Contents.

CONTENTS .

L EADERS ¦••• 341 Review 34 ° Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire 348 Provincial Grand Lodge of Lincolnshire ... 349 Consecration of the St . Alkmund Lodge , No . 3311 , at Whitchurch 349 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of North and East Yorkshire 3 $ o Consecration of the Swindon Keystone Mark Lodge , No . 401 , at Swindon 350 Masonic Brotherhood 350 New Zealand 35 ' C ORRESPONDENCEThe Boys ' School Inquiry Committee .., 353 * New Grand Lodges 354

Reviews , 354 REPORTS OF MASONIC M ISTINQSCraft Masonry 3 S 4 Instruction 356 Royal Arch 3 S 6 Red Cross o £ Rome and Constantine 356 Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 357 Masonic Bazaar in Leicester , in Aid of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys 3 S 7 Theatres . ' 35 * 1 Obituary 357 Masonic and General Tidings 358 Lodge Meetings for Next Week iv

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IT is to be hoped that , now the affairs of the Royal Masonic The approaching r ,,.,- ., , 1 c Festival of the Institution for Boys are for the time being in the hands or an influential Committee which , at the earliest possible

opportunity , will report to the Court of Governors the steps they consider necessary and desirable to restore its administration to something like order , we shall hear no more of Stewards withdrawing and lodges refusing to contribute to the funds of this Charity . It is perfectly well known that , quite apart from the difficulties which have been directly caused by the recent attacks on the management , the funds of the Institution were very seriously

affected by the desire of the Craft generally to celebrate the Centenary ofthe Girls'School in a manner worthy of the Institution and of the Society which had founded and supported it with such conspicuous success . No one has ever had the slightest idea of grumbling at this desire to benefit the senior Charity on so important an anniversary ; but it would be absurd to ignore

the fact that the occurrence of the Boys' Anniversary last year within three weeks of the Girls' Centenary was detrimental to its interests , and we have all been anxiously looking forward to this year ' s Festival on behalf of the Junior School , in order to restore its funds to a condition of equilibrium . Till lately , we believe , the efforts made in this behalf had

been fairly successful , and even novv , notwithstanding the few defections that have taken place , and the angry comments which have been rife as to the incompetency of the administrative Committees , the Board of Stewards , mainly owing to the exertions of Bro . BINCKES , the Secretary , is upwards of 300 strong—we believe it was 310 on Saturday last-- while there is ample

time for other brethren to come forward and give the services which are so sorely needed . Last year , it must be remembered , the subscriptions and donations announced at the Festival were under - £ 8700 , which , quite apart from any question as to the rate of expenditure having been too high or the money having been extravagantly disbursed , is not a sum sufficient for the

maintenance of a School of 260 boys . Therefore , * the deficiency of means , owing to the smallness of last year ' s Festival receipts , to defray the expenditure of last year must be made good , while enough must be raised in order to supply the ways and means for the year which is current . There should be no difficulty

about the accomplisment of this task with a Board of Stewards , which , as we have said already , exceeds 300 brethren , and as there is an excellent chairman , whose interest in all'our Charities is rec ognised everywhere , we trust Bro . BINCKES will have the satisfaction of announcing a result more nearl y approaching to those of his most successful years than was the result of last year ' s Festival .

# TheGovemment ^ ^ ave eve T reason ** ° be satisfied with the result of the Boys' s proceedings , if not with the manner in which they were con-00 " ducted , at the Special General Court of the Governors and Subscribers of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys at Freemasons '

ayern , on Thursday , the 6 th inst . We had previously expressed our ele ' that it was desirable , and indeed necessary , that the Report of the HLBRICK Committee of Inquiry should be adopted , and it was adopted tne Court referred to . And afterwards , when sundry insane proposals . " would have had the effect , as we have already described it , of abolish-S everything and everybody connected with the Institution , were brought ard , there opportunely appeared on the scene a dens ex machind in the P erson of Bro . BEVIR , P . G . Sec . Wiltshire , who moved the appointment of rovisional Committee , consisting of about 20 influential brethren in . j t " Governors generally have the most implicit confidence , which aff * watc ^ over anc ** protect the interests of the Institution , administer its 1 . * ' f * consider and report to a subsequent General Court the steps me < 4 ' * ' t ^ ' ° P ' " * seem necessary in order to give effect to the recoma . atlons of the Committee of Inquiry . This motion was at once carried , two U " derstand this Provisional Committee has already held one , if not out ' tti eetln . £ s f ° ^ e purpose of making the requisite arrangements to carry be e duties they have undertaken . But our readers must not imagine that smoorM * ^ ^ pressure of moderate counsels , matters have thus far gone y- and the Provisional Committee have begun their task of restoring

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something like the semblance of order to the government of the Institution , there are no further difficulties to contend with . The situation , as it now is , bristles as it were with difficulties , and it will need the exercise of all the ability and ingenuity , as well as of all the patience and forbearance , which the governing authorities , both permanent and provisional , may possess in

order to place the School on its old footing of prosperity . One of these difficulties is the question of House Committee or no House Committee , to which we referred at length in our article of last week , and though towards the close of that article we remarked , " Of course the position has been altered by the result of the Special General Court of Thursday , and the

management of the Institution may be said , at the present moment , to be as it were ' in Commission , " we are very certain the appointment of a Provisional Committee has not removed and , in the event of friction arising between the Provisional and the regular Committees , will be found to have aggravated this difficulty . We are of opinion that , as the House Committee elected

in June , 1888 , completed its year of service on the 1 st inst ., there is not at this moment any such body in existence , but we are likewise of opinion that as the General Committee , which elects the House Committee , has the power of adjournment , and in the exercise of its discretion did adjourn the business appointed to be done on the said ist instant tillthe first Saturday in

July , it will be the duty of the General Committee to elect 12 of the brethren nominated in accordance with the law at the regular meeting in May , either on the first Saturday in July , to which the business appointed for the first Saturday in June now stands adjourned , or at some subsequent meeting to which it may be further adjourned . Thus , in the event of the

General Committee exercising its powers and electing a new House Committee , either on . Saturday , the 6 th July , or some subsequent day , there will be two rival managements , one by the House Committee regularly appointed by the law , and one by a Provisional Committee appointed by a Special General Court , which does not possess the power to make a

new law or abrogate or alter an existing one , and which is therefore incompetent to appoint a Committee which shall provisionally administer the affairs of the Institution in place of , or at all events in opposition to the will of , the regular House Committee . On the other hand , there are those who maintain that the House Committee elected at the General Committee

in June , 1888 , remain in office until their successors are appointed , just as the W . M . of a lodge remains in office not only for the year for which he was elected but until his successor has been installed . This is distinctly provided in the Book of Constitutions , but the absence of any such distinct provision in respect of the House Committee from the laws and regulations

of the Institution for Boys , is , in our opinion , a fatal objection to the view of these brethren . If , however , we accept their view , for the sake of argument , that the House Committee of last year are still in office , the difficulty will be even greater . In that case we already have a Provisional Committee , which has no legally defined status as regards the government of the

School , and a House Committee , the nature and extent of whose duties are clearly defined by the laws of the Institution , and which cannot be superseded or abolished until a law to that effect , of which due notice must be given , has been passed by a General Court , and confirmed by a subsequent General Court .

We have placed both these opinions thus lengthily before our readers —( 1 ) our own opinion , that there is not at present a House Committee ; ( 2 ) the opinion of others , that the House Committee elected in June , 1888 , remains in office till a successor has been appointed—in order to give them some idea of one of the chief difficulties by which the Institution is surrounded .

Then there is the Finance and Audit Committee , which consists of nine members of the General Committee , and is elected annually , in the same manner and on the same day as the House Committee . In this case the same brethren as served last year were nominated this , so that the question whether there is or is not a Finance and Audit Committee does not arise ,

or , at all events , is not so pressing . Six of this Committee have announced their intention of resigning , and the law provides for the filling up of the vacancies thus caused , as it does for vacancies on the House Committee . There is , therefore , nothing to prevent the Finance Committee—whether complete or incomplete—from discharging its appointed duties , and

nothing to compel it to pay the slightest attention to the wishes of the Provisional Committee . To crown all , there is in the midst of all this uncertainty and the very pronounced antagonism which exists between sundry of the officials and a section of the Governors and Subscribers , the annual Festival rapidly approaching , and unless matters are reduced to

something like ship-shape between now and then , the chance of a very poor Return to meet the heavy expenditure of the year is probable . However , the difficulties on which we have laid particular stress are not insuperable . Assuming our view that there is no House Committee is correct , then the

General Committee can keep on adjourning the election of a new one till the Provisional Committee have reported what they consider necessary to be done . If there is a House Committee , then let the members accept the position , and , effacing themselves for the time , leave the management in