Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

the Council has power to grant . ' Do you mean to tell me that if it was found necessary to spend " ^ 400 for repairs the Council has no power to do . it ? The C HAIRMAN : Of course they have . Bro . S CURRAH : For any purpose ? The C HAIRMAN : If notice has been given .

Bro . S CURRAH : I am not talking about notice being given , or not being . riven . I say the Council have the power . 0 The C HAIRMAN : The rule does not apply . Bro . SCURRAH : I am sorry to disagree with your ruling . I should like to test it on some future occasion . And , again , it is said by you that this law is clear . The C HAIRMAN : It is possible .

Bro . S CURRAH .- HOW is it then that wc had so much discussion on this point at our Council meeting when this question was brought up ? One boy was o-ranted ^ ' , and another wanted something for apprenticeship . I mean to say this , it is as much towards permanent provision if a boy is -iDPrenticed to give a boy a suit of clothes who has to go with a ragged suit

of clothes . I say it is as much for his benefit to give him a suit of clothes as to pay for his indentures . It is very hard to give one boy ^ 20 and refuse another who wants £ 5 for a suit of clothes . If the law is to be carried out in this way it ought to be abolished , but if it is not abolished it should be altered so as to enable the Council to give to a deserving boy any sum of money for his benefit .

Bro . G EORGE EVERETT , Grand Treasurer , said when he saw Bro . Scurrah ' s notice of motion he was in favour of it , because he thought there was some other rule by which the Council were able to do something for a deserving boy even if this Law Sg was expunged . But when Bro . Scurrah referred to Law 45 he ( Bro . Everett ) agreed with the Chairman that it did not apply . He agreed with what Bro . Scurrah

had said about the late action with regard to Rule 89 ; they were too strictly legal in the matter . They had several legal brethren on the Board of Management ; perhaps they had to congratulate themselves upon it ; but he thought they occasionally took too strictly legal a view of these things . Here was a woman who managed to apprentice a boy by means of scraping up all the money she could ; she tried to do all this without appealing to the

Institution , but having done that , andgot theboy apprenticed , shefoundshehad so impoverished herself that she could not get on , and then she asked the Institution to do something for her . The Council said—Oh , no ; they could not ; if she had come before apprenticing him , and it was a permanent provision for him to be . apprenticed , and she had not paid a sixpence herself , they could have voted her / 20 ; but if she had already apprenticed him they

could not do anything for her . It was hard that in one case ^ , 20 should be awarded , and in the other that nothing at all should be awarded . But he would be sorry to see this rule expunged , and he was going to make an appeal to Bro . Scurrah not to press his motion to-day . They might make some alteration in the rule , but to expunge it altogether he thought very undesirable indeed . If Bro . Scurrah pressed his motion , he ( Bro . Everett ) should vote against it .

Bro . GEORGE CORBLE thought the rule was quite wide enough to carry anything—whether to apprentice a boy or to buy a boy a suit of clothes . There were exceptions to all cases , but he thought they might leave the interpretation of the rule with safety in the hands of the Council . The CHAIRMAN said if Bro . Scurrah had put his motion in another form he should have supported it . He had come to the Court with the intention of voting for the abolition of the law . But as Bro . Scurrah had put it he

could see that the rule was satisfactory , when he had presided at the Council meeting he had never taken upon himself to say he was satisfied there was not a fair prospect of a boy obtaining by the aid of a gift the means of permanent provision ; he had always left it to the Council to say . He put to the Council two questions—Is the boy deserving'' If deserving , are you satisfied there is a fair prospect of his obtaining permanent provision ? The answer to the first might be yes , and to the second no . The rule was good enough . It might appear hard in some cases .

Bro . BOURNE said after the Chairman ' s argument he should withdraw his seconding of the motion . Ultimatel y Bro . Scurrah withdrew his motion . On the motion of Bvo . MASTERS , seconded by Bro . GEORGE EVERETT , the Court resolved , on the recommendation of the Council of Jul ) ' 4 th .-" 1 hat 19 boys be elected at the Quarterly Court on Friday , 9 th October , 1891 , from an approved list of 37 candidates . " A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the proceedings .

Stonehenge-Why Was It Built?

STONEHENGE-WHY WAS IT BUILT ?

Bro . H . R . Shaw , of Lodge No . 1 949 , has contributed the following Article to the Banner of Israel : A mysterious building is that of Stonehenge , one of the largest , and by ' ¦ 'tr ( he most accuratel y planned and best executed of the English so-called uruidical temples now remaining in existence . In the brief remarks now

proposed to be placed forward , it is not intended to discuss either the personality of the actual builder of Stonehenge , or the period of its erection , out rather , taking for granted the commonly accepted view that our Druidical ontish predecessors did erect the structure somewhere between the years 5 °° B . C . and 500 A . D ., to show that from the internal evidence of the stones

themselves in regard lo their position , shape , and dimensions , the builders "Hist indubitabl y have been Hebrews and Israelities , either emigrant or outcast fro m their native land , and who , whilst perhaps adhering outwardly to son , c fo '"' » of Baal worship , yet here sought to record their knowledge of ,

l Jcuuips repentance and turning towards , their Heavenly 1 'ather , the lu « Lord God of Israel , by expressing the hoi ) ' name Jehovah or Jah , as is jM oved to have been done by the architect of that other and more mysterious . " d"ig , the Great Pyramid in Egypt , in factors of inches such as are now use in this country and its dependencies , but not elsewhere . ie

writer has been led to these observations by a recent visit of inspecot the grim-looking and ruinous old stones standing near the centre of ; ur y Plain , upon a barren plateau that apparently has never known Wation , or given sustenance to anything like tree or bush ; followed by a erusal of a small book written by Mr . W . M . Flinders Petn ' c , and published

Stonehenge-Why Was It Built?

by Stanford , Charing Cross , 1880 , containing an account of his own survey . of the buildings just previously ; and more recently still , by noticing an account of a lecture delivered at the rooms of the Royal Society on June 17 th last , by Professor Norman Lockyer , from which it appears that

observations were intended to be made simultaneously upon Salisbury Plain and ' among the temples in Upper Egypt at the summer solstice , with a view" to show that these structures were oriented purposely to record the true length ' of the year by reference to the summer sunrise upon the longest day of the

year . With regard to this latter point , there can be no doubt that the building of Stonehenge was oriented for observation of the midsummer sunrise ; and as such does seem to savour rather more of Baal worship than of aught , else , for we have good authority for regarding this kind of astronomical observation as one of the most inexact that can be made—far inferior to that

of the Great Pyramid , whose astronomy was meridian , and at the greatest height possible above the horizon , and therefore , in princi ple , the most exact . But it will be perhaps desirable to describe Stonehenge , with its surroundings , before pointing out its Hebrew characteristics , and for this purpose , we cannot do better than turn to Mr . Petrie ' s book of plans and measurements ,

in which he declares that , whilst dealing with theoretical considerations of its date and origin , his object has been more to state facts than theories , and , indeed , he seems to have succeeded in doing this most impartially , leaving his readers to theorise for themselves . Stonehenge , then , which , according to Mr . Petrie ' s observations , was constructed at different periods , consists

first of a circular bank of earth , with a ditch surrounding the same , whose inner or smallest diameter is 3595 inches , and whose outer or largest diameter is 4495 inches . A couple of banks forming a straight avenue lead from this circle for a long distance in a direction pointing roughly to the midsummer sunrise . Upon this circular bank occurs a pair of tumuli , also a pair of

single stones , placed there , as Mr . P . says , contemporaneously with the large outer circle of Sarsen stones , which circle measures 1167-9 inches in diameter , which he recognises as 100 Roman feet , but . which it is pretty safe to declare , could not in the present state of dilapidation ' be distinguished from 1162-6 inches , equal to one-fifth the height of the

Great-Pyramid , and coincident with the 36 th course of that building , or 10 times the length of its ante-chamber , and , more important upon the present occasion , being expressive of the fact that the circle itself , at the rate of an inch for a day , counts for 10 solar years , or 3652-4 inches or days . It is important

to note that Mr . P . does not claim this circle to be Roman work because of these alleged Roman feet , since he says that this unit of ir 68 inches was the great Etrurian and Cyclopean unit originall y derived from Egypt ( as doubtless it must have been ) .

The workmanship of the stones being roughly and imperfectly executed precludes the attempt to discriminate anything like a unit of measure upon an individual stone , but of . the intention to make a solar year circle counted by inches , there seems to be little doubt , while the number of the upright stones , 30 , at once suggests the quinto-sextuple character of the name

of Israel ' s God , so often referred to in these pages . This outer circle of Sarsens is crowned with a series of lintel stones , which , when complete , must have been also 30 in number . They are fitted with mortises which drop upon tenons on the upri ght stones , and it is curious that Mr . Petrie gives the average distance apart of these tenons as 34-3 inches , or exactly the depth

of the Coffer in the Great Pyramid , whence , supposing these distances to have been designed as such , and not merely accidental , then the sum of the entire 30 spaces gives 1030 + inches , or ten times the length of the Great Pyramid Ante-chamber granite floor , or precisely the quantity required for squaring - this very circle by area instead of boundary .

Within this circle occurs another circle of smaller stones , called the outer bluestones , which are deficient in number , and which circle does not appear to have been completed ; the design , however , is clearly traceable , and the diameter , says Mr . P ., may be anything between 900 and 920 inches . So we may say very probably 913 + inches , or one quarter of the Sarsens

circumference , or one-tenth of the socket length of the Great Pyramid base . Within the bluestones occur the largest and most important stones , viz . ' , the trilithons , five in number , which . are not on a circle , and the scheme of whose placing is somewhat obscure . - As their designation implies , they consist each of three stones , two placed upright , and supporting an impost ;

their size is gigantic , rising from 20 to 24 feet from the ground to the tops of their imposts , the larg-est and most conspicuous being placed opposite to the doorway—that is to say , it was once so placed , but it is now wrecked , the impost and one of the uprights fallen to the ground , half burying the socalled altar-stone , while the other upright has become the picturesque

leaning-stone of the sketch-books . But it has been quite a labour of love with Mr . Petrie to estimate the ori ginal and precise position of this trilithon , and also its intended use , and he announces that the builder contemplated taking his stand upon midsummer morn just behind these stones , and looking between the uprights straight through the middle of the doorway , and over

the peak of the Friar ' s Heel Stone , some 3400 inches away , when he would , if he were of average height , with eyes about 65 inches above the ground be just in a position to mark the solstitial sunrise at about the period of 130 A . D . with a margin of error of 200 years more or less , for , as before observed , this method of astronomical observation is the least exact that could be devised .

But we are not intending to discuss the date of erection , but rather what passed in the inner mind of the master builder ; and even here we perceive ( as we think ) by Mr . Petrie ' s unconscious testimony , that an Israelite exile was turning his thoughts , if not exactly his eyes , towards - that pleasant land and its glorious temple , of which he had heard , or perchance may have seen . Or , even it may be , a son of Enhraim was

saying to himself , "What have I to do any more with idols ? I will arise , and go to my Father . " At any rate , whether he planned his circle with Roman feet or British inches , he made the entrance doorway , or object glass of his telescope , just of the width of two sacred cubits of the

lemple oi King Solomon , Ike , ike . ( 50 inches is Mr , Petrie ' s measure ) , while the slit between the uprights of his trilithon , which is about the same as the breadth of the peak of . the Heel Stone , was only 13 inches wide--that is to say b y Mr . Petrie ' s estimate , and since the stones in falling have slewed considerably , we are sure he would allow that this estimate mi ght admit of correction b y less than a quarter of an inch , or say 13-23 inches ,