To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

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

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review are to be forwarded to the Editor . Anonymous correspondence will be wholly disregarded , and the return of rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further information will be supplied on application to the Publisher , 10 , 8 , Fleet-street , London .

Important Notice.

IMPORTANT NOTICE .

It is very necessary for our readers to advis 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 .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

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Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

VESTUR . —We adhere to our answer last week that the communication is an advertisement . We will consider your other proposa ' .

BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . \ ' , " Keystone , " "Brighton Gazette , " "Brief , " " Selby Times , " " The Masonic Newspaper , " " Citizen , " " Hull Packet , " " Plymouth Gazette , " " Broad Arrow , " " Boyal

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Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements not exceeding Four Lines under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . BARTON- . — On the 30 th ult ., at Trinity Vicarage , Cambridge , the wife of the Rev . John Barton , of a son , stillborn . HOBBS . —On the ist inst ., at Lewisham , the wife of Mr , William Hobbs , of a daughter . STROUD . —On the ist inst ., at Ramsgate , the wife of Lieut .-Colonel II . W . Stroud , of a son .

MARRIAGE . WALLACE—GLADDING . —On the 1 st inst ., at St . George ' s Church , Hanover-square , Frank Mackenzie Wallace , of Edinburgh , to Bertha Gladding , of Ken 3 ingto , i .

DEATHS . UuNTisei . —On the 281 I 1 ult ., at Mount-street , Grosvenorsquare , Bro . W . Hunting , Surgeon-Dentist , P . M ., and founder of the Belgravf Lodge , No . 7411 , and W . M ,

and founder of the Londesborough Lodge , No . lfiSi , aged 54 years . WooiiBUKs . —On the 28 th ult ., at Fleet , Hants , James W . F . Woodburn , son of the late Rev . J . F . Woodburn , aged to years .

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THEFREEMASON. SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 6 , 1879 .

Masonic Mendacity.

MASONIC MENDACITY .

Is it true , alas , that we are now imitating those who for so long have had the monopoly of " lying , " as far as Freemasonry is concerned , everywhere ? We use strong words advisedly . In the Times of Monday week appears a quotation translated from the Globe , a Parisian paper ,

as follows : " Masonry in France . —The Pans Globe gives the following statistics of Masonry in France , declaring that they are the best that can be ascertained , and are reliable as far as they go . There are 79 Grand Lodges and 119 Provincial Grand Lodges , having under them 7900

lodges . Twelve ' High Councils ' direct 350 lodges . Thete are eight lodges which are signalised as ' independent , ' ' isolated , ' or ' excluded . ' There are thus nearly 8500 lodges altogether . These include very nearly 500 . 000 active members . It is said that the number of members

who have withdrawn from further participation in the Brotherhood , or may be characterized as ' indifferent , ' or inactive , amounts to between two and three millions . " If we are to understand this statement as referring to Freemasonry in Prance , anything more palpably ridiculous or

more absolutely untrue cannot well be conceived . We almost wonder how such a paragraph can have got slipped into our contemporary , except upon the old theory " omne ignotum pro magnifico , " in respect of Freemasonry . The statistics do not , and cannot , refer to French

Freemasonry , as , in the first place , there are no Prov . Grand Lodges in France , and , in the next place , the whole number of Freemasons under all the rites does not exceed 30 , 000 brethren—if it even comes up to that amount . The writer has got " mixed up , " not only with " absinthe " and

" vermuth , but with figures he does not understand and totals he cannot explain . And so he has , in a most ludicrous manner taken , probably , the main facts of his erroneous and blundering little paragraph from " Kenning ' s

Cosmopolitan Calendar , " and made of them a sad jumble and an extraordinary hash . Wo have often expressed our regrets that wo have no proper statistics of Freemasonry , and hence we have often to read and to

listen to the most extraordinary statements which are hazarded as regards the numbers of our Cosmopolitan and mysterious Fraternity Probably , as we have said before , for at present any computation can only be approximate , there may be about two millions of Freemasons in the

world , and th 3 t is a liberal figuie . Freemasonry , which proclaims "Truth" to be one of its most unfailing characteristics , is never helped by exaggeration or swagger , by unveracious clamour or untrustworthy assertions . Let us leave that " vulgar error " of our poor weak humanity to

those who delight in the fictions of unreality or the perversity of unreliable and unhistorical data . But as Freemasons let us always be conspicuous for our love of "Truth , " in great things and small , in lodge and out of lodge , at home and

abroad , in general statements and in special statistics . Freemasonry is quite strong enough in itself and needs not the adventitious aid of mistaken and unwarranted assertions , which are only "clap trap , " and please none but the emptyheaded friends or the unreasoning foes of Freemasonry .

Masonic Impostors.

MASONIC IMPOSTORS .

Just now our lodges , when they do meet , are " exercised " greatly by Masonic impostors . We all of us know well the kind of persons we generally have to confront , and , alas ! that we have to say it , the mendacity we have to deal with . Sometimes they are of American or Canadian

growth , sometimes ( or rather mostly ) they hail from Scotland , sometimes from Ireland . English Masonic impostors , though they do exist , of course , are rare upon the whole , and for the most part we have to deal with those who were not originally members of our jurisdiction . But

Masonic Impostors.

the charity of Masonry is large , and the kindness of Masons is proverbial . We do not like , we who are assembling in goodly numbers to attend to work in a comfortable lodge-room and then to adjourn to a pleasant social meeting—we do not like , we say , to send a poor brother , professedl y

hungry , and penniless , and destitute , often unable , as he says , to procure a night ' s lodging , and sometimes with a pining wife and suffering children to boot , empty and angril y away . And , hence , it too often happens that compassion is too strong for reason , and sentiment for political

economy , and we give what , we fear , turns to little good , and is probably wasted , or even contemned , by the recipient . It seems then a fitting opportunity to say a few words about that facility of Masonic initiation which exists in some parts of England still , is far too great in Scotland , and

requires correction in Ireland . Scotland is , however , the chief offender in this respect . We believe we are not overstating the case when we say that in many lodges of Scotland a man can be made a Mason for under £ 2 , and that , owing to the vicious system in vogue in Scotland , by

which annual subscriptions are not , as a rule , paid to all the lodges , a great many Masons having paid a small initiation and enrolment fee never meet the brethren of that lodge in fellowship again . The Almoners of our northern lodges and large towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire can

tell a tale , if they will , of itinerant Masons hailing from Scottish lodges , making Masonic mendicancy a trade and a profession , living on it , living by it . And from this fact it is easy to see how a crop of impostors will spring up of all classes and degrees , like Burt , in America ,

recently alluded to in our columns , and like the obliging and engaging brother of Belfast mentioned by our brother from Ireland last week in the Freemason . It is not , however , for us to point out the remedy . Suffice it for us to note the malady , we must leave to the faculty , to abler

and wiser heads than ours , to discover a cure for this growing evil . We have for long held the opinion , strongly , that our present initiation fees are too low , and we trust the day is not far distant when £ 5 will be the minimum allowed to every lodge under the Grand Lodge of England .

We are aware that , as with most questions in this good world of ours , something may be said on both sides . But we feel quite convinced , after much and serious consideration , that such an increase is both called for and expedient in the best interests of Freemasonry in England .

We hope that ere long the Grand Lodge of Scotland will take the question of annual subscription into its most serious consideration as a practical measure . Nothing , we are persuaded , will give such an impetus or add more to the prestige of Scottish Masonry .

A Private Masonic Party To Paris And Switzerland.

A PRIVATE MASONIC PARTY TO PARIS AND SWITZERLAND .

Bro , Oscar Dietrich , conductor to Mr . O . H . Caygill , announces this tour for September Jjjth . We wish it all success . Paris is always worth seeing , and p leasant quarters at any time of the year , and the intelligent Mason wiil find plenty of occupation for his mind , his time , and his

purse in that great metropolis . Switzerland also is full of beauty and interest for the traveller . Its " everlasting hills " are still the same in all their grandeur and glory , and its wondrous lakes are replete with charms to those who like to lock at nature ' s most varied scenes . Ladies will form

part of the " entourage , " and we need not say will add to the journey in every way . Everybody is out of spirits just now . Bad weather , losses in trade , a ruined harvest , our suffering farmers , all are subjects of vivid and hourly effect

on the temper , the imagination , the pocket , our wife ' s expenses , and our balance at our banker s . Perhaps a short foreign trip may do us all good , and gradually restore our normal equanimity and mental tranquillity .

Servants' Characters.

SERVANTS' CHARACTERS .

The controversy goes on , with no apparent signs of practicalitv or result . The ridiculous proposal of the " Dienstbuch " is a " hare t ° lure many away from the " real scent , " an