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TO OUR READERS . The FREEMASON is a Weekly Newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Subscription , including postage : United America , India , India , China , & c !

Kingdom , the Continent , & c . Via Briiulisi . Twelve Months ios . 6 d . 12 s . od . 17 s . 4 d . Six „ ss . 3 d . 6 s . 6 d . 8 s . 8 d . Three „ 2 s . Sd . 3 s . 3 d . 4 s . Od . Subscriptions may be paid for in stamps , but Post Office Orders or Cheques are preferred , the former payable

° GE . ORGE KENNING , CHIEF OFFICE , LONDON , the latter crossed London and Joint Stock Bank . Advertisements and other business communications should be addressed to the Publisher .

Communications on literary subjects and books for review are to be forwarded to the Editor . Anonymous correspondence will be wholly disregarded , and the return . £ rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further information will be supplied OP application to 1 he Publisher , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received 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 especially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FREEMASON , may be addressed to the Office , T 98 , Fleet-street , London .

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TO ADVERTISERS . The FIIEEMASON 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-street , by 12 o ' clock on 'Wednesdays .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

Will Bro . W . Eagle , of Lodge 1 fio , North Britain , be good enough to send his present address to the Publisher , 198 , Flect-st ., London . BOOKS , Sec , RECEIVED . " Foreign Correspondence ,- " " Grand Commandcry of Ohio ; " "The Mystery of the Bible Dates , Solved by the G reat Pyramid ; " " Canadian Craftsman ; " " Lecture by J . Fitzroy Townsend , LL . D . ; " " Michigan Freemason . "

Births Marriages And Deaths.

Births Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . Od . for announcements , not exceed ing four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . AUSTIN . —On the s , lh inst ., at Queen ' s-road , Finsburypaik , the wife of Mr . Edwin Austin , of a ( laughter , CAIIPUNTER . —On the 3 rd inst ., at 38 , Harley-street , the wife of R . S . Carpenter , of a son .

HARRISON . —On the 4 th inst ., at 22 , Minster-yard , Lincoln , the wife of C . A . Harrison , of a daughter . ¦ W HITEMOUSE . —On the 4 th inst ., at Dormar Villa , Leamington , the wife of Robert S . Whitehouse , ' of a daughter .

MARRIAGE

BESLEY—ADAMS . —On the 3 rd inst ., at Christ Church , Cheltenham , by the Rev . J . F . Fenn , Rector , R . St . John , son of the late Thomas Besley , Carysfort , Dublin , to Mary , daughter of the late John Adams , Silverspring , county Cork .

DEATHS . DREW . —On the 4 H 1 inst ., at 7 , Cheriton-villa , Folkestone , Amelia , daughter of the late Amos Drew , aged 53 . KKIISMAW . —On the 5 U 1 inst ., at 4 , Alcxandra-villas /

Finsbury-park , Robert Kershaw . MASON . —On the 4 U 1 inst ., at r , Ongar-road , Brentwood , John Mathew Mason . SMITH . —On the 4 th inst ., at 31 , Bancroft-road , E ., William , husband of Jane Rebecca Smith , aged 32 .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 10 , 1877 .

Our Lodge Meetings.

OUR LODGE MEETINGS .

Our lodges are gradually re-opening after the summer " Siesta , " and our good brethren are gradually collecting in the Little Village . One by one our well known assemblies are opening their doors to their faithful associates , and the season of London Masonic life is just about to

begin "de novo in full vigour and living reality . No doubt as a general rule all such re-meetings are more or less depressing . Each new season of Masonic work as it commences during November , mentally takes us back to other days and scenes , to pleasant associations

which have closed for us to kindly faces now no longer with us . There are very few lodges indeed , in which our first gathering does not tell us of friends who are wanting , some who no longer sit at our sides , or grace our meetings . But such is after all the solemn and

inevitable law of life , the normal condition of our existence . We are and we are not ; we come and we go ; we a ppear on the busy scene , and we disappear to-day , to-morrow ; and we who are fhe most active , and the most eloquent , as well as the most sedate and the most silent , must in turn yield to fate , and meet the taciturn

Boatmen as he ferries us across the dark and dismal lake . Few lodges there are , in which the ranks are not thinned , in which changes great and many do not appear , in each succeeding year . "Buffer Jones " as we liked to call him , we miss great y . He was one of the kindest of men and the best of Masons .

Higgins of the silvery voice no longer charms us with the melody of his strains , or that merry laughter of the heart . Poor old " irlig . ' ' Kitson no more lays down the ( aw ; Balsom no longer returns thanks , Tippetts no longer explains the " working tools , " and Chester no

more gives us a recitation . Johnson and Jowler , Thompson and Twentyman , Carter and Currier , Mavcrs and Maitland , Wood and Walker , all have gone and past , are no more to be seen at refreshment , their seats know them no irore , and we miss them hourly , and mention them

mournfully , and moralize upon them sentimentally . Now we have not written all this in a feeling of morbidity , nor even of misplaced rhawkishness . No , we are rather anxious to impress upon our readers the reality of lodge iife , and represent to most of them that it may

be governed by exceptional circumstances and surrounded by special attributes , that it is , after all , only more or less a true feature of what existence and the world really are to us all alike . Yet we need not take a too high nor a too hazy view of our lodge work , etc ., but if we

think seriously for one moment we shall see , we think clearly enough , that like everything of earth , the most prosperous of our lodges has the same abiding law to contend with , of change and chance , of uncertainty and of decay . In life , as \ ve know , these things happen every day

in the progress of our feet , and foolish are we if we complain of what constitutes a great part of the probation of mortality . No worldly lot is exempt from change , no human condition is free from the depressing influences of fading hours and vanishing-friends . If we look round our little home circle we see at once how too

surely such is the dominating law of all outrace . For how few of us are theie but must often look wistfully at times , for faces which have vanished , and listen tenderly for voices which are hushed , and who must indeed feel amid the losses we deplore , and the dear friends we lose , how true still are these words of the

poet , " There ' s not a joy the world can give Like that it takes away . " Without then being unreal or hyperbolical , the extremes always to be avoided , when we talk of

Freemasonry or anything else , let us all learn to look upon our lodge meetings as a pleasure as well as a privilege , as enjoyment as well as duty . Our lodges are meant to be the abodes of friendship , and honour , and innocent hilarity , and

Our Lodge Meetings.

social satisfaction . From them we should sternlv banish all that detracts from , defames , destroys degrades the great and goodly plan of Freerna ' sonry . in all such meetings the quarrels and the controversies of a bitter world should not enter obloquy and slander should be utterly unknown '

To suppose that any brother deliberatel y , ; a lodge meeting defames another brother ' s fa ; character , is to supposehim the slanderer , to be a recreant Mason , one who has no business to be present , one who is no fitting associate of jUsj men and of true Masons . And if , alas , we are

but mortal , and the weaknesses and baseness of earth still cling to us as men and even as Masons let us trust that the friendly and refining JQ fluences of our lodge meetings , may tend to improve and to elevate , to amend and to edif y us all .

Past Provincial Grand Pursuivants.

PAST PROVINCIAL GRAND PURSUIVANTS .

A question lias been raised in our columns as to whether a Past Prov . Grand Pursuivant holds past rank , and may wear the clothing . We have aheady expressed our humble opinion that he may , and we still adhere to it after careful consideration of the Book of Constitutions . We

are , however aware that some difficulties existon the subject , and we are now prepared to advert to them . Undoubtedly the analogy of Grand Lodge is against the custom , as in the list of precedence no Past Grand Pursuivants are to be found . But vet , we venture to think , that

the analogy for once , strange to say , does not hold good , and for the following reasons : The office of Grand Pursuivant is a late office , that of Assistant Grand Pursuivantlater still . The former dates from 1840 downwards , which , we believe , was about the date of the appointment of the

office of Grand Pursuivant ; the olhce was not a changeable office—one brother held it so long as ten years , and , therefore , no necessity arose for a Past Grand Pursuivant . Indeed , down to 1861 , when the office of Assistant Grand Pursuivant was established , we believe , no Past Grand

Pursuivant had existed . There is undoubtedly a resolution of Grand Lodge governing the appointment of Grand Pursuivants and Assistant Grand Pursuivants , by which that office does not give past rank . As one of our correspondents points out such is given by vote of Grand Lodge alone . But the appointment of

Provincial Giand Officers does not merely rest on a resolution of Grand Lodge ; it is governed solely by the Book of Constitutions , and by the words of that wise code of laws is clearly expressed and as clearly understood . At 51 , sec . 2 , ( edit . 187 , 5 ) , we find this unmistakeable provision on th <; subject : — " The Grand Wardens and subordinate Provincial Grand

Officers ( except the Treasurer who is to be elected ) are to be annually appointed by the Provincial Grand Master , and such officers are respectively to be invested in the Provincial Grand Lodge , and shall possess within their district , the rank and privileges of Grand Officers ;

but they are not by such appointment members of the Grand Lodge , nor do they take any rank out of their district , though they are entitled to wear their clothing as Provincial Grand Officers , or Past Provincial Grand Officers , in all Masonic meetings . " Now though it mi ght be true that this law is as old almost " totidem verbis " as

1815 ( William s edition ) , and preceded the institution of a Grand Pursuivant by Grand Lodge and " a fortiori , " that of the Provincial Office , yet such a law is the law regulating all Prov . Grand Officers , and must , therefore , be now construed as dealing with all such officers , be

they what they may , proper Prov . Grand Officers . The effect of this law is this , that all Provincial Grand Officers , annually appointed and invested , " shall be and are entitled to wear their clothing as Prov . Grand Officers , or Past Grand Officers in all Masonic assemblies . " There is no exception made , and under this p lain and

simple law , ( despite the differing analogy ot Grand Lodge ) , we hold strongly that a Past Prov . Grand Pursuivant has as much right to wear his clothing , ( having been properly invested by the Prov . G . M . ) as any other Prov . Grand Officer . For see what must be the consequence of any other view . Either we must interpret