La Chaine D'Union.

rnent altogether . M . Desforges is very positive of the fact , for when told of the Pope ' s allocution against the Freemasons , he says : " Pio IX . avait fete recu Francmacon , " " Pius the Ninth was received a Freemason . " Despite this

categorical statement , like Lord Eldon , we still " doubt , " and " doubt" very greatly . We think that there must be what the French call some " mal entendu , " some mistake . We have thought it , however , well to mention the averment to our readers .

The London Hospital.

THE LONDON HOSPITAL .

As Freemasons are always interested in all that relates to the alleviation of the sufferings and sorrows of humanity , we are anxious to call attention to the proceedings of a great meeting which took place , under the auspices of the Lord Mayor , on Thursday week , at the Mansion House .

As it has been well pointed out in the Times : — " There is , perhaps , no charitable institution in London more deserving of public support than the London Hospital , and yet for some reason or other it is lamentably deficient in funds . It is possible that its financial condition is less

generally known than it deserves to be . The endowed hospitals of London—St . Bartholomew ' s , Guy ' s , and St . Thomas ' s—are known to all ; they are better placed than the London Hospita l for the purpose of attracting notice . They are the seats of flourishing medical schools , and their

extensive endowments give them a dignity and importance in the public estimation . The London Hospital , though as important as any of these , enjoys few or none of their advantages . It has an endowment , it is true , but it amounts only to £ 13 , 600 a year , while , although it is

most carefully and economicall y managed , its expenses amount to no less than ag 4 . 7 , 000 annually . The large deficit of over £ 30 , 000 a year is made up as far as may be by voluntary contributions ; but so difficult is it found to awaken active benevolence on behalf of the

institution , that it is stated to be now on the brink of insolvency , and , unless further public support is forthcoming , it will shortly be necessary to reduce the expenses by closing no less than 400 of the 790 beds . This step would be a signal calamity for the whole of the east of London .

The population in the midst of which the London Hospital is situated amounts to more than a million , and is almost without exception poor ; it is supported in the main by heavy manual and bodily labour ; and the mere number of accidents which are treated in the wards of

the hospital is said to be three times greater than the average even of metropolitan hospitals ; it amounted to 12 , 035 cases in 1877 . All the accidents from the docks , from the great warehouses of the City and East-end , from the intricate network of railways , whereon the traffic ,

especially in heavy goods , is incessant , find their way to its wards ; and in addition to all this , and to the general treatment of sickness in a population living a hard and , it is to be feared , an improvident life , under the most unfavourable conditions of atmosphere , dwelling , and general

sanitaty arrangements , the London Hospital is the largest children ' s hospital in London . The simple statements of these facts , and doubtless others not less significant which may be brought before the meeting today—will suffice to press the claims of the

London Hospital on the benevolence of the public . " The cogency of these various reasons was pointedly felt by the large influential meeting on Thursday , after admirable speeches from H . R . H . the Duke of Cambridge , Mr . Hubbard , M . P ., Monsignore Capel , Sir Edmond Hay Currie , Mr .

Coope , M . P ., the Duke of Westminster , Mr . T . F . Buxton , the Chief Rabbi , & c . It was unanimously resolved— " That , whereas the income derived by the London Hospital from endowments was less than £ 14 , , while its necessary expenditure was nearly 6 ^ 44 , a year , a special fund be established for

maintaining the charity during the next five years , and that a committee of appeal be formed in order to obtain contributions for the purpose . " Among the donations announced were the following -. —Mr . Coope , M . P ., and Mr . T . Fowell Buxton , £ 1000 a year each for five years ; Messrs . Rothschild and Mr . J . G . Barclay , each ¦ £ . 500 a year for the same period ; Mr . J . H .

The London Hospital.

Buxton , Messrs . Peek Brothers , Messrs . Barnetts , Messrs . Mann , Grossman , and Co ., and Mr . Baring , M . P ., £ 200 a year each for a similar term ; Messrs . Charrington and Head , £ 1000 a year for three years- , Mr . Andrew Johnston , £ 1000 ; Mr . Leopold de Rothschild

and friends , seizoo ; Messrs . Baring Brothers , £ " 1000 ; and Mr . John Hodgson and Mr . Wm . Hodgson , s £$ oo each . We are specially glad to commend so good a work to the notice and sympathy of all our readers . We are pleased to note the following remarks which fell from M onsignore

Capel , m which as Freemasons we heartily concur : — " In the London Hospital the stupid prejudice of religious animosity was not permitted to enter , and whatever their religious convictions , the meeting might well lay them aside in that splendid and unsectarian effort to supply the needs of the suffering and the dying . "

The "Bauhutte."

THE "BAUHUTTE . "

We are always sorry to disappoint hopes or baulif expectations , " av they be vartuous , " as Paddy says , but we feel bound to dispel at once the gent ' e illusions into which our good friend and brother J . G . Findel seems to have fallen . He has an idea , forcibly expressed

in sonorous German , that there is in England , so to say , a reaction against the dicta of Lord Carnarvon and the resolution of Grand Lodge . Anything more hazy , more foggy , and more mistaken never yet accompanied even the reveries of the hermetic , or the exaggerated

aspirations of the enthusiastic . If there is a point on which the great , the distinct , the overwhelming majority of English Masons is agreed , it is this , that we will have no " part or lot " with those perverse and unmasonic proceedings of the Grand Orient of France , that we faithfully abide by our ancient landmarks , and that we will not

knowingly admit into our goodly phalanx the avowed atheist , the open unbeliever . If , on the one hand , our view is most strongly " quieta non movere , " & c , on the other " semper eadem" is our abiding motto . English Freemasonry , as ever , manfully repudiates iconoclastic changes and revolutionary programmes .

The Budget.

THE BUDGET .

The statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thursday week , was very clear , but very serious . There was an admitted increase on the year of £ 1 , 198 , 000 , and a balance as between estimated and realized income £ 617 , 298 . But of this increase £ 750 , 000

was absorbed by payments on account of the Vote of Credit . So far , £ 3 , 500 , 000 had been spent on that head , though no more would be spent under that vote except on supplementary estimates , and the balance had been made up by £ 2 , 750 , 000 Exchequer Bills . The

Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that the expenditure for 1878-1879 would be Permanent Charge of Debt £ 28 , 000 , 000 Interest en Local Loans ... ... ... 425 , Interest on Vote of Credit Exchequer Bonds 94 , Charge of Suez Loan 200 , 000 Other Consolidated Fund Charges 1 , 7 60 , 000

Arn , y iS . S 95 . 8 oo Home Charges of Forces in India 1 , 080 , 000 Navy 11 , 053 , 901 Civil Services 14 , 816 , 475 Customs and Inland Revenue ... ... 2 , 793 , 068 Post Office 3 , 313 , 215 Telegraph Service 1 , 114 , 972 Packet Service 173 . 245

Total Expenditure for 1878-79 ... £ 18 , 019 , 676 The Revenue of the year 1878-79 he estimates at the following amount . — Customs ... £ 19 , 750 , 000 Evrise «« ii i 3

... .. ... « - - «« „ » e . C . ... ... ... ... tl # 27 , 500 , 000 Stamps 10 , 930 , 000 Land-tax and House Duty ... ... 2 , 660 , 000 Income-tax 5 , 620 , 000 Post Office 6 , 200 , 000

Telegraph Service 1 , 315 , 000 Crown Lands 410 , 000 Interest on Advances for Local Works and on Purchase Money of Suez Canal Shares 1 , 075 , 000 Miscellaneous 4 , 000 , 000

. £ 79 , 460 , 000 Thus there would be a deficiency on the ordinary income of £ 1 , $ 60 , 000 , ' £ 2 , 1 $ 0 , 000 debt incurred on Exchequer Bonds , and £ 1 , 500 , 000 Supplementary Military Estimates to be provided for ,

The Budget.

which last item , however , may come up to se § 2 , ooo , ooo . In order to meet this deficiency the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to raise the tax on dogs to 73 . 6 d . ( it will probably be 10 s . ) , to add 2 d . on the pound to the Incometax , 4 d . to the Tobacco Duty , and under this

altered state of things the estimated receipts for 1878-79 would be £ 83 , 280 , 000 , and the estimated ordinary expenditure £ 81 , 019 . 076 , leaving £ 2 , 210 , 324 available for the deficiency caused by the Vote of Credit and Supplementary Estimate . It seems very hard on us , all that England , anxious for peace , should be compelled thus to

prepare , at costly sacrifices , for the burdens and contingencies of war . At the same time we are patriots , and quite endorse the old adage , " Si vis pacem , para bellum . '' As Freemasons , and as men of business , we shall ardently hope for the prevalence of peace—and a better look out for trade .

Original Correspondence.

Original Correspondence .

[ We do net hold ourselves responsible for , or even as approving of the ; opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . ~ ED . l

PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT . To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — In a recent number of the Freemason your congratulations werc offered to Bro . Dr . Morris , the House Committee , and Bro . Binckes , on the remarkable result of passing two seniors and twenty-two juniors at the last

Cambridge Local Examination , an achievement which I venture to suggest should not pass unnoticed by the General Committee convened for Monday next . That so large a percentage of " our boys" should have been entered for examination is in itself a fact creditable alike to pupils , tutors , anil managers , though it may be doubted if either of them , would have ventured to predict so successful an issue .

A vote of recognition by the subscribers is surely due to those who have so ably supported ( or , should I say , enhanced ?) the reputation of the Freemasons' School . Yours fraternally , H . T . THOMPSON .

THE GENESIS OF SPECULATIVE MASONRY . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , — Continuing thc subject * upon which you kindly allowed mc to expatiate at some length last week , I propose in my present communication to consider the two widely disseminated theories of Masonic Genesis , and ' in

this—an 1 perhaps it may be necessary to add in a subsequent letter or two—to discuss whether the popular notion of their divergence is altogether conclusive of their character . Now , broadly speaking , we may contrast these two aspects as the Hutchinsonian and the Andersonian propositions , as- farther expounded bv Oliver and Preston . f

The former school contend for an antiquity of the Craft almost romantically mythological , and presumably , if not absolutely , demonstratably unhistorical , and for a symbolism certainly very extravagantly derived ; the latter class of speculators sccra , in palpable opposition , to assume a prosaic origin of our Order almost as

materially vulgar as our modem system of trades unionism , i . e ., the guild organisation . I remember when a school boy reciting the well-known metrical fable of the Chameleon , and , anent of this controversy , the lines come back to my mind" My children , " the Chameleon cried , ( Then first the creature found a tongue )

"You both are right and both are wrong . " So between these t «* o theories I think there may be found a middle term—In medio tutissimus ibis . J These two apparently conflicting notions may be reconcileable . From the earliest period of man's habitation of the earth the guild principle , originating !!! gregariousness , may have

been adopted , and adopted in a form recognising that allegiance to a personal Deity which must undoubtedly ever remain the chief landmaik of our Order . And here let me remark , in all charity and brotherly love , that I must assume , as a postulate , in considering these theories , that belief in T . G . A . O . T . U . is the landmark cf the Craft . I cannot soeculate upon the

poss-* Sec our last impression—letter on " The Covering and the Core . " t See Kcnning ' s "Masonic Cyclopaedia , " under each of these four heads . J I once read a capital story illustrating this quotation A brother lost himself in exploring thc wilds of Australia . He came to a place where three roads met . Whilc debating

m his mmd which path to take , a Maori ( an aborigine ) came up , with little more on him than the tratlitional streak of paint antl a feather . The traveller contrived to make known his indecision , accompanying his request for information pro majore cautela , as the lawyers say , wilh the Masonic sign . To his surprise and delight the

latter was returned , and his dusky brother vocally responded " In medio tutissimus ibis , " which turned out to be the proper advice . The mystery was afterwards solved when the European found that his nude brother had returned to tbe wilds after graduating at thc University of Sydney , having been admitted to the light in a lodge helt ! in the latter city while pursuing his university studies .