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TO OUR READERS . Tne FREEMASON is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper ; price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful infor - mation relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / 6 . P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the Chief Office . London .

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TO ADVERTISERS . The FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the GJobe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion in current -week ' s issue should reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FREEMASON , may be add ressed to the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are publish ed in he first number of every month . It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more espe . cially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

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NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason " to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfound , ' and , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United States of America , & c .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " Bulletin du Grand Orient , " " Craftsman , " " Hebrew Leader , " "Masonicjewel , " " Eclectic , " "Voiceof Masonry , " " Masonic Advocate , " " New York Dispatch , " " The Living Age . " The following stand over : —Provincial Grand Lodge of Northam | , tonshire * , Reports of Lodges j Imperial George , 78 * , Lebanon , 1326 ; Jordan Lodge of Instruction , 201 : Stuart Chapter , 540 j St . John ' s Chapter , Timaru , N . Z ., H 37-Had Bro . Pinaud given his address in London , we would have answered his letter , but it did not appear to be of any use to write to Bona in Algeiia .

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

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

BIR / 1 HS . GHEENE . —On the 18 th inst ., at 218 , Old Kent-road , S ., the wife of W . T . Greene , M . A ., M . D ., of a son . LEAOER . —On the 17 th inst ., at The Lodge , Whittington , Worcester , the wife of B . W . Leader , Esq ., of a son . WRIGHT . —On the 18 th inst ., at Wooler Lodge , Brixton , Mary , the wife of F . R . Wright , of a son .

DEATHS . DODOSON . —On the 1 ; th inst ., Bro . R . Dodgson , of Brookstreet , Ulverston . FELLOWS . —On the 18 th inst ., at Rickmansworth , Marianne , wife of H . W . Fellows , Esq . WATSON . —On the 18 th inst ., William Patterson , infant son of the . Rev . H . C . Watson , of Clifton .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , J 13 , 1877 .

Charity Voting.

CHARITY VOTING .

Our worthy Bro . R . J . Simpson , P . G . C ., says that we have done injustice to his views , and misrepresented his statement in respect of the powers of a central committee , ( not necessarily a London committee ) , and certainly we plead guilty at once to having so understood his

original suggestion and object . Curiously enough , Bro . Hughan , a not inattentive reader of the Freemason , "P . P . G . C , " and "An Old Chairman " all understood the matter in the same way . This misapprehension was based on the following words in the printed reports , to which our

attention was called by Bro . Simpson : — "It is further suggested that committees of charitable associations should intimate in their voting papers that subscribers who have no means of ascertaining the comparative merits of the candidates , or who for any other reason decline to exercize

their privilege of voting , should sign and send their proxies to the committee , to be distributed amongst the poorest and most deserving . " This is , practically , as we understand the words , to give the central committee the power of recommendation and allotment , and is the point which

has misled us all , for it seems that Bro . Simpson does not agree with that recommendation , and does not propose anything of the kind for our Masonic Charities , and we therefore ' acknowledge our misconception of his views , though it was one , we think , not altogether inexcusable under

the circumstances . We , however , object to the suggestion of the Charity Reform Association , for this reason . If the candidates are carefully selected , it is fat- better , in our opinion , for the subscribers to vote for the cases they consider the most deserving . It is all very

well to blame the Committees for letting in candidates too easily , or receiving improper cases , but the fault in this rather rests with the subscribers than with the committee . But any attempt to enable the committee to ' support special cases will aggravate the evil instead of lessen

it . And here we may observe that we do not think that we have much more to say upon the general question , for we do not know ' of any real abuses , and we cannot conceive what there is to reform . Canvassing cards have a good side to them in the shape of public notice and local

interest , and the polling day is , in our opinion , absolutely indispensable to purity of election and fair play to all the candidates . We note that Bro . Simpson repeats the words " certain wellknown abuses , " as being rampant in our midst , and " to a fair and pure system of election , " as

if such did not now exist . We reall y do not profess to understand what these " well-known abuses " are , and as regards the present system of election , it is as fair as fair can be , in our humble opinion , and after some special experience of the matter , we do not realize in any way in

what it is susceptible of improvement . For these and many other / like reasons we say , let well alone . One abuse we shall be very happy to aid Bro . Simpson or any one in mitigating , the admission of doubtful or improper cases , though the matter is a very difficult one , for many reasons . And , as

we said before , it is not so much the committees , as ourselves who are to blame . The candidates conform to the rules of the institution , and without new rules , there is no power in the committee to reject them . But wh y do the brethren support such a case as the following , one among

many similar ?—A brother who has only subscribed the actual sum of qualification , leaves the Order , and after some years , never having again subscribed to a lodge or the charities at all , dies . After his death the friends of the orphan claim , in virtue of his qualification , that the child be placed on the list of candidates . Now is it fair

that the orphan of one who left the Order living , and died out of it , should be elected over the head of an orphan of a brother who lived and died in Masonry , and supported our charities ? We say , then , increase the minimum of subscription and make it imperative that a brother shall not have died out of Masonry . We do not say , exclude the orphans of such altogether , but

Charity Voting.

give a preference to the orphans of all who have lived and died as subscribing brethren of a lodge ? This is the most needed of all reforms , and would remed y manv prevalent evils and reform many serious abuses .

Fair Play Is A Jewel.

FAIR PLAY IS A JEWEL .

This old axiom of Anglo-Saxon moralit y is Masonic in the highest degree , and will be ac knowledged and acceded to by all Freemasons " more Masonico , " under the benign princi ples of Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry . The great truth involved in that proverbial expression is realized

by them in theory and developed in practice . \ V wish we could equally say that it was always so abroad . But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that , without for one moment denying the absurd and wicked intolerance of ths Roman Catholic Church , of the Ultramontane faction

many of the words of foreign Freemasons are very unwise , and many of their acts very unmasonic . We take up our good contemporary , the Monde Maconnique of June , for instance , and at page 332 , we read as follows , from a correspondent at Milan : — " By the information which

the Commission ( of the Lodge La Ragione ) has acquired , it results that the Roman Catholic oratories in Milan are , for the most part , attended by youths directed by the priests , and some attended by girls , directed by the sisters of charity , These oratories are found in the different

quarters of the town , and especially in those localities which are mostly peopled by the working classes . They are frequented by about 6000 young people of the two sexes , recruited among the less well-to-do families from earliest youth , and it is remarkable that these young people

continued to frequent the oratory until the age of enlistment . Almost all the oratories are alike , according to their general idea . The schools are large , altogether clerical in character , the direction is always in the hands of the curate . The interior government is confided to priests , assisted

by the prefets , councillors , elected or nominated among the oldest pupils . In some of these oratories they pay from three to four francs annually for each scholar * the others , and they form the majority , are completely free schools . . . . The instruction is catechical , based

on religious exercises , which are repeated in the morning and evening . ... By their 6000 ' eleves' the priests exercise a great influence over 6000 families of the town , and these enfanls can be employed to serve as a chain of union between the Church and the family , against this continual struggle for the development of

the civil life . The Commission ( of the lodge ) proposes two remedies . 1 . To erect , in opposition to the Roman Catholic oratories , civil institutes , asylums , clubs or recreation halls , with a purely liberal basis , destined to gather in , to educate , and amuse the young people on the days of fete . 2 . To subject the Roman Catholic oratories to the intervention and surveillance of

the public authority , exercised in a manner to transform their tendencies and to direct along the road of the necessities of tha country and the spirit of the times the young people confide " to them , entirely infusing the charters of foundation and private rights . A copy of this report

has been sent to all the members of the Chamber of Deputies , all the members and Secretaries , anil and I have the happiness to tell you that we shall not wait long to see the fruits of this famous campaign which the Milaneae Masons by the means of the lodge ( ' la Ragione ' ) has begun

against the priests . " Now , we have no hesitation in saying that such a position is , according to our view , utterly unsound and unmasomc . As Freemasons , we have nothing to do wit " education , perse , and we have no business whatever to attack this or that particular relig ion- institution . If the Milanese Freemasons like to

set up Masonic schools , a la bonne heure , let their do so by all means , and way they succeed . But to set up Masonic schools , simply to attack the clerical schools , and then to ask the aid of the State to interfere with the ordinary Roman Catnol schools , which are necessary and usei "' and , according to their own account , very sucessful , is a parody on the princip les of Jta "