Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

Next week will be a busy one with the Governors and Subscribers of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution . On Wednesday there will be a Special Meeting for the purpose of considering and accepting , rejecting , , or amending the changes in and additions to the rules prescribing the qualifications of

candidates for the Male and Widows' Funds respectively . On the same day there will be held the regular Monthly Meeting of the Committee of Management , and on Friday , in Freemasons ' Tavern , there will be the Annual General Meeting of Governors and Subscribers for the transaction of such ordinary or special

business as may be brought before it , and for the election of candidates to fill the vacancies that have been declared since the meeting in May , 188 9 , as well as a limited number on each Fund of those that will occur between then and the third Friday in May , 1890 . As regards the meeting of the Committee of

Management , we have nothing to say , as we presume the business will be , for the most part , of the usual character . On the Special Meeting , however , which will be held the same day , will devolve the responsibility of dealing with the amendments proposed to be made by the Committee of Management in the

existing rules relating to the qualifications of candidates . To the majority of these amendments we have no serious objection to raise . They leave the annuities on both Funds altered , but in the case of the Male Fund , a candidate must have been a subscribing as well as a registered Mason for at least 15 years ; the

amount of income disqualifying him from becoming a candidate , or , if an annuitant already , from necessarily retaining the whole of his annuity , is reduced from £ 40 to £ 32 ; while , if he has qualified as a Life-Governor at least five years before becoming a candidate , he will be entitled to 20 additional votes , for each

Life-Governorship he may have purchased , at every election he shall take part in until he succeeds in obtaining an annuity . In the case of the Widows' Fund , the qualification as regards age is raised from 55 to 60 years , and the widow ' s husband must have been a subscribing as well as a registered Mason for 15 years ;

she must have been married to her late husband seven years , instead of five years , or , if he was an annuitant , five years instead of three years . The income disqualifying her from becoming a candidate , or , if already an annuitant , from necessarily retaining the whole of her annuity , remains , as before , at

£ 30 . As regards the widow of an annuitant , she must be 55 years of age , and may—not shall—be entitled to half her late husband ' s annuity ; and this she will retain for five years , instead of three years , and if her husband was in residence at Croydon she may so continue if the Committee give their sanction , but

not otherwise . For both Funds the exceptions are retained in favour of applicants who are blind , paralysed , or otherwise disabled from earning their livelihood , but they must produce certificates to this effect from two medical men , and the applications must be approved by the Committee . To these

amendments , backed as they are by the recommendation of the Committee of Management , who must know better than others the value of such details , we do not suppose any grave objection will be taken . But , as we said in our article which appeared in the Freemason on the 29 th March last , to the new law which

lays it down that no brother , or brother ' s widow , shall be eli gible as a candidate , unless he , or her late husband , had qualified as a Life-Governor two years previous to his proposed candidature , or had been a subscriber of one guinea per annum for live years , we now , as then , offer the most strenuous opposition . The

other changes are mere changes of detail and leave untouched the principles on which the Institution was founded and has been since conducted . But this new law will change a strictly benevolent institution into a mere benefit society . It will

certainly exclude the majority of those who are now accepted as candidates , while the donations and subscriptions obtained under this law will form scarcely an appreciable amount . Indeed , those who render themselves eli g ible under this additional law-

Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

will give their five guineas down or their guinea a year for five years , not because they care a button about the Institution , but as an investment which in the event of misfortune overtaking them , will bring benefit to themselves or their widows . It has been the boast of Freemasonry that it has never been a benefit

society ; that is to say , a society which y ields certain benefits to its members in return for their contributions , which may be paid at fixed regular intervals , or which may be given irregularly at the option of the donor . What Freemasonry has done for its poor members , or the widows and children of poor members ,

has been done freely in accordance with its guiding principle , and not because the recipients of its help have established any claims upon the Society to be benefited ; and we sincerely trust that Freemasonry will always retain this character , and for . this reason , that the new law establishing these many qualifications will be rejected straightway .

At the Annual General Meeting on Friday next , the 16 th instant , the chief business will be the election of candidates to fill sundry vacancies . We have already brought under the notice of our readers the principal features in connection with the approved lists of candidates , and therefore we need not say more

now than that the list for the Male Fund contains 68 names , while the vacancies declared in February were n , and five have occurred since , making a total of 16 immediate , to which must be added the three deferred , raising the total to be elected to 19 . For the Female Fund there are , or were—for we believe one or

two have died since—84 candidates and 10 vacancies , namely seven immediate and three deferred , nor , as far as we know , have any occurred since , so that in this case the contest will be a desperate one . As some of these candidates , both male and female , have been on the lists for years , we trust that efforts will be made in their behalf which at all events will have the effect of removing them into the more comfortable sphere of elected annuitants .

The Craft In Hertfordshire.

THE CRAFT IN HERTFORDSHIRE .

A further step in advance has been taken by the Province which only a few years ago was commonly spoken of as " Little Herts . " We give elsewhere a brief account of the consecration of its newest lodge—the Broxbourne , No . 2353—and we most warmly congratulate the Prov . G . Master and the Province on

this latest evidence of the great vitality which characterises the Craft in this favoured part . Its senior lodges , the Hertford , No . 403 , and the Watford , No . 404 , were constituted as recently as 1829 , and though from this time forward there was always a considerable amount of activity among the Masons in Hertfordshire ,

firstly under the late Marquis of SALISBURY , and then under his successor , the late Bro . WILLIAM STUART , there were but eight lodges on the roll , the Gladsmuir , No . 1385 , being the youngest , when the latter brother retired from office after a tenure of 29 years , and was succeeded by Bro . T . F . HALSEY , M . P ., who has

remained at his post ever since , and under whose auspices 12 new lodges have been added to the previously existing eight . Again , at the time of Bro . HALSEY ' S installation in office , there were only two R . A . Chapters—the Hertford and the Watford —in existence . In February , a third—the Gladsmuir—was

consecrated , and the number necessary to constitute an Arch Province being complete , a patent was issued a few days later for the appointment of Comp . HALSEY as G . Supt ., and he was installed as such by the late Comp . J OHN HERVEY , then G . Scribe E ., in October , 18 75 . As regards extra-constitutional Masonry , the

Stuart Encampment of Knights Templar was constituted in the year 1840 , and therefore , if it desires to do so , is in a position to celebrate during the present year the jubilee of its foundation ; while as regards Mark Masonry there are four small Mark lodges ,

the oldest of which—the Watford—was constituted in 18 79 , and a Prov . G . Mark Lodge , with Bro . HALSEY as Prov . G . Mark Master , to watch over their interest . Thus , since the day in April , 18 74 , when the present Prov . G . Master was installed in the Shire Hall , Hertford , amid general rejoicing , there have been