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NOTICE .

The Subscription to THE FREEMASON is now ios . per annum , post-free , payable in advance . Vol . I ., boun- -i in cloth ... ... 4 s . 6 d . Vol . IL , ditto 7 s . 6 d . " ¦ ol . s IH ., IV .. V . and VI each 15 s . od . Reading Cases to hold 52 numbers ... 2 s . 6 d . Ditto ditto 4 do . ... is . 6 d .

united States of America . THE -JISEMASON is delivered free in any part of the United States for 12 s . per annum , payable in advance . The Freemason is published on Saturday Mornings in time foi the early trains . The price of the Freemason is Twopence per week ; annual

subscription , ios . ( payanle in advance . ) All communications , letters , & c , to be addressed to the Editor , itj S , Fleet-street , E . C . Ihe Editorwil ! pay careful attention to all MSS . entrusted to him , but cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by postage stamps .

Birhts, Marriages And Deaths.

Birhts , Marriages and Deaths .

DEATHS . STEVENS . —On the 15 th inst ., at Clapham Common Annie Maria , fourth daughter of Bro . James Stevens , P . M ., < S . c , aged ten years , after long suffering . , HALTON . —January 15 th , at his residence , Elizabethstreet , Liverpool , Bro . John Halton , P . M . 241 ( Merchant ' s Lodge ) .

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 6 o ' clock on Wednesday evening . All Communications should be sent to 198 , Fleet Street .

In case of installation , should the retiring Master elect not to perform the ceremony , has he the privilege of investing any P . M . of the lodge , without reference to seniority to do so , or has the Senior P . M . of the lotlge the right to claim the privilege in virtue of such seniority ? [ It is rather a difficult question to answer , but wc arc inclined to think that the VV . M . can call on any P . M . to

perform thc ceremony . —ED . ] J . B . I I .: VV c think , on the whole , it is better not to publish your letter . VV e could not do so , at any rate , in the present form . Bro . Binckes ' s letter on " thc degree of Mark Master , " & c , will appear next week . Wbittington Lodge , Deal , 784 . Another report received .

Thanks . W . D . ( Rochdale ) Next week . The following reports stand over : —Lotlge Commercial , 360 , Glasgow ; St . Peter ' s , 443 ; St . George ' s , 1098 ; Tredegar ; Provincial Grand Lodge of Glasgow ; Bath ,

Royal Cumberland , 61 ; Items of News Province of Hampshire ; Lodge of Harmony , 309 ; Death of Bro . Cowley ; Royal Sussex , 342 ; Gibraltar District Grand Lodge ; Medina Lodge , 35 ; Glasgow , Lodge Marie Stuart , 541 ; Lotlge of Harmony , 272 , Boston ; Lord Warden Lodge , 109 ( 1 , Walmer ; Etonian Lodge , 209 , Windsor .

REMITTANCES RECEIVED . £ s . d . J . C . B ., Mooltan 3 9 4 W . D ., Constantinople 017 4 H . G . G ., New York 1 f > o

W . G ., Shanghai 200 J . E . C . IL , Indiana oil 7 M . Gamhier Lodge , Australia 1 18 o T . W . H ., Allahabad 204 C . T ., Hobart Town 1 14 8 J . T ., Lukkur 200

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , J ANUARY 23 , 187 < .

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Fund.

THE ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION FUND .

We published in our last impression a goodlylist of Stewards for the next Anniversary , Jan . 27 th , of this excellent institution . We congratulate our energetic , brother , James Terry , on thus enlisting in the best of all causes so many distinguished brethren of our common Order .

Amongst our metropolitan institutions there is none which more demands the sympathy and support of Freemasons . For it appeals to all our best feelings , both of Masonic fellowship , friendship , and happy association . By the instrumentality of this most practical and truly fraternal medium , we are enabled to offer friendly

and often most needful support , to those whom , maybe , we knew in younger days , full of health , geniality . and zeal for Free masonry , to those whom affliction has visited , or old age has weakened . Some of us , as year by year we scan the lists of applicants , can call to mind the names of those who have been contemporaries with us in our

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Fund.

own Masonic career , who have belonged to our own lodges , who were once happy and prosperous , and flourishing and friendly , but whom the hour of adversity has frowned upon , or on whom advancing years have told their customary tale . There are in our Order many most

excellent men and Masons , who , not in affluent circumstances , and in comparatively a bumble station in life , have never failed in their devotion and services to Freemasonry . We meet them in the lodge , we know them as the faithful Tylers of many a solemn gathering ,

and man ) ' a pleasant hour , and , weak and ailing , burdened by illness or years , they often , after many "lustra " of faithful service , ask for the benefits of the annuity funds to soothe the rugged pathway of the declining years of life . And not only this , prosperity and worldly wealth

do not always continue here— " they make to themselves wings and fly away . " We hear of cases and know ot cases day by day , where , from unforeseen circumstances , many a well-todo and wealthy brother is reduced to a low ebb of privation and decay . Hence the wisdom of

our Benevolent Institution , which thus enables Freemasons year by year to offer a hel ping hand to many a worthy , but unfort unate , or struggling brother , to whom such aid is invaluable , and by whom that relief is most needed . Since the establishment of the Benevolent Institution , years

ago , it has run an unchanging career of usefulness and fraternal sympathy . It has gradually grown from small beginnings to its present remarkable position of efficiency , activity , and undoubted good ; and we trust that the next anniversary will demonstrate , under the kindly

presidency of Bro . the Earl of Shrewsbury , that the labours of Bro . Terry , and the praiseworthy zeal of the Stewards , have not been in vain . There is no institution , we venture to repeat , which more fairly and fitly claims the cheerful and liberal support of our benevolent Order .

The Benevolent Institution has two branches of work , as well as the Asylum , to maintain and perpetuate in fulness and vigour . Not only do , we seek by this institution , to aid our aged and suffering and decayed brethren , but we also ' endeavour to succour and support their widows !

We should ill discharge our work of free-will Masonic charity , if we forgot those whom our brethren have left , as it were , to our sympathy and our care . And in this day of attack and obloquy for our innocent though inculpated Order—inculpated by the intolerant and the ignorant—we

often think that our best reply is , " you doubt Freemasonry , you deride Freemasons , you condemn our princi ples j look at our acts , and above all remember our charities . We may be wrong in our view of things , we may be a very foolish , mistaken , perverse , or dangerous set of

men , but you " cannot deny that our practice answers to our profession , and that what we do as an Orderjis alike commendable and charitable . " Certainly , if the education of the orphan sons and daughters of Freemasons , if the granting of annuities to aged and decayed Freemasons and

their widows , is a proof of our " wicked conspiracy against governments and religion , " we in England must so far fall under the ban of our hasty and selfmade censors . But if there still be " any virtue , " if there still be " any praise " in all that , is ' right and laudable , and loveable and

true , in beneficent efforts and in fraternal good will , then let us gladly remember to-day that we , as an united Craft , as a genial and God-fearing brotherhood , year by year with unflagging zeal , and in unstinted measure , give , and give

freely , to the best of all causes , and for the truest of all ends . May all of prosperity attend the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Anniversary , January 27 th , and may Bro . Terry have to report in our columns another abounding proof of Masonic liberality , and unwearied goodwill .

A Point Of Masonic Jurisprudence.

A POINT OF MASONIC JURISPRUDENCE .

We have published several letters lately on a point which seems to have exercised the pens of our Masonic jurisprudents . The case , as originally placed before us , was this . In a given lodge , A is the Senior Past Master of the lodge , but Ajeaves the lodge for two years , " demits , " to use an American Masonic expression , alto-

A Point Of Masonic Jurisprudence.

gether for that time from the lodge , but after two years is re-admitted as a joining member . What is his position in consequence ? Does he or does he not remain senior P . M . ? Our answer to that was that , by the " Lex inscripta " of Freemasonry in this country , he had , to the best of

our belief , lost his precedence and became the junior Past Master at the time of his re-affiliation to the lodge . And for this reason " inter alia , " that the whole of our Masonic system in this country is wisely based in the simple and practical test of lodge membership and lodge

subscription . Failing that , the unattached Mason becomes , so to say , a " filius nullius , " he has no position , no rights , no " locus standi . " in English Freemasonry . As far as we know and understand the customs of our lodges , the cessation of two years membership takes away from the P . M .

his seniority or position . Suppose , in the meantime , the lodge has built itself a hall at some expense . A leaves his brethren to bear the " burden and heat of the day , " and comes back after two or three years , as the case may be , claiming the privilege of seniority as P . M .,

availing himself of the benefits obtained at the cost of others , simply because he was senior P . M . in time , and so remained all through those eventful years of lodge life and existence in which he has taken no part . But the whole theory of the lodge itself is dependent on the

membership of subscribing brethren , and on subscribing brethren alone . ' A , from first to last , including two years of omission , and of non-payment of subscription in consequence , has been connected with the lodge ten years , of which he has paid for eight . B has paid ten

years regularly . When A leaves , B , who is next to him , becomes Senior P . M ., and remains so as long as he—B—continues a subscribing member . It is quite clear that A , who has dtmitted for two years , cannot , on his mere volition , and on his rejoining his lodge to suit his own

convenience , put on one side B , who has paid on regularly and has never demitted , simply because A is senior in time . The whole question , as regards the lodge , is a question of subscribing membership , and very properly so ; otherwise , in our opinion , many anomalies would arise ,

and many lamentable irregularities in our English Freemasonry , from which our admirable system is now happily free . The Book of Constitutions makes the Grand Lodge membership depend alone on membership in a private lodge . A . P . M . who is not returned to Grand Lodge on

tlie lodge list as a subscribing member , forfeits his status in Grand Lodge , and requires to be re-installed as Master and returned as a subscribing member of that or another lodge before he can regain his privileges . A brother has said that , as a Warden , a demitting P . M . could

again recover his status in Grand Lodge ; so he could for the year of his office , but no further . It is the privilege of a P . M ., so long as he is a subscribing member cf a odge , to retain a perpetual membership /' virtute officii , "in Grand Lodge . We have so far seen 110 argument which

invalidates our original opinion on the matter . It is quite clear to us , that , if a P . M . leaves his lodge for two years , he loses his precedence as Senior P . M ., and on his rejoining the lodge , becomes the Junior P . M ., at the time ot his readmittance . Is he , despite absence , to reclaim

his seniority over the heads of those who have never demitted ? If the argument is good for two years , it may be pushed to three or four , or any number of demitting years . We therefore beg to maintain our view , and express our candid opinion , that , b y the custom of our lodges , any P . M . who

leaves his mother lodge for two years or for any time , so as to forfeit hisj ' p rivate membership , and membership of Grand Lodge , on his re-admission can only claim the position he has made for himself , namely that of Junior Past Master on the lodge roll at the time of his rejoining .

Bro. Binckes's. Reply.

BRO . BINCKES'S . REPLY .

We publish , with much pleasure , Bro . Binckes ' s reply in our impression to-day , closing , thereby , our friendly discussion j and the result of our fraternal controversy is , like the result of many other controversies in this world , that we must agree to differ on the special point to which reference has been made . We