Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 2 l > 7 Presentation to the Queen of the Address Voted bv Grand Lodge 2 fiS

Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 268 Roval Masonic Institution for Boys 272 Roval Masonic Benevolent Institution 272 Provincial Grand Lodge of East Lancashire 273 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of North

Wales 2 73 CORRESPONDENCECharitv Voting 274 The Elections 274 indl

Metropolitan District rir .- . ouge 274 The Duke of Edinburgh 274 Reviews = 74 Masonic Notes and Queries 275

Opening of a Masonic Hall at Aylesbury ' . 275 Masonic Concert and Ball at Manchester ... 275 REP-IRTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft . Masonry 276 Instruction 278 Roval Arch 270

Mark Masonry 280 West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution 2 R 0 Scotland 2 S 0 New Zealand 280 The Theatres 281

Music 281 Science and Art 2 S 1 I Masonic and General Tidings 282 I Lodge Meetings for Next Week 283

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THE presentation of the loyal address of Grand Lodge to Her Majesty the OUEEN , at Buckingham Palace , on Wednesday last , was a very striking event in the annals of English Masonry , marked as it was by the presence of H . R . H . the Prince of WALKS and the Duke of CONNAUGHT . H . R . H . the Duke of ALBANY was unavoidably absent . We believe that in the admirable

address thus presented the Grand Lodge of England expresses the warm and devoted sentiments of every Freemason in Great Britain ; nay , we will add , in Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry ; and we hope that the account of the proceedings we now pleasurably record will have their due effect on all sections of Cosmopolitan Freemasonry . Loyalty to the throne , obedience to law ,

support of order , detestation of revolution , of secret societies , and destructive conspiracies , are , and ever will be , the characteristics of English Freemasonry ; and Grand Lodge has well made itself the eloquent mouthpiece of our devoted and indignant Craft when it congratulates HER MAJESTY , in most appropriate words , on her happy deliverance by the providential

interposition of T . G . A . O . T . U . from the hands of the assassin , and seeks to express its abiding and grateful sense of her exalted , and peaceful , and constitutional rule . God save the QUEEN is still the enthusiastic aspiration of every loyal Craftsman . We wish to add that we should not be doing justice

to our esteemed Grand Secretary if we did not express an opinion that in all the details and arrangements of these most interesting proceedings , good taste and Masonic propriety have marked them from first to last , in great as in little things .

THE Anniversary Festival of the Girls' School , held under the distinguished presidency of H . R . H . the Duke of CONNAUGHT , K . G ., took place on Wednesday evening last , with 343 Stewards , when the goodly sum of £ 13 , 232 was announced amid loud acclamations . We congratulate our readers and

all concerned on the fact , a very significant one in itself , and refer them to the full account elsewhere , keeping the analysis of the returns , always an interesting matter fcr consideration , for our next issue . We need hardly add that our royal brother received a right royal reception . To Bro . HEDGES

great commendation is justly due , alike for his unwearied labors and his successful returns . The announcement by the Chairman , that HER MAJESTY had graciously consented to become a special patroness of the Institution , was received with loud and prolonged applause .

OUR public life and private society have been convulsed by the awful news from Ireland , and the accounts so ghastly and heartrending of a dastardly crime committed with a most appalling deliberation , and evidently the most premeditated cruelty . At such an hour all other feelings are subdued , all other voices hushed into one indignant exclamation on the part of the

lawabiding English people , of horror and detestation of such an act of bloodthirsty perfidy and such an outcome of barbarous passion . The thoughts and sympathies of our generous Order will turn instinctively towards the members of the bereaved househol d , to the great and distinguished family of which our noble brother , the Marquis of HARTINGTON forms part , and

to the humbler circle in Dublin of which the valuable public servant and loyal Reman Catholic Irishman , Mr . BURKE , was the prop and head . It > s not for us to measure here the extent of such an abhorrent crime , or to allude to the exigencies of the public service , as with such matters , as well as political considerations Freemasonry and the Freemason have ' nothing to do .

But it it is our bounden duty , as good men and true , as faithful citizens as well as zealous Freemasons to join in the universal expression of national and common sympathy , and to express our humble detestation of an episode

which will be a lasting disgrace to the age in which we live , whether it will prove to be the result of skilfully fomented passions and unbridled ferocity , or the terrible and insane criminality of obscure and degraded desperadoes .

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CERTAINLY our good Bro . W . J . HUGHAN has a just cause of complaint against the editor of the Freemason , Sydney , N . S . W . Bro . HUGHAN states , and his statement is sufficient and decisive on the subject for all who know him , that in the words he penned for the Voice of Masonry the words " New South Wales " did not occur . They are , then , a clear interpolation .

And who interpolated them ? Was it the Editor of the " Sydney " Freemason , to serve a special purpose ? Or was it some " mysterious stranger ;" some " unknown brother ? " Whoever has committed such an unmasonic unworthy act deserves alike entire Masonic disavowal and reprehension . Nothing in this world is ever served by trickery or treachery . A momentary

success may be achieved by the deliberate falsehood or the suggested untruth , but sooner or later the Nemesis of outraged veracity asserts itself , and the reaction completely sweeps away lhe falsehood and the " fautor " of it . Perhaps we are speaking too seriously . And if we may fairly reduce

the matter to that of a contemptible "trick , " for a purpose , to gain a special end , the voice of Masonic honesty and fair play must unequivocally condemn him , be he who lie may , who for any purpose or no purpose , deliberately garbles , parodies , travesties the thoughtful and sincere words ) of another and a brother Freemason .

* * MASONIC tramps seem increasing amongst us . Can nothing be done to check their progress or arrest their proceedings ? It is to be feared that a good deal of this Masonic mendicancy arises from the haste and cheapness which mark the admission of Freemasons , especial ! ) ' in Scotland . Let not

our good Scottish brethren be irate ! A case came before the Board of Benevolence not long ago , when a Scottish Mason admitted he had once , and only once , paid £ 2 10 s . to a lodge in Scotland , and had never since sent

a farthing by way of annual subscription or benevolent contribution . And still he claimed relief . Would it not be well if the three GRAND SECRETARIES of England , Scotland , and Ireland were to meet together and formulate some mininum reasonable test of membership and annual subscription ?

* * THERE is a point to which we hope the attention of the Committee for the revision of the Book of Constitutions will be specially directed—the minimum amount of initiation fees . At present in London the minimum sum is £ 4 4 s ., in the provinces £ 3 us . Cd . ; and the 6 s . 6 d . for certificate

is included in such fees , as a general rule , but which ought not to be the case . The registration fee is £ 1 is . for London , and 10 s . 6 d . for provincial Masons . For joining members the registration fee in London is 5 s ., and in the country 2 s . 6 d . '; and the registration fees for joining members from foreign lodges is 10 s . 6 d . Now it seems to us that if Grand Lodge ordered

that no lodge shall admit a Mason under £ 5 5 s ., paying the fees itself , there would be a small gain to the lodge , and a simple mode of procedure . Not that we believe in high fees keeping out bad members . There are some persons , most undesirable members , to whom that large fee would be an inducement ; but we think it better to have a distinct and reasonable

minimum . I he idea that by a low initiation fee we encourage many to enter who are deterred by the expense , is , in our opinion , an utterly worthless and unsound argument . We certainly , by our fees , induce a large number to enter whose proper position is not Freemasonry , but that of a

pure benefit order ; and no one can regard without grave apprehension the somewhat hasty and indiscriminate admission which has lately been going on for some years past , and which seems to portend most serious consequences , unless speedily checked , to our whole system of Masonic benevolence and Metropolitan Charities .

WE quite agree with a correspondent last week , in re the "Territorial Grand Lodge of Morocco . " The whole business is most abnormal , unwise , illegal , and unmasonic from beginning to end . Geographically , the expression is a positive absurdity ; Masonically , as far as we can see now , every

precedent has been violated , every prescription has been set at nought . That such proceedings can be approved of in Manitoba we cannot bring ourselves to believe , and we feel sure that the American Masonic journals will see the subject , as we do , in its true light of mingled ridiculousness and illegality . We look in vain for one redeeming point in the procedure , and only fear

that we must see in it a deliberate departure from Masonic law and custom for special purposes and for special ends . But let us not be misunderstood . We do not deny , —it would be childish to do so , —that the Grand Lodge of

Manitoba had a right to grant a warrant for a lodge at Tangiers , though one is tempted to echo Lord BEACONSI-TELD ' S famous apostrophe to the " flies in amber . " Neither , had the G . M . granted a warrant to another lodge at Tetuan , and another at Mogadore , and another at Fez , and then had these