ten or twelve years and are still unsuccessful . The Widows' cases were made up of three sixth , one

fifth , two second , and six first application cases , so here again we have the older applicants still left on the list . This is indeed hard lines , but we suppose it cannot be helped ; we do wish however that some of our influential brethren would come forward

m the same way as they do for the last application cases in connection with the Boys' and Girls' Schools and try and secure the election of these unfortunate Brethren and Widows . We will now leave this subject , trusting that

The Benevolent Institution Elections.

during the ensuing twelve months something will be done to secure the election of some of the urgent cases , so that these old people may have tho necessary comforts of life in their last days .

Masonry's Antiquity And Significance.

MASONRY'S ANTIQUITY AND SIGNIFICANCE .

Freemasonry is a Speculative and Moral Science , illustrated by an Operative Art . —From first to last , Masonry is work . —The candidate in Masonry is ever advancing . —Light is to be sought until perfectly attained . —Address by Bro . Giles Mnmfonl Ilillyer

Past Grand Master , at the Public Installation of the Officers of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Mississippi , at its Fiftieth Annual Communication in Natchez . 2 Ath January 1868 .

WINTER'S noon is just past . The Sun ' s low twelve has sounded its melancholy notes , and Nature seemingly reposes in the lap of death . The old year smiles upon ns as he fades into the dim past—his lately green , bright locks changing to the sombre gray ,

and leaving his blessing on his successor to the Throne of Years—that successor soon himself to be numbered with the inexorable past . The winter ' s wind occasionally blows ; the damp fogs remind ns of the chills of earthly sorrow ever with man as a heritage ; and yet each one knows that

the sun , though at the lowest point of his annual course , yet shines , and warms , and gladdens ; and that even in the bitterest winter of discontent , the clouds are gradually passing ; the sun will soon begin to ascend , as surely as winter must turn to spring and seed-time ripen into

harvest . In Nature's calendar there are two solstitial periods . Accustomed as we are from earliest infancy to the earth ' s regular movement in its daily and yearly course , we feel it not . Tied to its surface , participants in its motion , we are

not conscious that the earth moves . To us , it is . seemingly the great fixed point about which Nature revolves , for which it was created , and with which it is inseparably connected . The sun comes and goes ; it is clear in the east , bright in the south , and serene in the west ; pr if the

clouds so gather as to obscure its gradual changes of position , there are still noticeable periods of darkness passing away , of daytime , and of gathering night . So , too , with the stars . Going back to the period when , watched by the Chaldean shepherds and the husbandmen of Ethopia and Egypt ,

" The milk-white bull with golden horns Led on the new-born year , " we find , for instance , in the neck of the constellation Taurus , the Pleiades ; and in its face , the Hyades " whom Grecia gave their showering names , " of whom Aldebaran

is the chief . Then follows Orion with his bands , pursuing the Pleiades , whom to save from his fury the fabled Jupiter is said to have placed in the heavens , where Orion still pursues them , but in vain . Says that earliest and most magnificent of all poems , alluding to the regular progression of the celestial phenomena :