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Article THE INDIAN FAMINE FUND. ← Page 2 of 2 Article THE STATE OF TRADE. Page 1 of 1 Article FRIENDLY ADVICE. Page 1 of 1 Article FRIENDLY ADVICE. Page 1 of 1 Article COMMUNIQUE. Page 1 of 1
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Indian Famine Fund.
distressed fellow subjects in India , must be deeply gratifying to patriotic Englishmen and Freemasons . Up to Tuesday evening , January ist , 1878 , the Indian Famine Fund now being raised at the Mansion-House reached the splendid total of - £ 500 , 000 sterling , or reckoning it in
Indian currency , over five and a half million rupees . It will be in the remembrance of some of our readers , as our contemporary , the Times , clearly points out : " The fund was opened on the T ejtli of August last when , at the request of the Duke of Buckingham , the
Governor of Madras , the then Lord Mayor ( Sir Thomas White ) , made a public appeal for help . The donation of the Prime Minister came by the first following post , and those of Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales the same week . Since then over 16 , 000 separate donations have
been paid in at the Mansion-House , besides many more remitted direct to the bankers . The fund was distinct from those collected at Manchester , Liverpool , Blackburn , Glasgow , Edinburgh , and Bradford , which were kept purposely quite apart , and sent to India . Dublin , however , contributed
£ 13 , 000 to the Mansion-house Fund , and a large number of other cities and towns throughout the Kingdom and in the Colonies also sent their donations through the Lord Mayor . It is still not the case , as it has been asserted , that the greater portion of the money received was
obtained by the action of provincial organizations , for the bulk of the collection was contributed by private donors ; by bankers and merchants in the City , and through church and chapel offertories . The largest sum received in any one day at the Mansion-House wasc £ r 3 , oco . In the box outside
the Lord Mayor ' s residence over £ 1000 was contributed in coin by passers-by in the space of six weeks . Up to the present time £ 475 , , or over 5 , , 000 rupees have been remitted to India , but a further large remittance was made at the meeting of the
Committee on Monday . The Central Relief Committee in India , at the head of which is the Duke of Buckingham , have all along been full of gratitude for the aid rendered by the English people , resulting in the saving of a vast number of lives , and in the prevention of much misery .
Yesterday , = £ 8500 , including £ 2000 previously advised , was received through the Mayor of Sydney as an instalment of the contributions in New South Wales ; and £ 200 also came from New Plymouth , New Zealand . These sums brought up the fund to the half
million , in reply to a message from bir Thomas White , General Sir Thomas Biddulph telegraphed from Osborne on Tuesday , the 1 st . ult .: — ' The Queen is much gratified at the magnificent result of the Mansion-house collection . ' " And while , then , we congratulate
the poor sufferers in India on so noble a contribution , and while we rejoice to think how wise and patriotic was the timely movement of the then Lord Mayor , as the head of the greatest municipality in the world , we also think it well to point out another fact to our
many readers . In addition to the half-million raised at the Mansion-house for the relief of the sufferers by the famine in India , , £ 54 , 21 < 5 was also received there during the Mayoralty of Sir Thomas White for the purposes of charity—viz ., Hospital Sunday Fund , £ 26 , 082 19 s . id . ; the
Inundations Relief Fund , £ 0904 14 s . 3 d . ; the Welsh Miners' Fund , ^ 4 674 12 s . 5 d . ; the St . John , New Brunswick , Fire Relief Fund , £ 7062 5 s . tod . ; and the North Sea Fishery Disasters Fund , £ , " 49 1 16 s . 3 d . Thus the year ' s result tor charitable appeals at the Mansion-house amounted
to the magnificent sum of 6 ^ 54 , 000 . We think that there will be but one feeling of satisfaction and gratitude at so eminently successful an appeal , and we congratulate the late Lord Mayor most sincerely on the pleasant memory which his mayorality must affoVd him , of a great work carried on and achieved , in the
noblest of all causes , the claims of suffering humanity . Too much praise cannot be accorded tothe zealous labours of a distinguished committee , and especially to those humbler officials whose labours have been untiring , and whose punctual attention to all letters is worthy of imitation by all who are placed in a similar position of importance and trust .
The State Of Trade.
THE STATE OF TRADE .
Various suggestions have been made as to the reasons of the abnormal and unwelcome depression of trade . Some seem to think that we may trace it to the unfortunate strikes in various trades , which have marked the last year -, some numerous other causes , proximate and
recondite , which we need not dilate upon in these pages . We believe that much of it must be laid at the door of the unsettled state of affairs abroad , the alternating doubts as between war and peace , and the great drain such an untoward war is sure to cast both on the finances and resources of
Europe . We always distrust those persons who talk glibly and cheerfully about war , as if it were a pastime of idleness or a freak of folly . It is the witty French writer , " Scribe , " who says that most wars have begun about a trifle , and as , 1 rule we are inclined to agree with him . As
Freemasons we are friends of peace , not of war , because war brings in its train not only its own attendant horrors , but because , also , it inevitably overthrows for the time the peaceful struggles of commerce , the legitimate channels of trade . If peace , shall happily reward the efforts of
mediation , and the new year behold an armistice , as preliminary to a conference , we shall , we think , soon witness a revival of trade amongst us . We are not amongst those who take a depressed view of the prospects of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; on the contrary , we venture to
think that the result of the year ' s returns will justify both his cautious anticipation , and his well-balanced Budget . If such should prove to be the case it will be a great satisfaction to all classes of the community , and it will be a signal proof of calm calculation and faithful statistics .
We always have croakers amongst us who delight in possible deficiencies and probable shortreckonings , but we fancy that this year , as last , the Chancellor of the Exchequer will prove to be in the right , and will announce to the House of Commons a sufficiency of receipt , and a
satisfactory equilibrium . In the present state of trade it is clear that the revenue must suffer , as they say , " by sympathy , " but it will be no little merit , no slight proof of ready resource and tranquil confidence , if the returns justify the estimates , and the House of Commons applauds once more the announcement of a surplus , be it
more or be it less , instead of a deficit . The figures on the face of them , though close running , no doubt , point , we think , clearly to such a happy contingency , and we venture to hope that we may be in due time permitted to hail a " consummation" so "devoutly to be wished for " by us all alike .
Friendly Advice.
FRIENDLY ADVICE .
We do not profess to give " advice gratis ;" but we think , every now and then we can afford to be both philanthropical and large-hearted , and so endeavour to be both to-day . Two cases in the Law Courts have recently struck our attention forcibly . The one is the case of a
gentleman , who ought to have known better , certainly , who married a young woman 45 years younger than himself , and did not find a congenial helpmate or a happy home . Very strange this , is it not ? Yes , it came to pass , that the fair and youthful wife took it into her head that she
could live more comfortably separate , and so she suggested that he should live apart from her , while she enjoyed his well-furnished house . After a little the reality of the isolation came so congenial and common to her mind , that she actually forgot that she was married at all , and
she went to a broker , as a single woman , and asked him to sell her furniture . At this moment , however , when the furniture was gone , a sense of " sentiment " lingered with her , and so she asked her darling husband to pay her a little visit , ( having remembered that she was married all the while ) , and when
he reached his well known house of connubial bliss and joy , and saw , as Lord Byron says , his household gods shivering on the hearth , Sec . No more dramatic situation can well be realized . How well Bro . Toole would act the suffering husband . The court of law restored to the injured man his " household stuff , " but nothing is said of the partner of his joys and his bosom ,
Friendly Advice.
and of his property . On the whole wc think that he is perhaps happiest , " alone once more in the world . " with no "dear gazelle " to look on him with "tender eyes , " and we earnestly deprecate the notion of any old man or any old Mason , be he who he may , marrying a
charming young woman only forty-five years younger than himself . The chances of happiness seem dubious and hazy , —verbum sat sapienti . In another case , a young man obtained £ 250 damages from an Irish jury , because his young lady declined to marry him . Her excuse for not
marrying the ardent swain is both peculiar and suggestive . She said , she "did not care very much about him , " and , she " should not be dictated to when coortin . " On the whole we agree with the young woman strongly . She clearly knew best whether she liked the young man or not ,
and she certainly had a moral ri ght not to be " dictated to when coortin . " The young man was poor , the young lady rich , and so an Irish jury , ever waim-hearted and sympathetic , gave that young "lovisr" ^ 250 damages , to console his " bli ghted affection , and to heal a
broken heart . " It is just possible substantial justice was done in the matter , but from some remarks of the able judge we are inclined to think , that had he had to assess the damages they might have been somewhat less . We trust that our young men will not be encouraged to
propose to young ladies in order to obtain damages from young ladies who "don ' t care for them very much , " and who " will not be dictated to . " Had we been upon that jury , we think , yes , we think , that we should have considered the " smallest coin of the realm " sufficient damages for the wounded evidence of such ardent
affection . We , however , may be wrong , and the jury who saw both in court , complainant and defendant , were probably right . But thc precedent is a serious one , and in the present state of our young men may lead to much litigation . An English jury , we think it right to remark , may not be so very liberal .
Communique.
COMMUNIQUE .
We are very much pleased to be privileged to communicate to the Craft the following translation of a letter from the Grand Secretary of the St . John ' s Hungarian Grand Lodge , and which
is the best possible reply to many assumptions and unwarranted assertions . All Anglo-Saxon Masonswill rejoice to hear that the St . John ' s Hungarian Grand Lodge is not committed to the suicidal course of the Grand Orient of Prance .
[ TRANSLATION . ] Or . Buda Pest , 13 th Dec ., 1877 V . W . and B . Brother , — _ The circumstance that our Hungarian St . John ' s Grand Lodge has some time since
been added by the English Masonic Newspapers to those Grand Lodges which ought to be declared proscribed , in consequence of having abolished the belief in God , like the Grand Orient of France , induces me to write .
1 his assertion evidently rests upon error and wrong information , and I therefore consider it necessary to call your attention to the point , that although our brethren have considered this question in a semi-official conference , it never has been brought officially upon the agenda , and
scarcely ever will be brought under discussion in this thorough-going sense . Not only does our constitution , and upon the faith of which we have been sanctioned by our government in part II . number I ., very minutely settle the question , but even our ritual , which with us is an addition to
the constitution , informs the individual to be initiated that he would be mistaken if he believed that in our Temple anything would be suffered that was in opposition ' to God and the government , as also that the initiation is effected to the glory of the G . A . O . T . U . All this is very far removed from atheism , and
you would very much oblige me , if you could cause this to be inserted in the Freemason in the same way as was the one with reference to the Grand Orient of Ital y , in the number before last . Offering you my best services in return , and in case of necessity or want of explanation ex pecting to hear from you , 1 am » ( Signed ) UHL , G . S .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Indian Famine Fund.
distressed fellow subjects in India , must be deeply gratifying to patriotic Englishmen and Freemasons . Up to Tuesday evening , January ist , 1878 , the Indian Famine Fund now being raised at the Mansion-House reached the splendid total of - £ 500 , 000 sterling , or reckoning it in
Indian currency , over five and a half million rupees . It will be in the remembrance of some of our readers , as our contemporary , the Times , clearly points out : " The fund was opened on the T ejtli of August last when , at the request of the Duke of Buckingham , the
Governor of Madras , the then Lord Mayor ( Sir Thomas White ) , made a public appeal for help . The donation of the Prime Minister came by the first following post , and those of Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales the same week . Since then over 16 , 000 separate donations have
been paid in at the Mansion-House , besides many more remitted direct to the bankers . The fund was distinct from those collected at Manchester , Liverpool , Blackburn , Glasgow , Edinburgh , and Bradford , which were kept purposely quite apart , and sent to India . Dublin , however , contributed
£ 13 , 000 to the Mansion-house Fund , and a large number of other cities and towns throughout the Kingdom and in the Colonies also sent their donations through the Lord Mayor . It is still not the case , as it has been asserted , that the greater portion of the money received was
obtained by the action of provincial organizations , for the bulk of the collection was contributed by private donors ; by bankers and merchants in the City , and through church and chapel offertories . The largest sum received in any one day at the Mansion-House wasc £ r 3 , oco . In the box outside
the Lord Mayor ' s residence over £ 1000 was contributed in coin by passers-by in the space of six weeks . Up to the present time £ 475 , , or over 5 , , 000 rupees have been remitted to India , but a further large remittance was made at the meeting of the
Committee on Monday . The Central Relief Committee in India , at the head of which is the Duke of Buckingham , have all along been full of gratitude for the aid rendered by the English people , resulting in the saving of a vast number of lives , and in the prevention of much misery .
Yesterday , = £ 8500 , including £ 2000 previously advised , was received through the Mayor of Sydney as an instalment of the contributions in New South Wales ; and £ 200 also came from New Plymouth , New Zealand . These sums brought up the fund to the half
million , in reply to a message from bir Thomas White , General Sir Thomas Biddulph telegraphed from Osborne on Tuesday , the 1 st . ult .: — ' The Queen is much gratified at the magnificent result of the Mansion-house collection . ' " And while , then , we congratulate
the poor sufferers in India on so noble a contribution , and while we rejoice to think how wise and patriotic was the timely movement of the then Lord Mayor , as the head of the greatest municipality in the world , we also think it well to point out another fact to our
many readers . In addition to the half-million raised at the Mansion-house for the relief of the sufferers by the famine in India , , £ 54 , 21 < 5 was also received there during the Mayoralty of Sir Thomas White for the purposes of charity—viz ., Hospital Sunday Fund , £ 26 , 082 19 s . id . ; the
Inundations Relief Fund , £ 0904 14 s . 3 d . ; the Welsh Miners' Fund , ^ 4 674 12 s . 5 d . ; the St . John , New Brunswick , Fire Relief Fund , £ 7062 5 s . tod . ; and the North Sea Fishery Disasters Fund , £ , " 49 1 16 s . 3 d . Thus the year ' s result tor charitable appeals at the Mansion-house amounted
to the magnificent sum of 6 ^ 54 , 000 . We think that there will be but one feeling of satisfaction and gratitude at so eminently successful an appeal , and we congratulate the late Lord Mayor most sincerely on the pleasant memory which his mayorality must affoVd him , of a great work carried on and achieved , in the
noblest of all causes , the claims of suffering humanity . Too much praise cannot be accorded tothe zealous labours of a distinguished committee , and especially to those humbler officials whose labours have been untiring , and whose punctual attention to all letters is worthy of imitation by all who are placed in a similar position of importance and trust .
The State Of Trade.
THE STATE OF TRADE .
Various suggestions have been made as to the reasons of the abnormal and unwelcome depression of trade . Some seem to think that we may trace it to the unfortunate strikes in various trades , which have marked the last year -, some numerous other causes , proximate and
recondite , which we need not dilate upon in these pages . We believe that much of it must be laid at the door of the unsettled state of affairs abroad , the alternating doubts as between war and peace , and the great drain such an untoward war is sure to cast both on the finances and resources of
Europe . We always distrust those persons who talk glibly and cheerfully about war , as if it were a pastime of idleness or a freak of folly . It is the witty French writer , " Scribe , " who says that most wars have begun about a trifle , and as , 1 rule we are inclined to agree with him . As
Freemasons we are friends of peace , not of war , because war brings in its train not only its own attendant horrors , but because , also , it inevitably overthrows for the time the peaceful struggles of commerce , the legitimate channels of trade . If peace , shall happily reward the efforts of
mediation , and the new year behold an armistice , as preliminary to a conference , we shall , we think , soon witness a revival of trade amongst us . We are not amongst those who take a depressed view of the prospects of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; on the contrary , we venture to
think that the result of the year ' s returns will justify both his cautious anticipation , and his well-balanced Budget . If such should prove to be the case it will be a great satisfaction to all classes of the community , and it will be a signal proof of calm calculation and faithful statistics .
We always have croakers amongst us who delight in possible deficiencies and probable shortreckonings , but we fancy that this year , as last , the Chancellor of the Exchequer will prove to be in the right , and will announce to the House of Commons a sufficiency of receipt , and a
satisfactory equilibrium . In the present state of trade it is clear that the revenue must suffer , as they say , " by sympathy , " but it will be no little merit , no slight proof of ready resource and tranquil confidence , if the returns justify the estimates , and the House of Commons applauds once more the announcement of a surplus , be it
more or be it less , instead of a deficit . The figures on the face of them , though close running , no doubt , point , we think , clearly to such a happy contingency , and we venture to hope that we may be in due time permitted to hail a " consummation" so "devoutly to be wished for " by us all alike .
Friendly Advice.
FRIENDLY ADVICE .
We do not profess to give " advice gratis ;" but we think , every now and then we can afford to be both philanthropical and large-hearted , and so endeavour to be both to-day . Two cases in the Law Courts have recently struck our attention forcibly . The one is the case of a
gentleman , who ought to have known better , certainly , who married a young woman 45 years younger than himself , and did not find a congenial helpmate or a happy home . Very strange this , is it not ? Yes , it came to pass , that the fair and youthful wife took it into her head that she
could live more comfortably separate , and so she suggested that he should live apart from her , while she enjoyed his well-furnished house . After a little the reality of the isolation came so congenial and common to her mind , that she actually forgot that she was married at all , and
she went to a broker , as a single woman , and asked him to sell her furniture . At this moment , however , when the furniture was gone , a sense of " sentiment " lingered with her , and so she asked her darling husband to pay her a little visit , ( having remembered that she was married all the while ) , and when
he reached his well known house of connubial bliss and joy , and saw , as Lord Byron says , his household gods shivering on the hearth , Sec . No more dramatic situation can well be realized . How well Bro . Toole would act the suffering husband . The court of law restored to the injured man his " household stuff , " but nothing is said of the partner of his joys and his bosom ,
Friendly Advice.
and of his property . On the whole wc think that he is perhaps happiest , " alone once more in the world . " with no "dear gazelle " to look on him with "tender eyes , " and we earnestly deprecate the notion of any old man or any old Mason , be he who he may , marrying a
charming young woman only forty-five years younger than himself . The chances of happiness seem dubious and hazy , —verbum sat sapienti . In another case , a young man obtained £ 250 damages from an Irish jury , because his young lady declined to marry him . Her excuse for not
marrying the ardent swain is both peculiar and suggestive . She said , she "did not care very much about him , " and , she " should not be dictated to when coortin . " On the whole we agree with the young woman strongly . She clearly knew best whether she liked the young man or not ,
and she certainly had a moral ri ght not to be " dictated to when coortin . " The young man was poor , the young lady rich , and so an Irish jury , ever waim-hearted and sympathetic , gave that young "lovisr" ^ 250 damages , to console his " bli ghted affection , and to heal a
broken heart . " It is just possible substantial justice was done in the matter , but from some remarks of the able judge we are inclined to think , that had he had to assess the damages they might have been somewhat less . We trust that our young men will not be encouraged to
propose to young ladies in order to obtain damages from young ladies who "don ' t care for them very much , " and who " will not be dictated to . " Had we been upon that jury , we think , yes , we think , that we should have considered the " smallest coin of the realm " sufficient damages for the wounded evidence of such ardent
affection . We , however , may be wrong , and the jury who saw both in court , complainant and defendant , were probably right . But thc precedent is a serious one , and in the present state of our young men may lead to much litigation . An English jury , we think it right to remark , may not be so very liberal .
Communique.
COMMUNIQUE .
We are very much pleased to be privileged to communicate to the Craft the following translation of a letter from the Grand Secretary of the St . John ' s Hungarian Grand Lodge , and which
is the best possible reply to many assumptions and unwarranted assertions . All Anglo-Saxon Masonswill rejoice to hear that the St . John ' s Hungarian Grand Lodge is not committed to the suicidal course of the Grand Orient of Prance .
[ TRANSLATION . ] Or . Buda Pest , 13 th Dec ., 1877 V . W . and B . Brother , — _ The circumstance that our Hungarian St . John ' s Grand Lodge has some time since
been added by the English Masonic Newspapers to those Grand Lodges which ought to be declared proscribed , in consequence of having abolished the belief in God , like the Grand Orient of France , induces me to write .
1 his assertion evidently rests upon error and wrong information , and I therefore consider it necessary to call your attention to the point , that although our brethren have considered this question in a semi-official conference , it never has been brought officially upon the agenda , and
scarcely ever will be brought under discussion in this thorough-going sense . Not only does our constitution , and upon the faith of which we have been sanctioned by our government in part II . number I ., very minutely settle the question , but even our ritual , which with us is an addition to
the constitution , informs the individual to be initiated that he would be mistaken if he believed that in our Temple anything would be suffered that was in opposition ' to God and the government , as also that the initiation is effected to the glory of the G . A . O . T . U . All this is very far removed from atheism , and
you would very much oblige me , if you could cause this to be inserted in the Freemason in the same way as was the one with reference to the Grand Orient of Ital y , in the number before last . Offering you my best services in return , and in case of necessity or want of explanation ex pecting to hear from you , 1 am » ( Signed ) UHL , G . S .