Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

career , we have done that which it was our duty to do . I thank you heartily for the honor you have done us . ( Applause . ) The CHAIRMAN : Brethren , I have now the pleasure to propose to you what may justly be called the important toast of thc evening ; it is that of "Success to the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls . " ( Cheers . ) ' I am sure no

Freemason exists but regards this Institution with pride and pleasure . ( Hear , hear . ) It has existed in England since the the year 178 S , and during that time it has been the means of educating 91 S girls . In the year 1 S 51 a new building was erected , the former one having been found entirely unfitted for the purposes for which it was devised . The present building is erected on a most healthy site , so

much so , that when I had the pleasure of visiting the Institution last week , I may say that not one single child was in the infirmary . ( Hear , hear . ) A considerable expense has been incurred in erecting some new buildings in connection with it—an infirmary , new dormitories , and other buildings in connection . But that expense has imposed some debt upon the Institution , which happily , by the

kindness of the brethren , is in the act of being paid off ; but still it requires increased contributions to set it entirely free . ( Hear . ) Brethren , I having had thc pleasure of personally inspecting the building , can testify to the excellence of the Institution . I never was more pleased than when I saw the manner in which everything connected it was conducted ; whether it was the maimer in which the

children were instructed by their excellent governess . Miss Davis —( hear ) , *—or the manner in which their health and comfort were attended to by their matron , Miss Jarwood . ( Cheers . ) I can assure you it is in the most prosperous state , and must afford the utmost gratification to any one who will go over it and inspect it . Brethren , it having existed now for a long time , it has been productive of much

good . During that time the number of girls who have been educated there and who have been sent forth into life have been many ; but what we may record with pride is , that every girl who has gone into thc world has reflected credit upon the Institution in which she was educated . ( Hear . ) Thc education they receive is excellent indeed . It enhances education of a homely kind . It does not

neglect the instruction in domestic duties ; but , at thc same time , it gives an opportunity to girls to acquire a higher education , if their talents will admit of it . ( Hear . ) That is evinced by the manner in which some of the girls have acquitted themselves in the Cambridge local examinations , a result of which wc may well be proud . ( Hear , hear . ) Brethren , this is an Institution we have met to benefit .

This Institution I commend to your sympathy , and to the liberality which that sympathy must of necessity evoke . In truth it is a noble cause for which I plead . We have in the school the daughters of Masons who . were born if not to affluence , at least to comfort ; but many of them were left forlorn , unprotected , and certainly having

no means of acquiring education ; and on the parents of others those unfortunate circumstances which will fall lo thc best and wisest of us in life have alighted , and thc children have been left without their parents having the means of providing that education which every parent should try and give to his child . ( Hear . ) Under these circumstances the Masonic Girls' Institution comes forward

and affords them as a gift that education which no other means could afford them ; and that education sends them into life and gives them the power of obtaining situations in which they have lo rely upon their own exertions . Those exertions , however , having been in other cases successful , let us hope that the children of our brethren who arc educated in the Masonic Girls' School at present

will earn for themselves the same position in life as those who have gone before them have earned , if not to attain to greater success . ( Hear , hear . ) Brethren it is to your liberality I leave this cause , feeling perfectly confident that it will not suffer in your hands . 1 give you " Success lo thc Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , " and I couple with that toast "The Health of the Treasurer , Bro .

Tomkins , and also Bro . Benj . Bond Cabbell , thc late Treasurer for thirty years . " The brethren accorded thc same hearty reception to this toast as to all the former ones . Bro . S . TOMKINS : Right Worshipful Sir and Brethren , I thank you heartily for the honour you have done me in coupling my name with this toasl ; hut , brethren , after the

eloquent address you have heard from your chairman , I I will only say one word . I am deeply pleased to lie your Treasurer , and 1 am sure I may say for Iiro . Cabbell , who , your chairman tells you , held that office many years , that he fell equal gratification . After the address you have heard , I think I shall act most as a Mason , by asking you

for your sympathies , and exercising that liberality which you arc accustomed to show . Bro . K . II . PATTICS ' , Ihen read a list of subscriptions , which amounted in the whole lo , £ 4 , 050 . ( Applause . ) The CHAIRMAN : Brethren , you have just listened lo thc enumeration of the liberal contributions that have been

bestowed on this charily . I now ask you lo drink the health of those brethren to whom we are very much indebted for the prosperity of the institution , brethren who have given up their time and attention to promote ils welfare and success . These arc , the Vice-Presidents , thc Trustees , those who serve on ihe various Committees , and also the Medical Officers . To them we arc greatly

indebted , and 1 am sure you will show your respect to them for their services . I cannot forget , thai while we congratulate Bro . Patten upon the success which has attended him in his exertions , and hope lhat he may long serve with benefit to this institution , I should be doing wrong if I were not lo allude to one fact , namely , that wc have

lately lost thai brother whom all those interested in the institntion in days gone by will remember most readily , Bro . Crew . ( Hear , hear . ) 1 am sine thai his kind demeanour , and the interest he look in the institution , will never be forgotten by us . I . ask you to drink " Thc health ofthe Vice-Presidents , and the other Officers connected , with this charily . " D / unk with app ' . aas ; .

Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

Bro . G . W . K . POTTER : Brother Chairman and Brethren , I do not know why I have been called upon to reply to this toast , unless it be that I am not performing my duty with respect to being a Vice-President , and not attending lo the very arduous duties which the Trustees aud Committee have performed in the entertainment of the day ; but as a Vice-President , I pride myself on being one

who has the greatest interest possible in the Masonic Charities , and having that at heart , I can assure you , I feel a great obligation to aU parties who have been instrumental in benefiting the Masonic Charities . I thank you on their behalf for the very kind manner in which you have responded to the toast given me . ( Cheers . ) The CHAIRMAN : I now ask you to drink " The health

of the other Masonic Charities . " I am glad to say that no jealously exists between the various Masonic Institutions . We are all anxious to assist each other . Wc take interest in the success which each obtains , and do not grudge it . I therefore ask you to receive with every demonstration of affection the other societies , namely , the Boys' School , and the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution .

Bro . BINCKES : Bro . Chairman and Brethren , I am exceedingly obliged to you for the very great kindness exhibited when in the success of one institution the success ofthe other is not forgotten . We have had our festivals ; that of the Royal Benevolent Institution , which Bro . Farnfield will speak of by-and-bye , and that of the Boys ' School , have already been celebrated , I believe , most

successfully , at least , I can say so with respect to the school with which I am associated . I look with great pride and gratitude upon it ; while last year at our festival we realised , £ 12 , 200 , ancl at our festival last March over - £ io , 6 oo , I have no reason to be otherwise than grateful to those very kind friends who rallied round the Boys ' School . But do not let me forget on this occasion to

offer , whatever it may be worth , my poor mite for the success which attended the exertions of those who were thc means of achieving its success . We all , as you , sir , have said , when one institution is successful never forget thc success of the others with whom our interests are bound up , and for which we are always anxious and always careful . I am charged , I dare say too

often justly , with making too strong appeals on behalf of the institution with which I am associated—the Boys ' School . Well , brethren , I do care for that school , and so do you , every one of you . Vou have borne with me for eight years . We have celebrated some most successful festivals ; but I tell you this , I am not satisfied yet . ( Oh . ) I am charged that I never shall be satisfied . Well ,

I do not believe I ever shall , because I have " a banner with a strange device , " the motto on which is one word"Excelsior ; " and 1 always will "go on from strength to strength , " at least endeavouring to exceed every previous effort ; aud , if I fail , come as near success as I possibly can . Now , I am ( old that next year the boys ' festival will be a very great failure . I do not believe it

for a moment ; and I ask every one here—and I think I could also every one who is not here , and there will come an opportunity when I shall be able to do so—that you shall each and all of you feel il your deepest , your greatest , your most sincere , your most holy obligation to make the festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys of 1871 a greater success than any previous festival

has been —( hear , hear)—and I beg to generally charge this to every friend who says he has discharged the holiest duties of Freemasonry . I have been twilled with obtaining the Prince of Wales as Chairman of our last festival , and I have been asked , " Bro . Binckes , what is your plot for next year ? " At this early day I am not exactly prepared to say ; but I purpose it to be a sensational

one—and this is a sensational age—and you may all be prepared for something sensational in March , 1 S 71 . I am told thai as the Boys' School is doing its duty faithfully and well , and has achieved a position in your estimation which it will never lose , you will do all you can lo support that institution , and to render il what it is—the proud institution in connection with a class , of many of

which this country can boast . I am bowed down—positively oppressed—under the sense of the gratitude I owe to the large number of friends who have rallied round this glorious institution ; but I shall be entirely extinguished if I find we have seen the apex of prosperity . We have gone on , and must go on , increasing in prosperity , and doing all we can 10 make that school thai which we wish

it to he—the nursery of Masons yet to conic . Bro . Farnfield will respond on behalf of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution ; but , brethren , wearying you as I often do , and addressing you as I do here on many occasions , you must excuse me for my warmth . The Boys' School is not clear from debt , ancl , if Providence will spare my live , I will never cease my exertions to

induce you to clear off that debt , and to put us in the position we once were in before wc erected that building . For yonr kindness , Bro . Chairman and brethren , present and elsewhere , allow me , on behalf of the Boys' School , to lender you my warmest thanks , and lo assure yon of our sanguine anticipations of what you will do in the future . Iiro . 1 ' ARNl'llU . l ) : It would almost be a folly in me if I were to follow our Bro . Binckes in his eloquent speech ,

but I am happy tosay , thai the Royal Benevolent Institution is not in that unhappy slate in which the Boys' School is . We are , as many ofthe brethren will say , in a prosperous stale . I do not consider thai we are so prosperous as we ought to be . At the lime that we have on the list so many candidates , I think I am in duly bound to call upon the brethren to use their exertions U 1 . 1 l we might

have a clear list , and that we might say that not one of our poor brethren , or widows of our deceased brethren may be 111 want . I take this opporluily of thanking the brethren for their kindness al the last festival , and beg lliem lo increase the number of male annuitants ; and if the brethren will continue lo support that institution as they have done at the last festival , next year wc shall be enabled no doubt

Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

to have a great many more pensioners . I thank you most heartily for your kindness . The CHAIRMAN : We should be very ungrateful if we were to neglect drinking the next toast , and that is , the health of those brethren to whom we are greatly indebted for the success of the festival to-day , ancl for the amount of contributions which have been announced . It is the

body of Stewards that I allude to . They have kindly accepted the office of Stewards ; they have so exerted themselves in tbat capacity that this festival has been successful , and the contributions have been extremely liberal . We are very much indebted to them . I myself must express my warmest thanks to them for their exertions , and I am sure you will join me in drinking their

very good health , and expressing cordial thanks to them . Bro . S . C HADLEY : Right Worshipful Chairman and Brethren , we have met to-day to celebrate , and I think we have enjoyed , a most successful event . Since we have been here this evening , we have listened to most eloquent discourses from your most worthy and esteemed chairman , as also from many others of the brethren . I am now , on

behalf of the Stewards , called upon to reply to the thanks you have given for the exertions we have made . With all the eloquence that you have heard , I think the eloquence of our Bro . Patten has been , the one great charm of eloquence of the evening , and that in the list in which he has announced to you the results ofthe Stewards' exertions for the festival . I can assure you , as Stewards one and

all , we have but one desire , as Masons we are warmly imbued with the feelings taught us in the early days of our Masonry , that is charity . We wish to see the whole of our charitable institutions whether it is that whose cause has been so ably advocated by Bro . Binckes , or whether it is thc charity of the girls , or whether it is the Royal Masonic Benevolent . Institution , for which our Bro .

Farnfield lias so ably responded—one and all we must wish to see prosperity , vitality and life among them . And as we are taught in Masonry to look upon charity as thc one great principle and guiding star of our life , so throughout our life we look to that one true and holy principle . Our Bro . Binckes remarked to-night that he hoped we should see next year the Boys' School more successful even than

it has yet been ; and with the one grand holy principle imbued in Freemasons , as far as that school is concerned , I have no doubt it will , and that for the Charities of our Order , so long as it exists in this world , the means will never he wanting and will be always forthcoming ; for the charities I am sure will always be a pride , a pleasure , and an ornament to the Craft . I ( hank you . ( Cheers . )

Bro . the Rev . C . J . MARTYN : Thc Right Worshipful Grand Master for Hampshire has deputed me to propose the last toast ; but , though it is the last , it is by no means the least ; and I am sure it will find no less favor in your eyes for coming late . I beg to give you , with all thc honors , the toast of " The Ladies , " Were it not for thc ladies , where should any of us be ? Whom should we have to cheer us ? Whether it is as an old married man

of some years standing ; or whether as a clergyman , and used to joining ladies and gentlemen in the holy bond of wedlock , I am called upon to propose this toast I do not know ; but I am asked to propose the toast of "The Ladies . " If anything could inspire me with courage in my task , it is the sight we always witness on these occasions , that of ladies joining Masonsin assisting the charities .

I remember many years ago , when a testimonial was presented to our worthy chairman , when he was in full work in Oxford , at lhat large banquet when he got up to return thanks , he said , addressing the ladies , that he was going to give them a few words of information about a subject of which they had heard so much and yet knew so little , charity ; and he told them , vhat our charities were ,

and what could be done by thc united action of a body of Masons . I beg to give you , wilh all cordial and good feeling , " The Ladies . " Bro . RAYNHAM W . STEWART : Bro . Chairman and Bro . Grand Chaplain , on behalf of the ladies let me return my most sincere thanks for the honour you have done them ; and I cannot for my life consider why our Bro .

should have hesitated when asked to propose that toast , considering that nobody knows better than he that his profession brings so many of our brothers and sisters together . Bui let me say it was a very pleasing fact to find to-night that we had more ladies in the gallery than we had gentlemen in the hall , which only shows to my mind the great interest ihey take in what wc do . I am

quite cctain if they come forward as they have to-night wc shall never lack support-. Although I belong to the Boys' Committee I also belong to the Girls' Committee , and also to thc old men and women , and 1 think it would be a very sorrowful day when wc did not take care of the whole of ihe institutions . I will not detain you longer . 1 thank you very much , ancl I hope the day will

be far distant when our festivals are not graced with the presence of ihe ladies . llro . POCOCK -. 1 also vise to return thanks for the ladies , ancl I do so particularly on this occasion when we celebrate the festival of the charity which takes care of the young of their own sex . lt is also an additional

pleasure to me , as I know it is to you , Worshipful Sir , and the brethren around me , on account of thc interest l'he ladies lake in our charities . I thank you very sincerely on their behalf for the expression of goodwill towards them , audi can only say it is with the greatest pleasure they attend this meeting , and no meeting they could attend would gbc them so great pleasure .

The Chairman ancl visitors then left the hall , and adjourned lo the Temple , where the ladies were assembled , and a vocal and iiistrunienlal concert was given . The selection of music was performed under the direction of Bro . Wilhehn Ganz , by Mdlle . Mathilda Enequist , Madame Thaddcus Wells , and Miss Lucy Franklcin ; Bros . Frank Elmore , Deck , and Frederick Penna . The instrumentalists were Mdlle . Heciman , on the harp , and Herr Hcciniaii on ihe violin .