To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The FREEMASON is a Weekly Newspaper , price 2 Q . 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 , etc

Kingdom , ihe Continent , & c . Via Brindisi . Twelve Mouths los . 6 d . us . od . 17 s . + d . Six ' , „ 5 s . 3 d . 6 s . 6 d . 8 s . 8 d . Three „ 2 s . 8 d . 3 s . 3 d . 4 s . Gel . Subscriptions may be paid for in stamps , but Post Office Orders or Chcejues are preferred , the former payable to

GEORGE KENNING , CHIEF OFFICE , LONDON , the latter crossed London 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 of rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further information will be supplied 01 application to the Publisher , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

Important Notice.

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 . Several P . O . O . ' s are now in hand , but having received no advice we cannot credit them .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

The rni ' . BMASON 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 . SCALE OF CHARGES FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS . Whole eif back page ... ... ... £ 12 12 o Half , „ 6 10 0 Inside pages ... 7 7 Half of ditto 40 Quarter > itto ... ... ... ... 2 10 Whole column . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 10

Half „ 1 10 " Quarter „ 1 o Per inch o 3 ° These prices are for single insertions . A liberal reeluc lion is made for a series of 13 , 26 , and 32 insertions . Further paiticulars may be obtained of the Publisher , 108 , Fleet-street , London .

Answers To Correspodents.

Answers to Correspodents .

BOOKS eVc , RECEIVED , "Hull Packet ; " "Biief ; " "La Chainc D' Union ;" " Hackney and Kingsland Gazette ; " " Bundes Presse ; " " Kisorgimento ; " " New York Dispatch ; " " Pictorial World ; " "The BuiUlcr ; " "The Scottish Freemason ; " " Bo ' ctim do Grande Orient Ui . ido c Supremo , Conselho do Brazil ; " Quadro Geral do Grande Oriente Uniilu e

Supremo Conselho elo Brazil j " Uroael Arrow ; " " Citizen ;" "The Westminster Papers ; " "Touchstone , " ( . New Years' number ); " The Public Ledger ; " "Hebrew Leader ; " "The Liverpool Weekly Albion ; " "Jersey Express ; " "Our Home ; " "The Christian Era ; " " Ihe Freemasons' Repository ; " "The Boys' Own Paper ;" " Derby Advertiser and Journal ; " "Western Morning News ; " "The Eboracum Masonic Calendar for 1870 . "

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

BIRTHS . BAHNF . TT . —On the 3 rd inst ., at Hodelesdon , Herts , the wife of E . M . Barnett , of a daughter . WILKINSON . —On the 2 nd inst ., at Ashford , Kent , the wife of J . C . Wilkinson , of a son .

MAHHIAGF . SMITHES— BUCKSTOXF . —On the 6 th inst ., at St . James's Piccadilly , by the Rev . T . D \ cr Tovey , Henry Edward Smithes , E : ij ., to Lucy li-abelb , daughter of John Baldwin Buckstom-, Ei-ij ., e ^ f Bell-green Lodge , Sydenham , Kent . DEATHS .

Bisn . —On the 310 inst ., at 10 , Danvcrs-slreet , Chelsea , Mr . Thomas Bus . b , aged 3 ; , butcher , of 1 , Fcinlea terrace , lici fe . nl-hill , Kalhani . MAHSIIAI . L . — On the ist ., at Baircwstounncss , Scotland , John Marshall , J . P . Piiii . iiiiicu . —On the ist inst ,, at Bournemouth , Minnie

Caroline , wife of F . A . Philbriek , Esep , Q . C ., of Avenue-ioad , Regent's-park . SERJEANT . —On the 2 nd inst ., at his resilience , Apsle-y Villa , 320 , L'ainde-ii-rrnil , N ., Cuineiiu . sSe-rjiaiit , of the firm of C . Serjeant and Co ., aged Oi years . New Zealand papers please copy .

Ar00608

THE FREEMASONSATURD , , J ANUARY II , 1879 .

The Masonic Charities In 1878.

THE MASONIC CHARITIES IN 1878 .

Our contemporary , the Times , has called attention to the results of Masonic benevolence for the year of light and grace , 1 S 78 , and very striking are the figures which it sets before its readers . It gives us as one result of Masonic benevolence in 1878 , namely , . £ 40 , 312 4 s . 3 d .,

collected by our three great Metropolitan Charities . But even this statement , startling and remarkable as it is , and most creditable to Freemasons , does not exhaust the subject , and we refer to it in a subsequent leader . By the kind aid of our brethren , the Secretaries of the

Institutions , we are enabled to set before our readers the following detailed items , which are , in truth , most gratifying and most creditable to our Masonic Fraternity . The Girls' School has received up to December 31 st , 1878 , £ 12 , 866 [ s - sd . ; which sum is composed of the following

items—Subscriptions and Donations ... ... £ 11 , 033 9 S Donation by Grand Loelge ... ... 150 o o „ „ Chapter ... ... 10 10 o Dividends ... ... ... ... .. 1170 o o Purchased into the School 357 o o Miscellaneous ... ... 143 2 o

In all £ 12 , 866 1 8 Grand Chapter also voted £ 500 to the Girls' School last year . It may be well to remember here that the amount capitalized for the Girls' School teaches to 61539 , 000 , and that so skilful has been its

management , and so large its receipts in 1878 , that it will be enabled to pay off its building debts , we believe , without further recourse to its capital . This is a most satisfactory state of things , and rellects the highest credit on the Committee and Bro . Hedges . The receipts for

1878 are considerably in excess of 1877 , for whereas in the latter case they reached £ 11 , 854 10 s . 5 d . in the former they amount , as we have said before , to £ 12 , 866 is . 8 d ., a difference of over £ 1000 . We doubt not , nay , we feel sure , that the festival of the Girls' School in 1879 will be a great success , and remembering that it

requires at least £ 10 , 000 per annum to keep it in full efficiency and educate its 200 happy inmates , we leave the support of so needful and admirable an institution confidently in the hands of the Craft . The Boys' School has also a very good finaucial statement to make for 1878 . It has

received—Feir Subscriptions and Donations ... £ 11 , 100 o o Dividends ... 21 ) 6 o o Purchased Admissions ... ... ... 535 o o Life Presentations 525 ° ° Musical Fees ... ... 8 . 1 ° °

In all £ i 2 , S 4 i o ° in round numbers , and by approximate calculation . It will be remarked that the capital of the Boys' School , owing to its large and prolonged building ' expenditure , is reduced to aconiparatively small amount , and we feel that we shall only be

doing our duty to this much needed and important Institution , if we press upon our readers the advisability of giving to it a large and a liberal support in 1879- The good work so laudably began must be carried on , and the Boys' School has every claim upon us as a

great and useful Educational Institution for the orphan sons of our deceased brethren . The Hoys ' School will soon be educating 211 boys , and its financial requirements cannot possibly be rated at less than £ 10 , 000 . We feel sure that this sum will be forthcoming , and an effort made to increase its capital . The Royal

Masonic Benevolent Institution supplies us with a most satisfactory balance-sheet . The receipts , up to the close of 1878 , amount to the large sum of £ 14 . 824 17 s . 7 d . Its approximate expenditure , including a purchase of £ 3000 consols , is £ 12 , 281 8 s . iid ., so that the balance will be comparatively small to bring forward . It has now 141 ; male annuitants receiving £ 40 each ,

The Masonic Charities In 1878.

and J 34 widows receiving £ 32 each , and twelve widows receiving £ 20 each . Thus we see it has a pledged expenditure of £ 10 , 360 . There are between sixty and seventy candidates for the male and female annuitants in May . We need

hardly , we think , commend this excellent and true charity of which , as English Masons , we may well be proud , to the sympathy and patronage of our brethren , though we feel bound to point out in simple words its undeniable claims

tor support and aid . Its indefatigable Secretary , Bro . Terry , has already announced 200 Stewards for its festival in February , and we have no doubt but that the gathering will be a complete success in every sense . We feel sure that there will be

no difficulty either in raising for it its needful annual return of £ u , coo . Thus it will be seen that the returns are as follows : — The Boys' School ... ... ... £ 12 , 541 o o The Girls'School 12 / 66 1 8 Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 14 , 82417 7

Ina 11 £ 40 , 231 in 3 We leave these figures today to tell their own tale , merely premising that we shall next week call the attention of our readers to one or two points in which , we venture to think , we can make our support of our great Charities more universal and more effective .

What Is Masonic Charity?

WHAT IS MASONIC CHARITY ?

We are often asked what is Masonic charity , and wherein it consists ? and as we gather from conversation , and note from correspondence , that very different and fallacious views exist respecting it , we think it well to point out in theso pages , both what , in our opinion , is charity and

what is not . In the first place , there is a special paradox growing up amongst us , and often vehemently insisted on in postprandial orations , neither the most lucid , nor the most logical , which seems to confound , by some obliquity of the mental vision , all Masonic charity , with giving

simply to the Metropolitan Charities . Now , this is a grave fallacy , and may do a great deal of harm to the Charities themselves , unless met and confuted . Masonic charity is alike multifarious and diversified in its operations andoutcome . It begins with the old lodge " pedestal " in the provinces , it

goeson in the Provincial Grand Lodge , itcontinues in the Grand Lodge Fund of Benevolence , and , often diverting to Provincial Educational , or Benevolent Institutions , culminating in the Metropolitan Masonic Charities . In the metropolis Masonic charity is simply threefold—beginning

in the lodge , continuing in the Grand Lodge , and developed in the support of our great central institutions . It is impossible to give the figures here of what is voted in lodges , or by Provincial Grand Lodges for charity j but we know that the Grand Lodge has voted in round numbers

£ 5 , , the highest amount in any one monthly Lodge of Benevolence being £ 765 , the lowest being £ 203 . If we could put together the whole amount given from all these sources of benevolence in . 1878 , the total would sum up to large figures ; and as Freemasons , we should

always seek to extend , as far as we can , the benevolent tendency and work of our excellent fraternity . It is undoubtedly true that too many lodges do but little for charity , and care too much for number one , but let us hope that we shall see a great improvement in this respect in

1879 , and that many of our lodges and chapters may be wakened up , both to the sense of their own duty and the " excelling claims of charity . " But having said this we think it well to put in a word of warning . We must not forget to say that any claim by any to concentrate Masonic

charity on cur Metropolitan chanties , must end in a regrettable reaction , inasmuch as our Provincial brethren have several very useful educational and benevolect institutions that are now accumulating considerable sums , and if they are told that they ought to devote all their efforts to the London charitiesalone , they may lie induced to

become still more local and provincial in their support of their own special institutions . The central charities have such real and lasting claims on all thinking Masons , that they need neither " high falutin " nor " fantastic theories , " nor " sentimental treatment , " nor " exaggerated claims , " to commend them to the suppoit and