Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS I Provincial Grand Lodge of Derbyshire 2 Progress in Freemasonry , 1886 3 Masonic Reading 3

CORRESPONDENCEWestminster and Keystone Lodge , No . 10 t , Confirmation of Minutes $ Control of Lodge Funds S Wanted jj Notes and Queries 6 Masonic Concert at Richmond 6

REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 6 Instruction .., 8 Royal Arch g Instruction 0

Ancient and Accepted Rite 9 Board of Benevolence 10 The Sphinx Club io Theatres 1 Masonic and General Tidings 11 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 12

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WE have hardly left ourselves any margin for further greeting The New anc j congratulation ; but vve should not feel that vve vvere doi ng the right thing if vve allowed the week to pass without wishing our readers a "" Happy New Year . " We have passed successfully through

a not uneventful twelvemonth . We have seen the Craft maintaining and extending its beneficent influence in all directions . We have withstood almost without an effort the attacks which are always being directed against us , and , in spite of the loss , through death , of many of our most experienced members .

we are stronger considerably than we vvere a year since . As regards the immediate future , the outlook is more promising than we have known it before , and unless the signs that are about us should turn out to be fallacious , there is everv likelihood of the year we are just entering upon proving

at least as brilliant as the most brilliant of its predecessors . Under these circumstances , it becomes our duty—and a duty we fulfil vvith infinite pleasure—to offer our readers the customary New Year ' s greeting . May all their hopes and aspirations be realised to their own advantage and the general benefit of the Craft !

IT vvill be seen from the report we publish elsewhere of the The Board c . of proceedings of the Board of Benevolence , at its meeting on the

22 nd ult ., that for the last three or four years the demands upon its resources have been unusually heavy , and that since the 7 th March , 1882 , the capital of the Fund it administers has been diminished to the extent of

£ 9000 . What renders the position of the Board still more difficult is the fact that , while this drain has been going on steadily , there has been an equally steady increase in the number of applications made to it for help . Thus , as we noted last week in our sketch of Freemasonry during the

twelve months from 1 st December , 1885 , to 30 th November , 1886 , there vvere during that period 3 86 cases relieved with sums amounting in the aggregate to £ 1060 , while during the previous corresponding twelve months the number . of cases was 378 , and the amount distributed amongst

them ^ 9468 , being an increase for the year of eight cases and close on £ 600 in amount . On Wednesday , the 22 nd ult ., 54 , out of 57 , applications were favourably entertained , the total of the grants amounting to £ 1447 . Thus as the Board commenced

the evening with only ^ 500 remaining in hand out of the proceeds of the £ 3000 Consols sold out just previously to meet its overdraft , the new year begins unfavourably and there will be no alternative but to resort at an early date to the process of selling out stock in order to keep pace vvith the

demands now being made upon the Fund . There is also the very great probability that , with the large amount of distress prevailing , these heavy demands will continue in the same , if not in an increased , ratio , and by the end of 1887 the present amount of stock will have been still further

diminished . What makes matters still worse is that these sales of stock involve a serious loss of income , vvhat has been sold thus far having entailed a loss of £ 270 . Thus the position of the Board is a critical one . The demands for aid keep on increasing and the capital of the fund keeps

on diminishing , slowly it is true , but none the less surely . The quarterages do not suffice for the current expenditure , and the annual dividends are of course smaller with each further sale of stock . Yet the applicants cannot

be sent empty away—the spirit of Freemasonry revolts from such a courseand the question we have to consider is what had best be done to keep the Fund of Benevolence up to its necessary strength ,

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WE agree with the remark made b y Bro . S . POPE , S . G . D ., ^ Collars . " > ^ e letter we published from him a fortni ght since that the subject of Past Masters' Collars " hardly appears worth the discussion it has provoked . " At the same time we note with considerable

surprise the weakness of the arguments adduced in support of what we may call tbe official view of the question , as distinguished from the sentimental view over vvhich it prevailed at the last Grand Lodge meeting by a bare majority

of one vote . Indeed , Bro . POPE concedes all the supporters of the latter position can desire when he writes that "if Grand Lodge chooses to allow them , "—the Past Masters— " also to wear a collar of rank there can be no

objection . " This is equivalent to saying that the elaborate arguments which he and others advanced against Past Masters wearing their collars , except in Grand , Prov . or Dist . Grand Lodge , and their own lodges may be dismissed as of no value , and that the very fine distinction he attempted

unsuccessfully to draw between the collar that is worn as the ensign of rank and the collar that is worn as the ensign of office might as well have been unattempted . In other words , the official view , though it obtained a majority of votes , has not a leg to stand upon in the way of argument ,

and there can be " no objection to supplanting it by the sentimental view . This , to say the least of it , is most unkind to the 211 brethren vvho voted for Bro . POPE and what they had the right to assume were his arguments in support of his opinion . Then last week our Rev . Bro . COCHRANE

returned to the charge , and pointed out that in certain lodges there are certain officers to whom no special places are assigned , and that it is not always the custom to "lump" the visitors together " on the right of the W . M . ' s chair . " But our reverend brother must forgive us if we point out

that our argument against the difficulty he alleged of distinguishing the lodge officers from visiting brethren vvho were officers in their own lodges , in the event of all being collared indiscriminately , was not based on exceptional cases or on deviations from law or custom . We remarked "that the

officers of a lodge have their several places assigned to them , and the visiting brethren theirs likewise , " and Bro . COCHRANE ' statement that in certain exceptionally large lodges there are more officers than in lodges of average strength , and that in many lodges the visitors sit among the members

instead of in the place assigned to them does not affect our argument . We have not a word to say against the propriety of appointing the officers mentioned by Bro . COCHRANE in the Westminster and Keystone , the Apollo University , and other large lodges , nor do we see the slightest

objection to visitors sitting by the friends who invite them ; but in spite of its appearing somewhat dogmatic , we prefer , when arguing a question , to base our position on the general prescriptions of law or custom . However , we have no doubt everything will in the end be arranged in accordance with

that spirit of harmony we value so justly in things Masonic , especially now that Bro . POPE has so unceremoniously , yet at the same time so goodnaturedly , declared that all his arguments and refined distinctions are " no objection " to Past Masters' collars being generally worn .

* * * New Year ' s THE annual New Year ' s Entertainment to the inmates of Entertainment the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution at Croydon will Ht ¦ UTOyuOflt ¦*

take place on Wednesday next , and vvill no doubt prove as festive a gathering as any of its predecessors . Bro . TERRY , and the brethren who assist him in the work of preparation , manage things so admirably on these occasions , that vve doubt if a repetition of Sunday ' s

snowstorm and hurricane on the appointed day would have the effect of appreciably diminishing the perfect sense of enjoyment which always prevails both among our Old Folks and their friends . Indeed , matters are so contrived that a visitor for the first time imagines the real hosts and

the real guests have interchanged places . This is as it should be at a meeting where all present are members , or related to , or connected with , members of a common brotherhood , and we hope the circumstances of Wednesday , especially as regards the weather , vvill be in all things propitious .