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NOTICE . THE HOLIDAYS . —Brethren leaving town for the holidays can have the Fi-eemason forwarded to any new address on communicating with the Publisher . Non-Subscribers can have copies forwarded for two or more weeks on receipt of postage stamps at the rate of aid per copy .

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TO OUR READERS . Tne FREEMASON is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual nbscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / 6 . P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the Chief Office , London .

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TO ADVERTISERS . The FREEMASON lias a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can heref ore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion in current week ' s issue should reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FRKKMASON , may be addressed to the Oflice , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason " to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in

advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfound , land , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United States of America , & o .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

ENcumER ( PooKAii ) . — 1 . We know nothing of the book alluded to , and are quite sure that it is not authorized in any way by the Emulation Lodge . 2 . The " Charges " are , as a rule , optional , though in the opinion of thc Editor , they ought to be delivered . 3 . The Custom is irregular the proceeding ought only to be resorted to for convenience sake . 4 . Ves . "Deutcher Gemutlich Fieimaucrci" in our next .

BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " Eight years a Blue Coat Boy ; " " Victoria Cross in the Crimea ; " " Keystone ; " " Library Committee of Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania j" " The Hebrew Leader ; " " Aus . tralian Freemason j" " New York Dispatch ; " "

Canadian Craftsman ; " "Church of England Pulpit j" "Medical Examiner ; " ' Masonic Record for Western India * , " " Hajnal ; " " Risorgimento ; " ' Masonic Herald . " " The Death cf Saul * , '' " Industry and Idleness . " [ Reviews of these two hooks in our next impression . ]

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements , not exceed , ing four lines , under this heading . ] BIRTHS . ANSELL . —Cn the 14 th inst ., the wife of Mr . W . T . H , Ansell , of a son . CRBSSWELL . —On the nth inst ., at Pinkney-park , Malmesbury , the wife of C E . Cresswell , of a daughter .

MARRIAGES . HAYLES—IKIN . —On the 9 th inst ., at Holy Trinity , Tulse-hill , by the Rev . M . Campbell , Charles , the youngest son of ths late Benjamin Hayles , to Jane Louisa , only daughter of the late John Alfred Ikin C . E .

DEATHS . COBB . —On the 14 th inst ., at Copton Manor House , Faversham , Isabella Cobb , eldest daughter of the late John Wildash , of Wye , Kent . KIBBLE . —On the 9 th inst ., at East Cowes , Isle of Wight ,

Bro . W . Kibble , of Graccchurch-street and Brixton-road , aged 5 8 . MASSEY . —On the 13 th inst ., Bro . John Daniel Massey , of 41 , Highbury New Park ( of disease of the heart ) . Friends will kindl y accept this intimation .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , AUGUST 18 , 1877 .

The Boys' School.

THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

We are very glad to note and to record that the governing authorities of the Boys' School have determined , at a special court on the aoth ult ., to recommend the increase of the school by thirty-two boys , at a cost of . £ 3000 . This is a proposition so reasonable , and , as we hold ,

so needful , that we do not think any controversy can arise about it . Had the enlarged scheme for 120 boys been persevered in , and , above all , the very objectionable plan of concentrating a preparatory and higher school in the same building , the friends of education would have had a good

deal to say in opposition to a scheme which antagonizes every known principle of scholastic arrangements . In our opinion the present limited augmentation is absolutely demanded by the numerous claims now on the school , and is a step completely in the right direction . It

probably will suffice for about two years , when humanly speaking , in all probability , we shall have to make up our minds to an enlargement to , 300 on a permanent basis . Be this as it may , we feel bound to express our hope and expectation that this reasonable

proposal of the executive will be unanimously supported by the subscribers , as both imperatively demanded b y the wants of our Order , and the best interests of the school itself . In all probability the alterations can be made so as to allow of subsequent

needful additions , in order to bring up the numbers to 300 . The question of a preparatory school may safely be left to the progress of time and the yearly increasing demands for admission . It is only postponed " pro tem , " not adjourned "sine die ; " in fact , at present , we venture to think , as we said before , that it is hardly opportune or re

quired , and that many insurmountable objections exist to a scheme hardly sufficiently digested to encounter hostile criticism , or to supply any proved requirement . It is to us , as we said before , a mere question of time , and one involved almost necessarily eventually in the growing necessities of the Order and the School .

The Report On Christ's Hospital.

THE REPORT ON CHRIST'S HOSPITAL .

The report published on Saturday happily exculpates entirely the authorities of this great School , as we felt sure it would from the first , from any blame or responsibility in respect of the death of the unfortunate boy Gibbs . Many of us , who are aware of the eminent services of

the Treasurer , Bro . J . Derby Allcroft , of the zealous efforts of the present Head Master , Bro . Lee , as well as the high character of the Warden , Bro . Major Brackenbury , were perfectly convinced from the first outbreak of a sensational panic , that to no more able or painstaking rulers

could the administration of any school be possibl y committed , and we most sincerel y rejoice to know , to-day , that their arduous labours are full y appreciated , and their high character satisfactorily upheld by the recent commission of enquiry . Our worthy and able Bro . Dr . Brette

to whom a somewhat slighting allusion was made in an article in The Times , by one evidently ignorant of the facts of the case , on which he thought fit to dogmatize , has since , we are informed , received , at the private speech day , 3

remarkable ovation from the boys themselvesthe best reply to such remarks , and most justly merited by himself . We trust now that all those excited writers , many of them masters themselves , who wrote inveighing against the old school , will see the error of

their ways , and learn to be more tolerant , asd more truthful , and more just , to those upon whose shoulders a great responsibilityrests . With respect to suggested reforms and changes ,

we do not feel ourselves to be competent to comment upon them . But we feel bound to say this , in the interest of one of the greyest of our educational institutions , tbat all delations from the old established system should be care-.

The Report On Christ's Hospital.

fully weighed , and cautiously elaborated . Th governing system of Christ ' s Hospital may ap pear to be somewhat too complex ; the distribn " tion of responsibility may be too widel y diffused in some instances , too much concentrated in others ; but a great deal may be advanced on tj >

other hand , against that excess of independent action on the part of co-equal authorities , fashionable just now , and in which , ( we mast confess this much ) , we do not believe at all . p as we do not accept the " absolute wisdom " f our ancestors , neither do we trust in the " lltl ,

limited infallibility" of our contemporaries Much that we are doing now , especially schnlas ! tically , is only experimental at the best , and tentative , and it is just possible that our descendants may think us as much behind the age , as we often profess loudly to believe our

ancestors to have been . The one point , hoyvever to be considered , is the welfare of Christ ' s Hospital in its actual and active relation to the great and useful end of education of those who nestle within its venerable walls , and we fe *[

certain ourselves that its present and future condition of efficiency and importance to all concerned , are perfectly safe in the hands of those who control its destinies , and skilfully conduct its administration .

The Atrocities Of War.

THE ATROCITIES OF WAR .

We shall all have been deeply pained with the accounts of atrocities which mark the present untoward warfare in the East , and deplore them deeply , in the ever sacred interests of humanity and civilization . The greatest evil of war , qua war , is the fact of the evil passions which it

anpears to release . like the winds of jEolus from all restraint the hateful brutality of poor human nature , to which it serves to give full play . All war is , no doubt , a record of dismal cruelties and mournful horrors , lightened up only by deeds

of chivalrous daring and heroic courage , and when we have stripped from the history of internecine struggles , their gglory and their blazon , we have for the most part very little left behind indeed , except that stern and terrible tale which war ever tells to ns all . For what does

war disclose ? we ask to-day ( and wc are not " peace at any price" men under any circumstances ) , but rapine , cruelty , wrong , and outrage > What do the annals of war attest but acts and results at which humanity shudders , and memory grows pale ? The greatest of soldiers , the

Duke of Wellington , always deprecated , as we know , the mournful catastrophe of war , and no one was a more sincere friend to peace , He once said in the House of Lords in most impressive words , that no one who had participated in the scenes and consequences of war would

desire to inflict them on any country in the world . We therefore never like to hear persons glibly talking , as we often do , to-day , ( the windbag or the impostor of the hour ) , of " war as a necessity , " of " war as advisable , " of war as a " tertium quid , " for we are well assured

that in war all the glittering and rejoicing side of the pageantry of armies is soon lost in fell horrors and in dark deeds . The shouts of an applauding multitude , the echo of military bands , the strains of the drums and fifes , and the gallant march of thousands of brave and

men , are too soon exchanged for the groans agonies of the dying , piles of silent and shattered corpses , thc destruction of the labours of the industrious , the outrages of license , the unmerited sufferings of the weak , the help less , and the innocent . War means always ,

rememberdear Bro . Bunkum , a ruthless annihilation of all we hold most near and dear in family and personal life , the ruin of peaceiu progress , the destruction of commerce and ag rl ' culture , in fact the very counterpart to all tha contributes to the happiness of families , the wei

being of society , and the progress and prosperity of mankind . When then a war has broken out , as in the present case , when relig ious P assl ° and national antipathies are roused to the utte r - most on both sides , we must expect , we fear , 1 UU-3 * . Wll Ul / Ul £ > lUO 0 j W f UIMJI , ¦* - *» . j *— — -j r

hear of war ' s most disastrous results , deed , it is not at all impossible but th p may receive reports of a more widespreatl P valence of all these direful animosities wnicn apparently be only quenched in mutual exte