Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS— PAGP . Nothing Succeeds like Success ... ... ... ... ... 3 ° 7 A Year ' s Labour ... ... ... ... ¦* ... 307 The Largest Grand Lodge ... ... ... ¦•• •¦• 30 S

Mithraic Worship ... ... ... ... ... 309 Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex ... ... ... ... 310 New Masonic Hall at East Grinstead ... ... ... ... 3 " Resignation of the Deputy Prov . Grand Master of Essex ... ... 311 Obituary ... ... ... ... ... ... •¦¦ 3 n

MASONIC NOTESRecent Centenary Celebration of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys ... 313 Quarterly Courts of the Girls ' and Boys'Schools ... ... ... 313 Masonic Gathering in Rochester Cathedral ... ... ... 313 Death of Bro . A . A . Pendlebury , Past A . G . Secretary ... ... 313 J ubilee Masters' Lodge , No . 2712 ... ... ... ... 3 ' "

Correspondence ... ... ... ... ... ... 314 Annual Athletic Sports of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys ... ... 314 Annual Picnic of the Gallery Lodge , No . 192 S ... ... ... 314 The New Masonic Lodge at Portland ... ... ... ... 314 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... 315

Mard Masonry ... ... ... .,. ... ... 315 Knights Templar ... ... ... ... ... ... 316 Royal Masonic Institution for Boys .,. ... ... ... ... 316 Masonic Service in Rochester Cathedral ... ... ... ... 317 Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 31 S

Nothing Succeeds Like Success.

NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS .

People appear to he amazed , and not without reason , at tlie marvellous success which has attended thc different special Masonic Festivals that have been celebrated during the last 10 years . But , after all , this success has been strictly in accordance

with the well-known law which we have chosen as the title for our present article— " Nothing succeeds like success . " When , as the year 188 S approached , it was determined to make a great effort to celebrate worthily Ihe 100 th anniversary of the foundation of the Roval Masonic Institution for Girls , there were

few , if any , data to guide those on whom devolved the duty of organising the necessary preparations . The Jubilee of the School had been' celebrated in 18 3 8 , when tlie donations and subscriptions amounted to £ 1000 . Ten vears later the Hoys '

School Jubilee was held , but so slight was llie interest it aroused that even to this day it is not known who presided as Chairman , and what amount was realised on behalf of the Charity . In 1861 , Bro . FREDERICK BI . NCKES—to whom the Craft is far more

indebted for the development of its Charitable Institutions than , for the present , at all events , it seems prepared to admitappeared upon the scene as Secretary of the Hoys ' School , and straightway the Festivals were , lirst of all , doubled

and trebled , and then slowly but surely quadrupled and quinrupled , and so forth . In 18 75 , H . R . H . the Prince of WALES was installed is M . W . Grand Master , and it became manifest that Loyally and Charity were , in fact as well as in theory , the guiding principles

of our Society . The Festivals of the Boys' School took to yielding £ 10 , 000 , £ 12 , 000 , and upwards , and those of the Girls ' School and Benevolent Institution very naturally followed in the wake , and as time went on , occasionally equalled and even

surpassed them . In 1881 it was found necessary lo enlarge the Boys' School in order that it might keep pace with the increasing pressure upon its resources , and it was resolved to build a Preparatory School and otherwise extend the existing premises .

Hence a Special Building Fund was started and at the Festival i" 188 3 , at which Lord HOLMESDALE—now Farl AMHERSTpresided , the then unprecedented sum of- £ 23 , 000 was obtained .

t may , therefore , have occurred to those who were organising the preparations for the Girls' School Centenary that if the record achieved in 18 * 3 in thc held of Masonic Charity was exceeded b y 5 ° or 70 ^* er cent , a grand—an historical—success , would be

Nothing Succeeds Like Success.

accomplished . Well , no effort was spared to effect this object . His Royal Highness the M . W . G . M . graciously consented to take che chair , nearly 1500 ladies and brethren gave their services as Stewards , and Io ! instead of the record being beaten by some

50 or 70 per cent , the total obtained reached £ 51 , 600 , or substantially more than double what had been obtained for the Boys ' School only five short years previously . An interval of over three years followed and then the sound of preparation began to be heard for the Jubilee Festival of the Royal Masonic

Benevolent Institution , which had been founded b y Grand Lodge , at the instance of H . R . H . the Duke of SUSSEX , M . W . G . M ., in 1 S 42 . As a matter of course , a Jubilee is a less interesting and important anniversary than a Centenary , and to this extent

the authorities . of the Benevolent Institution , who had resolved on making the most of the proposed celebration , may be held to have laboured under some disadvantage in their efforts to enlist support . But the Committee of

Management and Bro . TERRY , the Secretary , went on pegging away their very hardest , with the result that under the auspices of Bro . the -Earl of MOUNT EDGCUMBE , and through the exertions of a Board of Stewards which comprised upwards of

1500 ladies and brethren , a total of donations and subscriptions amounting to £ 69 , 000—or more by some £ 17 , 500 than the Girls' Centenary had yielded—was obtained . Six years pass , and again we find ourselves in all the excitement of a second

Centenary celebration—that of the Royal Masonic . Institution for Boys . Bro . BINCKES had retired from the office of Secretary , in which he had achieved such a succession of triumphs , and had been succeeded by Bro . J . MORRISON MCLEOD , a man of

equal energy , and at the same time very considerably his junior in respect of age . The result of his efforts and those of the Board of Management has just been witnessed in the accumulation of such a return of donations and subscriptions as not even

thc most enthusiastic supporter of a Charitable Institution , whether Masonic or non-Masonic , can ever have dreamed of in his philosophy . H . R . H . the Prince of WALES , M . W . G . M ., again occupied the chair , but the Board of 1500 Stewards had swelled

to one of nearly 4000 , and the totals firstly of £ 51 , 000 , and then of £ 69 , , became one of £ 134 , , a result which , as far as wc know , has never been heard of in thc career of any Institution

established for the purposes of Charity and supported almost entirely by voluntary contributions . Not without reason is it that English Freemasons are proud of this and preceding achievements in this particular field of Masonic labour .

A Year's Labour.

A YEAR'S LABOUR .

Bro . G . W . SPETH in his "English view of American Freemasonry " laid some stress , and not without good reason , upon the amount of work , mostly of a trivial nature , which is thrown upon an American Grand Master . There are those who may

have looked upon his remarks as unnecessary , but in glancing through the "Masonic Gleanings" which constitute so interesting a feature in our worthy contemporary the Voice of Masonry , we happen to have lighted upon a review of the proceedings of the

Grand Lodge of Michigan which very fully illustrates his criticisms . This Grand Lodge is rather more than half a century old , having held its 54 th annual communication in January of the present year . It has a muster roll of 37 8 lodges and 39 , 57 6 subscribing members , while the receipts ( or the past year