To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The FREEMASON IS a Weekly Newspaper , price 2 d « It is published every Friday morning , and contains thc most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Subscription , including postage : United America , India , India , China , & c

Kingdom , the Continent , & c . Via Brindisi . Twelve Months ios . 6 d . 12 s . od . 17 s . 4 d . Six „ 5 s . 3 d . 6 s . 6 d . 8 s . 8 d . Three „ 2 s . 8 d , 3 s . 3 d . 4 s . 6 d . Subscriptions may be paid for in stamps , but Post Office Orders or Cheques are preferred , the former payable to

GEORGE KENNING , CHIEF OFFICE , LONDON , the latter crossed London Joint Stock Bank . Advertisements and other business communications should be addressed to the Publisher . Communications on literary subjects and books for

review are to be forwarded to the Editor . Anonymous correspondence will be wholly disregarded , and the return cf rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further information will be supplied ov application to Ihe Publisher , 108 , Fleet-street , London .

Important Notice.

IMPORTANT NOTICE .

COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

Several P . O . O . ' s are now in hand , but having received no advice we cannot credit them . . 4 ,

REMITTANCES RECEIVED . £ s . d . Abadoo , J . M ., Cape Coast Castle , o 13 o Bone , "W . E ., Queensland , ... 150 Booth , W „ N . S . W ., o \ 2 o Brady , H . Sloane , St . Helena , e , o o

Brown , II . D ., Liberia , 18 10 6 Burger , H . J ., Jamaica o 12 o Crossley , James , The Cape , , 120 Davis , A . E ., Africa , 160 Edwards G ., New York , o 13 0 Francis , H . E ., Paris , o 12 o

Graham , T . S ., New Zealand , 188 Halkett , J ., Cape Town , ... ... ... 100 Harmsweirtb , C . J ., Natal , ... 1 9 6 Howard , W . C , The Cape , ... o 13 o Loelge of Harmony , Cawnporc , 1 30

Pein ' ans , W . F ., Bolisia , ... ... ... 1160 Porter , Capt ., New Zealand , 1 14 o Seller ) , T ., Peru ,... ... ... ... ... 0120 Store , W . H ., Japan , ... ... ... ... 200 Whithourne , J . W ., Jamaica , 300

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

In answer to numerous correspondents , wc beg to state , on the authority of Bro . D . Murray Lyon , R . W . Grand Secretary , that the Laws of the Grand Lodge of Scotland are still uneler revision , anel that due notice will be given when ready .

BOOKS RECEIVED . The Report of the Masonic Female Orphan School Dublin ; Medical Examiner ; Hull Packet ; The Scottish Freemason ; The Broad Arrow ; Brief ; Risorgimento ; Der Mangel ; The Masonic Record nf Western India ; The Freemasons , Monthly ; The Magazine of Art ; Proceedings of the Great Priory of Canada ; Maxims and Miscellanies for Merchants and Business Men .

Births Marriages And Deaths.

Births Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements , not exceedi ng four lines , under this heading . ] BIRTHS . HART-DAVIS . —On thc 2 ( ilh ult ., at Dunselen Vicarage , Reading , Ihe wife of the Rev . R . 1 ) . Hart-Davis , of a daughter . NI-AI .. —On the 2 GU 1 ult ., al Mount Pleasant , Clifton , the wife of the Rev . J . Neal , of a son . STESSINC . —On the 2 S 1 I 1 ult ., at Grcenlands , Caterham , the wife of II . E . Stenning , of a elaughter .

DEATHS . Cm . i . 's . —On the 24 th ult ., in London , after four years of , incessant suffering , Charles Collis , formerly of Great Dunmow , aged 72 . PEHCEVAI .. —On the 25 th ult ., al Eastbourne , Catherine , relict of Lieut-Col . )' . J . Perceval , Grenadier Guards . TowssiiiiNi ) . —On the 20 th inst ., at 30 , Upper Fitzwillianistrett , Dublin , Ellen , the wife of J . F . TownshendEsq .

, L . L . D . VEUITY . —On the 21 st ult ., John Verity , of the Villiers ; Lodge No . iiij 4 , Isleworth , aged 43 . Deeply lamented .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , MAY 4 , 1878 » — . ¦¦¦ — ¦ — -, . . —— — _ I

Our Charitable Institutions.

OUR CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS .

We have been much amused , ( though it is no laughing matter ) , with some rrcent utterances of the Charity Voting Reform Association—especially their last offi-ial report . Such statements as are contained in their last report , for instance , are to us either a proof of a perverse

desire to find fault , or of sensational love of change for change sake ; or else arc the natural " outcome" of positive ignorance of the important subject on which we are favoured with so much florid dogmatism . We have never , we say it unhesitatingly , read a production which so

challenges criticism and so invites condemnation , or which is more marked , from first to last , by the absence of any quality which renders it reliable or even readable . It is simply a "loud " compilation , ( to use the slang of the day ) , a mixture of morbidity and "high falutin , " which

it is positively painful , if not humiliating , to peruse . What can be more ridiculously untrue than this ? " There is the hi ghest authority for saying , ' if any man will not work , neither shall he eat , ' and our so-called charities , as long as they continue to ignore this fundamental

principle , can never be anything better than artificial sources of pauperism and misery . " The poor working man , struck down by an accident , throbbing with fever , must work , or rather pay —for charity ! Is there such a thing as charity left in the world ? Or what can any reasonable or

reasoning man say to the following choice specimen of unfairness , and even worse : — " When we go beyond hospitals to the innumerable institutions for which appeals are made every day , it would probably be difficult to find a singh one which wonld letter mi I ted to exist in a perfect / 11

well-governed Sletle , or which does not , on the fairest computation , do more harm than good . The various Voting Charities , for example , are hurtful to the community in many ways . Their system of contested elections induces the friends of the majority of the candidates to spend more

money than they can afford , and inflicts bitter loss and disappointment upon the numerous applicants who never had a chance of success . The elections must be virtually purchased , often as the cheapest way of escape from the duty of maintaining an old servant or some other

dependant . When the result is made known , the elected candidate is either an old person , who is then taken away from all the associations of his past life or a child , to whom an institution is for several years to be put in the place of a home ; or one who is in some way afflicted , deaf it may

be , or blind , or semi-imbecile , and whose future existence is then to be that of a phenomenon , an example , a living witness of the bounty of the governors and of the wisdom of the managing committee . " We utterly deny the entire statement . As regards the Voting Charities the

assertions are most incorrect , and , to say the truth , unjustifiable , and though there are , no doubt , defects in all our organizations , they are such as careful and considerate administration can easily cure . Such a description , officially

given too as a professedly true description of all our medical charities , is a parody alike on all that we are accustomed to consider truth , honour , gratitude , or justice . It is , without doubt , one of the most useless and ridiculous caricatures of

the existing state of things which it has ever been our lot lo wade through . We cannot understand this perverse misrepresentation of things as they are in truth , thus making everything dark and uncomfortable . Perhaps like the Mrs . Gamp and Mrs . Harris of old , our talkative and

reforming "old ladies" to-day are seeking to make others as "nervous " as they are professedly and professionally themselves , and , therefore , these sensational stimulants are absolutely necessary . This crusade against charities proceeds on two

assumptions , each equally fallacious , and we must add false , "lhat a central committee will do better than open voting , and that all gratuitous gifts are , per se . bad . " We protest against the entire tone of this last report , as alike un-

Our Charitable Institutions.

founded , selfish , and unfair , for it is this mournfully hard line theory which underlies much of the movements of impractical theorists just now , and more of the efforts of noisy refonrers of the present hour , and we deeply regret to see so much energy thrown away , to prop up so weak and so unsound a proposition of a so-called

chanty reform , a movement which will never be supported by the sound common sense and practical religion of our thinking and serious people . If such views ever prevail we shall have driven true charity out of the land . Useful and seasonable reform is one thing , empty-handed and empty headed revolution is quite another thing .

The Beginning Of A Masonic Revolution.

THE BEGINNING OF A MASONIC REVOLUTION .

We note in the Monde Maconnique the commencement of a Masonic revolution , which , as it is duly heialded by Bro . Grinnaux , and not dis 3 pproved of by Bro . Caubet , may be said to be fairly enough the last deliverance of the Grand Orient of France . Unfortunately , like many similar proceedings , it is simply revolutionary according to our view and belief . It seems that at Port

Louis , in the Mauritius , an English Colony , the French Grand Orient has lately granted a charter to a new lodge , " L'Amitie , " which was consecrated Jan . 28 , 18 / 8 , despite a formal protest from the Lodge of Harmony , under the English Constitution . This clearly intrusive and irregular

proceeding is justified on two grounds , ist ., that the French Grand Orient had originally founded lodges in the Mauritius before the English occupation ; and andly ., that every Mason has " * le droit de se placer sous l ' obedience de 1 ' autorite Maconnique dont les doctrines lui convenaient

le mieux , —page 489 . "The right to place him selfunderthe obedience of the Masonic authority whose doctiines aremostagreeableto him . " With rega .-d to the first ground , though we do not deny that old l . dges so founded may continue their connection with their foundation authorit y

we utterly deny the right of an alien Masonio authority to found a new lodge in another tetritory , which is under the lawful jurisdiction of a lawful national Grand Lodge . But what will our readers say of the second ground ? Surely it is the most revolutionary and

dangerous that has been propounded by any Masonic authority , and let us note the " reductio 3 d absurdum" to which the Grand Orient must be brought . If such is Masonic international law , any English Masons in Prance and Belgium may claim a Charter from the

English Grand Lodge on the ground , firstly , that the English Grand Lodge first warranted Lodges in France , and secondly , that they prefer the teaching of the English Grand Lodge , especially tinder recent circumstances . Such an official act on the part of the Grand Orient of France ,

in the present condition of affairs , shows a most unmistakeable animus , and may be productive of most serious consequences as regards the relations between the two Grand bodies of England and France . Wejdeplore it ' more than we can say , in the interests of Masonic peace ,

but we fear that in the present temper of French Freemasonry neither the English , nor any other Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry can expect any other treatment . Our American friends will say " well , we have always warned you of what

must be the conseqence of the illegal constitution and ? postacy ofthe French Grand Orient . " We confess that we regret to have to real ize such an experience of how far faction will even lead Masons , but we think it well to note it for the information of our brethren . The act in itself

is so illegal , and the grounds alleged are so absurd , that we can only sadly recall to day the old line ofthe scholiast , " Quern Deus vult perdere prius dementat . "

The "Monde Maconnique " And The " Freemason."

THE "MONDE MACONNIQUE " AND THE " FREEMASON . "

We have seen Bro . Caubet ' s remarks with respect to our humble selves , in the last number of the Monde Maconnique , butwe do not realise what we have to say in reply . Bro . Caubet takes one view , strongly , of the whole matter , we take another , and we are not likely , moreover , to agree ; and thus the matter must remain . Time ,