Ar00600

NOTICE . The Subscription to THE FREEMASON is now \ os . per annum , post-free , payable in advance . Vol . I ., bound in cloth 4 s . 6 d . Vol . IL , ditto 7 s . 6 d . Vol . III ., ditto 15 s . od . Reading Cases to hole ! 52 numbers ... 2 s . 6 d . United States of America . THE "FREEMASON is delivered free in any part of the United Stales for 12 s . per annum , payable in advance .

Ar00604

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS . The Office of Tun FREEMASON is now transferred lo 198 , FLEET STREET , E . C . All communications for the Editor or Publisher should therefore be forwarded lo that address .

Ar00605

Sirij-rs , IHarrhtgcs , nnir geatjjs . —«—DEA Til . AA ' KISII . —On the Sth instant , at Liverpool , Ilro . II . Pellaniy Webb , I ' . G . S . l ! ., i . i his Cist year .

Ar00607

^ Uvsfocrs iff © orrcsponticnts . o All corn nut nicati & n-i for THE Ki * ri * M \*< n \ should he ¦"¦ vritten legibly oa one side uf tlie paper only , ami , il" intended Tor ins-rti . ui in the current number , must be received not later than io o ' clock a . m . o * i Thursdays , unices in very special c . t--es . 'J'he name and address of every wiiter must be .-lent to us in confidence . J . . S ., P . M . A xii R . A . —A P . M . is usually selected ( . * > respond for " The \ isimr . s , * ' in pieJ ' eience tu a brother who has , not passed the clv . iiv . AN AMERICAN- yitI '* : ; MASON . —We have closed the discnssii . n on ihe- subject of rimals fur the present , and regret , ihercfuie , that we cannot insert your letter . A LI . OKKR-ON . —Tliere being no name or address appended to your eonimunie . nliuii , in accordance villi our ruks , it has been consigned lo tlie waste-paper receptacle .

Ar00606

The Freemason , SATURDAV , FEIIIU . ARY 17 , 1 S 72 . THK FREEMASON is published on Saturday Mornings in time To the early trains . The price uf THE FKEKMAMTJ is Twopence per week ; : * nnual subscription , ios . ( payable in advance ) . AH communications letters , . Sic , to bo ad . hvsscd to the EDITOK , IQ 8 , Fleet-Street , K . C . The Editor will pay careful attention to all MSS . entrust * - ** - ! to him but cannot undertake lo return them unions accompanied by postage ¦ stamps .

The Earl Of Mayo.

THE EARL OF MAYO .

11 IK assassination of thc popular Viceroy of India is an event at once so startling and so horrible that the intelligence seems at first but the fantasy of a hideous dream .

A career so splendid , a life so useful and honourable , to be thus suddenly quenched In blood ; thc mind can hardly realise it without an effort , although , unhappily , the

news is but too fatally true . This terrible catastrophe jjwill undoubtedly awaken thc deepest sympathy wherever our tongue is spoken , not only on account of thc fiendish

nature of the deed , but because Lord Mayo was personally a most amiable and truehearted man , whose death would be , under

any circumstances , a calamity to any civilized community . In him the British nation is called upon to mourn the loss of one who was an honour to thc name of Briton , and

The Earl Of Mayo.

who may now be said to have perished , like Nelson , in thc discharge of a patriotic duty , We have at present but scanty details of the fearful act : but it is much to

be feared that the cruel fanaticism which inspires many of thc Mahomedan tribes of India has prompted the murder of the Viceroy . If this bc so , the utmost vigilance

should be exercised in our Eastern possessions , and , indeed , the recent assassination of Acting Chief Justice Norman ought to have placed the local authorities on their

guard . By thc telegram announcing Lord Mayo ' s fate , wc learn that the murderer was a Mahometan convict , anel that thc miscreant stabbed his Excellency twice in

thc back . \\ e confess to considerable astonishment , mingled with distrust , at the fact of a convict , in thc first place , being so free in his movements as to bc able to

approach a personage like the Viceroy of India ; and we are still more amazed to hear that such villains arc allowed to carry knives or other deadly weapons . There

must have been a laxity of discipline somewhere to have rendered the atrocious attack possible , and those who arc to blame in tlie matter will not easily bc absolved by tlie English nation .

The deceased nobleman was initiated into Freemasonry in a lotlge in Ireland , and attained high honours in the Irish Craft . For many years hc represented tlie

Grand Lodge of Ireland at the Grand Lodge of England—a post which he vacated on his appointment to thc Governor-Generalship of India , and in which he was

succeeded by the popub . r Brother Colonel Francis Burdett , who is now also Provincial Grand Master for Middlesex . Lorel Mayo joined the Skiddaw Lodge , No . 1002 , at

Cockcrmouth — thc borough for which hc sat in the House of Commons—on the 6 th September , 1 * 564 ; and we believe his respected name is borne on its roll up to

the present time . L ' pon assuming thc government of our vast Indian empire , thc late Earl was rcquesteel by the brethren in India to accept the position of " * Patron of

Freemasonry , and he at once acceded to their wishes , ever afterwards continuing to evince a warm friendship for the Craft . Thc Order therefore loses in Lord Mayo a

brother whosehigh character had—although in former days not unassailed by unscrupulous foes—nevertheless stooel the test of time and truth , and few who remember

twenty years back can forget tlie vile calumnies which were uttered by John Sadlcir and his clique against our noble brother ' s honour . Freemasonry , especially ,

can ill afford his loss , but his memory will be green in all our hearts formany years to come , and the part which hc bore in this amphitheatre of strife will bc handed down as an example to future ages .

The Earl of Mayo , whose tragic end , in the very midst ofthe most honoured and honourable part of a long political career , is thus announced

was born in Dublin on the 21 st February , 1822 and had , therefore , on the evening of his assassination reached to within a fortnight of the completion of his fiftieth year . He was the son

The Earl Of Mayo.

of Robert Bourke , fifth Earl of Mayo , in the peerage of Ireland , and his mother was the only daughter of the Hon . John Jocelyn , third son of the first Earl of Roden . The Earldom dates from 178- *; ; but the . Barony of Naas had been

conferred on the family in 1776 . The late Earl was educated at Trinity College . Dublin , where he took his degrees of P .. A . in 1 S 44 . M . A . in 1 S 51 , and LL . D . in 1852 . He married , in 1 S 4 S , the third daughter of the first Lord Leconfield , and had four sons and two daughters : the eldest son ,

Lord Naas , who succeeds his father as the seventh Earl of Mayo , was born in 1851 , and is now in his twenty-first year . The late Earl succeeded his father in the earldom in August , 1 S 67 . It was , therefore , not as Earl of Mayo , but as Lord Naas . to which title he succeeded

when his lather became Earl of Mayo in 1849 , that he was best known in our political history . Like many young men of family and position who aspire to a political career , Lord Naas began his public life bv the publication of a volume of

foreign travels . His " Impressions of St . Petersburg and Moscow" were given to the world in 1 S 45 ; but it was not till the general election of 1 S 47 that he made his first appearance in political life . In that year he became the

Conservative candidate for the county of Kildare , of which he was afterwards a magistrate and a deputy-lieutenant , and in which his family seat , Palmerston House , Naas , is situated . At this time he was onlv the Hon . Richard Southwell

Bourke , and under that name made his first appearance in Parliament . His politics wcre those of the old school of Conservatism . He expressly contested the county as a

Protectionist , and was returned by a considerable majority over the second Liberal candidate , Mr . J . A . O'Neill , though Lord Kildare , a Liberal , headed the poll . During the first two sessions of the new Parliament -Air . Bourke seems to have

confined himself to a couple of questions on an Irish workhouse ; his maiden speech was made on the 6 th of 'February , 1 S 49 , in support of a motion by Sir George Grey for a continuance of the Act , passed in the previous Julv , forthe

suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland . Speaking as an Irishman and an Irish county member , he expressed the regret with which he was compelled to confess that this suspension was needful . In 1 S 49 he became Lord Naas ,

and began gradually to take an active part inthe discussion of Irish questions . AA'hen the second and final overthrow ol" Lord John Russell ' s first administration took place in February , 1 S 52 , Lord Naas had already established a position in

Irish discussions , and in Lord Derby ' s shortlived Administration of that year occupied the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland without a seat in the Cabinet . On his appointment to this oflice he did not offer himself for re-election in

kildare , where a Liberal was returned unopposed in his place : but Mr . John Boyd , the Liberal-Consenative member for Coleraine , conveniently accepting the Chiltcm Hundreds at that time , Lord Naas was returned in his place without a

poll . In July Lord Derby dissolved Parliament , and Lord Naas was again returned unopposed for Coleraine , his old seat for Kildare being still occupied by a Liberal . Lord Derby's Administration was overthrown by the new Parliament

in December , on a vote on Mr . Disraeli ' s extraordinary Budget , and Lord Naas , of course , quitted the Irish Secretaryship , his short exercise of which had been chiefly distinguished in the House of Commons by liis vigorous and

successful opposition to Mr . Sharman Crawford ' s Tenant-right Bill . During thc Administrations of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston , Lord Naas , of course , remained out of ofiie ; e . At the general election which followed on Lorel

Palmerston's penal dissolution of the House after the vote on the Canton massacre in 1 S 57 , Lord Naas sought a seat at Cockcrmouth , and . first under his courtesy title of Lord Naas and then as Earl of Mayo , was returned .

Lord Palmerston ' s triumph in 1 S 57 was followed by the exhibition on his part of some of the intoxication of power , and early in the next year hc was thrown out , and the second Derby Admistration took the reins of Government . Lord Naas was , for the second time , appointed