Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 243 Moveable Grand Mark Lodge at York 244 Consecration of the University of London Lodge , No . 2033 244 History of the Royal Masonic Institution lor tmiinueu

uoys ^ ] * -t " Consecration of the Beaumont Lodge , No . 2033 , at Kirkburton 247 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of . Leicestershire , Northants , and Derbyshire 247 . The Pope ' s Encyclical Letter— " Dc Secta Massonuin . " 247 Scotland 247

CORRESPONDENCERc-Numberiwr of Lodges 249 The Hughan Testimonial Fund 249 The Late Michael Thomas Bass , M . P .... 349 Reviews 249 Notes and Queries 250

Gould ' s History of Freemasonry . Vol . III . 230 REPORTS OF MASONIC MKKTINOSCraft Masonry 25 c Instruction 251 Royal Arch 231 Masonic and General Tidings 252 The Theatres 232 i Lodge Meetings for Next Week ... Page 3 Cover .

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THE Girls' School Festival will soon be here now , and . we desiderate for it earnestly all success . We hope to see a number of new Stewards , all , like older friends and supporters , proud of the School , and earnest-hearted in its thorough maintenance and efficiency . If there are any who affect to doubt whether their labour is thrown away or their money well-spent , let them pay a visit at once to Wandsworth-common , and we feel convinced they will

experience the pleasure all must feel on witnessing the happy appearance of the inmates , and notice the thorough order , reality , and efficiency of the School . Too much praise cannot bo really accorded cither to its scholastic existence or its economical management . We understand that more Stewards are anxiously asked for , and we hope that even at the eleventh hour some good brethren of ours will make up their minds to act as Stewards for the Girls' School at the Festival of 1884 .

# * # IN consequence of the great success attending the last Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , we understand that a further addition of Candidates to be elected will be made at the annual meeting . Ten extra Candidates had been already arranged to be elected , and we feel sure that this further addition will give great satisfaction to the Subscribers , be a great help to many suffering Candidates , and much enhance the benefits and merits of this most excellent Institution .

m t BEFORE we again greet our readers the Elections for the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution will have once more passed over , and , while the hopes hopes of many anxious applicants will have been fulfilled , the claims of many disappointed candidates must perforce stand over until another year . It is we think to be much wished , as the list is we fear likely to increase ,

that this matter of the great margin of disappointment and retardation which we witness every year , may in some way , or by some means , be lessened materially before another year comes round . Suffice it to say , that the claims of the large numbers of those wc cannot help to obtain our very helpful annuities are alike very pressing and worthy of regard by the intelligent and the warmhearted of our Craft .

# * WE hope our readers will carefully note the remarks we felt it to be our duty last week to make as regards an inconvenient habit of some brethren of sending in their names as Stewards for a Charity and then declining to act , or rather withdrawing such names at a later period . Wc can of course understand that there may be cases where such a course is rendered

necessary , and is not unreasonable in itself . But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that this course of procedure , alike in our humble opinion inconsiderate and undignified , is on the increase amongst us . We have heard so many as 20 cases mentioned , and must beg once for all to repeat that such seems to us trifling with the Secretaries and discreditable to the lodges from which these brethren hail . The Stewardship is a voluntary affair , and ought always to be entered upon in a hearty and Masonic

spirit . To put your name down ostentatiously and then withdraw it without any good reason alleged , is not only productive of great inconvenience in the offices of our Secretariat for the Charities , but is most unfair to the Charities , and the other Stewards . We hope we have heard the last of such singular proceedings , to say the least of them , as we feel sure that our readers will concur in our animadversion on , and condemnation of , such an unprecedented and unbefitting state of affairs .

# * # THE London University Lodge was consecrated on Wednesday last , at Freemasons' Hall , by the Pro GRAND MASTER . It begins its career under the most favourable auspices , and judging from the high character of its first members , all of whom are no less eminent in public life than in Masonry , we are safe in predicting for it a useful and honourable career .

«* # WITH respect of the last " Encyclical , " a translation of which we publish elsewhere , we might say a good deal , but we think it better for many reasons to confine our remarks to what seems absolutely essential to note and animadvert upon . The Freemason by no means ever encourages mere

controversy or polemical discussions , even when as usual our Masonic Body is the object of unfair and virulent attack . We are inclined to agree with our contemporary "La Paix , " as quoted in " Le Chaine D ' Union , " which says , in our opinion very opportunely and appropriately , " If the SUPREME P ONTIFF had really thought that the hour had come to re-edit on his part against the Freemasons of all countries the anathemata and

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condemnations already pronounced against them by his predecessors , we must admit that he transports us , without our rightly knowing wherefore , several ages in retrogression . That in former times the POPES may have seen in Freemasonry a society somewhat dangerous for their authority wo do not dispute . There might have been something to say on account of tho

alarm felt by the Roman Catholic Church in this respect then ; but all that is now historical , and we need not trouble ourselves with it to-driy . That which interests us is the situation of contemporary society . Is LEO XIII . quite sure that the Encyclical in question will not appear , we do not say puerile , but at the least very singular even to the most moderate views of this

epoch ? To say to-day , at the end of the nineteenth century , that Freemasonry is a Satanical society , that it pursues often a dark and diabolical work ; that its affiliated members are children of the evil one , that their end is to upset society and place in antagonism princes and peoples , and that thev meet together in fantastic localities to carry out mysterious ceremonies ,

is to reckon too much on the ignorance and credulity of men . ' LEO XIII . is assuredly not ignorant of the fact that Freemasonry could cite amongst its adherents in the course of this age ¦ a certain number of men who did not pass as disorderly persons , or enemies of the public weal . We would mention BEURYER , LOUIS XVIIL ,

CHARLES X ., LEOPOLD L , Baron ROTHSCHILD , the Prince of WALES , and many more . " These remarks are from a French point of view alone , and are both fair and moderate , and the writer may be right when he goes on to say that LEO XIII . has simply been using this Masonic craze for another end , namely , to attack the Italian Government , which tolerates the

Freemasons in Italy , and also to cover a fresh appeal in favour of the ternporal power . Whether our contemporary be right or wrong in his hypothesis matters nothing to us . We will only add that such an attack against Anglo-Saxon Masonry , which numbers in . its ranks some hundred thousands of the most orderly , respectful , and religiously-minded members of society , is both a paradox and a perversity . Wc almost hear the echoes of tho "

mandcment" of that wise , far-seeing Archbishop of MALINES , who , in a moment of ecstatic ardour and intense charity , excommunicated all Freemasons in Belgium , present and future , " en bloc , " to use his own touching words , in tlio mass , without enquiry and without a judgment ; simply proclaimed them , as LEO XIII . practically does , outside the laws of religion , legality , and society , Poor Freemasons ! Arc they any the worse ? Wc pause for a reply ,

WE shall in our next number call attention to some rcmarkablo points con * nee ted with vivacious attacks on Freemasonry carried on by tho " Parti Pretrc" in France , and to some admirable remarks of our confrorc Bro , HUBERT , of Paris , on the subject , '

* * THE proceedings at Peterborough passed off most satisfactorily , without a hitch and without a drawback . As usual , wherever our distinguished PRO GRAND MASTER presides , he seems to lend vitality to the ceremonies and dignity to the occasion . His remarks were most effective and opportune ,

and we rejoice to see our venerable Order taking so distinguished a position as before the " elite" of the county , and an abnormally numerous gathering of our fellow-citizens . The work itself is a thorougly good work , and we should be glad even to sec a Masonic- movement initiated amongst us to send to the learned and esteemed Dean of PETERHOROUGH some little proof

of our deep Masonic sympathy with all such needful and religious acts , and that , despite the thunders of the Vatican , wc poor Freemasons arc not the savages , or heathens , or infidels , or iconoclasts , or children of SATAN the Papal Scribe so courteously , so vituperatively , and so freely terms us . There can be little doubt but that our great cathedrals were built by the mombers of

" Le Logo Latomorum " working in the Minster yard ; and there can be no reason why we , their speculative descendants , should not in our humble mea » sure aid in restoring those " houses of GOD in our land , " which appeal so forcibly to us as " Cultores Dei , " as well as nineteenth century " Latomi j " as sympathetic adherents to the " Royal art , " and as admirers of all that is comely , graceful , aesthetic , and reverential in the wortd .

ONE of the most successful assemblies in the provinces of the Mark Grand Lodge was held in York on Friday , the 9 th inst . The attendance was numerous and influential , the arrangements were well conceived and executed , and the efforts subsequently made to interest and amuse the

Masonic visitors and their friends proved the most successful . Lord HENNIKER , the Grand Master , presided over the Grand Lodge , and R . W . Bro . J . W . WOODALL was in the chair on the opening of the Provincial Grand Lodge . The arrangements made by the local authorities , through the able exertions of Bros . WHYTEHEAD and CUMBERLAND , were all that

could be desired , and used as Bro . WHYTEHEAD , the Prov . Grand Secretary , has been to conduct many similar meetings , the success is not to be wondered at . Bro . R . BERRIDGE , Past G . M . O ., was a most efficient Grand Dirctor of Ceremonies , and contributed much b y his skilful management , with Bro . BINCKES , P . G . W ., the Grand Secretary , to render the moveable Grand Lodge at York , one of the most remarkable of the series .