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IMPORTANT NOTICE .

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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 , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / - P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the chief office , London .

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 GEOROE KENNING , 198 , Fleet-st .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

AU Communications , Advertisements , & c ., intended for insertion in the Nurobei of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later tnan 12 o ' clock on Wednesday morning . J VIALLS . —Will Bro . John Vialls favour the Editor with a copy of his communication of March last . ADCOCK , THOS . —Thc " Freemason " has left the office regularly every week . If you will advise thc dates of thc copies you are short of , duplicates shall be sent you by

. EBORACUM LOU OK . —We are glad to publish elsewhere a printed slip sent us from York , with reference to the open ing of a new lodge in that ancient town .

Births, Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d for announcements , not exceeding four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . AITKEN . —On the 5 th inst ., at Crirff-villas , Beddingtoncorncr , the wife of R . C . Aitken , ofa daughter . LEVJCK . —On the 2 nd inst ., the wife of H . Lcvick , Esq ., Suez , Egypt , of a son . RUSSELL . — -On the 12 th inst ., at Harley-street , W ., the

wife of C . Russell , Esq ., Q . C , of a son . SENIOR . —On the 12 th inst ., at Ebor Lodge , Stoke Newington , the wife of A , H . P . Senior , of a daughter . SMITH . —On thc 12 th inst ., at Knoll House , Cleethorne , Great Grimsby , the wife of Captain E , Smith , of a daughter .

MARRIAGES . PYMAN—SUTCLIFFE . —ioth , at Stallingboro' parish church , by the Rev . James Garvey , assisted by the Rev . J . II . Bacon , James , third son of Mr . Pyman , The Willows , Hartlepool , to Emily , third daughter of Bro . John Sutcliffe , Stalligboro' House , Lincolnshire . ARCHER—GOOCH . —On the 12 th inst ., at St . Luke ' s , New

Kentish Town , by the Rev . C . H . Andrews , Frederick John , only son of John Archer , late of Pitfield-street . London , to Alice Jane , eldest daughter of the late Edwd , Gocch , Spalding , Lincolnshire . BERRY—BERRIDGE . —On the 10 th inst ., at St . Martin ' s , Leicester , Anthony Berry , of Wilberforce-road , N ., to

Kate , daughter of the late R . S . Berridge , M . R . C . S ., of Melton Mowbray . WORRELL—DUVAL . —On the 10 th inst , at S . Gabriel's Church , Warwick-square , S . W ., by the Rev . H . J . Fase , M . A ., Bro . William Worrell , P . M ., and P . Z . 766 , of Brixton , and 18 , Newgate-street , E . G ., to Marie Duval , of the Royal Academy of Music .

DEATHS . ASTON . —On the 10 th inst ., at Rothesay , William Smart Aston , aged 43 . BURGESS . —On the 7 th inst ., at Guernsey , Richard Rose Burgess , formerly of Stokesley , Yorkshire , aged 61 . CARTER . —On the nth inst ., at West-hill , Wandsworth , Edward Carter , aged 57 . Interred at Barnes Cemetery , Aug . 16 .

FRANCATBLLI . —On the 10 th inst ., at Eastbourne , Charles Elme * Francatelli , aged 71 , late manager of the Freemasons' Tavern . SUMNER . —On the 14 th inst ., at 81 , St . Thomas-road , South Hackney , E ., Elizabeth Mary , the beloved wife of the Rev . Joseph Sumner , in the 43 rd year of her age . WILKINSON . —On the nth inst ., tbe Rev . T . Wilkinson , rector of Market Weston , Suffolk , aged 74 ,

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , AUGUST 19 , 1876 .

Church Restoration.

CHURCH RESTORATION .

The restoration of Chester Cathedral seems to have been good work , well done . A very considerable sum has been judiciously expended on vast and long needed repairs to that venerable structure , and all classes and all persons seem liberally to have aided and largely to have

contributed towards the required extensive outlay . Our brethren , alike in the provinces of Cheshire and West Lancashire , have also made offerings of considerable value to the great common end , and have shown us to-day , yve venture to think , alike a commendable love of ecclesiastical

architecture , and a true conception of the real spirit in which Freemasons should view all such proper efforts of church restoration . For , curiously enough , it is a fact , which we should never forget , that the history of Freemasonry in this country is bound up with the building art , in

connexion too with church architecture ,- and that the works of our operative forefathers are to be found on every old stone of Chester Cathedral itself , just as they are to be traced on those noble buildings in England , up and down the land , which tell of the piety and sacrifices of other

generations , and record in unerring language the skill and the unity of design and labour which marked the mediaeval Freemasons . Yet , curiously enough , to some of us this fact and this truth do not appear either welcome or agreeable . They will accept any theory rather than

that which links oa the Speculative Grand Lodge of 1717 to the operative guilds , they will put forward any suggestion rather than be compelled to accept such a conclusion . Political or religious , knightl y or hermetic , the sublimation of moonshine or the reductio ad absurdum , it ' s

all " ane to Dandle , and it is exactly the same to them . They will have something , as they think , higher , more respectable , more gentlemanly . They will even accept the " social theory , " the most childish of all ; but to be actually connected with those , who wore bona-fide leather aprons .

carried the , hod , chipped the stone , and laid on the mortar and cement , they cannot and will not tolerate . Yet the remorseless criticism of history , the irrepressible certainty of evidence , are both forcing upon all Masonic students this dilemma . "You have before your eyes the account

of those Masonic guilds whose constitutions , whose legends are your own . You have indicia : accumulating now rapidly of the existence of Freemasons long before 1717 ; either then you must accept the guild theory as the most probable and reasonable account of the history and

progress of Freemasonry , or you must find another explanation of its life and doings on the simple law of cause and effect , " And though some have boldly faced the dilemma , and substituted a theory of their own for that which reasonable argument would suggest ,

and distinct evidence would affirm , yet it is impossible to doubt that the " outcome " of contemporary study and criticism is , that to the guild theory we must look , and look alone , for the true explanation of the annals and acts of Freemasons and Freemasonry , those Freemasons

and that Freemasonry represented to-day by the descendants of the Speculative Grand Lodge of 1717 . Hence we must always feel a deep interest in those glorious fanes and Ihose goodly buildings on which still linger , graven by the skilful chisel , the marks of the operative Freemasons

of earlier and departed centuries ; we must always feel proud of these traces of that loyal and laborious brotherhood which still attest north and south , and east and west , where lodges of Freemasons tarried , where guilds of Freemasons existed in the " limitt " or district . The

creations of these skilled Master Masons , native or foreign , which still throw a grace around the "Houses of God in our land , " and still appeal so forcibly to the eyes , and tastes , and feelings of

the art student , of the reverent worshipper , will have for us all everything that aesthetic sympathies can profess , or a refined and cultivated judgment can avow . It was in no idle mood , with no vain feelings of dilettante art admiration ,

Church Restoration.

that our distinguished Bro . John Havers an . pealed in Grand Lodge to the wise and Masonic examples of our provincial brethren in favour of that very principle he sought to commend to the calm discretion and unimpassioned decision of Grand Lodge . Had the argument used in Grand

Lodge prevailed in the provinces , they could not tell to-day , as they happily do , of liberal aid offered , and kindly goodwill manifested , in the preservation and restoration of those very buildings which first were raised by the " cunning " hands of ancient Craftsmen . The truth is , that

the arguments against the grant in Grand Lod ge to St . Paul ' s and St . Alban ' s were simply " ad hominem , " and could not then stand the test ( pace the majority , ) of serious considerations nor can they now face the criticism of stern and inexorable logic . But enough . We are among those

who never have been and are not noyv ashamed of our legitimate operative connection ; and we can only add in conclusion that , say what yoti will , explain it as you may , this consanguinity of operative and speculative Masonry , if one may so speak , the existence of Freemasonry qua

Freemasonry , alike as a guild and as a speculative brotherhood—in its exoteric organization , in its esoteric formulce , in its secrecy , and in its success—is one ofthe most remarkable facts that yve knoyv of in the very history of the world , among the sodalities and movements , in the progress and the labours of mankind .

Fireman Lee.

FIREMAN LEE .

We should hardly be doing our duty to our great Order , ever ready to admire heroism and commend meritorious self-sacrifice , if we did not shortly call attention to the death of Fireman Lee in the noble discharge of his duty . In another column we give an account from our

contemporary , the "Times , of a quasi-public funeral which accompanied the remains of a genuine hero to his peaceful resting place in the Abney Park Cemetery on Thursday week . Large classes of our population , a strong muster of police , his comrades under their gallant chief ,

Captain Shaw , volunteer fire brigades , and the men of the salvage corps , all attended to do honour to the memory of one who had sacrificed his own life to save that of a helpless fellow creature , and who had died the noblest of all deaths , a soldier at the post of duty , quietly ,

calmly facing the great grim enemy , undaunted by his terrors and unnerved by his fell approach . It is quite affecting to read how , though the flames were circling up on every side of him , he , with a self-possession and determined courage perfectly marvellous , placed a

poor woman in the fire escape , and though , as we are told , she stuck in her descent , he forced her down the shaft of the escape with all his power , at the very time that the flames were surrounding him , and his oyvn destruction yvas inevitable . He never counted the cost to himself ,

but in the simple discharge of his duty , saved at the expense of his own life that of a help less and trembling fellow creature . Well may Captain Shaw state publicly , that in his varied and great experience of daily deeds of zealous service and manly effort , ( too often unnoticed

and unrewarded j , he never knew a more remark ' able case of heroic devotion to duty •and the funeral of Thursday week was a proof how the popular feeling entirely endorses Captain Shayv ' s remarks . Nothing , in fact , can be said too much in heartfelt admiration of discinline and de *

votion like that to which wehavealluded . ahd Captain Shaw and his little handful of brave firemen may indeed feel proud of that imperishable deed of gallantry and of chivalry which will be forever linked yvith the name and memory of Fireman Lee . We who live in this great metropolis , and

know the active labours , the hourly dangers , and often hear of the noble deaths of many in that small ( far too small ) body of firem enare nevertheless perhaps hardly sufficiently alive to the incessant hazard incurred by that too limited corps , we repeat , of well-trained

men over whom Captain Shaw so emcieni' / presides . And we feel strongly that with these our humble words of sympathetic admiration for the noble death of Fireman Lee we shouia not forget the perilous but invaluable s- ? r - j rendered every hour that passes over our hea « -