Our Weekly Budget.

College ( lent for the occasion by Bro . J . Methven ) , where a splendid banquet was provided by Bro . Dartnell of the High-street , Southampton .

The festival of St . John was celebrated on Wednesday by the St . John ' s Lodge , Melrose , to the number of between 80 and 90 , marching in procession , headed by the 4 th Roxburgh ( Hawick ) Yolunteer band , thrico round the Market Cross , and then making a circuit of the town .

After dining in the Corn Exchange the procession was resumed , each member being armed with a flaming torch , and again the Masons perambulated round the Market

Cross . Thereafter tho Abbey was visited , where the customary parade was gone through , amid a fine display of fireworks , which , in combination with tho torchlight , illumined the ancient ruin to great advantage .

Wo are pleased to announce that tho annual Christmas treat to the annuitants of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution will take place on Wednesday next , at the Institution , Croydon . We understand that some of our

energetic brethren have provided an amusing entertainment . As usual , Bro . Terry , the worthy Secretary , who will be assisted by Dr . Strong , will conduct the proceedings .

r The first meeting of the brethren who have kindly accepted the office of Steward for the Anniversary Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and the widows of Freemasons , will be held

on the 4 th of January next , at four o ' clock in tho afternoon , at Freemasons' Hall . Brethren who havo not yet enrolled their names can do so on application to Bro . James Terry , tho Secretary to tho Institution .

Our worthy brother T . A . Adams P . G . P ., The Octogenerian , announces his Annual Ball , which will take place on Tuesday , Gth February , at Willis ' s Rooms , King-street , St . James ' s ; an efficient body of Stewards , many of them distinguished in the Order , have consented to act , and we trust their combined efforts will ensure tho success that has hitherto attended Bro . Adams' annual gatherings .

The report of tho Special Committee appointed by Grand Lodge on the 0 th of September last , for the purpose of recommending the most appropriate mode of recording the thankfulness of the Craft for the safe return of the M . W . the Grand Master from India will be

presented to an especial Grand Lodge to be holden on Wednesday next , the 3 rd January , at Freemasons' Hall , W . C , and , if approved of , the report will bo recommended for adoption at the next Quarterly Communication . The Grand Lodge will bo opened at 7 o ' clock .

Masonic Banquets.

MASONIC BANQUETS .

( From the Keystone ) . WE havo reached the season of Masonic Banquets—not that they are especially numerous , even now , but they arc moro frequent than at other seasons . Many Lodges meet " around the mahogany " at their annnal meetings , that do so afc no other time . In our opinion , snch a custom is promotive of genuine Masonic feeling , and

strengthens the mystic tio between brethren . In proof of this fact wo propose to consider some of tho pleasures of tho table . How refreshing aro the memories that fill our miuds as vvc recur to tho joys of our childhood ' s home , when we gathered , a gay and loving band , avonnd onr father ' s board , aud feasted not loss upon a

mother s cheerful converse , than upon the viands her lovo and caro had prepared . Sometimes they portray the scenes of later days , when fatigued with the toils of the day , hungry aud thirsty , wc sought at night our sheltered homo . How refreshing tho welcome that greeted us ! How quickly was the whole current of our

feelings chauged ! A table arranged with neatness , aud prepared by generous hands , awaited us—what though ifc was spread with a simple , or scanty fare ? Lovo prepared it . Love presided over it . Beaming happy faces surrounded it . Cheerful voices mingled over

it—faces all tho brighter for onr coming—voices whoso cheerful tones awakened a responsive echo in onr own breasts . Such a table does more than appeaso hunger . Ifc refreshes the soul . It invigorates tho moral and social nature . No man cau come under its influence without being made happier ana better , Ifc ia a school of

Masonic Banquets.

training as well as a fountain of pleasure . How many of the vivid recollections of our childhood's home aro associated with those cheerful gatherings around the family board . How many a care-worn man has been sustained by tho heart sympathies—tho pure and radiant cheerfulness , thafc pervades tho circle which gathers daily around his well-ordered-table ! Snchja table has been styled the " emblem of

home . It is more than this ; it is homo itself—tho centre of its attraction , the radient point of its beneficent sway . It is the seat and soul of its power . Banish this regular gathering around the family board aud you banish home from our land . If each member of tho family should take his meals alono , liko the prisoner in his cell , who does not feel thafc homo would be home no longer ? The sweet

amenities , the unselfish courtesies , the habits of regularity which are the daily discipline of a well-ordered and happy home , would all be lost . The family board is the strongest conservator of the family tie—tho legitimate fruit of civilization , tho harmonizor of every domestic and social organization . Ifc is degraded when made to minister only to the demands of appetite . Ifc has a higher mission .

Influences centre around ifc and radiate from ifc in the cementing of friendship , tho nurturing of love , tho healing of alienation , the cultivation of refined and genial manners , which leave their impress upon tho entire character and life . Who can tell how much ho owes to their constantly recurring power during all the years of childhood and tho riper experience of manhood ? What

happy hours have we passed—what valuable lessons have wo learned—what sweefc communion with kindred hearts have wo enjoyed around that common table in onr dear old home ! Now apply these acknowledged principles to our life in the Craft . Freemasonry is a moral , intellectual , social , and convivial fraternity . It , too , should rightly esteem and jndiciously profit by tho pleasures

of tho table . Masons should meet statedly around tho convivial board , nofc necessarily afc every Lodge meeting , but certainly upon at least one occasion during every Masonio year . The annnal banquet should gather together all of the brethren into a , loving throng . Ifc should seat them in an unbroken circle " around tho mahogany . " Ifc should fill them with the home feeling thafc wo experience so fully

when seated at onr own board , surrounded by the members of our family . Every brother is a member of the Masonic family , espe . cially every brother who is a member of our own Lodge . Freemasons should be loth to entirely surrender their Lodge banquets . True , they should nofc be suffered to degenerate into occasions for gormandizing , or bacchanalian orgies . Perhaps such an experience

in the now somewhat remote past led to tho comparative disuse of the banquet . There was a time when knife-and-fork Masons brought disrepute upon the Craft , and when the excessive drinking customs of society were prevalent afc convivial Lodge gatherings ; bnfc the times aro now altered . It is no longer respectable to bo either a glutton or a drunkard . A "three-bottlo man" is

not considered any longer the highest class of man in society . Wo may , then , safely indulge in tho pleasures of tho table . Wo may at least annually gather tho Craft for social and convivial enjoyment—that is , wo may if we havo the means . Poverty and banquets arc not twins . So long as we have empty treasuries we must have , so far as tho Lodge is concerned , empty stomachs , and

forego tho social joys that are associated with tho festal board . Of course we do not advocate the squandering of Lodgo funds , or tho wiping out of tho treasurer ' s account . Neither a Lodge nor an individual should give a banquet without having ample pecuniary ability to do so . But wherever the funds permit it , or subcriptions are obtainable forthe purpose , wo aro sure that the gathering of the

brethren , en masse , on or near St . John ' s Day , and their joint parti , cipation in healthful convivial pleasures , can only result in rational enjoyments that is peculiarly Masonic . Tho earliest Lodge record we possess , dated December 18 , A . D . 1599 ( Lodge of Edinburgh , Mary ' s Chapol , No . 1 Scotland ) , refers to the banquet , and for many

years thereafter it was deemed an indispensable adjunct to the ceremonies of tho Craft , and was provided at the expense of the newly-made brethren . If there be any truth , beauty or forco in the principles we enunciated in the beginning of this article , then Free ' masons should bo loth to dispense with Masonic banquets .

Consecration Of Kenmuir Lodge, 570, Springbourne.

CONSECRATION OF KENMUIR LODGE , 570 , SPRINGBOURNE .

THE consecration of Lodgo Kenmm ' r took placo on Fiiday , 22 nd December 1876 . Tho ceremony was performed in a highly creditable manner by Bro . F . A . Barrow P . G . D . M ., Provincial Grand Lodgo , Glasgow . In the course of tho . "ening Bro . Barrow delivered an address on tho principles of tho Order , iu which he strongly enjoined the brethren to maintain in all their integrit y tho

genuine tenets of the Order , and above all to bo upright and just in all their actions , and seek to feel and cultivate lovo to God and goodwill to man . Tho Provincial Graud Lodgo being closed , Lodge Kenmnir was opened by Bro . Aikman , who requested Bro . Gilles to confer on Bro . Barrow and tho other members of tho deputation tho honour of affiliation , for which Bro . Barrow -efcrirned thanks on

behalf of himself and tho deputation , and expressed how highly they appreciated the honour conferred upon them , after which Bro . Law , in a felicitous speech , passed a high culoginm on Bro . Barrow for his eloquent and practical address , and commented in glowing terms on the zeal and interest Bro . Barrow had shown for many years towards Freemasonry .

Eboraeum Lodge , Ho . 1611 . —Wo understand that this prosperous young Lodge intends holding its fifst banquet on tho 18 th January ' next , at tho Queen ' s Hotel , Mioklegato , York ,