Ad01103

T 7 IELD LANE INSTITUTIONS . REFUGES , RAGGED and INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS , CRECHE , YOUTHS' INSTITUTE , CHRISTIAN MISSION , & c . FUNDS URGENTLY NEEDED . FINANCIAL YEAR ENDS 31 st MARCH . £ 1 , 000 STILL REQUIRED to ENABLE the COMMITTEE to CLOSE the ACCOUNTS FREE OF DEBT . Bankers , Barclay & Co . ( Limi . ed ) . Treasurer—W . A . BEVAN , Esq ., 54 , Lombard-st ., E . C . Secretary—PEREGRINE PLATT , The Institution , Vine-street , Clerkenwell , E . C . ^^

Ad01105

GOLDSMID, WINE & SPIRIT MERCHANT , 76 , FINSBURY PAVEMENT , LONDON , E . C . PRICE LIST FREE ON APPLICATION . iKS-r SPECIAL OFFER . — Every tenth order from ' readers of the Freemason , a Box of Havana Cigars will be sent FREE .

Ad01104

OPIERS AND pOND'S OTORES ( NO TICKETS REQUIRED ) . QUEEN VICTORIA STREET , E . C . Opposite Blackfriars Station ( Dist . Ry . ) and St . Paul ' s Station ( L . C . and D . Ry . ) PRICE BOOK ( iooo pages , illustrated ) , free on application . FREE DELIVERY in Suburbs by our own Vans . LIBERAL TERMS FOR COUNTRY ORDERS . For full details see Price Book .

Ar01106

iEiSisss SATURDAY , MAY 19 , 1 9

Masonic Notes.

w nDasontc Vlotee .

No one ever doubted that the great function at Bushey , on Saturday , the 12 th instant , when H . R . H . the Duke of Connaught , K . G ., M . W . Past G . Master , acting on behalf of his brother , H . R . H . the Prince of

Wales , K . G ., M . W . G . Master and President , laid thc foundation stone of the new School premises now in course of erection for the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys , would prove a great success , and it affords is great pleasure to be able to announce that the

Masonic Notes.

general expectation was fully realised . The welcome to the Duke by the people of Watford , and by the brethren and their friends assembled on the site of the buildings , was most cordial ; the ceremony in which his Royal Highness was assisted by the Grand Officers passed off without the semblance of a hitch , while thc

luncheon and the speeches were in complete harmony with what had gone before . We are of opinion that it would have been a wiser , and certainly a more generous , policy , had the Board of Management made arrangements that would have allowed a greater

number of the brethren to witness so interesting and rare a ceremony , but this opinion cannot and does no lessen the gratification which all must feel at the brilliant success of the clay ' s proceedings . Those in charge did their duty well , and we congratulate them .

It is , perhaps , to bc regretted that the Secretary of the Insiitution did not figure on the occasion quite as prominently as usual . He appears to have been shunted from his pride ot place and to have had assigned to him the duties of a mere subordinate instead of those which rightly pertain to his exalted office . That be

performed the task which may have fallen to his lot as though" to the manner born , with that urbanity of manner and that kindly solicitude for everybody ' s comfort and convenience but his own , which have characterised him during his whole Secretarial career may be taken for granted . But he was not himself on

Saturday last and we regret it , No doubt , at Brighton , on the loth July , when the responsibility of carrying the Festival through will rest entirely on his shoulders , he will find compensation for this apparent neglect in the knowledge that , in American parlance , he will be the " boss of the show . "

» * * There are , doubtless , not a few of our readers who unite with us in regretting that the annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Staffordshire , which was held at Stone on the snd instant , could not have been postponed for a while . In that case the brethren ,

instead of indulging in the pleasure of hope , would have had the opportunity of rejoicing over the success of the Girls' School Festival , at which their respected chief , the Earl of Dartmouth , presided , and in respect of which they fulfilled their ; part as the " Chairman ' s Province " so admirably . However , there was abundant enthusiasm among those who attended the meeting .

and the Prov . Grand Master could hardly have been welcomed with greater cordiality had he presented himself fresh from the triumph of Wednesday . There was a full attendance of members and if we except the Foster-Gough Lodge , No . 2706 , which is composed of Installed Masters , every one of the lodges in the Province may be said to have had a direct share in the reception of Lord Dartmouth and his officers .

There was , indeed , good cause for the enthusiasm which prevailed . The Province , at no previous period in its career , was ever in a more prosperous condition than it is now . Its financial state is sound , it musters over 1800 subscribing members , or at the rate of about 57 per lodge ; and its Charitable Association has been

the means of rendering very important services to our Central Charities . Above all , the Prov . G . Master was able to announce that the numerous contingent of Stewards who had rallied to his support as Chairman of the then impending Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls had succeeded in raising lists of donations and subscriptions amounting in the

aggregate to upwards of £ 3000 . By way of showing its appreciation of this good news , the Prov . G . Lodge promptly voted a sum of 200 guineas to the School . Then the brethren dined together and enjoyed themselves . But how much greater would have bcen theii enjoyment had they been celebrating—instead ol looking forward to—a great success , and their stil higher total of upwards of , £ 4000 .

In the oration he delivered at the consecration of t he Lodge of the Three Pillars , No . 2806 , Cockington , on the Sth instant , Bro . W . ] . Hughan laid great stress on two of the most important features by which Freemasonry is distinguished . In the first place he insisted , very , properly , on the genuineness of what for the sake of convenience we will call our Masonic

antiquity , pointing out that long after it had bcen established as an organised body of Operative Masons it received into its lodges those whom we designate as Speculative Masons . Evidence of this will be found as far back as 1 G 00 in the minutes—commencing from I 5 yy and continued till now—of thc Lodge of Edinburgh , No . 1 . Other lodges in Scotland have their minutes preserved from the 17 th century , while recent

Masonic Notes.

discoveries have shown that in England there was a lodge established for speculative objects under the wing of the Masons' Company , from 1620-1 , and most of us have read of the lodge at Warrington , in

which Elias Ashmole and Colonel Mainwaring were made in 1646 . Thus the claim of our Society to have been in existence from a remote antiquity is a genuine one , and is put beyond question by the Constitutional Rolls that have been fortunately preserved to us .

« * The second point upon which Bro . Hughan insisted was the religious basis on which our Masonic system is founded . In its early days this religious basis was wholly Christian , but as the years rolled on it became , what it has ever since remained , unsectarian in its

character . As Bio . Hughan forcibly remarked" Freemasonry is impossible where a belief in God is not , and all societies , in France or elsewhere , termed Masonic , are so only in name , if they omit the necessary trust in an omnipresent , omniscient , and omnipotent Creator . Without such a necessary and absolutely

essential pre-requisite , the Fraternity would become an esmasculated nonenity , having a name , but dead . " Bro . Hughan has done good service by calling attention to the genuineness of our antiquity and the absolutely religious character of the basis on which the Fraternity

rest . The address must have been listened to with pleasure by the brethren who were privileged to hear it , and as it appeared in our columns last week , we feel confident it has secured an equal amount of attention from our readers . * * *

It is quite recently that Mark Masonry has established so firm a hold upon the affections of our West Yorkshire brethren . Hitherto the Province has been mainly Craft and Royal Arch , but sundry new Mark lodges having been founded within the past two or three years , and the Prov . G . Mark Master being a man of great energy , West Yorkshire has been taking

very kindly to the Order . There are now some 15 lodges on the roll , with an aggregate of 544 subscribing members , and the Province is not only in a sound condition financially , but has also been able to do some good service to the Mark Benevolent Fund , at one of the late Festivals of which Bro . C . Letch Mason , Prov . G . Master , occupied the chair . We trust this state of things may long continue .

» * # We most sincerely echo the expression of deep sympathy with Bro . T . B . Whytehead at the loss he has sustained by the death of his eldest son in one of the numerous actions recently fought in the Free State , to which the acting W . M . of Quatuor Coronati Lodge ,

No . 2076 , gave voice at its meeting on the 4 th instant . Bro . Whytehead is W . M . of the lodge , and but for this great bereavement would have been at his post , and delivered an address on " The Relics of the Grand Lodge at York , " a subject on which there are none more competent to throw light .

* * * The Report of the Proceedings of the District Grand Lodge of Bengal at its Quarterly Communication on the 27 th December ( St . John ' s Day ) last , which has just reached us , is far more interesting than such Reports ordinarily are . Not only does it give

the usual full particulars of the District , showing that it is prosperous , both financially and numerically , that its lodges are discharging their duties faithfully and zealously , and that its Educational Fund is doing its work successfully . It also records that the brethren attended Divine Service in the

Cathedral , the sermon being preached by the Bishop of Calcutta , Past Prov . Grand Chaplain of Middlesex , while among those who assembled at the Bishop ' s Palace and went thence in procession to the Cathedral were members of lodges of both the English and Scottish Constitutions , together with the Dist . Grand

Master of Bengal , and Lord Sandhurst , Pro District Grand Master of Bombay and Grand Master of All Scottish Freemasonry in India . The sermon , though biief , was a most eloquent one , and when a favourable opportunity presents itself , we shall publish it in full in our columns . » * »

At the meeting of the District Grand Lodge at Freemasons' Hall in the evening , Lord Sandhurst was honoured with a most cordial welcome , which he gracefully acknowledged in a short speech . In the course of the business that was transacted , the annual reports were presented and found to be most satisfactory . Two

sums of £ _ o each to the Lord Mayor ' s Transvaal War Fund—one in accordance with the recommendation of thc District Board of General Purposes , and the other on that of the District Fund of Benevolence—were voted unanimously . Bro . W . H . Fitze , P . G . D ., P . D . D . G . M . Dist . Grand Treasurer , having expressed a wish not to be re-elected to the last-named ollice , which he hacl

filled in all for 11 years , was unanimously voted by District Grand Lodge a complete suit of full-dress clothing as Past Grand Deacon of England , in recognition of his services aS Dist . G . Treasurer , and subscqucntly was again appointed Deputy District Grand Master , the other officers for the ensuing year being appointed and invested . The meeting was a great success in all respects .