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NOTICE . THE H OLIDAYS . —Brethren leaving town for the holidays can have the Freemason forwarded to any new address on communicating with the Publisher . Non-Subscribers can have copies forwarded for two or more weeks on receipt of postage stamps at the rate of isJ per copy .

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TO ADVERTISERS . Ihe FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can fierefore scarcely be overrated . . ~—————— ——ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion in current "week ' s issue should , reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-st . eet , hy 12 o ' clock on 'Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FR _ F . MA . SON , may be addressed to the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONI \ L 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 .

NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason " to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in

ad / ance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Goad tljpe , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfoundland , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United -States of America . & c .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

A _ OI . O DEVONSHIRE P . M . —Devonshire was , by a printer ' s error , set up for Derbyshire . BOOKS RECEIVED . " Keystone , " " Hebrew Leader , " " L'Art , " " Freemasons ' Repository , " " Chaine D'Qnion , " "New York Dispatch . "

REMITTANCES RECEIVED . Adams , F ., Thc Cape , ( P . O . O . ) £ 1 6 o Brown , G ., U . S . A . ( P . O . O . ) o 12 o Francis , E ., New Zealand , ( P O . O . ) 140 Goldsmith , Panama , ( P . O . O 200 Hart , W ., New Zealand , ( P . O . O . ) o 13 o

Johnson , H ., U . S . A ., ( P . O . O . ) 013 o Moirison , J ., Spain , 0178 Phillips , S ., The Cape 160 Revell , W . H ., New Zealand , 290 Samson , B ., New York o 12 o W . M ., Lodge of St . John , Peith 2100

Births ,Marriages And Deaths .

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 S . Gd . for announcements , not exceeding four lines , under this heading . ] I

MAK . l .-. GES . GORTON—TURNER . —On thc 26 th ult ., at the parish church , Horringer , Suffolk , John Edward , son of the Ven . J . Gorton , late Archdeacon of Madras , and Rector

of Kirby-la-Thorpe , Lincolnshire , to Mary Catherine , daughter of J , H . Turner , Esq ., "WYLLY—CLERK . —On the 23 rd June , at St . Mark's , Bangalore , Edward A . E . Wylly , Lieut . 8 th Regt . M . N . I ., to Henrietta Mary , daughter of R . Clerk , Esq .,

DEATHS . BARNARD . —On the 2 . lh ult ., George Barnard , of Sie . mouth , Devon , aged 47 , deeply lamented . DODSWORTH . —On the 26 th ult ., at Roseford gardens , Sheppard ' s-bush , Penelope Ruth , widow of G . E . Dodsworth , Lieutenant H . R . A . EMMENS . —On the 28 th ult ., Bro . John Emmens , P . M .

and Sec , Old Concord L- elge , No . 172 , of 254 , Kingsland-road , N ., in his G 8 eh year . RAUCLYFKE . —On the 30 th ult ., of consumption ofthe brain , Enwaid , eldest son of Bio . Dick Radclyffe , aged three years . Friends please accept this ( the only ) intimation . WAT __ . __ . —On the 18 th ult ., David Waterfi . ld , of Ladbroke-grove-road , aged 45 .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , AUGUST 4 , 1877 .

The Last Meeting Of Grand Chapter.

THE LAST MEETING OF GRAND CHAPTER .

We are glad to note that after the transaction of the usual business , and the granting of several new warrants , Grand Chapter dealt with the opportune motion of our gallant Companion Col . Creaton . All our readers are aware of the

dreadful fire at St . John , and Comp . Col . Creaton proposed to vote 100 guineas towards the fund now raising for so many homeless and distressed fellow creatures . We are happy to record that the motion was unanimously agreed to , and the amount will be paid over to the Mansion House Fund . Those of us who take

pleasure in Royal Arch Masonry will be gratified to observe the gradual growth of Capitular Masonry and the prosperous financial condition of Grand Chapter . We have always been among those who deeply value and admire Royal Arch Masonry , and can realize the need and importance of the Grand Chapter .

Summer Musings.

SUMMER MUSINGS .

Summer is upon us in full force , and in its glowing hours some of us may be disposed to think , ( if we think at all ) , that the seasons pass us by very quickly . So in truth tbey do ; but still as they neither accelerate nor decrease their speed , such as that quickness of passage is , such it has been since the Great Architect of the

Universe proclaimed his glad and loving Fiat , and the grateful voice of Nature and of man echoed these thrilling and familiar words , "Behold , " it is all " very good ! ' . It has often struck us , and perhaps the same idea may have struck the minds of some of our more thoughtful readers , that there

is something very wonderful in this unchangeability of the great created world of nature all around us . Years come and go , centuries disappear , ages vanish in turn , and still , summer and winter , cold and heat , day and night do not cease . Strange revolutions and

wondrous events take place on this lower earth of ours , great scenes , moving epochs fraug ; ht with untold happiness or sorrow to our human race , appear and fade away one by one , but still Nature asserts its ceaseless sway , and continues its unaltered appearance . This

earth of ours changes ; it is true that its contour receives a sensible alteration of appearance . Dry land becomes sea ; sea becomes dry land ; hills subside ; volcanoes cease their fiery ebulli tions ; towns and villages utterly disappear •and the whole face of a country or district is greatly

and strikingly varied . But through all these outer changes and revolutions , the operations of nature never cease . The seed is sown , the seed is harrowed , the seed springs to life , the seed becomes the full corn in the ear ; and the summer harvest is reaped at last , for the food of millions ,

for the contentment of all . All through these long ages and through these marvellous centuries , through peace and war , through plague and pestilence and famine , through human ioy and suffering , and gladness and tears , through the long roll of living and dying men , over the

graves of countless generations , all the while the beneficial and remedial processes of kindly Nature , in the good providence of Almighty God , have kept on their ceaseless round . There is no change possible , no destruction no diminution , no revolution for them . Such

as Infinite Goodness and Wisdom have planned them , in Infinite Forethought , Contrivance , and Design , such they are still , such they ever will be , alike for the praise and wonder , the grateful memories , and the reverential thoughts of reflective mortals . And as

Freemasons , we are bound alike , taught by our symbolic lore and our human sympathies , to regard with mingled pleasure and awe the wonderful works of nature all around us . To us , let us hope , that mighty Creation which spreads before our enraptured gaze on every side is something more than a mere piece of

Summer Musings.

extraordinary mechanism , a mere act of dreary necessitarianism , but rather a compact , astound - ing , living whole , witnessing , ever to us , that the Hand which made all these things and us is indeed Divine , that that outward and startling fabric of a world of ceaseless wonders is indued

permeated ever , penetrated through and through by a Living Spirit which tells to all listeninears , and gentle minds , that all we see around us , is the benign handiwork of our Great Creator . When , then , as to day some of us maybe strolling , amid childhood ' s pleasant voices

and fair faces , and warm hearts , by the sands of the great sea , or when We are loitering among green fields , or noting the crops of golden grain , or inhaling the scent of the heather on breezy moors , or resting neath the shades of umbrageous trees , let us call

to mind reverently that in respect of these glo . rious and beneficent gifts of Nature we are not to treat them as idle things , of no account , but we are to value them deeply and trul y . Nothing often is so consoling to the jaded heart and strained spirits of our race as the

aspects of Nature , in its gentlerforms or even in its more startling phasis . There is a soothing and subduing influence for all right-thinking beings in the sights and sounds of the sea waves , in the murmur ofthe breeze , in the tracery of the foliage , in the gleaming graces of field and forest ,

of hill and dale , of the goodly lochs , and the luxuriant pastures . The wise and instructed Freemason will regard these outer things gladly and gratefully ,-and he will look through them all as though , unequalled in themseh'esand

imparting true joy and peace and wisdom to man , yet also bidding us , with no uncertain voice , believe , that we see and hear " voices in the babbling brooks , sermons in stones , and God in everything . "

Our Great Hospitals.

OUR GREAT HOSPITALS .

We are among those who consider our London Hospitals a source of genuine pride and satisfaction to every Englishman ! For they are purely English in tlieir conception . in their development ,

in their labours , and in their views . They represent equally the efforts of enlightened philanthropy and the perfection of medical science — the indubitable spirit of Christianity and the noble toils and skilful assiduity of an

admirable profession . In nothing , perhaps , is true benevolence so much displayed and so rightfully employed as in the alleviation and treatment of the many maladies to which humanity is "heir to " in that kindly and unselfish ministering to the urgent and palpable sufferings of the afflicted and tormented of our fellow creatures .

Our London Hospitals , founded by benevolent persons , supported by the sympathetic , are , we venture to think , Institutions concerning which all patriotic Englishmen have but one opinion , deserving , as they most surely do , the commendation and confidence of us all . Of late a theory

has been started , we hardly know on what authority , certainly not , we believe , on that ofthe medical profession at large—namely , that " gratuitous medical relief" is a mistake altogether . At the present day , abounding with sciolists and " windbags " of every species and genus , and when men seldom reason , and hardly ever

give themselves the trouble to think , n 0 paradox is too perverse , and no proposition is too preprosterous but they are sure , to find p lenty of teachers and supporters . We are favoured at once with an overflow of "tall talk , " of magni" " cent lucubrations , of dreary essays on so-called and

first principles . It is at once boldly assumed dogmatically declared that all " gratuitous medical rel'ef is vicious and vitiating per se , and without drawing on the sublime memories of the past to restrain and correct the crude idea of the present , we are coolly and decided ) told that all " gratuitous medical relief >

condemned by the experience of the day ( (' experience of the day !—God help us all !) . •" ¦ that in the future , hospitals are , or oug ht to > " self-supporting , " and the examp le of t United States is invoked in support of this gr revolution . But as often happens , thoug h so ^ writers unnecessarily press the regulations American Hospitals upon us , in proof ol