The Recent School Quarterly Courts.

votes to his credit when he started , and took second honours , with a total of 4 86 3 votes . It was his last chance , and his friends and supporters are to be congratulated on his success . The Oxfordshire candidate , who stood sixth on the list , was returned

as No . 6 on the poll , with 45 66 votes , of which 1426 were brought forward from two previous elections , ; ind as this was in his case also a lust chance , we congratulate his friends and supporters also on the result of their efforts . The Derbyshire youth

woo the fifth place with 4583 votes , and the Cornwall and North and East Yorkshire boys the third and fourth vacancies , with 47 8 9 and 4323 votes respectively . As for the unsuccessful candidates , all of whom , as we have previously stated , remain eligible

for admission , there were as many as 13 of them who polled over looo votes , and of these one obtained upwards ol 3000 and three upwards of 2000 votes . A London candidate headed the array with 3031 votes , the three next in order hailing from

London , London and Berkshire , and London , and polling 2885 , 2480 , and 219 S votes respectively . Then followed the Suffolk boy with 1955 voles ; another from London with I 93 6 votes ; the Argentine Republic candidate with 7807 voles ; two

London lads , with 1210 and 1124 votes respectively , the North Wales and South Wales ( W . D . ) candidate with 11 tfi votes , and those from Middlesex , Kent , and Essex , with 1032 , 1010 , and 1006 votes to their respective credits , another London boy

b ; ing only 20 votes behind with 9 86 votes . There were three of the candidates who obtained less than 100 votes , and of these the one from Devonshire was the very last with a total of seven votes . As regards the votes brought forward and polled , they

amounted in all to 97 , 631 , of which 17 , 050 ( including six added under Law 33 ) were under the former head and 80 . 581 under the latter . The total of the votes passed by the Scrutineers was 92 , 703 , so that the number of unused and spoilt votes ,

amounting together to 4928 , was lower than usual . Indeed , there must have been a good deal of whipping up of votes when those unused formed only about one-nineteenth part of the total available .

The Removal Of The Boys' School.

THE REMOVAL OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

' 1 here was a very full attendance of Governors and Subscribers al the Quarterly General Court of ihe Roval Masonic Institution for Bins , which was held in Freemasons' Tavern on

Friday , the glh inst ., Ihe number of those present being about 170 , while ' Ihe suggestion is most probable which Bro . ll . ARRY BEVIR hazarded in the course of the proceedings that a majority of the brethren hailed from the Provinces . It is notorious that

at election time the representatives of the numerous Associations which have been established in the Provinces for election and other purposes attend in order to secure , if possible , the success of the candidates whose interests they have been charged to look

after , and , as on this occasion , the contest was an exceptionally keen one , it is most likel y that more rather than fewer than usual of such representatives were in the hall during the transaction of the business included in the agenda . Be this as it

may , the discussion which followed the announcement made by Bro . RICHARD EYF ., on behalf of the Board of Managementthat a provisional purchase had been made of a suitable property at Bushey , near Watford , in the county of Herts—was a prolonged

one , as will have , been seen from the very full report we published in the supplement to our last week ' s issue . But , though it has been our good—or as some may think our ill—fortune to listen patiently to many a prolonged discussion , we have rarely , if ever ,

listened Io one- in which the arguments were more completely one-sided and more conclusive in favour of that one particular side of the question . It seems to have been generall y conceded that the removal of the School from its present

site , considering the nature of the soil on which it has been erected and the overcrowded state of the surrounding neighbourhood , was eminently desirable—if , indeed , we may not go a step further , and describe it as imperative . It-was

likewise shown in the Reports which the Board of Management had obtained , as regards the geological formation of the land proposed to be purchased , from an eminent geologist , and as

regards its general character and value , from a well-known firm of surveyors at Watford , that the land was in all respects suitable for the purposes for which it is required . Under these

The Removal Of The Boys' School.

circumstances , perhaps , it is not surprising that the objections raised by the opponents of removal were—we trust we shall not mortally offend them by so describing them—of the flimsiest kind , and were met promptly and with marvellous facility and success by the Board of Management and their supporters .

Thus Bro . Cl ' . VHKRLANl ) , while " not objecting to what the Board had done , " complained that Bro . EYK , the . Chairman of the Board , had not kept faith with the Governors and Subscribers . He ( Bro . Evi ' . ) had promised " that nothing should be

done" before they " were consulted . " Yet something had been done , and the Subscribers had not been consulted . Bro . EYK rejoined that he " remembered very well saying that nothing ' conclusive ' would be done without consultinir the Subscribers . ' '

Well , nothing " conclusive " had been done , and if the Court so decided , the provisional contract to purchase would fall through on payment of the forfeit of / , 200 as arranged with Ihe owner of the property . Bro . C 11 KKTHA . M , speaking in behalf of his Province of East Lancashire , uttered a somewhat similar

complaint , but he had hardly done so , when he proceeded to make the very damaging admission that the Subscribers " had been consulted in one sense , " while later still , he affirmed that " if an intimation had been sent to every Life Governor and Subscriber as to whether that School should

be removed he questioned very much whether they would have had any dissentients at all . " Bro . HARRY BEVIR , of Wiltshire , in reply , pointed out that the Provinces had an equal representation with London on the Board of Management ; that it was "' not the fact " that the said Board was " in any sense dominated

by the London brethren ;' ' and he expressed it as his opinion that the proposal " was carefully discussed and considered with the express co-operation of the Provinces . " Bro . W . C . LuPTON , of West Yorkshire , remarked " that the brethren were dissatisfied that they had not had confidence placed in them ; "

but was promptly met by Bro . JOHN GLASS with the telling reminder that West Yorkshire was represented on the Board of Management by Bro . SMITHSON , who was one of its most active members , " was in favour of the scheme , " and had given them

his " most hearty co-operation . " We gather , indeed , from the general tenour of the statements made by the opposition that everybody would have welcomed with enthusiasm the proposal to remove the School but for the " want of confidence " trick

which the Board of Management had p layed them ; in oilier words , if the Board bad divulged just those important particulars which , in the interests of the Institution , lliey were in honour bound to keep a profound secret until some sort ol agreement had been arrived at as to the land to be purchased ,

and some sort of provisional contract entered into with tin * owner of the land it was proposed to purchase . No wonder that only nine hands were held up in opposition to the resolution , as proposed by Bro . W . II . SPAUI . L , of Shropshire , approving

the action the Board had taken for the removal of the School , and that the Chairman , who had kept an open mind until the discussion was ended , expressed it as his opinion that the arguments adduced in favour of Ihe Board ' s action fully justified them in the course they had pursued .

We shall have occasion to refer to the subject at even greater length next week . In the meantime we invite the careful attention of our readers to the documents which will be found elsewhere in our columns , and which comprise a plan of the estate which the Board , with the approval of the Quarterly General

Court , has purchased ; the reports of the experts as to uie geological formation of the property , and its suitability for the purposes for which it is required , and its- other merits as to roads , i . roximity of water and gas supply , & c . ; a letter fn ""

Bro . BOUENHAM , P . A . G . D . C , President of the Stallonlsnin Charity Association , and lately a member of the Board 0 Management , addressed to the Secretary of the Institution ; and a second letter from Bro . Jabez Hogg , P . G . D ., Hon . Surgeon Oculist to the Institution , to the Chairman of the Board ol Management .

Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR GIRLS .

Miss Davis desires to express her grateful thanks to the Masonic . o « i generally for their generous recognition of her 35 years' work among them . Head Governess of their Girls' School . . She also takes this opportunity of thanking those numerous friends contributed to her parting presentation ,