Freemasonry In South Africa.

to the right and left , entering in inverted order . Ladies were admitted ( by ticket ) to view thc lodge . The lodge was opened in due form and the constitution ceremony proceeded with . The ceremony of consecration commenced with a prayer by thc Chaplain ; the lodge being then uncovered and consecrated in form ; when being again covered and a blessing given an anthem was sung . The

brethren of the new lodge having rendered homage to the Installing Officer , he then constituted the lodge . Bro . P . M . JC . J . Egan , D . G . M . designate , then installed the officers of the new lodge , after which the brethren proceeded to luncheon . The following is a list of the officers installed : Bros . E . J . Smithies , W . M . ; H . Rowland , S . W . ; P . Nightingale , J . W . ; G . Murray , Sec . and Treas . ; J .

Attwell , S . D . ; D . Watson , J . D . ; XV . Wynne , I . G . A concert took place in the evening at the Masonic Hall , which was crowded . About twenty ladies and gentlemen took part in the proceedings . Thc concert was a splendid one , and we have no hesitation in saying it was one of the best ever given in Alice . Several ladies and gentlemen from Fort Beaufort aided a great deal in the musical line .

A Romance, Entiled Freemasonry In The County Court.

A ROMANCE , entiled FREEMASONRY IN THE COUNTY COURT .

" Behold , how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity . " So said the great Hebrew bard , father of the Royal Solomon , and it our readers will only read to the end of this sketch , how delighted they will be to find it exemplified in the Province of Devon even unto the present day . Where more suitable

for the practical illustration of thc foregoing sentiment than Devonshire , for is not the revered and Christian minister the Rev . John Huyshe , M . A , the Prov . G . M . ? Is it not also close to the residence of the Devon Masonic orator who has for years told the members what their duties are to God , their neighbours , and themselves : But to the point I It appears that a well known , respected ,

and able Past Master in Plymouth ( and a Past Provincial Grand Officer ) , borrowed a 'ittle insignificant and useless MS . ritual , Of a portion of the Royal Arch ceremony , long ago obsolete , at least the owner of the said pamphlet declares he did , but the P . M . fails to remember the occurrence . However the owner being a Mason , andjthc borrower one likewise ,

they soon amicably settle thc matter , for thc P . M . promises to search through his numerous papers ( being a literary man , a work of time therefore ) , and proceeds to do so . He fails , alas , to find the missing but useless little MS ., and though he regrets the fact , the owner gets wrath , and proceeds to consult a solicitor as to the matter . Herein will be seen the advantage of Freemasonry , and its

superiority to any other institution under thc sun , for the lawyer JO consulted happened also to be a brother , a P . M ., a Provincial Grand Officer , and so many things else in the Craft , that he himself rarely succeeds in recounting all his honours to his friends at anyone meeting , for " their name legion . " On hearing thc name of thc P . M . who was charged

by his client with the loss of this valuable nothing , he at once reminded the owner thereof that ns Freemasons wc should all adjust our difficulties amicably , and , therefore , he would strongly advise him ( the client ) to leave the matter in his hands , and he would obtain a few pence to give some poor beggar from the said loser of the MS . The owner , however , would not hear of this , but decided

to seek the aid of the law to recover thc value of his property , whereupon , the brother thus consulted , the P . M . of honour , position , usefulness , influence , and appearance , declined to be party to any such abuse of Freemasonry , refused thc fee for consultation , and informed the brother that if he , as owner of a paltry and valueless MS ., chose to summon a well known and respected brother before

the judge of a county court for the value of the same ( which was nil ) , he washed his hands clean of the whole affair , and in most indignant terms rebuked the said owner and brother for asking him to be party to such an intensely mean , shabby , and un-Masonic transaction . He then topped , the vehemence of his whole nature being so roused that words failed to come , and , being a stout

gentleman , the said owner made his exit , being fearful of apoplexy ensuing . We are happy to state that better feelings in thc end predominated , and owing to the fraternal advice of the solicitor in question , the affair was arranged amicably , a few shillings being handed hy the P . M . to the South Devon Hospital , in acknowledgement of his supposed

carelessness . FREEMASONRY IN THE COUNTY COURT—A STEUK

REALITV . On Wednesday , the 21 st ult ., before his Honour thc Judge , was heard " T . Passion , plaintiff , v . S . Honesty Defendant . "—The plaintiff claimed a largesum of money for a MS . ritual of a portion of the Ceremonies of the R . A . ( long ago obsolete ) , which he declared had been lent by him to the defendant and not returned . The judge

gave a verdict in favour of the defendant , who had wisely paid into court a sum of money much iu excess of thc value of the MS . in question . When we mention that the sum thus paid did not exceed three half-crowns , our readers will easily compute the small but real value set on thc petty little " Ritual . " The plaintiff hereafter will doubtless take a lively interest whenever thc play of " The Biter Bit '

is being acted . There is , however , a sad fact connected with the case . Thc plaintiff all through lhc case was assisted by his lawyer , who is a distinguished Mason , and who knew well the trivial character of the so-called " R . A . Ritual . " Had this legal brother but remembered the teachings of thc society , which has so bountifully showered upon him honours and offices , and advised his client to accept the sum

A Romance, Entiled Freemasonry In The County Court.

previously tendered , there would not have been enacted such a disgraceful exhibition of charlatanry and lack of Masonic fraternity .

Romance And Reality Of Freemasonry.

ROMANCE AND REALITY OF FREEMASONRY .

The majority of brethren have little experience of the advantages derivable from a connection with the Craft , other than those which spring from their enjoyment of meeting statedly with fellow members and visiting brethren , in lodges adjacent to their own homes . There is a

deep and valuable reality in this , but ordinarily there is not much romance . Our every-day life , in the Craft as in the world , is so stereotyped , that it brings us little that is new under the sun . But Freemasons that travel in distant lands have a wider and more varied experience . If in the army or navy , they are continually brought face to face with strange scenes and individuals , and not

infrequently as well as with great danger ; and even if they be only ordinary travellers , their experience is new every day . Valuable as Masonry is to them at home , it proves doubly so abroad , and they are not slow to acknowledge it . Bro . General Sir Charles Napier , while commanderin-chief in India , once said , in response to a toast at a Masonic banquet : " Few Masons can say they owe so much

to Masonry as I do . I have been forty years a Royal Arch Mason , and I am glad of an opportunity of acknowledging it to the Craft . " He then went on to detail how he was once taken prisoner by the French , without a hope of being exchanged , when he remembered that he was a Mason , and soon found a brother in a strange land , and speaking a strange tongue , who had conveyed safely

a letter from him to his family in England ( at that time a hazardous undertaking for a French officer ) , and tbe result was his speedy and honourable return to his own land . There is scarcely any country so remote from civilisation as not to have some of its inhabitants initiated into thc humane and self-sacrificing principles of Freemasonry .

One would not naturally look for brethren among the wild Arabs of the Great Desert of Africa , anil yet the tenets of the Craft have more than once been illustrated there , and will be again . For example : ' Some twenty years ago a member of Oxford University Lodge was travelling in Egypt , accompanied by his servant , and in proceeding across the desert was attacked by robbers . Finally they

were overpowered , but not until they had slain two of the band , and naturally the travellers supposed tbat their own lives would pay the forfeit of their skilful bravery . But the robber chieftain no sooner found that he had as prisoner a brother Mason than he restored to him every article of property that hatl been taken from him , and bid him resume his journey in

peace . The lessons of Freemasonry are thus the very last that arc forgotten . There seems to be a magic force in them , that impresses them ineffaceably on thc tablets of the heart . Many are thc romantic incidents that are narrated of Freemasonry on the battle-field . This one is characteristic , and was related by Bro . Sir Archibald Alison , at a

meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge ot Glasgow . In the Crimean war an English officer lerl a small party of soldiers up to one of the guns placed in an embrasure in the Redan . The majority of the men fell , in tlic deadly fire to which they exposed themselves . Those remaining were gallantly met by a body of Russian soldiers , and the English officer was about to bs bayoneted , when he was

Masonically recognised by a Russian officer , who struck up the bayonets of his soldiers , led his newly-found brother to the rear , and treated him with the kindness of a Mason . Thc following incident of our Revolutionary war is worthy detailing in this connection : On the plains of Camden , after thc militia which

composed the principal part of the American forces had left the field , the brave old German , Bro . General De Kalb , was left to bear the brunt of the unequal conflict , with a few tried veterans . They fought valiantly , but could not win against superior numbers . Borne down in the red hurricane of battle , the brave De Kalb fell , covered with wounds , close to where the British general was

commanding in person . Prostrate on the ground , though still living , a dozen British soldiers , with savage cruelty , would , in a moment more , have pierced his bosom with as many bayonets . His aide , who was within a few feet of him when he fell , seeing the terrible fate his general was about to meet , rushed towards him , and stretching his hand towards heaven , cried out :

" Save thc Baron De Kalb ! Save thc Baron De Kalb !" Cornwallis attracted by the cries , rode to the spot where the old hero was lying in his blood . Springing instantly irom his horse , with his own sword he struck aside the bayonets of his soldiers , hailed the German general with a brother ' s welcome , staunched his wound ? , took him from the cold bed of thc battle field to his own

quarters , where every comfort that wealth or power or sympathy could suggest was afforded him ; and if care , attention , and relief could have preserved the life of De Kalb , it would have been done by Cornwallis . But death had fastened its fangs upon him , and although Cornwallis was unable to prolong his earthly existence , he consigned the body to tlic tomb with all the pageantry of a soldier ' s burial , and himself performed the grand honours

of Masonry at the grave . Even the possession of Masonic emblems by a brother has proved of signal service to him . Dep . Grand Master Bro . Blaquicre , the veteran Anglo-Indian Mason , had bequeathed to him a snuff-box , covered with the emblems of the Craft , that had a memorable history , and he prized it accordingly . It belonged originally to a medical gentleman , to whom it had been presented by his lodge , as a

Romance And Reality Of Freemasonry.

testimonial . He afterwards went to Brazil , where he realized a fortune in diamonds and other precious stones . These he placed in a small box , in which he also enclosed his Masonic snuff-box , and returned across thc ocean to Eng . land . Off the coast of Cornwall the vessel in which he sailed was wrecked , and he reached his native land poorer than when he left it . About a year afterwards a stranger

called at his lodgings , drew from under his coat the identical box that contained his lost treasure , and delivered it to him , as a Mason . The Masonic snuff-box , with his name upon it , led the strange brother to find the owner , and his Masonic principles led him to restore to him his lost property . And not only docs thc American Mason find brethren

in the deserts of Africa and Arabia , but Chinese brethren are promptly recognised when they journey westward , and come to our shores . Some yeans ago , at a communication of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey , a card was sent in inscribed with the name of a visiting brother . The officers scanned it up and down , down and up , crosswise and obliquely , but to no purpose . It locked more like a

spider ' s caligraphv than anything else . It chanced at last that a brother , learned in the Oriental languages , detected " Celestial marks , " and suggested that a Chinese brother was knocking at the outer door . He was then examined and found lo be a bright Master Mason , and promptly admitted to the circle of the Mystic Tie .

These are a few of the instances that illustrate at once the romance and reality of Masonry , and added to our own intimate knowledge of the advantages , intellectual , social and convivial , the Craft forms at home , they intensify our admiration for the oldest , noblest and strongest tie ever devised by man for binding together good men and true of every clime , nation and language . —Keystone .

Freemasonry, Past And Present.

FREEMASONRY , PAST AND PRESENT .

Masonry is thc most ancient ,, and , so far , has been the most enduring of all human institutions . From the earliest times of the world's history until now , associations and orders have existed among men ; some have left their footprints on the sands of time , but most have perished , without the shadow of a name , or one gilded

cloud to mark the glory of their setting suns . Nations as well as institutions have arisen and been swept away ; dynasties have sprung up and perished ; the genius of revolution , with her ever-revolving kaleidoscope , has ceaselessly worked in the transformation of governmentsconverting , now kingdoms into republics ; and now republics into empires . Tlie old nations of the East have

passed with the gorgeous civilisation of senu-barbaric opulence and power , down to the dark Plutonian shore , and have bathed in its Lethean waters . Fair and classic Greece ami Rome , eternal and imperial , purpling her seven hills with countless triumphs , have sunk into the decrepitude of age ; the new and unknown Muscovite has sprung up like a ghnt and stretched his long arms and

huge proportions over half Europe . The great Christian city of thc Kast , thc rival of unrivalled Rome—the city of the Golden Horn and of thc Christian Constantine—has sunk into the t . rms of the victorious Turk , and become the sacred city and metropolis o ( Ismail . Tbe Moorish crescent has pushed back the Christian cross from the Mediterranean to the Pyrenees , and in turn thc

conquering cross has driven the crescent to the sea , and been planted by the Christian Knights of Masonry upon the sacred walls of Jerusalem . New worlds have been discovered and opened to the admiring gazr : of men , and our own continent , from a trackless wilderness , has risen by the magic of events to a power and population that transcends belief .

Throughout most of this wreck and reconstruction of the past ; throughout most of this alternate chaos and order ; throughout most of these mutations and revolutions , which history , in her great moving panorama , has presented to our sight ; throughout most of these , dissolving views , appearing , disappearing , and re-appearing on the tablets of time , like the tracings of phosphorus on a

whitened wall ; before many of the ancient dynasties ban perished ; before most of the nations and governments of the modern world had had their birth , Freemasonry existed and has flourished , and to-day , after the lapse ol centuries , it exists and flourishes , striking its roots into every land of civilisation , and distilling from its spreading branches over the people of many nations the precious and healing dews of its benevolence and good works .

We must cherish and preserve it , and do our part to perpetuate it . To do this we must emulate the virtues of those honoured fathers whose death we mourn ; wc must preserve our vows inviolate ; we must execute without departure thc obligations we have assumed , and we must show to the profane world , by our actions rather than by our professions , that we keep the faith that ire profess . —Grand Master Bro . JPm . B . Taliafarro , oj' Virginia .

Freemasonry is a peculiar system of morality , having eternity for its duration , and the universe for its space . Its attraction is the mystery in which it is veiled , its key is allegory , its bond morality , its object philanthropy , its result benevolence . —Masonic Herald ,

PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF WARWICKSHIRE , —A meeting of this Provincial Grand Lodge was held in the Masonic Hall , Leamington , on the 3 rd inst ., undcrthe presidency of the Right Hon . Lord Leigh , R . "' Prov . Grand Master . After the transaction of the usua business of the Prov . Grand Lodge , the brethren proceeded to lay the foundation-stone of ' St . John ' s Church , Leamington , with Masonic ceremony .