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NOTICE

Many complaints having been received of the difficulty experienced in procuring the Freemason in the West-end , the publisher begs to append the following list , being a selected few of the appointed agents : — Black , IT . J ., 47 , Great Queen-street .

Jordan , G . W ., 169 , Strand . Kirby and Endean , 190 , Oxford-street . Nash and Teutcn , Savile Place , Conduit-street . Phillips , D ., 67 , Great Portland-street . Utting , Wm ., 2 , Palsgrave-place , Strand , And at W . H . Smith and Son ' s bookstalls .

To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The Freemason is a sixteen page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / . Brethren in foreign parts , wishing to have this newspaper sent them regularly from th ; office of publication , should , in sending their remittances , add to the 2 d . per week the postage on 2 oz . newspapers .

To Advertisers

TO ADVERTISERS

The Freemason has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . For terms , position , & c , apply to GEORGE KENNING , 198 , Fleet-st .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

All Communications , Advertisements , & c , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday

morning . Careful attention will be paid to all MSS . entrusted to the Editor , but he cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by stamped directed covers . The following communications unavoidably stand over :

"Bro . Buehan and his Constant Questionings ; " " Records of the Lodge of Industry , Gateshead ; " " Masonic Numismatics , " by Bro . W . J . Ilughan ; "Masonic Song , " Bro . G . M . Tweddell ; Freemasonry in India ; Report of Cleveland Lodge , No . ^ 4 ^ Stokcslcy .

Births, Marraiges And Deaths.

Births , Marraiges and Deaths .

MARRIAGE . SHAW . —PICKUP . —On the 9 II 1 inst ., at the Church of St . John the Divine , Fairfield , Liverpool , by the Rev . II . S . Maye , Vicar , Bro . James Shaw , General Superintendent of the London and North Western Railway Co ., Fairfield Grove , Lockerby Road , to Mrs . N . Pickup , of Springhill , Accrington .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , SEPT . 18 , 187 ( .

Possible Enlargement Of The Girls' School.

POSSIBLE ENLARGEMENT OF THE GIRLS' SCHOOL .

Bro . k . W . Little , the energetic Secretary of the Girls' School , in a speech which we published last week , alluded to the present position of the Girls' School . He stated that it now held 150 girls , but could not be enlarged , and was ' •' not capable of receiving a greater number of

children than it at present contained . " Neither was it possible , Uro . Little went on to say , "to purchase more land contiguous to the existing site , " and , " although the grounds were extensive , they were merely sufficient for the number of the children . " " It would therefore be

incumbent on the managers , " said Bro . Little in conclusion , " to lind land elsewhere to keep pace with the growing claims of the Craft , and a scheme would shortly be placed before the subscribers with that object . A notice of motion for the enlargement of the

establishment had already been given in committee by a member , Bro . Joshua Nunn , and in that shape the matter would come before the brethren . " They say " Tempus omnia monstrat , " so we must wait for some little space , before we hear what the exact proposal is , Bro .

Little ' s words are a little , not intentionally- enigmatical , as it is not quite clear whether the " land " to be found elsewhere was required for a new building altogether , or onl y for a supplementary institution . In the need for

accommodation , all will agree , the only question on which a good many may have something to say , is the whereand how . Itis possible that the present site might sell for sufficient to cover the purchase of a new one , and the building of a school , and if

Possible Enlargement Of The Girls' School.

so , the committee , in our opinion , if they can make a good bargain , would be fully justified in the step , on the ground of the exigencies of the Craft . But we feel bound to express our hope , that if such a step is taken , all caution and circumspection will be shown , so as not to make

the Royal Masonic Girls' School a petitioner to the Craft for a large sum for building purposes , nor to necessitate the sacrifice of all its funded capital . We have learned , as a bod }' , some experience from the contracts for the Boys' School , and such reminiscences render

us anxious , lest we should have similar difficulties to contend with again , though we have no doubt , but that Bro . Little and the House Committee will exercise every care , and practice every economy . We are ourselves quite convinced of the absolute need of an enlarged school ,

looking at our lists of applicants , but we think it right to offer a few friendly words of fraternal caution , as we know that just now for many reasons , the Craft is a little indisposed to re-commence large building transanctions . We have no doubt that when our

worthy Bro . Nunns motion is made , it will be found to be alike practical and business like , in entire keeping with that prudent and sensible management which has ever marked the onward progress of that most admirable Institution , our Girls' School .

Freemasonry In Recess.

FREEMASONRY IN RECESS .

Though the rule of " Recess , " as it may be termed , is not such a " Law of the Medes and Persians" in the provinces as in the metropolis , yet we may fairly say that nine-tenths of our London lodges , and a arge number of our provincial lodges are just now enjoying their

Masonic " Siesta , " a little relaxation after many and severe , labours . Lodges of instructionstillabound , as our notices evidence , but even they , we fancy , are marked by reduced attendances , for the season and the heat are both against the most eloquent explanation , the most lucid development of our

time-honoured ritual . On the whole we think the " Recess " is a good institution , and ever needful for the refreshing , the vitality of a lodge . Human nature is still human nature , and in these hot months to be pent up in close rooms , when we might be inhaling the reviving ozone , or

basking amid refreshing breezes , savours neither of Masonic wisdom nor profane hygeine . And the fact that our lodge is in recess , —the brethren scattered north , south , east , and west , the faithful Tyler with his wife and olive branches at Ramsgate , is after all only a foreshadowing of an

after reunion . ihat some of our friendl y " Caterva " are on the top of the Rhigi , some at Llandudno , some at Windermere , and some at Killarney , only points after all to the universality of Freemasonry , and is suggestive of a goodly muster again , when our admirable Secretary

summons his brethren to meet once more , and to open the Masonic season . After a short " retreat " we ardent members of the mystic tie return to the " charge " with the courage and discipline of Britons and Freemasons . The little pause in our Masonic toils has given us fresh breath and

new zeal . We hasten to put in an appearance , and to listen approvingly to well-known words we have heard not unfrequently before . We are not indisposed to take our wonted seat at the festive board . We enjoy a very good dinner , we greet some very old friends , we loudly applaud

the W . M ., and we do hearty honour to the Tyler ' s toast . Ours has been a pleasant hour , and flow of cheery gossip . Bro . Jones tells us how Brown and Robinson and himself have been to Norway , and heisfull of salmon fishing , and the" Fiords . " Higgins has come back from Kissingen quite

" rajeuni , and declares that " it has done him a world of good . " Tomkinson has been in Britanny , and is full of Britanny cows and butter , and that most romantic of districts . While old Horace Hill , P . M . and Treasurer , says , offering you his snuff box ( a very bad habit , sir , ) , " I

could not afford a foreign trip , so I took Emma and the little Hills to Sandgate , where they have been as merry as grigs . " And so the chat runs on , if a little disjointed at times , through whirling hours and cooling liquids , until coffee and liqueurs are ushered in , the lights of fuzees , and the

Freemasonry In Recess.

odours of the soothing weed . Well , life has many weaknesses and many follies , its sunshine and its storms , its greatness and" its bitterness , its smiles and its tears accompany us all along jts dusty and dirty high way , and we should not be mortal , and life would not be life without thesp

lights and suadows of the road . But despite the ridicule of the ignorant , notwithstanding the animadversions of the unjust , Masonic sociality is a good thing , and affords a very pleasant hour of alleviating companionship for many a weary and harassed brother . When our lodges meet again

after the recess , if we miss some honest heart , or some pleasant face , if the voice is hushed which once could delight , and the jest is ended which once could raise the honest smile , there will still rally round each W . M . a " band of brothers , " proud of their good old Order , loyal to its teaching , and tender-hearted and loving to one another .

Masonic Good Manners.

MASONIC GOOD MANNERS .

In old days it was customary to send our " young men of family " on what was called the " Grand Tour , " to polish up under a fitting companion some heir of many acres , or some hereditary legislator , and to give him a fashionable " tournure , " and " good manners . " Those

of us who have read Lord Chesterfield ' s Letters to his Son will remember how constantl y he tried to teach that uninteresting youth the same important characteristic , though , as we know , in vain . Still , the necessity of good manners is admitted by us all , and is inculcated forcibly by

Freemasonry . In its symbolical and often mystical language it would demonstrate to us the advantages of civilised over barbarous life , the reforming influences of the study of the arts and sciences , of moral culture and intellectual development over the rough mass of unpolished

and inert humanity . Hence , one of the great benefits of Freemasonry really and truly is , that it is in one sense a school of good manners , a very important educational institution , be it remembered , for us all alike . And there can be no reasonable doubt that , as Freemasons , we are

ourselves greatly improved by this much needed teaching in our lodge assemblies . The contrasts of rank and humble station , the severances of mere , earthly society , are all transfused , so to say , into the amalgam of the spiritual equality of Freemasonry . We meet all upon one level

within the lodge , as brethren one and all , having due regard to those necessary distinctions of rank and grade which , as in earthly society , constitute alike the safety and the welfare of us all . So that a Freemason ' s Lodge is an academy of good manners , as well as of sound morals and tolerant

teaching . It is strange , indeed , and somewhat saddening for us to realize what a struggle in all things now , physiological as well as personal , mental as well as material , the onward life of man is for us , the inhabitants of earth for a little season . One should have thought , a priori ,

that good manners and courteous address would be a self-evident duty and need for all human beings . But not so . The inborn selfishness of Ego comes in from the first development of precocious youth , to the last babblings of maundering old age , to taint and to mar all our relations

towards our fellow creatures . Nay , even more than this . There is a love of singularity , a tendency to idiosyncrasy , more or less in ail , which Ieadsus sometimes to the belief that" brusquerie " of manner , the unconciliating address , the

ungeniai tone , the assertion of superiority , the "hauteur" of ill suppressed selfishness , are not undesirable accompaniments of our rank , Masonic or profane , our position , our post , our standing in society . We actually , sometimes affect to think that such amiable traits raise us in the

eyes of our fellow creatures , and constitute us " swells , " laudable ambition , in the esteem of less flourishing compeers . Though all this be a mistake , it is a mistake we many of us daily and hourly make , forgetting good old Wy keham ' s immortal proverb , " Manners makyth

man . " Now Masonry teaches us from first to last the same goodly lesson . It would bid us repress the self-assertion of individual conceit , and the display of personal egotism . It would require us to look kindly , considerately , courteously on all . It would warn us against the