Masonic Notes.

and from stopping up any portion of Wild Court until they have " provided an equivalent access to the said property from Sardinia-place or the new street or Great Wild-street . "

m * The Board further recommend in reference to the notice of which Bro . Frank Richardson , P . G . D ., has given notice , that Article 137 of the Book of Constitutions be expunged . The said article lays it down

that the Masters and Wardens of the lodges in the London District shall sign their names in a book at the Grand Secretary's office before being entitled to enter Grand Lodge , the Board being of opinion that such article inflicts a hardship on the brethren to whom it refers .

* * The number of new lodges for the constitution ol which his Royal Highness the M . W . Grand Master has been pleased to grant warrants since the March Communication is 13 . Of these , two—the Arts

Lodge , No . 2751 , and the Thomas a Becket Lodge , No . 2754—will meet within the London district , and there are also two which will meet abroad , namely , the Clifton Lodge , No . 274 S , at Braamfontein , in the Transvaal , and the Waller Rodwell Wright Lodge ,

No . 2755 , Malta . The remaining nine will be located in the Provinces , namely , the Seven Kings' Lodge , No . 2749 , Romford , the Waltham Abbey Lodge , No . 2750 , Waltham Abbey , and the Charles Dickens Lodge , No . 2757 , Chigwell , all in the Province of

Essex ; the Marlow Lodge , No . 2752 , Marlow , in Buckinghamshire ; the Saint John's Lodge , No . 2753 , Margate , in the Province of Kent ; the Hatchlands Lodge , No . 2756 , Addlestone , in the Province of Surrey ; the Fylde Lodge , No . 2758 , Blackpool , in the Province of West Lancashire ; the Rolle Lodge ,

No . 2759 , Exmouth , in Devonshire ; and the Aldermaston Lodge , No . 2760 , Aldermaston , in Berkshire . These , with the 12 lodges for which warrants were granted during the quarter to 1 st of March give a total of 25 new lodges warranted during the last six months .

* * * According to the Report of the General Board of the Mark Grand Lodge , warrants for two new lodges have been granted since the Quarterly Communication on the 2 Sth February , namely , the Kyrle Lodge , No .

524 , Ross , in the Province of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire , and the Haywra Lodge , No . 525 , Harrogate—a report of the consecration of which recently appeared in our columns—in the Province of West Yorkshire . It appears , also , that during the quarter to

the 31 st March , 7 80 Mark certificates were issued , raising the total of registered Mark Master Masons to 39 , 972 . One warrant for a Royal Ark Mariner lodge , namely , the Bridgman , to be moored off the Walpole

Mark Lodge , No . 92 , Norwich , in the Province of East Anglia , has also been granted , while 137 Royal Ark Mariner certificates were issued during the March quarter , raising the total numb 3 r registered on the 31 st of that month to 59 . 15 .

* * * The Board further reports that Bro . His Honour Judge W . Masterman has been appointed Prov . G . Master for Nottinghamshire , vice Bro . Col . Newton , deceased ; and that Bro . J . Owen Marsh has been reappointed for a further term of three years as Prov . G .

Master for Monmouthshire . It will also be seen from the report , which appears elsewhere , that Bro . the Earl of Warwick has not only been appointed but in . stalled Prov . G . Master of the newly-constituted Province of Essex , which , till recently , formed a part of the Province of East Anglia , under Bro . Lord Henniker .

* * * We gather from the same Report that the Board recommend that Grand Lodge should proceed to extreme measures against a body of brethren which works the Mark Degree under the style and title ol

"The Honourable United Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of the Ashton-under-Lyne District , " declaring it to be " a spurious and clandestine Body , " and forbidding the interchange of visits between its members and those of lodges holding under the Mark-Grand Lodge .

* ? * The Board states , on the authouty of Bro . John Armstrong , P . M . No . 11 , that the lodge is said to have been founded towards the end of last century by

a non-commissioned officer who had taken the Degree in India , and was known originally as "The Mark Link and Ark , " and substquently by other names . Its accords , however , - ' only date back to July nth , 1830 .

Masonic Notes.

It has always met and stills meets , quarterly on a Sunday afternoon , under the Warrant of some Cheshire or East Lancashire Craft Lodge , " as was the custom in days preceding the organisation of the Mark Grand Lodge of England .

» * The Board further states that as far back as 1870 the late Bro . the Rev . Canon Portal , the then M . W . Grand Mark Master , and the then Gran d Mark Secretary ( Bro . . Frederick Binckes ) , ' ¦ approiched these brethren with a view to their giving their allegiance

to Grand Lodge , " offering to grant them a Warrant of Confirmation , " free of cost " on the understanding that all their members should be registered at a nominal fee , " but a certain Funeral Fund established by the members stood in the way , and " the negotiations fell through . " * # #

This is the Mark body which the Grand Lodge presiding over that Degree now proposes to declare " spurious and clandestine . " But it occurs to us that there are one or two serious objections to the adoption of any Such course . In the first place the body

workedthe Mark Degree for 40 years precisely in the same way and under the same authority as the Degree was worked generally in England when there was no Mark Grand Lodge in existence , and for 13 or 14 of those 40 years without a word of opposition , so far as we

are aware , from the Mark Grand Lodge when it was formed . Then the offer made in 1870 by the then Grand Mark Master and Grand Mark Secretary to grant it a " Warrant of Confirmation "—that is , of all the rights and privileges it had exercised as a Mark lodge since 1830—proves that in the opinion of those

distinguished brethren it was not then " spurious and clandestine . " Lastly , during the 29 years that have elapsed since such offer was made the body has continued in the exercise of its rights and privileges without opposition from Grand Lodge . r * *

We do not ddubt the power of Mark Grand Lodge to do what it threatens . Our point is—Will it be wise to do so , especially when . the Secretary of the body that is threatened declares that "an edict such as you threaten can only very slightly affect a small number of our brethren , " and the rest will in all probability treat it with contempt ?

» * » We congratulate the newly-created Mark Province of Essex on the very great success which attended its inauguration at Colchester on the 24 th ult . There was a numerous attendance of the brethren , and the

ceremony of installing Bro . the Earl of Warwick as the first Prov . G . Master was , as usual , most impressively carried out by Bro . the Earl of Euston , Pro G . Master , assisted by sundry of the Grand Officers . At the conclusion of this part of the proceedings Lord

Warwick announced the appointment as Dep . Prov . G . M . of Bro . Col . Lockwood , M . P ., who is likewise his Deputy of the Province in Craft Masonry , while Bro . Thomas J . Railing , Prov . G . Secretary ( Craft ) , and Prov . G . Scribe E . ( Royal Arch ) , will bring to

bear his great experience in the Secretarial office in respect of the Prov . G , Mark Lodge . Thus , the Province starts on its career under the best of auspices , and we have no doubt that in the course of a few years it will be one of the best organised and most zealous of the Provinces ander the banner of the Mark Grand Lodge .

Next month , when Lord Warwick has consented to preside at the annual Festival of the Mark Benevolent Fund , Essex will have the opportunity of showing what it is made of , and , we dare say , will exhibit its accustomed loyalty to its respected chief and its zeal for the cause of Masonic Charity .

A meeting ol the General Committee of the West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution will be held at the Masonic Hall , Liverpool , this ( Friday ) evening , when applications from 14 children will be considered , namely , five to be placed on the Educational Fund ; seven on the Combined Fund ; and two on the Advancement Fund .

•* The Province of Derbyshire is to be hi ghly commended for its intention to establish a Masonic Library , in which shall be stored all books , documents , curios , relating to Masonry that possess any Masonic value , and more particularly those of local interest to

the Craft . 1 here is no doubt that much that was calculated to throw light on the proceedings of our ancient brethren has been irretrievabl y lost through the negligence of those who had charge of the archives ; but , thanks to the energy displayed hy Bros . W . J . Hughan , R . F . Gould , and other gifted and

Masonic Notes.

laborious students of Masonry , there is much that is constantly being brought to light , and it is owing to the discoveries made by these brethren that our knowledge of early Masonry in this and other countries has been so greatly extended .

# * * The chief credit for the proposal would appear to belong to the Tyrian Lodge , No . 253 , Derby , which was warranted in 1785 , and has invited the other lodges in the Province to co-operate with it in carrying out the scheme , and we trust that both the lodges and

chapters and individual brethren will render every assistance in their power lo promote it . The idea of having a complete collection of photographic copies of all the lodge and chapter warrants is a good one , and we trust that , at no distant day , all that is of value in illustrating the Masonry of the past and present will be placed in charge of the Provincial Grand Lodge .

* * » The Boys' School athletic sports were held in the playing-field of the Institution at Wood Green on Saturday last , and proved a great success . The weather was such that a larger muster than usual of

friends and visitors was brought together , and the several items on the programme were for the most part exceedingly well contested . The arrangements were well carried out , and there seemed to be but one opinion as to the excellence of the sport shown by the competitors .

» * * In our " Analysis of the Returns " at the recent Festival in behalf of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , we mentioned that the Province of Durham was " an absentee for the Benevolent Festival in February . " It was so returned in our analytical

account of that Festival , but erroneously , it appears , as the Province had voted 50 guineas ( £$ 2 10 s . ) to the Old People ' s Institution . The mistake is due to the fact that Durham had no brother acting as Steward in its behalf ; but it has since been rectified in the reprint which is now being prepared , and will be issued at an early date . #

* * A Masonic service was held in Battle Church , under the auspices of the Abbey Lodge , No . 1184 , on Wednesday , the 24 th ult ., as a thanksgiving service on the Queen ' s birthday , and it was arranged that the

offertory , which , amounted to £ g 5 s . 6 d . should be devoted to the widows of Freemasons . Since then a cheque for the amount has been received for the Widows ' Fund by the Secretary of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution from the Very Rev . E , R . Currie , Dean of Battle , Past G . Chaplain of England .

» * * According to the Adelaide Register ( S . Australia ) the Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of that colony was arranged to be held on Wednesday , the 29 th ult ., and we gather from the Report of the Board of General Purposes , which was to be

presented at the meeting , that tbe past year has been a highly successful one . The M . W . Grand Master , Bro . the Right Hon . Chief Justice Way—who had been seriously ill for some time—had be en , fortunately , restored to health ; and the Board , after remarking upon the grief and anxiety which that

illness had caused among all classes of the community , expresses its belief that it is rightly interpreting the feelings of the whole body of South Australian Masons " in congratulating the M . W . Grand Master upon his satisfactory progress to recovery , and the consequent resumption of his important and arduous duties to the State . "

« * » The Board further report that the following balances stand to the credit of Grand Lodge , namely , on the General Fund , , £ 309 ; on the Available Benevolent Fund , , £ 6 7 6 ; and on the Permanent Benevolent Fund , £ 1074 . In addition , the balance sheet of the Trustees of the Freemasons' Hall property showed ,

on the 31 st December , 1898 , a credit balance of . £ 15 , 302 . The Board recommended that fraternal relations be resumed with the Grand Lodge of Peru , and are lavourable to a represjntative of thi Australasian Grand Lodges , at the ceremonies it is proposed to hold next year in Virginia in commemoration of the centenary of the death of Bro . General George Washington .

* * * A General Meeting of the Subscribers to the Bengal Masonic Association for Educating Children of Indigent Freemasons was held at Freemasons' Hall , Calcutta , on the 27 th January last under the presidency of Bro . W . H . Fitze , P . G . D ., Past Dep . Dist . G . M . It

appears from the Report which the Committee presented that the contributions during the half-year to the 31 st December , 1898 , amounted to 3068 Rupees , being an excess of 1218 Rupees as compared with those for the corresponding half of the previous year . Three vacancies had occurred , and it was proposed that four children should be elected , thereby raising

the number provided for by the Association to 41 . The Treasurer ' s Ace junts were consideredandadopted , there being a small bilance to the credit of the fund on the Revenue Account , but the Committee express their regret " that very few of the Stewards exert themselves to obtain subscriptions . " The capitil account , however , shows that the invested funds amount to 1 , 35 , 000 Rupees .