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ROYA L MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS . WOOD GREEN , LONDON , N * . OI * I * ICE : 6 , FREEMASONS' HALL , W . C . GKAND PATRON : HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN . PRESIDENT : HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES , K . G ., M . W . G . M . A QUARTERLY GENERAL COURT of the Governors and Subscribers will be held at FREEMASONS' HALL , Great Oueen-street , Lincoln's Inn Fields , London , on MONDAY , the ioth of January , 1 SS 7 , for the transaction of the ordinary business of the Institution . To consider the following NOTICES OF MOTION—1 . By Bro . Raynham W . Stewart , V . P . and Trustee ( P . G . D . ) : — "To amend Law 29 , so as to read : 'Quarterly General Courts shall be held on the Monday immediately following the second Saturday in January , April—except when , in the latter month , that day shall fall on Easter Monday , then on the next following Monday , & c . ' 2 . By Bro . J ames Moon , Vice-Patron , on behalf of the House Committee : — "That Law 37 be amended so as to read in future : ' That the Meeting of the House Committee be held on the "Third Friday " in lieu of the " Last Friday but one " in every month . ' 3 . By W . Bro . Charles Frederick Hogard , V .-Pres .: — "To add to Law 28 the following clause : 'Voting Papers duly issued for all elections . of Boys , after being properly signed , shall continue valid for the current election , notwithstanding that the Voter may have died between the time of signing the proxy and the day of election . ' To consider , and if approved , to adopt a recommendation from the General Committee that"Twenty-five Boys be elected at the Quarterly General Court , to be held on Monday , April ~ iS , 1 SS 7 , from an approved List of Forty-five Candidates , " thus increasing the number of Boys educated , clothed and maintained to 25 S . The chair will be taken at Four o ' clock in thc Afternoon precisely . By Order . FREDERICK BINCKES ( P . G . Std . ) , V .-Pat ., Secretary . London , January 1 , 1 SS 7 .

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A SUITE OF ROOMS TO LET NEWLY DECORATED AND FITTED FOR Lodges , Chapters , Preceptories , Conclaves , & c , & c . For particulars apply at the Freemason olfice , 16 Great Queen-st ., W . C .

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TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESSES ( Maud )

For the Freemason Printing Works

FREEMASON , LONDON . For Jewels , Clothing , Banners , and Furniture KENNING * , LONDON .

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TO OUR READERS . THE FREEMASON is published every Friday morning , price 3 d ., and contains the fullest and latest information relating to Freemasonry of every degree . Subscriptions , including Postage : — United States , United Kingdom . Canada , the Continent , India , China , Ceylon , the Colonies Sec . Arabia , & c . 13 s . 6 d . 15 s . 6 d . 17 s . 6 d . Remittances may be made in Stamps , but Post Office Orders of cheques are preferred , the former payable to GEOROE KENNING , Chief Office , London , the latter crossed London *| oint Stock Bank .

To Correspondents.

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SATURDAY , J ANUARY 8 , 1887 .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

[ We do not hold ourselves responsible for , or even approving of the opinions expressed by ourcorrespondents , but wewish in aspirit of fair play to ail to permit—within certain necessary limits—frte discussion , ] ¦

WESTMINSTER AND KEYSTONE LODGE , No . 10 . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , I have no intention of shirking responsibility for any statement I have made , or adopted from others , and , with your permission , I will explain how , in my article of "The Roll Call "in your Christmas Number , I came to

assign the " Griffin , Newgate-street , " as the original meeting place of Lodge No . 10 , and why I associated the lodge that met at that hostelry with Lodge " IX . " in the list of subscribing lodges to the 1723 edition of the Book of Constitutions . Before doing so , however , let me point out that " * The Roll Call " was never intended to be , and is not , a detailed history of the Westminster and Keystone from the

date of its warrant till now , but merely a sketch , based on its list of members annually issued and Grand Lodge register , of what it has been since its revival in 1 S 55 . But as the lodge had already enjoyed at the time of its revival an existence of over 130 years , it was necessary to say a few words as to the antecedents of a body so suddenly raised from a state of decadence to one of almost

unexampled prosperity , and the earliest of those antecedentsthe origin of the- lodge—naturally claimed my first few words , the rest being devoted to the lodge ' s successive changes of number and name . In the few researches that followed , I confined my attention to the lists published in Gould ' s " Four Old Lodges " —to which I referred in my article—and the very brief historical summary which forms

the preface to the annual list of members , published , I presume , with the sanction of the Iodge itself . The summary begins : " A warrant bearing date January 19 th , 1721 , was issued under the seal of Masonry enabling * certain brethren named therein to open and hold a lodge of Freemasons at the Griffin , in Newgate-street , London , which lodge vvas then called No . 7 . By the

alteration of numbers in 1 740 , it became No . 6 , " & c . In spite of the minor discrepancies I discovered in the course of my inquiries , as for instance * , that the date of warrant—as it appeared to me—should have been 28 th January instead of 19 th January , I permitted myself to assume that the lodge itself would be so far acquainted with its own ori gin as not wittingly to commit itself annually to the

publication of an erroneous statement . For this reason I adopted /' The Grifiin , Newgate-street , " which stands seventh in order of priority in the " List No . 2 , " at p . - \ of Bro . Gould's "Four Old Lodges . " Then as to Westminster and Keystone being identical with Lodge " IX . "—as the original of present No . 10—of the lodges which subscribed their approbation to the first

Bookof Constitutions : —Against this " List No . 2 " aforesaid , Bro . Gould has placed a column headed " Nos . on List No . 1 , " which "List No . 1 " isthelistof the 20 lodges which subscribed their approval of the first Bookof Constitutions published in 1723 ; and in this column the figure " g" is entered against the lodge at the "Griffin , Newgate-street , " for the purpose of indicating that it ( the Griffin Lodge ) was identical with " IX " in the approving list of lodges , for

Original Correspondence.

which "George Owen , M . D ., " signed as Master , and "Eman . Bowen" and " John Heath , " as Wardens—I having erroneously described Eman . Bowen in my article as Master instead of Warden . I had noticed the lodge at the "Crown behind the Royal Exchange , " warranted 28 th January , 1722—that is , 1721—which figures as No . 7 in Pine , 1729 and Prichard

1730—, , see Bro . Gould ' s " List No . 4 , " at p . 4 " Four Old Lodges " —but ranks as No . 27 in his "List No . 2 , " of 1723 , and which corresponds as regards day of tlie month with present No . to , but there did not appear to me anything unreasonable or inconsistent in a lodge meeting at the "Crown behind the Royal Exchange , " in 1729 , having met originally at the "Griffin , Newgate-street ; " and , having no time to devote

to further examination , I accepted the statement published in the annual list of members , and the identification which followed of the Griffin Lodge with " IX . " of the approving lodges . The position may be as stated by Bro . Lane ; but , as I have not examined the subject fully , I am not competent to offer an opinion . At all events , I trust he will excuse me if I do * not accept offhand his statement as being a correction

of the one I have adopted from others . If the declaration which appears in the list of members of No . 10 , viz ., that "A warrant , bearing date Jan . 19 th , 1721 , was issued enabling certain brethren to open and hold a lodge at the Grifiin , in Newgate-street , London , " is wrong , then it follows that my statement is wrong likewise , and all that follows about the "IX ., " of which "Eman . Bowen" was Warden—not Master . —Faithfully and fraternally yours , G . B . ABBOTT . London , 3 rd January .

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES . To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , The point as to which you have been challenged by Bro . T . A . Bellew is an interesting one , but if he had taken the trouble to refer to the Book of Constitutions he would not have written in the positive tone he does .

No doubt the popular notion is that the reading over of minutes is only for the purpose of ensuring a correct record , and the usual method of negativing the resolution of a previous meeting , in the case of public bodies , is by motion to rescind . The House of Commons , however , has before now . ordered certain entries to be expunged from its "journals , " as in the case of Wilkesallhough the

histori-, cal accuracy of the entry was undisputed . In short , even in the outer world , although the usual practice is as your correspondent states , there is not the inviolable rule which he alleges . But , to turn to Masonic law and custom , fhe confirmation of minutes is much more than a mere formality . Your correspondent sums up b y saying that " the minutes are

read and signed , not read and confirmed . " I refer him to _ Rule 172 , the last sentence of which reads "The minutes can onl y be confirmed at a subsequent regular meeting of the lodge . " But a careful study of Rule 130 carries the point further ; it relates to the election of W . M ., provides that when . the vote is taken "the ballot shall be declared in favour of the member who gets the

highest number of votes , " but the election has not then been completed . "At the next regular meeting , the first business after the opening of the lodge shall be the reading of the minutes of the preceding meeting , and if they be confirmed , so far at least as relates to the election of Master , he shall be deemed to be elected . " Your correspondent may retort that this is a proceeding

specially reserved , but the clause beginning , " so far at least " makes it perfectly clear that the framers of the rule had in view the non-confirmation of some other matter in the minutes , and wished to make it clear that this would not affect the election of Master . If the lodge has not the power of refusing to confirm any minute the phrase is meaningless . Moreover , I do not think it reasonable to

assume that this confirmation was invented for the purpose of hedging round the election of Master , but , in a matter of such importance , to give definite shape to an acknowledged custom . As to the practice , p . 16 of the Christmas number of the Freemason gives an interesting bit of evidence from the

pen of Bro . VV . J . Hughan , who says , " It was a sore disappointment to the members " of the Country Stewards ' Lodge "to find that their petition for having green ribbon to their aprons ( to match the collars ) , which was agreed to at the Grand Lodge held on November 25 th , 1795 , was negatived on the minutes of that meeting being read for confirmation . "—Yours faithfully , Bristol . HAROLD LEWIS .

To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , The correspondence in your columns indicates , I think , the confusion in the minds of some of the writers of "Confirmation of Minutes " with "Confirmation of Proceedings . " My understanding of the two is , that the former means

confirmation of the correctness of the record of the resolutions and other proceedings passed and taken at a former meeting , the latter being a confirmation of the transactions themselves which took place at a former meeting . I believe ( and in this I claim the support of the general practice of all public bodies and organised societies , from Parliament downwards ) that , unless in cases soecially provided for , a

resolution lawfully passed at any meeting does not require confirmation at all . It is the act of passing that gives it its vitality , and not the being recorded on the minutes . These minutes are no doubt the mostconvenient , though certainly not the only mode of proving any transaction , hence the necessity of their correctness being attested by an open and deliberate vote . I am aware that in Grand Lodge a practice

seems to have grown up of considering confirmation of minutes as tantamount to confirmation of such of the resolutions recorded thereon as require confirmation ; but this does not support the proposition that all resolutions require confirmation . The Book of Constitutions clearl y shows a difference in

the minds of its framers between the two kinds of confirmation . Take Rule 62—which is not a new one— "The minutes are to be read and respectively put for confirmation , " and Rule 74— " No resolution for a grant of money ( except sums of £ 50 or under recommended b y the Board of Benevolence ) or for a new law shall become valid unless confirmed at the ensuing Quarterly Communication . " ( This