Contents.

CONTENTS .

L EADERS , Sg Consecration o £ the Portsmouth Temperance Lodge , No . 2068 90 Consecration of the Rothlc- Temple Preceptory 91 C

ORRESPONDENCESuspension of Lodges 93 Masonic Notes from Rome 93 Masonic Bibliography 93 The Gormogons 93 The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 93 Yorkshire Lodge 93 Reviews 9 + Notes and Queries 94

REPORTS or MASONIC MEETINQSCraft Masonry ¦ 9 $ Instruction 98 Royal Arch 99 Mark Masonry 99 The Caledonian Lodge Ball , No . 204 , Manchester 99

Masonic Ball at Torquay 100 The Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution xoo Board of Benevolence 100 French Revelations of Freemasonry 100 Ancient and Accepted Rite 100 Anauat Banquet of the Friars Lodge of Instruction , No . 1349 100 Obituary 100 Masonic and General Tidings rot Lodge Meetings for Next Week 101

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SINCE " A Lover of Justice wrote to the Freemason last week , we have been informed , on most excellent authority , that there is some grave misapprehension in the matter in question . It is more than doubtful , it appears , whether the Board of General Purposes ever so distinctly " ruled , " as our

Correspondent seems to have heard . and he is apparently equally misinformed , though , no doubt , quite honest , in the repetition of an " utdicitur " on what might be taken , no doubt , for good authority by him , as to the presence and sanction of our distinguished Bro . the GRAND REGISTRAR . Our own opinion on the subject matter generally remains unaltered .

* # * BEFORE we again meet our readers , the festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution will have taken place . We can only say once more to our readers , remember the 43 old Freemasons , of whom 20 are to

be elected , and 75 widows of whom only 15 enter on the Institution , to be elected in May . All these elected candidates include the "immediate and deferred . " Bro . Terry we say is not sanguine , let us hope he may be agreeably disappointed . A very successful festival would enable more Widows to be elected !

* * * THE last news from Korti seems to point still more conclusively , alas , we fear , than has yet been the case to a confirmation of the fall of Khartoum through treachery , and of the gallant GORDON ' S death , and yet there is still some room for doubt . Nothing is as yet absolutely certain , and no

two accounts agree . To some it may appear more decided than it does to us , to some it may seem " hoping against hope , " but nevertheless , as GORDON is a man of resource , and was quite alive always to the possibility of treachery , we may still fairly cling to the persuasion and trust that he had prepared for himself a safe and defensible retreat in the hour of sudden

emergency or developed treachery . Knowing how prone the Oriental mind is to mystification and exaggeration , to low cunning , and childish " finesse , " we pay little attention to the letter found in the saddle bags of a convenient donkey , and even notwithstanding these repeated associations , we cling to a hope , if a faint one of GORDON ' S being alive . At the same time it ' all looks

very black Indeed , and though the dark picture is now before us in all its dread reality , we cannot profess to realize that aberration of intellect which finds anything to admire in the Arabs or the MAHDI . To us it is simply a hand to hand fight , —a momentous struggle between civilization and

barbarism , freedom and slavery , the onward march of good government and humanizing influence , and the fell prevalence of a most dastard and degrading system of cruelty and butchery , bloodshed and terror , deadly intolerance and revolting fanaticism .

* # * As the Royal Arch Regulations are now under consideration , we hope that occasion will be taken both to methodize their enactments and amplify their clauses . At present much is left to doubt and question which ought to be clearl y provided for , and carefully laid down . It is useless telling us we

are to go to the Craft regulations for cases not provided for . We have no business to be so remitted . All that concerns the needful government and "sages and life of Royal Arch chapters ought to be lucidly set out , and unmistakeabl y decided . We trust this provision may be among others—Any lodge , after twelve months' legal existencemay lfor a charter

, appy f ° r a Royal Arch chapter to be attached to the lodge . " By a most mistaken policy , in former years the increase of chapters was practicall y hindered , and the Royal Arch was dwarfed alike in its proportion and its growth . A u'ler realization of its beauties and importance has now come over us , and

we trust that one result of this revision of its laws will be a proper codificaion of needful and advisable enactments , and , above all , fair play accorded 0 > ts legitimate developement , and its regular and steady extension and lnc rease amongst us , .

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IT is amusing to note the great ignorance which prevails often in " rebus Masonicis . " A short time back the question was asked gravely , "What is the Book of Constitutions ? " A year or so ago one brother asked another brother "VVho was WILLIAM PRESTON ? " while , to not a few of us , any discussion about points of Masonic Arehreology is practically

"Cuneiform in undechyperable hardness , and a large section openly deplores too great a prominence being given to Masonic literature or the Masonic press . There are , as we all know , those distinguished members of our Order whose proficiency in the exalted grade of the " Knife and Fork " is alike marvellous and marked . If it is a business committee , they always

appear as the business is concluding and refreshment is announced . If it is lodge work , they are ever unavoidably detained while the lodge is tyled , but radiant and self important , take a prominent part in discussing a " Menu , " and attending to the more serious duties of the banquet . The care which they take of themselves , their attention to their own little creature

comforts , are alike amusing and affecting . Nothing so rouses their indignation as some failure according to the carefully prepared card to satisfy the lawful cravings of appetite or the intense importance of that most attractive of , all grades to them . And j'et "My masters all , " is there not something grotesque and humiliating in their subordinating all

Masonic zeal , earnestness , and energy to what a menu can provide or the social circle supply ? For such the lodge may go on its way uncared for and unstudied . There is but one thing worth consideration , and that is its hour of graceful "symposia . " Of course in all societies there are "bees and drones , " " aye , and wasps " and "bumbles ; " and that there

are " Freemasons and Freemasons" is what we have all discovered , unless we be the very densest of mortal men in our Masonic career , and in our journey through life . Still , there comes a warning often to us all every now and then , especially in this inquiring , scandalous , iconoclastic age , that few things will stand the sifting process of actual scrutiny and

" turning inside out , " which have not in themselves some staying power , some abiding utility , something which raises them above the levelling and destructive hand of Time , and commends them to the sympathy and loyalty of the honest , the intelligent , and the true hearted . So wise in our

generation , let us seek to give that intellectual and aesthetic colour to Freemasonry which will satisfy the imperious demands of contemporary criticism , and will most truly conduce to preserve it yet to distant generations , amid the confidence and attachment of its own members , and the respect , regard , and reverence of mankind .

* * IN our last impression there appeared an announcement of a proposed Yorkshire and Northern Counties' lodge , which , it has been considered , may be alike beneficial and useful to many north country brethren , whom business or pleasure bring to our "little village . " We have been requested further

to say that it is proposed to make it both a signal success and a " new departure . " It is proposed to have a good working lodge on the provincial system , a lodge of instruction , and also to commence a museum and library , and thus to help in that wise , intellectual , and aesthetic movement which has done so much in Yorkshire to raise the tone of contemporary Freemasonry ,

and give energy and vitality both to its spontaneous efforts and its habitual outcome . How far such an idea , however good and pleasing in the abstract , can be realized in the concrete , Time alone can show . It is proposed , in order to test the feeling of Yorkshire brethren and north country brethren , to hold a meeting on the day of the Grand Lodge meeting March 4 th , at 3 . 30 in the afternoon , at 16 a Great Queen-street .

* # * WHAT a vast and partly unexplored country is Masonic literature 1 Very few Freemasons have any idea of the large number of Masonic works which have been published , which have been forgotten , which are lying

unheard of and unread on dusty bookselves and in unknown receptacles . A very curious thought supervenes . In literature , as in commerce , generally the demand creates the supply , and we can hardly conceive a supply without some demand . And yet it is difficult to believe to-day that in the last 150 years there has been any large demand for Masonic literature .

* # * Bro . FINDEL has mentioned the Altenburgh School , which gave a great and classic direction to the theories of German Masons , as based in the idea of GRANDIDIER . But that passed away , and when we commenced our studies ,

say 25 or 30 years ago , dreary was the outlook . Freemasons were habitually " sheep walking , " and repeating with self-satisfied seriousness the platitudes of passing writers . To doubt the views of HUTCHINSON , or the facts of PRESTON , and the lucubrations of OLIVER , was high treason ! And though each of these writers had his merits , and deserves regard and praise , not one