Contents.

CONTENTS .

I . F . A 11 ERS I Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 2 New Year's Entertainment at the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 2 Provincial Grand Chapter of Norfolk 3 Consecration of the United Brclhren Lodge ,

I Alasonic . Notes antl ( jueries p I The Toast Song of the York l , odu ; e iT . [ . ) ... 5 RI-I " IRTS or MASONIC MF . F . TI-COSCraft Masonry 5 Instruction . ' o Royal Arch 10

No . 1923 , nt Malta . 1 1 CoRRESl'OXnF . XrE— j Masonic Law 4 , The Ritual Question 4 Hegf-ing Mason-- , 4 1 Reviews 4

| . Masonic Ball at Marypoit 10 Amusements 10 Masonic nnd General Tidim-s 11 lodge Meetings for Next Week u Historical CalendAr 13

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IT is impossible in this , our first appearance in 1 SS 2 , not to renew onr best wishes to all our kind friend's for these now commencing twelvemonths , and also to remind them how very great has been our loss in old friends , and public and Masonic worthies alike , in 1 SS 1 . The necrology of the Times for JSSI is alarming fo rear ] much more to reali / . c ; the more so , as one nf our

contemporaries has said , we have lost in 1 SSr some of the most remarkable personalites who have figured in the realms of royalty and religion , literature and law , the army and the navy , the arena , of science or the service o ' the state . We need onlv recall the EMPEROR ALEXANDER , Lord

BKACOXSJIELD , Mr . CARLYLE , Mr . STREET , Lord HATHERLEY , General BENEDECK , Professor LITTRE , Lord AIREY , Sir W . HEATHCOTE , Sir F . W . KARSI . AKE , and our old Masonic friend , MANOAH RHODES , to keep before us the appositeness and seasonablencss of such monitory messages .

* * * As regards our other most needed and useful charities , the Roys' School has 215 boys already under care and education , and in April the probable number of candidates will not be less than seventy , while the vacancies " will only , unfortunately , be fifteen . Every exertion should be made to aid thc

authorities , and if possible help forward the junior school . In the Girls ' School there arc now - ! , * 5 *) inmates , and there will be twenty-eight candidates at the next election , and twenty-one vacancies , a very happy state of things in itself , but pointing to thc serious responsibility attaching to those entrusted with keeping up the necessary expense of so large a number of orphans . «

t -it THE returns of thc Lodge of Benevolence for iSSr are very striking . It has , as wc said last week , distributed during the last twelve months £ 9813 , for 328 cases . Thc highest amount voted was , it seems , in November , when

£ 163 0 were alloted to fifty-five cases ; the smallest amount was in September , when £ 365 was given to sixteen cases . In 1880 , £ 9223 were voted to meet 300 * cases , but in iSS t thc Lodgeof Benevolence voted more than in 18 S 0 , by j £ . - ** 40 ; nnd , owing lo its excess of expenditure over income , it has had to take / . ' 3000 from its invested resources of £ 50 , 000 .

THE attention of our readers may we ' ll he called to an official statement that the receipts of our Three Great Masonic Charities , from ali sources , for the year 18 S 1 amounted to £ 43 , 204 14 s . Of this goodly sum the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution had received /" 17 , 73 c ii )? . fid ., lhe Boys '

School £ 12 , 993 9 s . 1 id ., and the Girls . " School £ 12 , 557 4 * ' / ' ' '' noteworthy that the amount received in 1 SS 1 is less than the amount collected in 1880 by £ 11 467 17 s . 3 d ., and loss than the total of 1879 by £ 1287 17 s . c ) d . These arc facts worth a good many ' * figures of speech , " and deserve the attention and consideration of all , vho value and admire the work and labours oi English Freemasonry . .,, ± i Tin-: Festival of the Koyal M . i-> onic Benevolent Institution , whicli will take place in February next , ai . d for which the first meeting of its Board of Stewards took place on Thursday , will deal with the interests of that important and valuable Charity , which is truly valued by English Fret -mniions .

It has now on its list more than 300 male and female annuitants , and at thc next election there will be 112 candidates—46 men and 66 widows—and only vacancies ; for J . | men and 7 widows . Something should be done by its friends to try and increase fhe number cf aimuita 11 is to be elected .

ii 1 : IN a letter from thc Times' correspondent af Paris , in the issue of Saturday last , appear one or two passages relative lo . Monsieur Brisson , now lhe President of thc French Chamber of Deputies , which seem to demand a notice in the Freemason . In one passage the correspondent says of him , "lie

now wields the great and growing influence of Freemasonry . " In another he adds , " There was not a single vote against hiin , nor will there be many whenever hc chooses to make Freemasonry ascend to the Presidency of the Republic . " These two significant remarks , covering a good deal in a few words , point to results alike serious and regrettable to Freemasonry in France .

As an axiom of Masonic law , clear , and indisputable , and unchanging , it may be premised safely that in whatever country or in whatever form Freemasonry has mingled or interfered with politics il has invariably " come to grief . " Its aims and its mission arc properly entirely unpolitical ; and whenever it leaves its own high vantage ground of pure philanthropy and universal beneficence , and touches the turbid stream of the party politics of the hour ,

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( just as pitch defiles ) , or descends into the noisy arena of conflicting sectionalism or overpowering passions , its use and blessings for the world are lost for thc time altogether , sometimes irrevocably gene . It was always feared that certain proceedings in French Freemasonry had a concealed politcal bias and end . It was known to those who had been behind the scenes , that

starting from lhe hateful " Morale Indcpendante " of M . vssoi ., and the intrigue ** -, and ill-concealed manoeuvres of political professi > ns as displayed during the empire in the Grand Orient , culminating in the absurdities enacted during the degradation of the Commune , there was a violent party in French Freemasonry of " libres penseurs " and " tetes cxaltcs "

who were determined ( o render Freemasonry subservient lo the fleeting follies of a revolutionary excitement , to ignore its true principles , and to drag it into f he dirt . It is but fair , however , here to the Grand Orient to bear in mind thai officially it had nothing to do with such ridiculous and insane proceedings . Its authority was defied , ils prestige was departed , and it sunk for a time

into utter abeyance and impotency . Subsequently certain mournful and destructive changes were announced , —that outcome of Masonic Nihilism which agitated French and alarmed Cosmopolitan Freemasonry , The present stale 01 " French Freemasonry is deplorable , in that it has abjured the great landmarks of Freemasonry , and is now , as far as we can sec or safely say , a

secret political Society , with this peculiarity ,- —that it is tolerated by the State We hear , on good authority , that a large number of respectable citizens and good Freemasons have left the lodges , and we fear that at the present moment ,

—it is useless to conceal it , —no Anglo-Saxon Mason true to his under , takings can safely enter into or co-operate wilh thc French lodges . We sincerely deplore such a state of things , as it is not difficult to predict either the inevitable tendency or assured result of such a prostitution of Freemasonry .

IT may be asked , we think , fairly enough , " What do you consider thc great landmarks of Freemasonry , inasmuch as 3 * 011 arc constantly deprecating changes and innovations , and denouncing the oblivion ol time-honoured declarations *'" The whole of Cosmopolitan Freemasonry existing at thc moment wc write dates truly and really . be it remembered , from the revival in England

of i / i ? . France , thc . Netherlands , Spain , Germany , Italy , Sweden , Denmark , Russia , North America , South America , and the entire ; East have derived ( heir actual jurisdiction from original English warrants . Anil though we do not deny the inherent power of any Grand I . odge or governing body to introduce mutations and amendments in its

laws , rendered necessary by thc lapse of lime or altered circumstances , we yet have a right , as there is a sort of " mutual contract" in Freemasonry , to require adhesion to what have been the unchanging tenets of Freemasonry all the world over . Those , briefly stated , are acknowledgment and reverence of T . G . A . O . T . U ' ., loyalty

to the Supreme Authority of the State , abstention from secret conspiracies or revolutionary associations , a respect for religion , order , law , the sacred theory of entire toleration , and a religious principle ol" universal sympathy and humanitarian benevolence . Let us test Freemasonry by these few and

simple . " works , " the " works , " we make bold to say , of " true" or " spurious" Freemasonry , and then wc can rejoice to think that wc are honest members of that great Anglo-Saxon Fraternity , which is at this hour so loyally and so majifullv upbearing thc goodly standard of true Freemasonry in the world .

I ' XDER the genial "regime' of our esteemed and distinguished Uro . Sir FRANCIS BURDETT , the Orderof Constantine seem *; 10 be flourishing and progressing . Ils last official report clearly and tersely records both its pas | struggle ; , its present position , and its future hopes . ,-r- , A VKKV important decision was" come to ai thc last monthly meeting

of thc General Committee of the Girls' Schorl , though we understand it is not a ncw one , which , as it must affect a large number of similar cases and candidates , wc think it well to advert lo to-day . The petition for a child ' s admission on thc list of candidates sets forth that the father had subscribed for four years , then "

dcmitted " on account of poverty , and so died out of Masonry , but thc petition claimed admission for the child under Law 55 . Now Law 55 says this " No girl shall be eligible for election unless thc father has been a subscribing member to a lodge for seven years , except in thc case of death , lire , shipwreck , or oi liis having become afflicted with blindness , paralysis , or other

infirmity during such membership , permanently incapacitating him from earning a livelihood . " Thc petition was rejected on the ground that the child was ineligible because the father died out of Masonry , that is to say , that his death did not occur during his Masonic membership , or that hc had

not subscribed seven years previously to his leaving Masonry . The law , as it stands , contains a qualification , and two exemptions from the qualification , which is a " sine qua non , " which we have given . It may , however , be a question how far the word " death , " & c , is governed by any expressed condition of " membership , " if strictly interpreted it does not do