Masonic Jurisprudence.

re cralia in the pages of some one of the illustrated papers ; and , intact , since one of them published an engraving of what purported ' to be the interior of a lodge room during the performance of a ceremony we may expect anything . Still one would express a hope that the precincts and interior of Grand Lodge micht bc safe from the snapshotter .

Consecration Of The Chere Reine Lodge, No. 2853.

CONSECRATION OF THE CHERE REINE LODGE , No . 2853 .

INSTALLATION OF BRO . REV . A . W . OXFORD , M . A ., M . D ., P . G . D .

The consecration of the above Iodge /| the founders of which are for the most part connected with the Charing Cross Hospital , took place , by soecial dispensation , at the Hotel Cecil , on Friday , the ; th instant . The Trocadero Restaurant is to be the usual place of meeting of the newlyconstituted lodge . T

... „„ , . _ . The ceremony of consecration was conducted by Bro . "Edward Letchworth P . G . D ., Grand Secretary , assisted by Bros . Robert Grey , P . G . VV ., L S W . ; Edward Terry , P . G . T ., as J . W . ; Rev . Borradaile Savory , G . Chap ., as Chaplain ; J . C . Fitzroy Tower , P . D . G . D . C , as D . C ; and Woodhouse Braine , F . R . C . S ., S . G . D ., as I . G .

The founders of the new lodge are Bros . Robert Grey , P . G . W . , * Edward Terrv , P . G . T . ; Col . Clifford Probyn , P . G . D . ; A . W . Oxford , pQD ,: Jno . Abercrombie , 6 ; Amand Routh , 2033 ; C . Carter Braime , 2620 ; Victor Corbould , 2620 ; F . C . Wallis , 2546 ; J . Humnhrevs , 21 S 3 ; J . Astley Bloxam , 2546 ; J . C . F . Naumann , 2000 ; F . CeU Oliver 2552 ; Rev . C . E . Wright , P . M . 2328 ; A . E . Reade ,

, P M 166 ; P . L . Daniel , 166 ; J . W . Eyre , 66 ; Victor Partridge , 101 ; Matthew Dobbs , 2587 ; W . S . Wintle , 2737 ; Henry Northcroft , 33 ; and Francis Mellersch , 1872 . . The visitors present comprised the following P . Ms ., in addition to a lanre number of M . Ms . r Bros . Gibbon , 6 ; Cooper , P . G . D . ; Grace ,

\ V ? M . elect 475 ; H . Sadler , G . Tyler ; Mackintosh . P . A . G . D C . ; Penrose , 1872 ; Welsford , 1321 ; Aird , 1 S 92 ; Lane , 2682 ; Godding , P . P . G . Std . Br . Oxon ; Sansom , 2033 ; Hall , P . G . S . B . ; Abraham , W . M . elect 2546 ; Clarke , W . M . elect 2410 ; Godson , P . G . D . ; Senior , 1872 ; White , 2603 and KiallmarkP . G . D .

; , The brethren having assembled in ths lodge room , the Consecrating Officer , accompanied by the Grand Officers , entered in procession , took the chair , and appointed his officers pro tem . The ceremony of consecration was then commenced , the D . of C . reading the warrant , and the Chaplain

delivering a most appropriate oration . Bro . Sir BORRADAILE SAVORY , G . Chap ., in this oration referred to the formation of numerous class lodges of late years , more particularly in connection with hospitals , and why should not the . Charing Cross Hospital have a lodge connected with it ? They knew that as esrly as the year 1260 there was a village known as Charing , probably so-called from the Saxon

chariitg , meaning turning , as it was situated where the road and river turned . This was a more probable derivation than the far prettier idea that the word was derived from chere reine , the dear Qaeen Eleanor . In the year 1290 Q ueen Eleanor died at Lincoln , and her body was brought to London , King Edward I . erecting in all nine crosses , one at each place at which the corpse rested . Of these

crosses only two now remained , those at Northampton and Waltham . Whatever the derivation of the word Charing mig ' it be , it was , however , true that the Ckire Reine Eleanor had anticipated in some measure modern antiseptic surgery , having sucked the wound inffi-rted on her husband by a poisonous dagger ; and long before the formation of the Chere Reine Lodge the Charing Cross Hospital had coped with human

distress in a spirit of brotherly love , relief , and scientific tru ' . h , and he hoped the members of that lodge would ever place brotherly IOVJ before gain , relief before personal gratification , and truth before all . The ceremony of consecration was then proceeded with , the Consecrating Officer dedicating and constituting the lodge in dne form . The Grand Secretary then installed the W . M . designate , Bro . Rev . A . W . Oxford , M . A ., M . D .. P . G . D . The newly-installed W . M . invested the

AVardens designate , viz ., Bros . J . Abercrombie , S . W ., and Amand R > uth , ) . W . j also the following officers for the ensuing year : Bros . J . Astley Bloxam , I . P . M . ; Rev . C . E . Wright , P . M ., Chap . ; Robert Grey , P . G . W ., Treas . ; C . Carter Braine , Sec . ; Frederick Wallis , S . D . ; Victor Corbould , J . D . ; J . W . Eyre , I . G . ; Arthur E . Reade , P . M ., Org . ; P . L . Daniel and J . Humphreys , Stewards ; and P . F . Madden , Tyler . The W . M ., Wardens , Secretary , and Treasurer were appointed a Committee to frame bye-laws .

Four propositions were received for initiation , and three propDsitions for joining members ; and before the lodge closed the Consecrating Officers were elected honorary members of the lodge , on the mation of the W . M . At the banquet to which the brethren and visirors subsequently sat do am the usual loyal and Masonic toasts were proposed and duly honoured , Bro . Rev . Sir BORRODAILE SAVORY briefly responding to the toast of " The Grand Officers , Present and Past . "

Immediately after the toast of "The Consecrating Officers "had been honoured , founders' jewels were presented on b ; half of the lodge to each of the brethren included in that toast . Bro . LETCHWORTH , Grand Sec , responded , thanking the W . M . for the kind terms in which he had proposed the toast , and the brethren generall y for the handsome jewels with which they had presented the Consecrating Officers , and which the latter would always wear as charming mementoes of an interesting occasion .

Bro . BLOXAM , I . P . M ., proposed "The Health of the Worshipful Master , " and in his reply the W . M ., adverting to the oration delivered in the lodge by the Grand Chaplain , stated that the lodge had been named the Chcjre Rtine Lodge partly in memory of Oueen Eleanor and partly in memory of their late dear Queen , Victoria . The Charing Cross Hospital had been founded in 1831 , and the lite Queen , then Princess Victoria , had been its patroness ever since 1834 , at which time she was only 15 years of a ge . In 18 98 she had presented a picture of herself to the hospital . The toasts of "The Officers of the l . odge" and the Tjler ' s toast " ¦ " ¦ ought the proceedings to a close .

Queen Victoria.

QUEEN VICTORIA .

Through the fraternal courtesy of the Hon . W . A . Sutherland , P . G . M . we are able to give the full text of the report of the special committee ot the Grand Lodge of New York with reference to the death of Queen Victoria , the accession of King Edward and the election of the Duke ot Connaught as G . M . of the Grand Lodge of England . The following is the report :

To the Grand Lodge—The undersigned , the special committee appointed to prepare and report to the Grand Lodge an expression of the sentiments of this Grand Lodge upon the death of Victoria , the late Queen of Great Britain and Ireland , and the accession of Edward Seventh , late Grand Master of English Freemasons , to the throne , and the election and installation of the Duke of Connaught as the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England , present the following and recommend its adoption :

" With the Grand Lodge of England we held peculiar relations . Erected into a Grand Lodge by the direct act of the Grand Lodge of England , authenticated by its charter bearini ? - date September 5 th , 1781 , our territorial jurisdiction having been once honoured by an actual session of an emergent communication of the Grand Lodge of England , to wit , on the 21 st day of February , 1782 , the Grand Lodge of

Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York rightfully looks upon the Grand Lodge of England as its mother Grand Lodge . Proud of our relationship , we rejoice in her prosperity , and deeply sympathise with her every sorrow . By the death of Britain ' s Queen the Grand Lodge of New York is touched almost as closely as is the Grand Lodge of England . We remember that while it was the Duke of Athol who , in 1781 , as Grand

Master , subscribed the charter creating this Grand Lodge , there was nevertheless but one Grand Master intervening between him and the Most Worshipful the Duke of Kent , the father ot Queen Victoria . We recall that at the time the Grand Lodge of England ( ' Ancients' ) chartered this Grand Lodge , the then Prince of Wales , afterwards George IV ., the uncle of her late Majesty , was the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge styled' Moderns . '

We remember that his Grace the Duke of Sussex , an uncle of Victoria , and brother of the Duke of Kent , became Grand Master of the' Moderns' in 1813 , and his Grace the Duke of Kent accepted the Grand Mastership of the ' Antients' in the same year for the expressed purpose of joining with his brother in accomplishing the union of the two Grand Lodges into the present the United Grand Lodge of England , and that upon motion of the

Duke of Kent , the Duke of Sussex was elected the first Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge , continuing as such from 1 S 13 to 1842 . We recall with liveliest satisfaction that in 1 S 74 on the resignation ol the Marquis ol Ripon as Grand Master , the Prince of Wales , the eldest son of Victoria , accepted the gavel of our mother Grand Lodge , and has held the same with such great distinction for quarter of a century . We observe also with great

pleasure that upon the death of the Queen , her eldest son ascended the throne as Edward the Seventh , and the cares of State as well as the custom of , Craft made needful his retirement from the Grand Master ' s chair , another son of this most illustrious mother , the Duke of Connaught , has been chosen , and now is the Most Worshipful Grand Master of English Masons . The death of one

who is the daughter of one Grand Master , the niece of two , and the mother of two , cannot fail to touch closely the heart of every Freemason . But she f who was England ' s Queen , was also a Queen in the hearts of all good men of every kindred and every tongue . The nobility of her womanly character secured her enthronement in the affections of the people of every nation . Joining with all other good and impartial citizens of this Republic

in genuine sorrow at the loss of the British Empire in the death of tha Queen , we , as Freemasons , wish to extend a hand-clasp to our brethren beyond the sea and assure them of our most fraternal regard and our deep and abiding sympathy . " At the same time we extend our felicitations to the Grand Lodge of England in that it has been enabled in so unmistake * able a manner to acquaint the world with the high qualities and rare

qualifications of him who is now the King . Not only has he stood in the public gaze as the heir apparent to the throne , and therefore subject to the severe tests accompanying so trying a position ; not only has he borne himself as first subject of the realm with such rare dignity , tact , and good judgment as to inspire the confidence of the civilised world ; but he was actual head and Grand

Master of English Free Masons , he has so sturdily and yet so gently held the gavel of authority ; he has so steadfastly and yet so kindly ruled the Craft , * he so promptly and so beautifully admonished the Craft by the resolutions which he proposed to the Grand Lodge of England relative to the attack upon the Bible made by the late Grand Master of Peru , Christian Dam ; he has so graciously and so impressively officiated at Masonic

functions ; and has so judiciously and benignantly guided the Craft of his jurisdiction , as to command the respect , the admiration , the genuine esteem and affectionate regard of the Free Masons of every jurisdiction . English Free Masons may well be proud of the Grand Master that was and the Sovereign that is . " Sharing in the grief which by the death of Queen Victoria , January 22 , 1901 , fell upon all Free Masons owing allegiance to the British Empire , and

with genuine admiration for the son of that mother , who , by his ability as the ruler of the Craft , has demonstrated his fitness to be ruler of the nation , we extend to the Grand Lodge of England our sympathy in its bereavement , our fondest hopes for its continued prosperity , and our felicitation that its fortunes have been so closely entwined with those of that family of which Victoria was so illustrious a member ;

" Resolved , that Grand Secretary be , and he hereby is , instructed to communicate this action of the Grand Lodge of New York to the Grand Lodgeof England . " New York , May 8 , 1901 . Committee—William A . Sutherland , Geo . Hayes , Peter Ross . -The Freemason , Toronto .

THE TRANSVAAL WAR FUND . —Bro . the Lord Mayor ' s Fund at the Mansion House in connection with the Transvaal War Fund am mnts now to £ 1 , 123 , 170 . Of this sum £ 412 , 954 was specially contributed for the widows , orphans , and dependents of the men killed ; ^ y 7 , i 3 S for the sick and wounded while under treatment ; £ 111 , 157 for soldiers and sailors disabled by wounds ( ifter their leaving th : s ; rvc .: e ) ; £ i , y ^ , \\ i for the wives and children at home from their husbands

separated and fathers by the exigencies of the war ; £ 62 , 123 in response to the Princess of Wales ' s appeal lor the Soldiers ' and Sailors' Families' Association ; and £ 213 , 35 ) ' - > r wnt is called " Tne Lord Mayor's Discretionary Fund . " Ofthe last-mentioned sum , £ 110 , 000 has bien sent to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families' Association , which is in addition to tne sunt , of £ i 9 'J , t 4 Sand £ ' ) 2 , i 23 indicated above .