The Legal Status Of Freemasonry.

] yfr . Stone , counsel for the lodge , to amend the " plaint , " or to " grant a case for an appeal , " on the ground that he ( Mr . Stone ) " had no right to appeal , as the case cannot be supported , " and declared , " 1 shall therefore nonsuit the plantiff , and allow costs . " And so judgment went for

the defendant with costs . Such is the report of our contemporary , the " Sunday Times , " and which is , no doubt , perfectly correct . Indeed , the report professes to be " verbatim . " We have nothing to do with the decision , as a judicial decision , emanating from a court of law , for as

Freemasons we always pay respect to the judgments of the law courts , whether favourable or unfavourable to our contentions of what we deem to be the law of this or that particular case . But as the question is in itself of some importance to the Craft at large in its legal bearings , we trust that the attention of our distinguished Grand

Registrar will be drawn to the matter , as great misapprehension exists , no doubt , on the subject amongst our brethren at large , who , not brought up to the study of the law , cannot be supposed to have mastered its professional technicalities . But though we decline to express any opinion one way or the other as to this recent decision , as we do not conceive that it would be decorous or

Masonic to do so , we think right to state that some blame attaches to the Hervey Lodge . If the lodge be named after our worthy and excellent Grand Secretary , how comes it that the brethren were so forgetful of his official and personal reputation ? What business had the

Hervey Lodge to initiate a brother who either could not or would not pay his initiation fees ? What did they know of the initiate , previous to initiation ? and who recommended him as thoroughly worthy of reception into Freemasonry ? These are questions

which will occur to every thinking Freemason , and they are questions , which , in justice to the Craft at large , dishonoured by such proceedings , the Hervey Lodge ought , in our opinion , at once officially to reply to . We are inclined to think ,

and we fancy we shall echo the sentiments of many , that in all such cases , happily , let us trust , very rare , lodges had much better " wash their dirty linen at home , " and not offer it to public manipulation , inspection , and comment , and here we leave the matter for the

present , awaiting the explanation , which no doubt the Hervey Lodge in the interests of Freemasonry will not be slow to offer . But we think , having told the tale , we now can " point the moral . " What a commentary does this case afford on that haphazard admission of new members ,

which is now going on amongst us . No more hurtful and fatal Masonic heresy ever was propounded than that which says , the " test of admission is the ability to pay . " It has tended to loosen our entire system of caution and care , and day-by-day we are admitting many who by no

possible consideration can ever be considered fit applicants for thc " mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry . " And then let us note the " reductio ad absurdum " involved in such a theory . When the witty French wife in Octave Feuillet ' s " Pour et Contre , " in reply to a husband who says that

a flirtation on the man ' s side is excusable , ( though not on the woman ' s ) and is only a " passing amusement of intellect , " asks him , " but if he have no intellect ? " the excellent man is shut up . So these initiates who are to be admitted because they can pay , but won ' t pay after all , what then ? Surel y we must all see the hollowness and

radical error of the present hasty system , and we must make up our minds , despite the material interests of our lodges , to know something of our candidates before we propose them , and to be convinced that they are good men , and will make good Freemasons , before we initiate those who require to be sued to pay their initiation fees .

Charity Organization.

CHARITY ORGANIZATION .

, It is curious sometimes to note , and not " a little instructive , how true is the saying of the wise tving ever still , that there is " nothing new under lle sun . " We make , as we often thinksome

• e- progress in this matter or that , we 'naugurate a striking reform , we put forward some marvellous discovery , and yet we are but everting after all whether to first principles , or c a"ier , discoveries , reforms , inventions . The

Charity Organization.

truth is , that this world of ours is nothing but a constant scene of progressive and retrograde movements , of change and continuance , of ¦ Row and ebb , of amendment and deterioration ; nothing is stationary , nothing is continuous , nothing is perfect . On all things here , and on

all men , " nations and thrones , and reverend laws " time has case its decaying hand , and as each generation passes onward to its -grave , we note , if we look on things calmly and carefully , beneath the tinsel and outside show of this always garish life of ours , this great and

unchanging law of the world and of man : we ourselves make and mar , we ourselves improve and alter as we think , but after all we achieve little that is new , and complete nothing that is permanent . And if this view of things be in truth , as it no doubt is , somewhat humiliating to our

common humanity , yet of its reality we cannot doubt , and about its certainty we need not dispute . And in nothing is this , according to our notion , so true as in respect of that dealing with our fellow and suffering mortals , by the way of benevolence , which we often sum up under

the one little expressive word " Chanty . ' The poor we have always with us ; they will " never cease out of the land , " we may well believe , whatever our social arrangements and legislative provisions may be . We are not among those who despair indeed of materially reducing the

terrible array of the " great army " of the poor , and lessening that dreadful " dead weight " which presses so often and so hardly on the honest industry of thousands , the hard earned incomes of countless fellow citizens . But this is not the exact question before us , only at any

rate a subsidiary one , and we do not propose at present to talk upon it in these pages . But with the fact of the need of " Charity " of some kind we may fairly deal . No doubt much abuse exists in the giving as well as in the administration of individual charity , and

no objection can be made to the efforts of individuals or societies to deal with any proven " malfeasance " in this respect of the great principle and duty of true charity . But it may be feared , we think , that in so acting , we admit , with a good intention , we have many of

us fallen into as great an error almost on the opposite side of the question . We have set up a charitable bureaucracy , which , like all bureaucracies has landed us in the red-tapeism of charity , the shadow , not the substance , the outward organization and skeleton , so to say , not

the inner vitality and reality of that greater and noblest of all true virtues . We have multiplied societies , with a corresponding staff , until the wretched applicant for relief is tossed about by a polite game of battledore and shuttlecock , from office to office , sick at heart and weary , and

he sinks , yes , and dies from actual starvation . Some recent accounts in the papers , one of which we printed last week , are very saddening and very depressing . It is perfectly startling to the humane mind to realize , that in our great metropolis , with all our official organization ,

with all our unofficial associations , with many " bureaus" of intelligence and enquiry , any fellow creature should positively have to trudge from office to office for hours , and go away disappointed , and famishing , unaided at the last . The great end of all "" such societies , remember

is to enable relief to be given to the really destitute , and not to the vagrant , the impostor , the swindler , the man who lives on the charity of his fellows , and unless there was some great defect in such associations , some radical vice in these little centres of a pseudo - officialism , we should not have to read the record of the

hopeless appeals of the truly suffering , or the vain efforts to obtain succour , whether by young and old , who really and truly need help . We beg our readers carefully to consider " Veta ' s " letter in our last impression , and many like which have recently appeared in the daily press , and to

say whether such a state of things can be justified on any ground whatever , and whether or no there is not some great mistake in the working of our present organisations and associations . We believe it to be this—that we are substituting a

hard and fast line of mere official routine and enquiry for actual and ready help , and when the truly honest applicant asks for " bread , " we practically give him a " stone , " we offer to him the " cold shoulder , " the hopeless red tape

Charity Organization.

of stereotyped formality to a starving human being . And in saying this , our remarks do not apply to the Boards of Guardians , or the relieving officers , but rather to what may be termed without offence the " amateur officers of

enquiry and relief . " The Boards of Guardians and the relieving officers are governed by legal provisions , and the " Consolidated Order of the Poor-law Board , " and as a rule discharge their onerous responsibilities with care , tact , and humanity . But the societies for " relief and

enquiry , " and the like have more freedom of action necessarily , and ought not to be merely , so to say , recording or recommending offices . If it be true that such societies do not profess to give relief , then , we contend that this is their vital blunder of action which utterly mars all their

otherwise alleged utility . When the officer has ascertained that the poor applicant has a bona fide case , he should be enabled to administer "temporary relief , " at any rate , " in kind , " and enable the homeless man to find accommodation in a " model lodging house , " until

he can see the relieving officer of the district the next morning . But at four or fivein the afternoon , after the poor applicant has been bandied from office to office , to send him to a relieving officer three miles distant , is a bitter burlesque on the name of charity , and could happen in no

country but England . It should not be possible that a respectable man and his son , short of work ; should have to walk wearily , for many hours , from office to office , and all in vain , and at last have to depend for a few mouthfuls of food , upon the casual help of a fellow sufferer as poor as

themselves , and spend their night under the arches of Covent Garden Market . The sooner , then , in our humble opinion , that our charitable organizations are improved in these respects , the better will it be for us all , for as it is , their work is deceptive , and the result is

very questionable , certainly not worth the expense of their officialism , or even the superabundance of their red-tape . We do not deny that many difficulties attend the question in itself , but of two evils , " always choose the least ; " and we ourselves should prefer even " indiscriminate almsgiving . " or what people

like to term the " inconsiderateness of charitable people , " to the amenities of a hyper officialism , which is very rampant just now , and appears somewhat inclined and prepared to shew to a confiding public " how not to do it , " especially when an emergency arises , when honest poverty knocks suppliantly at the door .

The Return Of The Arctic Expedition.

THE RETURN OF THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION .

We are glad in being able to congratulate the gallant officers and sailors of the Arctic Expedition , many of them being our brethren in Masonry , on their safe return home to Old England , and we rejoice to think that they are permitted by a good Providence to snend the

Christmas of 1876 amid happy friends and loving relatives . They have lost four of their little band ; all the rest , we believe , have come back hale and strong . The result of this achievement , however wonderful , has been perused with avidity in other pages than these ,

and is altogether too long for our columns . As the " Times " says so well , — " But what a tale of unrequited , we had almost said gratuitous , suffering it is ! How lightly do all talk of glory ; how little do they know what it means ! The little army had to cut its way through the ice

barriers , dragging heavily laden sledges , and going to and fro , the whole force being often required for each sledge , content to make a mile and a quarter a day , in pursuit of an object still four hundred miles off , through increasing difficulties , and with barely five months , or one

hundred and fifty days , wherein to go and return The labour is a dreadful reality ; the scheme itself a nightmare , the phantasy of a disordered brain . Even the smaller and subsidiary Expedition for planting an Autumn depot cost three amputations . The cold was beyond all former

experience for intensity and length , and the physical effect of a long winter spent in the ships under such conditions is particularized as one reason why the men were less able to endure cold , labour , and the want of proper food . Petersen , the guide and interpreter , accustomed