Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 149 Provincial Grand Chapter of Leicestershire and Rutland 150 Installation of the Dnke of Abercorn as Grand Master of Ireland 151 The " Diimatic Lodge , " London 151

W . Bro . the Lord Mayor at Home 153 CORRESPONDENCECharity Stewards' Badges and Founders ' Jewels ISS Notes and Queries 156 Reviews 156 REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 156 Instruction 159

REPORTS UF MASONIC M EETINGS ( Continued)—Royal Arch ij 9 Mark Masonry 159 Percy Lodge of Instruction , No . 19 8 160 Masonic Week at Kidderminster 160 First Annual Ball of the Royal Jubilee Lod 161

ge , No . 7 Annual Ball of the Lodge of Israel , No . 1 J 02 , Liverpool 162 Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 162 Royal Masonic Institution for Boys 162 Cheshire Educational Masonic Institution 162 West Lancashire Hamer Benevolent Fund 162 Theatre Royal , Manchester 162 Masonic and General Tidings 16 3 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 16 3

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EVERY one will be gratified at the news we published last week of the success achieved by the pupils of the Girls' School at the Cambridge Middle-Class Examinations in December last . Out of 20 candidates who presented themselves to the Examiners , no less than iS succeeded in passing the prescribed ordeal . In the Senior Division one girl obtained

thirdclass honours ; and one passed , with distinction , in religious knowledge . In the Junior Division , one took second-class , and four third-class honours , one of the latter being " Distinguished in Religious Knowledge ; " while eleven others satisfied the Examiners . No better evidence than this is procurable as to the value of the educational system pursued at the Institution ,

and the extreme pains that must be taken by the staff . As we remarked in our announcement last week , such a result can be obtained only by close and steady application . A child may give promise of great things in the school in which it is being educated , under teachers to whose system it has gradually become accustomed , and by comparison with its associates ,

who undergo precisely the same kind of training . But the real test of quality comes when the same child is pitted against the choicer pupils of other schools . at which other methods of instruction may find favour . and where , perhaps , from a wider range of experience on the part of the staff , or other cause , there may be greater facilities for obtaining a thorough knowledge

of the subjects taught , or , at all events , a knowledge which , without being greater , will better stand the test of public examination . This it is which gives so high a value to the result of the Cambridge examinations in December last , namely , that in competition with a very large number of children drawn from SQ many different schools , the great majority of the

candidates from our Masonic Institution for Girls have held their own creditably , while six of them have done so with considerable distinction . This is one more proof that the School is conducted on sound principles of training , and will no doubt be borne in mind as the time fixed for the

celebration of its Anniversary Festival approaches more nearly . People are invariably more reconciled , especially in these troubled times , to giving freely , when they are assured beforehand that their contributions will be expended both wisely and well .

* # * STILL greater good fortune has attended the candidates sent up by our Boys' School at these same Middle-Class Examinations . Thirteen boys presented themselves to the examiners , and of these nine passed with honours , while the remaining four obtained a pass . Of the nine , one was

placed in Class I ., with special distinctions awarded him for Latin and Mathematics , four secured places in Class II ., and four in Class III . We heartily congratulate Bro . Dr . MORRIS and his subordinate masters on the success of their efforts for the educational welfare of the Institution . As we have remarked already in connection with the Girls' School , the system

they have pursued must be an excellent one , or these 13 boys could not have stood so satisfactorily the severe ordeal of a public examination in competition with the promising pupils of other schools . As it is , they have held

their own well , and when the time comes for us to press more urgently on the Craft the claims of this Institution for a continuance of its generous support , the successful result we have so much pleasure in chronicling today will be among the reasons on which we shall lay the greatest stress .

* * * DEATH is certainly causing sad havoc among our leading brethren . Already during the present year have we had to announce the deaths of two conspicuous and much respected members of our Society—Sir W . W . BURRELL , Bart ., and Lord WAVENEY , both of them Provincial Grand

Masters ; and now it is our painful duty to chronicle two more deaths—those of R . W . Bro . HENRY C . VERNON , P . G . S . Warden of England , P . Prov . G . Master and Superintendent of Worcestershire , and Bro . the Rev . Canon J AMES SIMPSON , LL . D ., who in the years 1874 and 1875 filled the office of Grand Chaplain of England , and was also a leading brother in the Province

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of Cumberland and Westmorland . Bro . VERNON was one of a distinguished Masonic family , both his father , the late General VERNON ; an old Peninsular officer , and his still surviving brother , Col . A . VERNON , but especially the latter , having for many years played an active part in the pursuits of Masonry . In addition to the offices already specified , our deceased brother

was a Past G . Asst . Soj . of Supreme Grand Ch apter , a Past 111 . Lieut .-G . Commander of the Supreme Council 33 ° , A . and A . Rite , and V . E . Prov . Prior of Worcestershire . His connection with our Grand Lodge and Chapter dates as far back as the year 1848 , while his connection with the Fraternity commenced at a still earlier period . Bro . SIMPSON was neither

so old a Mason nor , as far as we know , so old a man as Bro . VERNON , who had attained the ripe age of 81 , but he , too , had been amongst us for several years , having been Prov . G . Chaplain of Cumberland and Westmorland in

1 S 63 . Lastly , both these brethren had rendered services to our Charitable Institutions , so that , both on account of their goodwill to these and for the many services they had rendered in lodge and chapter , the regret at their loss will be as deep as it is general .

* # * WE do not see that any other course could have been adopted towards the Grand Lodge of Illinois than the one recommended by the Colonial Board , and unanimously endorsed by Grand Lodge on Wednesday , the 3 rd inst . Why Illinois should have gone deliberately out of its way to intervene in a

difference which had arisen between two of the Grand Lodges—those of Quebec and England—with which it was on terms of friendly and familiar intercourse , is a question we shall not trouble ourselves to inquire into , and if it has encountered the fate which is proverbially in store for those who in quarrels interpose , it has no one to thank for such an untoward , result but

itself . Whatever may be the merits of the dispute pending between Quebec and England , it is very certain that the latter had no hand in bringing it about , and therefore we might have reasonably expected that those American Grand Lodges which exchanged representatives with us , if , from local associations or other reasons , they could not give us their sympathy , would , at

least , have abstained from expressing sympathy with our antagonist . But the role of looker-on does not seem to have consorted with Illinois ' s sense of fair play , and , as it has taken up the cudgels in behalf of Quebec , it must not be surprised that the friendly relations heretofore existing between

its Grand Lodge and that of Eng l and have been summarily put an end to . Friendly intercourse between two bodies is out of the question when one of them takes sides against the other in a difference with which it has nothing to do , or , at all events , in respect ot which it is not called upon to give effect to its opinions . » , «

IT was a wise resolution which Grand Lodge adopted at its last meeting , to leave entirely unfettered the discretion of the Board of Benevolence in dealing with the petitions which are submitted to it month by month for consideration . On the face of it , Bro . MERCER ' S motion seemed not unreasonable , namely , that a male annuitant of the Benevolent Institution shall not be

eligible for relief out of the fund at the disposal of that Board , But what need is there to suggest any such restriction ? It is well known that the Board of Benevolence exercises the powers it possesses with the most punctilious care . Every case is considered separately on its merits , and there is no reason to suppose that the Board will show greater or less wisdom in

dealing with the petition of one of those annuitants than it shows in dealing with the hundreds of other petitions which come before itannualiy . Indeed , the fact of a petitioner being also an annuitant , if it exercises any special influence on the minds of members , might not unnaturally induce them to look still more narrowly into the circumstances , on the ground that the

brother petitioning was already the recipient of benevolence , and that to still further assist him might have the effect of restricting the means at their command to assist others . But , as we have already hinted , there is no need for any restriction whatever . Grand Lodge delegates certain clearly-defined powers to a Committee , or Board , in whose members both it and the Crait

generally have the most implicit confidence . It has been shown by the experience of many years that that confidence is fully justified , and the mere lact of an exceptional class of petition having been submitted and entertained , affords no reason for narrowing the powers of the Board , and thereby exhibiting a diminished confidence—for that is what the imposition of a new restriction implies—in the wisdom and discretion of its members ,

* # WE are afraid that our report of the speech which Bro . FENN , President of the Board of General Purposes , delivered at the recent Festival of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement must have contused rather than