Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 4 S 1 United Grand Lmlgc '•4 ^ Provincial Grand Chapter o £ Dorset 4 88 Provincial Grand Lodgeof Cornwall 489 'flic Lodge Almoghreo Al Aksa and the Grand Lodge Territorial 490 The Preston Guild 49 °

Consecration of the Hundred of Uosmere Lodge , No . 1958 491 Royal Masonic Institution for Boys 491 AnotherAttackonFrcxmasonryinOuccnsland 491 CORRESPONDENCEStatus of Joining Past Masters 492

Koval Masonic Institution for Girls 492 Proposed New Grand Lodge 492 Almoghrcb Al Aksa 492 Thc St tusof P . M . ' s 49 = Grand Lodge Business 493 Masonic School Competition 493

Reviews -493 Masonic Notes and Queries 493 Presentation of a Stained-Glass Window to Lerwick Town Hall 493 REI " IRTS UF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 494 Instruction 494

Provincial Grand Lodge of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight 49 S Alerchant lVavy Lodge of Instruction 495 Annual Gathering of Friendly Societies 495 Scotland 496 Sudden Death of a Freemason in Hath 49 ( 1

Tlie Theatres 497 j Music 497 j Science and Art 497 Masonic and General Tidings 49 S Lodge Meetings for Next Week 499 I Historical Calendar 500

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THE whole of the Craft will have heard with deep regret and no little anxiety of the serious illness of H . R . H . the Duke of ALBANY . Our illustrious brother has so endeared himself to our Masonic Order , as well as to the general public by his many and prevailing qualities of head and heart , that

all that concerns his distinguished career or his personal welfare has the deepest interest for all alike . Our respectful sympathies are warmly offered to him , and we trust soon to hear of his complete convalescence . The last accounts are happily much improved .

* * WE deem it right to call attention to an unpretending little paragraph elsewhere , because it refers to one of the noblest acts of humanitarian sympathy which this our age has witnessed . We allude to the completion of the new wing of that invaluable institution , the Margate Sea Bathing Infirmary , at

an estimated cost of over £ 30 , 000 . It is true that no great pageant has endowed this act of munificence in the blessed cause of healing and philanthropy ; it is the fact that this little , common , matter-of-fact proceeding is all the public recognition Bro . Sir ERASMUS WILSON seeks for pr desiderates ;

but not the less is the act a noble act , and merits to be gratefully recorded in the present pages of the Freemason . We trust that our distinguished brother may be spared many years to witness the fruit of his labours , and be gratified with the result of his munificence .

* * WE call attention elsewhere to an attack in Queensland on Freemasonry . The brethren will laugh heartily at the ridiculous and truthful (?) absurdities of " K . N . C , " which our Printer ' s Devil suggests is' " Kovvan

no Conscience . " We are inclined to deem the whole matter a skit . The touch of the " raw bit of beef " is very sublime ! Perhaps the initiate was received into the Society of Ancient Buffaloes , which he has taken for Freemasonry .

THR draft of the revised Constitutions is now before us , and suggests several considerations , which we will carefully seek to epitomize . We shall all recognize , we think , the extreme care and wise caution with which the proposed revision has been carried out by the Committee , and we shall equally and

cordially approve of the " modus agendi' employed . The concentration , so to say , of all the various provisions of the Book of Constitutions under fewer distinct heads , and the proper allocation under certain definite divisions , of many severed and scattered clauses , have long been a " desideratum " for all who value , and for all who study , our very remarkable Code of Masonic

law . In nothing has the good sense and befitting conservatism of the revisers more evinced itself than in this , that they have sought to preserve rather than to erase , to improve rather than to remove . The result of the work has been to give us some few absolutely new provisions , to enlarge the scope of others , and to place them all under clear and appropriate heads ,

where they can be readily arrived at , and easily found . Two of the most important new clauses , in which all will agree , and all will approve of , are ( one ) the perpetuation oi the Deputy Provincial Grand Master ' s powers after the death or removal of a Provincial Grand Master ; which meets an anomaly , and removes an inconvenience often experienced in the provinces ;

lhe other is the one which gives distinct power to the PRESIDENT of the BOARD of MASTERS to reject unmasonic and unconstitutional notices of ¦ notion , stating , however , the ground of rejection , for the information ° f Grand Lodge , so that any possible exercise of arbitrary power is

stopped by the appeal to the GRAND MASTER and to Grand Lodge . Lord ZETLAND , nearly thirty years ago , stated that the PRESIDENT had a discretion in the matter , but it is better on every ground to grant him statutory power . There are several re-arrangements and amplifications to

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which we need not allude , but which , to our minds , are manifest improvements . There were originally forty-seven different heads of matters in the Book of Constitutions , now thirty-six of these are formed into three principal divisions , —Grand Lodge , Provincial and District Grand Lodges , and Private Lodges ; and the following five heads are maintained : Fund of

Benevolence , Board of General Purposes and Colonial Board , Fees and Contributions , Regalia , Clothing , Insignia , and Jewels , and Public Ceremony of Laying a Foundation-stone . The revisers have taken out the form of constituting a new lodge , and the section about Masonic funerals . Wc presume that it is intended to reta . n the Ancient Charges , ( though it is not

said so ) , and which , though they are not part and parcel of the Book of Constitutions , are a very important portion of ceremonial , and an undeniable evidence of the unchanged loyalty and true principles of Freemasonry . There are one or two points in which we wish the revised law of Grand Lodge had been more explicit . For

example , the status of Past Masters . Nothing more is told us than the old formula , which comes under another head , and there is no distinct recognition of that very important body . And yet many contemporary questions arc urgent and pressing . What is the exact difference between a Past Mastet of a lodge , and a Worshipful Master in a lodge ? Is a Past Master in a lodge

entitled to be considered among the Past Masters of the lodge , or is he not ? Does his filling the chair of Worshipful Master for one year entitle him to be considered a Past Master of the lodge in any lodge but the lodge of which he was a Past ^ MasterV And if he be a Past Master already , does it matter or does it not , whether he serves a full twelve months or not , to enable him

to rank as Past Master of _ anothcr lodge as well as his original lodge ? These arc all questions which meets us day by day , to say nothing of special cases affecting other jurisdictions . We do not like the provisions law 188 , which renders it necessary for a lodge to receive as a member everyone initiated therein . Between the initiation and subsequent acts , the newly initiated

member may have been up before a magistrate , for instance , and done many things which could not be foreseen or known of . We think the ri ghts of members and lodges should be guarded by such an addition as the following : " or unless subsequent information should induce the lodge to consider him unlit for further membership therein . " By the law , as it stands , a brother

sent to the House of Correction between his reception and passing must be accepted' as a member if initiated , as there is no qualification ; and if he could be excluded by the by-laws of the lodge , still the clause is far too wide and peremptory . It may be aquestion , however , whether the provision is worth preserving at all , as it deals with a custom no

longer in use amongst us . We are sorry that nothing is done to settle the vexed question of founder's and lodge jewels , & c , for which there is now a seasonable opportunity , and which might do great good to the Fund of Benevolence . But as we allude to the question later in this issue , we stop here . On the whole , we think the revised Constitutions a great

improvement , and a greater help to the brethren . Much amusing ignorance remains amongst all worthy members of our . Order as to that immortal work . There are some living English Freemasons who have not yet heard actually of its existence ; and we cannot help thinking it would be a salutary provision if the giving of the book to each newly initiated candidate , and each

installed Master , was made obligatory on all lodges . We have said enough to induce our brethren to read the revised Constitutions over carefully ; and we quite approve of Bro . BUDDENT ' suggestion , to have copies sold at a small sum , though we think our Executive might do so at once and announce the sale , for unofficial persons , at a reasonable charge . It is perfectly within their competency to do so .

a * A GREVT deal is often said about Masonic jewels . Magnificent orators ( hard up for an illustration or a peroration ) often dwell upon a love of tawdry and ornamentation ; the " gaudy insignia , " & c , and continue to "bring down thc house . " A man , especially after dinner , or at a public meeting

( and we do not except Freemasons ) , is an animal curiously compounded of sense and bathos , of sentimental theories and illogical conclusions . Of course there is harm in overdoing anything , and there is nothing earthly of what some evil cannot be predicated . The idea of the Masonic jewel , " bona fide , " is one of Masonic allegiance and loyalty . It is intended to signify

and typify our attachment to our Order , our rank in its phalanx , the esteem of our brethren , the confidence of our lodge . Like all reasonable and sensible things , it may , ol course , as we said before , be overdone . There are men who , as it has been remarked by some one , "jingle as they walk , " as they " carry their blushing honours thick upon them . " There are men , we fear it must be confessed , who like to deck themselves out in extraordinary