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TO OUR READERS . Tae F REEMASON is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper , price ad . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , ro / 6 . P O . O . ' s to be made payable at the Chief Office . London .

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TO ADVERTISERS . The FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . . ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion in current week ' s issue should reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-st . eet , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FREEMASON , may be addressed to the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances r eceived are published in the first number of every month . It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more espe daily those from the United States of America and India : otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

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NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason " to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfoundland , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United-States of America , & c .

The Last Boys' School Anniversary.

THE LAST BOYS' SCHOOL ANNIVERSARY .

Bro . Biuckes may pride himself on one great , if simple fact , that he has been privileged to announce the largest amount ever sent up to our Masonic Charities , viz ., 5 ^ 13 , 248 17 s . 6 d ., and which sum will yet probably be materially increased . Such an event is the best answer to

all fears and forebodings in respect of declining sympathy , all assertions of a dissatisfied Craft . When we look back on the records of our Anniversary Charitable Festivals and realize what was the amount , say 20 years ago , the returns of the Stewards' lists must appear to

us all to be little less than marvellous . They remind us more than anything of those fairy tales of wondrous growth and sudden increase which delig hted us when young and have not lost all relish or interest for us now that we are ageing or old . They say nothing so convinces , nothing so

affects us as an apposite illustration , so as we have one ready to hand , let us use it . In J 857 , only twenty years ago , when some of us were in the heyday of youth , and in the full working energy of Masonic life , what amount did we return for our charities ? What a sum do our

readers suppose then represented our sympathy and support in respect of our great metropolitan institutions ? Well , we look back to the Freemasons' Magazine and Alasonic Mirror of those hardworking days , and what do we see there inscribed in those unerring records ? In the

good year of light and grace , 1857 , our beneficent Order sent up to the three Charities the fraternal offering of ^ 465 8 6 s . 6 d ., of which the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution received £ 153 8 6 s . 6 d ., the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls sSiooo , termed by Lord Panmure

" a munificent subscription , " and hailed by " tremendous cheering , " while the lists of the Stewards for the ; Royal Masonic Institution for Boys' produced £ 1200 . In 1877 , twenty years of " Masonic life and labour have moved on , and we are privileged to announce that our most

benevolent brotherhood contributes to the Boys School alone over s £ 3 , 000 , and that the three Festivals have produced over £ 35 , 000 for the Charities . What more need we say or can we say ? Comment appears to be needless , even eulogy to be impertinent . May we not feel

great pride in belonging to a Fraternity , if stagularin its organisation , yet so much more singular in its charities , as nearly to equal single-handed , all the returns of all the charitable societies which meet annually in this great Metropolis to keep their festal anniversaries , and to announce

their long lists of subscriptions ' Indeed , when we come to think over the matter , it is one ¦ which must commend itself entirely to the sympathies of the zealous Mason , and the interest of the acute philanthropist . Ourcharitiesarethe real jewels of our Order , which shine in their own

intrinsic worth , and deserve and demand the heartfelt sympathy and zealous regard of us all alike . That we have seen the limit of their usefulness , or efficiency , or that we have as yet gauged the fullness of Masonic support , we do not ourselves for one moment profess to believe , but we

content ourselves to day with pointing out , what a subject of intense satisfaction and no little natural pride to every one of us must be the onward progress of our great Metropolitan Masonic Charities / whether evidenced by their ever increasing blessings for those whom they

personally concern , as well as by the liberal measure of Masonic support conceded to them by a kindly yet a critical Craft . Our words can , then , only be words of unhesitating congratulation and commendation . We do not think it needful to-day to weary our readers with statistical details or elaborate comparisons ,

as we believe they rather weary than please , —bore than edify us all ; alike those who write them , as well as those for whom they are written . Indeed , we are sometimes inclined to think we have too much of this sort of " numerical jumble , " which a " fellar can ' t be supposed to understand / ' and that it is , after all perhaps , not a

The Last Boys' School Anniversary.

little invidious to set provinces against metropolis , or lodge against lodge . For to say the truth , though such a calculation , ( which we have often indulged in ourselves , bv the way ) , may seem very simple and straight sailing , yet it is by no means so . Many little matters and many

hidden causes affect largely this or that subscri ption list , and very often even a smaller return of donations shows more sacrifice , and betokens more exertions to the discerning and well-in . formed , than does the larger amount which is read out so eloquently , and sounds so well

at the Festival , and looks so wel / i n the Freemaso'i . So we shall not trouble our kindly readers to-day with a comparison of figures obvious in themselves , or any repetition of trite remarks or olt-used illustrations , but simply and gladly announce how great has been

the return for the last Boys' School Anniversary Festival , congratulating as we do the executive and Bro . Binckes on a result so remarkable in itself , so advantageous to the School , so si gnificative of the true spirit of charity lingering amongst us , and , above all , so creditable to our good old Craft .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

REMITTANCES RECEIVED . Barnard , S . ( India ) P . O . O o 13 o Beg , Kev . Dr . ( New South Wales ) i 2 o Borg , R . ( Cairo ) o 16 o Caruana , C . ( Cairt ) t 1 6 Cunningham , P . ( New Zealand ) 066 Dillon , A . ( India ) o 13 o District Grand Lodge of Bombay 13 2 o Faulkner , D . T . ( New Zealand ) o 10 10 Fuller , A . . 1 . ( The Cape ) 3 3 o Haigh , F . ( U . S . A . ) 0106 Hill , W . ( New Zealand ) o 13 o Masetield , R . B . ( Buenos Ayres ) ... ... 180 Meridian Lodge ( The Cape ) o 10 o Moore , G . ( The Cape ) o 15 o Smith , Jas . ( U . S . A . ; 1 0 o

" Our Luncheon " next week . The following stand over : —Lodge Prudence , Plymouth , and Naval and Military Red Cross Conclave , Portsmouth . BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " Masonic Herald , " "Voice of . Masonry , " "The Liberal Freemason , " " Masonic Herald , " " The Poet ' s Magazine , " "Bauhiitte , " "The Freemason ' s Repository , " " Keystone , " " Where shall 1 get Most for my Money ? " " The Westminster Papers . "

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements , not exceeding four lines , under this heading . ] BIR'I HS . DAVIBS . —On the 29 th ult ., at East Bourne , the wife of the Rev . R . V . E . Davies , of a son . KERSHAW . —On the 30 th ult ., Mrs . J . Kershaw , of Park House , Willesden-lane , N . W ., of a son .

MARRIAGE . PBESTON J —WILSON . —On tha 29 th ult ., at Brixton , Fredeiick Raglan , son of J . Preston , Esq ., to Laura Margaret , daughter of T . H . Wilson , Esq .

DEATHS . ALGER . —On the 38 th ult ., at Ford Park , Plymouth , Mary , wife ol J . Alger , aged jf . GRANT . —On the 1 st inst ., at Eaton-terrace , St . John ' swood , Jane , wife of J . W . Grant , aged 57 . ? TRACiAV . —On the 1 st inst ., at Dollar , N . B ., Mrs . Sarah Strachan .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , JULY 7 , 1877 .

Charity Organisation.

CHARITY ORGANISATION .

We wish we could think that all this superabundance of Charity Organisation enquiry and reform was doing any good . It appears to us , on the contrary , that it is now assuming the appearance almost of a hindrance to genuine charity , a parody on professions of sympathy , a stumbling-block to efforts of relief . We called attention some time back to a case which

distressed all humane persons , when a poor fellow creature was " buffetted about " from office to office , in absolute want of the necessaries of life , was referred here , and sent there , and , though positively starving , was smothered simply with a plethora of " rsd tape , " and when he asked for

" bread , got only a " stone in return . We then ventured to say , in the discharge of our duty as honest journalists , that we were convinced that Charity Organisation was being carried to excess , that , as often happens here , disapproval of certain abuses ( no doubt ) was leading amiable

and well-meaning persons into the opposite extreme of superfluous routine and superabunding circumlocution ; the laxity of the past was giving way rapidly to a hyper-precisianism in the present , and that the only effect would be that while rogues and swindlers continued to

ply their avocation with success , the really honest , those truly in want , would be discouraged , and suffer accordingly . And surely the case of Captain Williams is a proof of the truth of our remarks , and fears , and a sad commentary on what we may term ( without offence )

official " fluffiness , " and an " amateur bumbledom , which apparently are on the increase . w e give every credit to those excellent individuals who have sought to remedy existing defects in our charitable system , to reform proved abuses , but we fear that in their ardour , and we

must add , want of acquaintance with the real depth of the question involved , they are in pracice making the word charity a misnomer , and actual relief a pompous profession . The operations of these well-meaning but unpractical persons , and of these numerous societies , appear to

be drying up the sources of personal charity and direct relief , and affording a happy means of escape from a great and bounden duty , to the selfish and the sybarite , and sub - stituting in the stead of a liberal if i 0 ° sentimental charity , an enormous amount "'

needless officialism and hopeless technicality For what is the case of Captain Williams - Captain Williams was an officer and a gentleman , unable to find work , and who died in a workhouse , friendless and forlorn , too proud ' "beg , " but not ashamed to " dig . " His w '

and children followed suit , poor creatures . Though a lady , and the daughter of a clergyman ' she was compelled to pawn her wedding ring provide bread for her starving children , '^ ey applied to these charitable associations , bu . seems , we are told , from some " techm difficulties , " in vain , and to say the trw » whether intended or not , as some of our temporaries have remarked , the \ Times