Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 4 61 Provincial Grand Lodge of West Lancashire 4 62 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge o £ Cheshire 463 Re . opening of a Masonic Hall at Leeds ... 463 Another Old Balloting Paper 464

An Anti-Masonic Circular .. 46 J Liverpool Magistrates and thc Lato Uro . H , S . Alpass , J . P 4-S The Craft Abroad 465 Scotland 465 CORRESPONDENCEThe Prestonian Lecture 467 Emergency Initiations 467

CORRESPONDENCE ( Continued)—The Coming Elections 467 A Caution 467 Reviews 467 Notes and Queries 467 REPORTS or MASONIC

MEETINGSCraft Masonry 4 6 S Instruction 469 Royal Arch 4 G 9 Mark Masonry 4 6 9 Obituary 469 The Theatres 470 Masonic and General Tidings 470 Lodge Meetings for Next Week Cover .

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WE understand that the elections both for the Boys' and the Girls' School will be severe , and that high polling may be expected . We are also sincerely glad to be able to say that the tendency of late years to create an artificial value in favour of thc voting papers of one School over the other seems likely this year to come to an end . We have always objected to it , as in truth unreal and absurd , and we hope we have heard and seen the last of it .

* * * ONE reflection must occur to all " habitues " of these elections , —the mourn ful fact of so many poor candidates coming up three , four , five , and six times , and in vain . Can nothing be done to help them ? It may indeed be answered , as it is , and with some force and truth , that no thoroughly good

case ever fails , unless through the " laches" or coldness of its proper friends . As a rule , the provinces now are so well organized in their Charity Committees that no accepted and approved provincial candidate . need ever fail . But there are candidates sometimes not taken up by the provinces , and many poor London candidates , utterly friendless and forlorn , who seem

to have np chance of success . We are , therefore , inclined to advocate an alteration in our election rules to this effect—that the General Committees shall have power at each election to elect two candidates , say , who appear to them to be very distressing cases , and demanding special help . We are no believers in any Committee electingall the candidates , as the jobbing it

would give rise to would be infinite' and awful , in our opinion ; but we think a means of election might be found for electing friendless candidates , whose cases are thoroughly good and truly distressing , and yet lack the present one ingredient of hope and chance of success—Metropolitan exertion and Provincial support .

*«* WE are given to understand that , as one of the candidates for the Girls ' School has withdrawn , and one elected candidate is dead , there will be 14 to be elected out of 29 , instead of 13 out of 30 .

* * * WE call attention elsewhere to a ridiculous hand bill being sent from house to house in all portions of London , and which a non-Mason has thought well to bring specially to our notice , simply for the information of our readers of what is going on , and which , however absurd and ridiculous , and

even apparently the act of some crazy person , yet cannot be altogether safel y ignored , as an evidence both of bitter animus and existing delusions in respect of our excellent Fraternity . Our first feeling on reading it , as it will be that of many of our readers , was one of simple derision and unlimited contempt . But a careful perusal of even such a piling up of rubbish

assured us , that there was a good deal of " method alike in this seeming " madness , " and this peculiar grouping of the most absurd and unlikel y accusation . Whoever the real issuer of this most absurd specimen of " Catnach" literature may be , we can only pity his ignorance and laugh at his folly .

* * * WE have just now arrived at a period in our later Masonic studies , our critical commentaries , and our learned expositions of Masonic history and archreology , when a few words of kindly warning seem to be both needed and seasonable . As history repeats itself , so do the

old stories of " fads" and "twists" of bye-gone generations . Indeed , the acute observer and the serious philosopher might , looking back upon the past to-day , be inclined to say and conclude that , alike in the arguments and theories and idiosyncrasies of all schools , classes , and epochs , we see nothing but a cycle of thought and tendencies constantly

appearing and disappearing , asserting and reasserting itself . There is a weakness apparent just now in all our little Masonic circles of thought , and schools of criticism , and the like , namely , the falling into the very mistake which Dr . OLIVER made , when he pronounced so dogmatically and decidedly on matters beyond his ken , and without any real critical correctness or authority to uphold his premises or vindicate his conclusions , We

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have to beware , in dealing with Masonic history especially , resting so much as Freemasonry does on tradition , on oral testimony , on parole information , rather than that clear and indubitable evidence which the canons of actual accuracy and careful induction imperatively demand always , lest we should fall into one or two grave dilemmas , accepting what CARLYLE called

" bottled moonshine , " on the one hand , or yielding to unauthorized dogmatism on the other . We should always remember a passage in a great controversy of years gone bye , which is as true as when first spoken by the able man who uttered it : " Is evident that whosoever so far insists upon a text ( " or fact of history" ) as to say that any other interpretation ( "or explanation ")

appears to involve a contradiction or absurdity , intends only to make a ' reductio ad impossible ' as the schoolmen call it ; that is to propose ah only alternative , which no one for a moment can choose . " In some of our present controversies we require , all of us alike , a little more consideration

for others and a little more self restraint , and above all an abnegation of preconceived opinions , pet theories , and " post hoc propter h-jc" conclusions . Indeed , in all these things Freemasonry > vould teach us the very useful lessons of moderation , toleration , caution , and self-control .

* * * CERTAIN facts which have recently come before us lead us once again to press upon our many worthy brethren everywhere , the Worshipful Masters and Secretaries of lodges , the imperative duty of exhuming at once all old lodge records where any are stowed away or passed out of sight , and however

dirty , mouldy , mildewed they may have become by age , or neglect . Ihe other is the absolute necessity of carefully preserving all lodge minute books and all Masonic relics . It is , we fear , too true that from time to time many of the undoubted properties of our lodges have been sold by the representativesof Secretaries , & c , and some unscrupulous brethren have not hesitated to

dispose of valuable Masonic records and books confided to their care and trusted to their keeping-. There are stores yet of archaeological wealth to be gleaned and saved from Time's destroying hand now hid trom sight and forgotten , left to obscurity , neglect , and decay , because , in the first place , lodges have no proper place to keep curios and MSS . and the like in , and

because , secondly , the taste for such studies and realities has to be created , and is at the present neither very keen , nor very much in earnest . Let us , however , all hope and strive for better days . The material exists , if only

we can find and get workmen who will seek out fitting " ashlar stones " for the building , and if we can meet with expert labourers and bright Masons , really and truly , to advance both the practical and intellectual character of contemporary English Freemasonry .

• • • THE important question raised by Bro . HAWKINS in our last demands the very best consideration of all Masonic students . Abstractedly and " prima facie , " there can be no doubt that such a Masonic Archaeological Association is both desirable and needful in the best interests of a study of our Masonic

antiquities which of late years has happily received both encouragement and adherents . But when we come to the concrete actuality , and have to deal with the likelihood of success , we cannot at present affect to be very sanguine , remembering some latter-year experiences in the same direction . We had an Archaeological Institute or Association some few years back ,

which started under fair auspices , and with much promise of support and prosperity in the shape of life members , & c , and yet , like the " little farthing rush-light " of poetic celebrity , went out all of a sudden , leaving us in the haze and darkness we were in before . If that apathy and indifference which seem to affect all Masonic literary efforts and archaeological studies in

our good Craft in a general way could be got over , we have no doubt but that there is both room and work for such a Society , to which we should wish all success , and which we should be most glad to help forward in any way . There are plenty of fitting elements afloat in our Craft just now for such a purpose , and if properly started , and skilfully directed by experts , not

merely by amateurs , such a Society might , we feel sure , become a permanent and useful offshoot of the Masonic tree , and help forward efficiently the progress of Masonic literature and Masonic archaeology amongst us at the present hour . We shall be glad to receive other and competent opinions on the subject .

* * * THE whole of the English Craft , and not the least our good brethren in Warwickshire , will sympathize deeply with our esteemed and distinguished Bro . Lord LEIGH in the great and irreparable loss which has befallen

himself and his family , by the sad accident which has befallen his eldest son , lately travelling in America . Mr . GILBERT LEIGH , M . P ., was a young man of great promise and many excellent gifts , and had he been spared , in the good providence of T . G . A . O . T . U ., in this his early career , would have