Ar00200

man , and " frater to frater , " and yet the moment a question is stirred , a subject is discussed , a point is raised , or a theory is started , we , yes , all alike for the most part , hasten to forget all our excellent maxims , and become , even often amongst Freemasons in a Masonic paper , more personal than the personal .

* * ALL our readers will regret to learn of the death of Bro . WEBSTER , well known for his valuable services to the Charities and his repeated labours as a Scrutineer . Some of us will realize mournfully the fact that we shall not

again hear his clear voice announcing the results of the Election . Bro . WEBSTER will certainly be a " missed man " in Metropolitan Masonry , and leaves behind him many kindly memories , as well as many mourning relatives , friends , and brethren .

Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

The monthly meeting of the Committee of Management was held at Freemasons' Hall on Wednesday last , when Col . John Creaton , Grand Treasurer , presided . The following brethren were also present : Bros . Edgar Bowyer , John Bulmer , Raynham W . Stewart , W . March , G . Bolton , Wm .

Stevens , James Brett , Julius Quitmann , R . H . Giraud , C . Belton , Fredk Adlard , VV . H . Goodall , Thomas W . Bush , Charles John Perceval , C . H . Webb , Chas . Daniel , Thos . Cubitt , A . H . Tattershall , G . L . Moore , James Terry , Secretary ; and E . C . Massey ( Freemason ) .

The minutes of the meeting of the ioth of February having been read and verified , Bro . TERRY reported the death of two annuitants and one candidate for election , viz ., Robert Watts , who had received £ 30 ; Mrs . Sarah Russell , who had received £ 215 ; and Mrs . Marsh , candidate . Bro . Terry also reported that Bro . Speers , another candidate , having obtained remunerative employment since his petition had been approved , had requested that his name might be taken off the list .

This being the last meeting before the next festival , a vote of thanks was passed to the Board of Stewards for their services and to General Brownrigg for consenting to preside . The Warden's report was submitted , referring amongst minor details to the entertaiment given at the Institution by Bro . Mullen , of Bradford , who had been highly appreciated .

The SECRETARY announced that 42 volumes of Punch had been received from Col . Creaton , their Chairman , for the use of the inmates of the Institution , and a vote of thanks for the gift was moved by Bro . R . W . Stewart and carried .

Copies of the completed lists of candidates were laid on the table consisting of the names of 50 male and 71 female candidates . With reference to these lists the C HAIRMAN said that before coming into the room he considered these lists carefully with Bro . Terry . There were 71 female

candidates and only five vacancies , and he thought they could very well put on seven more women and three deferred , which would raise the total of female candidates to 15 , but it must be well understood that the increased number would not be maintained if the donations fell off .

Bro . GEORGE BOLTON thought a larger increase in the numbers was possible , as their funded property was now considerable , and as they had obtained an increased grant of £ 800 a year from Grand Lodge , he proposed that there should be 20 additional candidates , i . e ., 10 men and 10 women . Bro . BRETT having seconded the motion , Bro . RAYNHAM STEWART deprecated any larger increase than that proposed by the Chairman .

The amendment on been put to the vote was lost , and the original motion was then put and carried . The CHAIRMAN said as regarded the men there were 50 candidates and only 12 vacancies ; and he now proposed to take eight more men and three deferred , and moved a resolution to that effect , which was carried .

The petitions of Bro . Thomas Jones , Mrs . Cooke , and Mrs . Cooley , which were deferred from last meeting for further information or attendance , were approved . A proposal from the Strolling Players' Amateur Dramatic Club to give an entertainment on the 7 th March for the benefit of the funds of the

Institution was declined with thanks , as , in the first place , the day named was the date for next Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge , and , in the next , it was expected that the Institution should be at the risk of the rent of the hall selected and for the payment of the band . Bro . CHAS . J PERCEVAL gave the following notice of motion :

That the following clause be inserted in and become one of the rules of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution . After rule 25 . "Every Vice-Patron upon completion of a further donation of 100 guineas to either fund , or partly to each fund , in one sum , or in sums of not less than ten guineas each , shall become a Patron of the Institution with twelve votes for every ten guineas subscribed . " There being no further business before the Committee a vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceedings .

HAND . —The hand plays an important part in our Masonic economy . It also had a symbolical meaning in many of the earlier oriental and later systems of religious or mysterious teaching ; and one popular expression of such has been the old representation of firmly clasped hands , significative of trust , union , friendship , firm and indissoluble . It has no particular Masonic

symbolism . The " Handbuch" says , and says truly , that the "handclasping of Freemasons by the right hand is meant to be a proof of their agreement and inner friendship as Freemasons , just as the common handshaking of the world is a token of personal acquaintance and friendship . — Kenning ' s Cyclofadia of Freemasonry .

Consecration Of The Strand Lodge, No. 1987.

CONSECRATION OF THE STRAND LODGE , No . 1987 .

On Wednesday afternoon Bro . Col . Shadwell H . Clerke , Grand Sec , consecrated a new Metropolitan lodge , styled the Strand Lodge , No . 1987 . The ceremony was performed at Ashley ' s Hotel , Covent Garden , in the presence of a large number of brethren , among whom were Bros . Gen . Laurie , G . M . Nova Scotia ; Major J . B . Hamilton , 1 S 70 , P . G . S . D .,

D . G . Supt . Bengal ; George Kenning , P . M . 192 , 1657 , P . G . D . Middx . ; J . H . iSillitoe , P . M . 6 45 , P . P . G . D . C . East Lancashire ; W . S . Hunter , P . M . 1 C 77 ; E . P . Albert , P . G . P . ; A . Hubbard , S 13 ; Alfred L . Annett , P . M ., P . Z . 1 S 0 ; A . Leon , 1 S 0 ; D . VV . Hudson , P . M . 1540 , P . G . D . C . Sussex ; H . ^ Dickey , A . W . S . 1744 ; David Morrin , P . M . | gi ; Fred . H . Cozens , Org . 907 ; J . H . Batly , P . M . 22 ; H . VV . Schartau

Org . 1549 ; E . Dalzell , J . D . 1549 ; A . P . Hobson , 14 ; Webster Denison , VV . M . 1541 ; H . Sadler , G . T ., P . M . 1950 ; T . D . Bellamy , 25 ; R . Watson , 1762 ; R . J . Martinneco , 1 5945 VV . Ponton , 1744 ; F . H . Clemowj l . P . M . 1 744 ; J . Maclean , W . M . 1319 ; J . Wood Ingram , VV . M . 373 ; J . Maddick , 71 ; Thomas John Hyland , W . M . 1744 ; H . C . Bloxam , 132 S ; J . Terry , P . M . 22 S ; Jas . Willing ( King ' s Cross Lodge ); A . N * Clemovv , and H . Massey , P . M . C 19 and 192 S , ( Freemason ) .

Bro . F . A . Philbrick , Q . C ., P . G . D ., Deputy Prov . Grand Master for Essex , acted as S . W . ; Bro . Robert Grey , P . G . D ., as J . W . ; Bro . the Rev . T- Studholme Brownrigg , P . G . C , as Chap . ; Bro . H . G . Buss , Asst , Grand Sec , as l . G . ; and Bro . Frank Richardson , P . G . D ., as D . C . The musical portion of the ceremony was performed by Bros . H . Schartau , Edvv , Dalzell , and A . Hubbard , under the direction of Bro . F . H . Cozens .

As soon as the lodge had been opened in the Three Degrees , Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE called the brethren ' s attention to the fact that they were honoured by the presence of the Grand Master of Nova Scotia , and he called on them to salute him as such .

This having been heartily done , Col . LAURIE thanked the brethren for the honour they had shown the Province of Nova Scotia through him . Colonel SHADWELL H . CLERKE then addressed the brethren and said that in former days—in the last century—the neighbourhood of Covent Garden was one of the chosen homes of English Freemasonry . In those

days there were several lodges meeting in that immediate neighbourhood , but time and circumstances had carried away those lodges ; some had died out , some had been transferred to other places , so that at the present moment there was no lodge in Covent Garden ; but some brethren whose business places or places of abode were not far from there had petitioned the Grand

Master for a warrant to meet as a lodge at Ashley's Hotel , and although as the brethren knew it was a very difficult matter in the present day to obtain a warrant when there were 320 lodges in the metropolitan district , yet when his Royal Highness heard the arguments of the petitioners he was pleased to grant the warrant which was asked for . They were met that day to

constitute the lodge , and it appeared that the Masons who were named to preside over it were well known and tried brethren in the Craft ; and the W . M . designate was one who had had great experience in the chair already , and he felt that in committing the warrant to the hands of these brethren they were doing a safe act . He then advised the brethren to be very careful as

to whom they initiated j not to run away with the idea of making a large lodge at once , but to enquire well into the charac ter and antecedents of candidates , as one black sheep tainted the whole flock . By exercising such caution they would build up the Strand Lodge a lodge that would be an ornament to the Craft .

Bro . the Rev . J . S . BROWNRIGG , M . A ., P . G . C , afterwards delivered the oration as follows ;—The consecration of a n ew lodge cannot fail to awaken in the mind of every zealous Mason thou ghts full of memory of the past—full of hope for the future . Within the compass of the few minutes to which I always restrict my orations , it is not possible for me to give you

even a faint outline of the past history of our Order . It is a fact held by us ., not merely in obedience to Masonic tradition , but because it is a matter of recorded history , that from lime immemorial our Order has always had a strong hold upon good and true men . There is probably no human society which can appeal to the past and show a page of history less sullied by

untrue and ignoble deeds . From the very earliest Masonic records preserved to us—the rude marks on some Eastern monolith—on to the records of early Christian times , when as we are told our Craft was a means of protection from the heathen ; on through the ages when architecture and ar reached their highest , down to our present time , we find recorded traces o '

our Craft on stones , in pictures , in manuscripts , and in books , and everywhere those records are such as to associate our Order with all that is holy , and noble , and pure . My brethren , believe me Masonic history is worth studying . I am afraid that there are many of our Order doing good Masonic work , who have never seriously studied the history of the past . I

admit it is a difficult study , difficult for several reasons , but chiefly because so much of the Masonic literature of the last generation , written with the best possible intention , was nevertheless , written by men who had not mastered the subject , and who consequently substituted their honest but mistaken speculations for the truth . I am glad that the race of Masonic

students is reviving , and that all records of / the past are now gradually coming under the ken of men who can and will present them to us in their true form . I am glad also that we are alive to the fact that we must have our Masonic museums , that we must preserve all visible representations of our past and present history . And here , my brethren , is a plain duty before us all . We must use the labours of those who can teach

us , we must learn how to search for and how to recognise , when found anything which either in the manuscripts , books , the architecture , or the jewellery of the past bears upon the history of our Craft . I do not of course expect that every brother will have either the time or ability to become an expert in this matter , but I do think it is not asking too much if I endeavour to enlist that sympathy and co-operation which you may show by keeping your eyes open as you go through life , mid watching for any records of the Masonic