Contents.

CONTENTS .

R ETORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGS : — Especial Grand Lodge ' Craft Masonry J Mark Masonry 4 Scotlantl — 4 Royal Masonic ' Benevoient Institution , $ Masonic and General Tidings S

The New Year " Time and Change , """ VY > \' J i . Bro . Caubet ' s Remarks about Bro . Hervey 6 Thc Statistics of Masonry 1 Especial Grand Lodge . 7 Returns o £ OM Charities ...... »;; ... 1 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 7 Reviews * C ORRESPONDENCE : — ,., .,. Staffordshire Masonic Benevolent Association J

Washington 7 The Installation Picture 7 Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and the Province of Devon { j Knights Templar j > Freemasonry in America 8 Staffordshire Masonic Charitable Association , 8 Masonic Jurisprudence 8 Lodge Meetings for Next Week a Advertisements io , i . ii . iii . iv . v . vi . Title-pace and Index to Vol . IX .

Especial Grand Lodge.

ESPECIAL GRAND LODGE .

An especial Grand Lodge was held on Wednesday evening , at Freemasons' Hall , to receive and consider the report of the Special Committee appointed by Grand Lodge on the 6 th September last , on the most appropriate mode of commemorating the thankfulness of the Craft for the

safe return from India of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , Most Worshipful Grand Master . The Earl of Carnarvon , Pro Grand Master , presided ; the Karl of Donoughmore , ¦ S . G . W . ; Bro . F . Pattison , as J . G . W . ; the Rig ht Hon . Lord Leigh , Prov . G . M . for

Warwickshire , as D . G . M . ; Lord De Tabley , Prov . G . M . for Cheshire , as Past G . M . ; the Right Hon . the Earl of Limerick ; Herr Wilhelm Ganx , as G . Org . ; General Brownrigg ; Dr . W . Rhys Williams ; Sir Albert Woods ( Garter ) , G . D . C . ; Samuel Tomkins , G . Treas . j John

Hervey , G . S . ; M . J . Mclntyre , Q . C ., G . R . ; Capt . Piatt , P . G . D . ; H . Grissell , P . G . D . ; Rev . A . B . Frazer , P . G . C . ; Rev . C . J . Martyn , P . G . C , Dep . Prov . G . M . Suffolk 5 Rev . Sir J . Warren Hayes , P . G . C . ; Rev . R . J . Simpson , P . G . C . ; Rev . C . W . Arnold , G . C . ; Rev . J . Studholme

Brownrigg , P . G . C . ; Hugh D . Sandenian , P . Dist . G . Master , Bengal ; Samuel Rawson , P . D . G . M . China ; J . M . Clabon P . G . D . ; Rev . J . E . Cox , D . D . ; T . W . Boord , M . P ., G . D . ; James Glaisher , P . G . D . ; J . A . Rucker , P . G . D . ; Thomas Fenn , P . G . A . D . C , P . G . D . ;

Joshua Nunn , P . G . S . B . ; A . J . Duff Filer , P . G . S . B . ; Brackstone Baker , W . S . Whitaker , S . Rosenthal , E . P . Albert , Thos . Cubitt , Joseph Smith , C . A . Cottebrune , Joseph Wright , H . G Buss , W . Dodd , Raynham W . Stewart , John Constable , Dr . Baxter Langley , Dr . Carpenter

Rev . G . R . Portal , R . J . Spiers , J . Lewis Thomas , W . F . C . Motitiie , Israel Abrahams , Griffiths Smith , F . Davison , W . Smith , C . E . ; Thomas W . White , W . Clifton Crick , J . Bingemann , J . Tickell , Geo . Snow , W . J . Murlis , Geo . Everett , Robert J . Chappell , C . F . Hogard ,

Samuel Poynter , and Massey ( Freemason ) were among the ' other brethren who were present , who numbered altogether above 600 . Grand Secretary , after lodge was opened , read the circular convening the lodge . Lord Carnarvon then directed Grand Secretary

to read the report of the Special Committee . Grand Secretary thereupon read the following report : — The Committee have carefully considered the matters submitted to them , and beg to report as follows 1—

xst . That the sum of £ 4000 be voted for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for the purpose of founding two lifeboat stations in perpetuity , and in such localities on the English coast as the sub-committee hereafter mentioned shall decide .

and . That a Sub-Committee , consisting of the Most Worship ful the Pro Grand Master , the Rt . Worshipful the Dep . Grand Master , and the Right Worshipful the Senior Grand Warden , be appointed to wait on the Secretary of the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution , with full powers to arrange all matters as to locality , detail , & c . 3 rd . That a memorial tablet be erected iu Grand L ' odge in commemoration of the event .

Especial Grand Lodge.

The Earl of Carnarvon then rose , and was received with loud and long-continued applause . He said , Brethren—as you all know well , my general duty in this chair , and my general desire when I am there , is to discharge simply the duty of a speaker , so to say , in this Grand Lodge . I

desire as a rule to offer no personal opinion and to influence in no degree the resolutions to which you may ultimately come . My general duty , to which I desire to confine myself is , so to regulate the order of your proceedings that they may be conducted with that propriety and

that dignity which befits this , the general and the great meeting in which the whole of Freemasonry in England is represented and finds its voice . t ^ Hear , hear . ) This evening , under very exceptional circumstances , I pass beyond that limit , and take upou myself ,

as the Chairman of a Special Committee appointed by you , to make a special and exceptional recommendation to this Grand Lodge . And I am quite certain , from my long experience in Grand Lodge , that I shall notthat I need not ask you to give me , under these

exceptional circumstances , all that cordial support which I have invariably met with at your hands , and which on such an occasion as this I am entitled I think , to ask for . ( Hear , hear . ) Brethren , you appointed at the last Grand Lodge a Special Committee to consider a difficult , and I

may even add a delicate question , which you referred to it . That committee met . I was naturally in the chair ; and I wish in the first instance to do simple justice to that committee when I say that no enquiries could have been fuller , no discussions could have been more

exhaustive , no attention could have been more patient , than that which the committee gave to this question . No doubt they were a committee which represented , I think , very fully the opinions of the Craft . Each separate question was raised by them ; each separate opinion that

could find favour with the Craft , either in its general body or in its individual sections , was fully brought forward and discussed ; and I have now , as the Chairman of that committee , to present you with the resolutions which embody , in fact , the report which vou have heard read

by the Grand Secretary . And first let me state , brethren , that the cause of your attendance here together is due simply and solely to myself . I felt , and felt strongly , that in a matter of this sort , of this importance , and where , as I am free to confess , a course

exceptional and unusual is proposed—I felt that it was due to the Craft that every conceivable opportunity of discussion should be afforded— that the fullest publicity should be granted , and that no one should have a right hereafter to say that that course which was unusual in itself was

adopted without the full knowledge and the full sanction of the Craft as represented here in Grand Lodge . ( Hear , hear , and applause . ) And this has been the reason , and this must be my excuse , why I have put you to the inconvenience and trouble of meeting me here in an

especial Grand Lodge for you will see that the resolution which you will adopt to-night is simply a resolution recommending this matter to the next Grand Lodge , and further , after and beyond that Grand Lodge , affording' still an opportunity of a confirmation of thc minutes for any subsequent

reconsideration . I sincerel y hope that there will be no division of opinion on this subject . ( Hear , hear . ) I do not ask it for myself , though 1 am entitled to look for your support ( cheers ) , but I ask it in consideration of the importance of this question , and , above all , of

the illustrious person in whose name and for whose sake we are now proposing it . ( Hear , hear . ) Brethren , it is not so long since His Royal Highness made that most remarkable progress through ' India that I need recal any of its special incidents to vou ; it is doubtless fresh

in your minds how His Royal Highness passed through the length and breadth of that wonderful—I might almost say that fabulous—Empire which it is the boast and the glory of the English crown to hold as its own . You will

remember how he passed from one native State to another ; how the whole pageantry , so to speak , of Indian pomp was unrolled before him ; and how he , the first of English Princes , became acquainted , as it were , both with the public and

Especial Grand Lodge.

the private life of the great chiefs of that vast dependency . ( Great applause . ) It was not merely a matter of private interest , and of legitimate curiosity ,- he fulfilled , from my point of view , a great public duty ( hear , hear ); he learned a lesson that no books , that no public

offices , that no documents , could possibly have taught him ; he saw the inner life of India : and he returned more fitted to advise , more fitted to govern , than when he left these shores . ( Hear , hear . ) He discharged a great public duty , and he discharged it well . And when he returned to

this country he met with a welcome and a reception such as no Prince of Wales ever met with before . ( Cheers . ) From one end of the country to the other there ran a thrill of congratulation that he had been preserved through all the difficulties and the perils of that

long journey , and that he had been restored to us , as we truly hope , for the good and the welfare of this country . And if that was the welcome throughout the length and breadth of the land , nowhere was it more strongly felt , nowhere was it more heartily

expressed , than it was among the Freemasons of England . ( Hear , hear , and great cheering . ) Brethren , our object to-ni ght is to find some means by which we can , so far as we are concerned , erect a memorial of that successful progress of our illustrious Grand Master , H . R . H .

the Prince of Wales , and at the same time record our thankfulness to the Great Architect of the Universe that it has pleased Him to preserve H . R . H . through all those perils and difficulties and restore him back to us in England . ( Hear , hear . ) Now , brethren , there is no difficulty , I

venture to think , so far as the mere question of finance is concerned . ( Hear , hear . ) Happily for us , unlike almost every other societyhappil y for us , this difficulty does not exist . Our funded property affords us the means of being just and even generous . ( Hear , hear . ) Our

annual surplus is not less than £ 30000 . year ; on this head , therefore , there is no difficulty . The difficulty rather is , according to a French proverb , the embarrassment that proceeds from an excess of wealth . Our difficulty is to select the object to which our money should be

appropriated . Well , brethren , all of you who were present at the Grand Lodge when this question was discussed will remember that there was considerable division of opinion . Those who were members of the committee over which I had the honour to preside will remember also that

there was much division of opinion among us in the first instance—though I wish to record emphatically here , this remark , that ultimately we were unanimous in our opinion . ( Hear , hear , and great cheering . ) Brethren , there are many different schemes , all of them admirable in

themselves , which might be proposed for this object . It was proposed here in Grand Lodge to devote a certain sum to the restoration and decoration of certain old churches that were more or less connected with Masonry . It was proposed at another time to devote a certain portion to the

foundation of scholarships . ( Hear , hear . ) It was proposed also—and I own that the proposition found for a long time great weight with me—it was proposed to appropriate it to the Charities . ( Hear , hear , and general applause . ) Brethren , I perfectly understand that cheer , and I heartily

sympathise with it . Had I seen my way to propose to you to devote this money to the Charities I should have been the first to have come forward and give my voice in favour of it . ( Hear , hear . ) But it was not from want of consideration , it was not from want of predilection for

that course that I have come to a different conclusion . You will observe that if you were to appropriate this money to the Charities you must appropriate it at least in one of three ways : — either you must create a new Charity—( cries of " No , no" )—which found , let me say , a great

many , and many zealous , and many able advocates—or you must appropriate it to one of the old Charities exclusively —( " No , no" )—or you must divide it among the three old Charities . ( Cheers . ) And I venture to observe that those

are the only three courses which were possible if you dealt with it for the Charities . Well , so far as the foundation of a new Charity is concerned , I see already that Grand Lodge feels how great would be the difficulty . ( Hear , hear . ) I