The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

of General Purposes A communication was at once drawn up and delivered at the Grand Secretary ' s office , while a duplicate was laid before the General Committee at their usual meeting in November . The contents , however , were nothing else than a recital of the resolutions passed and confirmed in

October , accompanied by a request that a conference mig ht be arranged with the Board . In due course , an answer was received fixing the afternoon of the 7 th December for the conference requested , when the Sub-Committee attended and submitted the following resolutions which had previously been agreed to as a basis for the proposed arrangement , namely : —

First . That the Annuity Fund of this Institution be added to the fund proposed to be raised in accordance with the report of the Board of General Purposes , provided that the Annuitants now on this Institution are respectively provided for on equal terms with the other Annuitants ; and that the subscribers of this Institution do retain their

privileges " pro rata in that about to be formed . Second . That the Building Fund of this Institution be also placed in the hands of Grand Lodge , through the Board of General Purposes , to accumulate and be applied in accordance with the resolutions passed at a general meeting on the 13 th October last , and communicated to the Board of General Purposes .

Third . That the preceding arrangements being made , all offices held in this Institution be vacated . Copy of the foregoing having been taken , the Sub-Committee , in reply to questions by the President and members of the Board , said that no difficulty was apprehended with reference to the transfer of the two funds ; but that there were insuperable objections , both on the part of the Trustees and

of many of the subscribers , to the transfer of the Building Fund for any other purpose than that of building , the period of erecting which would remain entirely in the hands of the Grand Lodge . However , after gravely considering the subject , the Board unanimously resolved as follows : " That in consequence of the resolution passed by the members of the Asylum for Worthy Aged and Decayed Freemasons requiring the Building Fund shall

be continued , the Board declines to entertain the proposition ; but the Board is willing to receive and consider any proposition that may be made having reference to the application of the entire fund for annuities . " No other result perhaps could have been expected , seeing how recently and how warmly the merits of the rival princip les of Annuity and Asylum had been discussed , and with what result as regards certain of the most prominent among the

advocates of the latter . Still , it speaks well for the Asylum authorities that , when they found the Grand Master was resolved on pushing forward his favourite Annuity principle , and obtaining for it the support of Grand Lodge , they should have evinced such readiness to sink their own individuality and that of their fellow-workers in order that the separate proposals for the benefit of aged and distressed brethren might combine together to the general

good , instead of being left to clash with each other , and so weaken the efforts which it was generally agreed must be made in order to establish an additional Masonic Charity . And yet more creditable is it to them and their co-workers that , nothwithstanding this repulse , the General Committee of subscribers at their meeting on the 8 th December should have passed the following resolutions :

That to appropriate the Building Fund of this Institution to any other pfcrpose than that of erecting an Asylum would be a breach of faith with the subscribers , as had been previously intimated by the Sub-Committee to the Board of General Purposes . That , whilst regretting , for the sake of peace and harmony , the rejection of the proposition made on the 7 th inst ., the Sub-Committee be instructed to renew the conference with the Board of General Purposes , and to offer the transfer of the Annuity Fund without reference to the Building Fund .

The result of this was that the Sub-Committee held a meeting on the nth of the month , when the following letter for transmission to the Board of

General Purposes was drawn up ; 25 , Tibberton-square , Islington , nth December , 1841 . Gentlemen and Brothers , A meeting of the Committee of the Asylum for Worthy Aged and Decayed Free masons was held on Wednesday , the 8 th inst ., to which the resolution of your Worship ful Board was submitted .

The Committee concurred in the opinion previously expressed by the Sub-Committee to your Worshipful Board , that to appropriate the Building Fund of that Institution for any other purpose than that of the ultimate erection of an Asylum would be a breach of faith with the subscribers . They further unanimously concurred in the expression of regret that your

Worshipful Board should have declined to entertain the proposition submitted on the 7 th inst . by the Sub-Committee , thus preventing the subject from being entertained by Grand Lodge , with the advantage of a reference from your Worshipful Board . They also concur in believing that such a reference made to Grand Lodge would have so brought the subject under the consideration of the Craft as to produce a result calculated entirely and immediately to heal all differences of opinion .

But anxious to attain that desirable object , and to unite the charitable efforts of the Craft as far as possible , the General Committee have authorised the Sub-Committee to renew the conference with your Worshipful Board , with a view to the transfer of the Annuity Fund without reference to the Building Fund , and 1 am therefore requested by the Sub-Committee to solicit the favour of another interview with your Worshipful Board .

I have , & c , ( Signed ) R . FIELD , Secretary Aged Freemasons' Asylum . To the Worshipful the President , the Vice-President , and Members of the Board of General Purposes of the United Grand Lodge of England

Some time elapsed before any reply to the above was received . At length , however , Bro . White , Grand Secretary , sent the following : Freemasons' Hall , London , 25 th January , 1 S 43 . W . Sir and Brother , I am directed by the Board of General Purposes to acknowledge the receipt of

your communication on behalf of the Committee of the Asylum for Worthy Aged and Decayed Freemasons , addressed to the Board , requesting another interview grounded on certain resolutions which you have forwarded ; and I am directed , in reply , to say , that after mature deliberation , the Board must beg to refer you to their resolution of the 7 th of December last , communicated to you in my letter of the same day , and to state that

the Board are still willing to receive and consider any proposition that . may be made having reference to the application of the entire fund for Annuities . I have , & c , ( Signed ) WILLIAM H . WHITE , Grand Secretary . To Robert Field , Esq .,

Secretary of the Asylum for Worthy Aged and Decayed Freemasons . Thus the friendly endeavour to bring about united action on the part of the Craft , as initiated by the Asylum Committee , fell through , and what little on their part it remained for them to do was done at the Quarterly General Meeting on the 13 th April , 1842 , when it was resolved " that the

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

thanks of this Quarterly General Meeting be presented to the Sub-Committee for the manner in which they conducted the conference with the Board of General Purposes , with an expression of sincere regret at the failure of their exertions to carry into effect the amalgamation of the Charity with the annuity plan propounded by Grand Lodge . " Meantime it may be worth while mentioning as a further , yet pitiful , illustration of the hostility to

which the Asylum and all concerned in its maintenance were subjected , that at the Committee meeting in February a letter was read from Bro . Nicholls , the collector to the Institution , regretting the necessity he was under of resigning his office , the necessity being subsequenty explained b y Bro . Crucefix , the Chairman , as the consequence of a pledge he had given on becoming candidate for the collectorship of the Girls' School , that he would resign his connection with the Asylum in the event of his being

successful . Bro . Nicholls had been elected by a small majority , and hence his resignation , which of course was accepted , an honorarium of five guineas being voted him for his services in a most complimentary manner . At the Quarterly Meeting on the 13 th July , 18 42 , in consequence of the steps taken by Grand Lodge for the establishment of an Annuity Fund , the following resolutions were agreed to , and confirmed at the next Quarterly Meeting in October , namely :

That the Grand Lodge , having sanctioned a plan for granting Annuities to Aged brethren , no more Annuitants be elected upon the funds of this Institution . That the proposed amalgamation of this Charity with the one adopted by Grand Lodge , under the sanction of the Grand Master , having been rejected , all laws , regulations , & c , relating to the subject of Annuities be repealed , and the whole amount already and to be hereafter collected , be dedicated to the original object of the Charity , namely ,

the Building and Endowment of an Asylum for Worthy Aged and Decayed Freemasons . That the Annuitants heretofore elected upon the funds of this Charity shall continue to be entitled to all the benefits to which they have been admitted , notwithstanding the foregoing , or any other resolution relating to the disposal of the funds of this Charity . That the following be substituted for No . XX . of the printed Preliminary Regulations , page 5 : Tim f frl-n » f"VitY \ tviif f ^ o An m /*» f nn fTi » ce * rr \ nA \\/ V > rln « crTa *» fn ft »«» rw * - » nf lie r \ F f \ f ^••/ 'k Tuna Ilt IlllWkVVf lllbblUM Lllb VLilltJUUI Vl HHll lll

A * b "" - V > UIII u « OI . I . UIIU » I III HI * . IIIUIUU ^ - ) J UIILj September , and December , at Radley ' s Hotel , New Bridge-street , Blackfriars , at seven o ' clock in the evening ; five to be a quorum ; and the Annual General Meeting be held on the second Wednesday in July , at the same time and place , unless otherwise determined upon . The Annual Meeting to be summoned by advertisement ; Special General Meetings by circular as well as advertisement , and the Committee Meetings by summons .

A conversation having arisen as to the state of the funds belonging to the Charity , the Treasurer stated as nearly as he could , in the absence of the acting Trustee , Bro . Rowe , that they amounted to ^ 3404 17 s . nd ., of which £ 2169 10 s . 7 d . was Three per Cent . Consols , _ £ gooin | Exchequer Bills , ^ 110 in the Cripplegate Savings' Bank , and ^ 225 7 s . 4 d . being the balance in hands of Tieasurer and at the bankers . There was also a sum of £ 200 uncollected , which , in the opinion of the Treasurer , was all good .

The bulk of the minutes that follow , and are continued well into the year 1 S 45 , refer to a costly , as well as a painful , episode in the brief separate career of the Asylum . It will be in the recollection of the reader that in the year 1839 the question had been raised of superseding the Provisional by Permanent Trustees ; but difficulties having arisen , and three of the brethren elected to fill the latter positions having declined to occupy them ,

the matter bad remained in abeyance , the Provisional Trustees continuing to act . One of them , Bro . Henry Rowe , unlike other of his co-Trustees who tendered their resignations , in order to facilitate the arrangements it was considered desirable to make , point blank refused to lay down his trust , one of the reasons assigned by him being that the Neptune Lodge , No . 22 , of which he was a member , had desired him not to do so . This Bro . Rowe

unfortunately for the Institution , was the acting Trustee , and was in the habit of receiving the dividends as they became payable , which dividends it was part of his duty to invest . This part of his duty , however , was after a time unfulfilled , and when the Committee pressed him to hand over what moneys he had in hand on this account , as well as a further sum of about £ 120 he was said to have received on account of the Asylum from the estate

of the late Bro . Sansum , in respect of the proceeds of the Asylum benefit at the English Opera House , the course he adopted was such that the governing body of the Asylum found themselves under the necessity of filing a Bill in Chancery , in order that they might have the property belonging to them placed in the hands of Trustees approved by the Court , and the nature of the trust as clearly defined as possible . All hope of recovering

any portion of the money due was set aside b y Bro . Rowe declaring himself bankrupt , so that the loss sustained by the Institution amounted to over £ 300 , of which £ iS 8 was in respect of dividends and the ^ 120 from Bro . Sansum ' s estate , while the costs of the legal proceedings represented a further sum of upwards of £ 320 , making together a clear loss of some X 620 , which the Charity sustained through the defalcatiohs of one of its

earliest supporters . What makes the recital of this episode the more painful is the insolence of Bro . Rowe ' s behaviour ; and it is not surprising that , when the suit was terminated , the Committee should have put on record their feeling of satisfaction " at the removal of Mr . Henry Roive from the trusteeship of their funds , whether his conduct be contemplated as appropriating to his own use the funds of a public Charity , and putting that Charity to considerable expense in procuring his removal by the Court of Chancery ,

or in the cool insolence thereof during the progress of the transaction . " On the other hand , a most handsome vote of thanks was passed to Bros . Alderman T . Wood , J . C . Bell , J . Partridge , and Z . Watkins for their conduct in the trusteeship . One good came of this—that the following brethren were appointed Trustees , namely : Bros , the Earl of Aboyne , the Earl of Southampton , Col . the Hon . Geo . Anson , M . P ., B . Bond Cabbell , and R . Thos . Crucefix , M . D .

The other events which occurred during the progress of this lamentable difference may be very briefly disposed of . The Earl of Aboyne , Prov . Grand Master for Norths and Hunts , presided at the festival for 1843 , when subscriptions were announced to the extent of some £ 400 . In 1844 the chair was taken by Col . the Hon . G . Anson , M . P ., P . G . M . Staffordshire ,