To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The Freemason is a sixteen page weekly newspaper , price zd . lt is published every Friday morning , and conpains thc most important and useful information relating tio Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , io / . Brethren in foreign parts , wishing to have this newspaper sent them regularly from the office of publication , should , in sending their remittances , add tc the id . per week the postage on zoz .

newspapers . The Freemason may be procured through any newsagent in the United Kingdom by g iving ( if needed ) the publisher ' s address , 198 , Fleet-st .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

Thc 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 GEOHGE KENNING , 198 , Fleet-st .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

AU Communications , Advertisements , & c , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday morning . Careful attention will be paid to all MSS . entrusted to the Editor , but he cannot undertake to return them unless axompanieil by stamped directed covers .

Will Bro . M . Gordon kindly send his address to the Editor of the " Freemason . " The following stand over : — Prov . Grand Lodge of Staffordshire . Letter to Mrs . Bradford .

Addr .-ss of the Grand Master o , -Quebec . Dedication of a New Masonic HaU at Bideford . Presentation and Dinner to Bro J . B . Walker at Glasgow . Reports of Lodges , 13 , 22 S , 533 , 7 ) 0 , 784 , 1066 , 1 : 87 . Chapters 119 , 1 S 5 , 22 j , and Metropolitan Chapter ol Improvement .

Birth, Marriages, And Deaths.

Birth , Marriages , and Deaths .

DEATH . WMST . —On thc 4 th inst ., in child-birth , in the 37 th year 11 ! her age , Sarah , the beloved wife of Bro . E . West , ofthe Three Crowns , North Woolwich , ( W . M . 143 ; -, P . M . 1076 and 1327 ; P . P . G . S . D . of Herts , and Chap . 13 ) . Deeply and universally regretted .

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TheFreemason, SATURDAY , OCT . 2 , 5 , 1875 .

Our Royal Grand Master's Visit To India.

OUR ROYAL GRAND MASTER'S VISIT TO INDIA .

H . R . H . the Prince of Wales left Pans at - | to 9 Wednesday evening , and reached Turin Thursday evening . He left Turin at 9 . 40 Friday morning , and got to Bologna at 5 in the afternoon , and Ancona at 10 . 30 p . m . the same day . Many of the Engl ish residents were present at the station ,

and the Prince said , in answer to their fervent wishes for his prosperous voyage and safe return , " Thank yon , gentlemen . " The train departed aniiil enthusiastic cheers at 10 . 45 , am ' arrived at Bari at s .. o Saturday morning . He left for Brindisi at 7 . 23 , which place he reached 319 . 30 , and was met at the station by the remainder of

his suite . Accompanied by the Italian Minister oi Marine , Admiral de San Bon , Count Mattel , and amid salutes from the British and Italian ironclads , he proceeded in the Royal launch to the Serapis , where breakfast was served . Thc weather was fine , and the Serapis steamed out ofthe harbour amid fresh salutes from the men of war . The Prince of Wales reached Athens

after a fair passage on Monday , the 18 th , at 10 . 10 , and anchored in the harbour of the Pii . etis . He landed at 12 . 10 , and went with the King to the palace , amidst the cheers of the densely crowded streets . The Serapis lost two anchors . He was to stay Tuesday and leave Wednesday . Next week we shall resume the story of his journey .

The Grand Orient Of France.

THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE .

A press of matter has prevented us noticing the full and interesting account of the meeting ofthe Grand Orient for 1875 , which is contained iii the ' •Monde Maconnique " for September-October , which we received the week before last . We propose , however , to call attention to it next week .

West Yorkshire.

WEST YORKSHIRE .

Reflection has convinced us even more strongly than last week , how very unwise and how very unsound is the proposed motion relative to the Boys' School , to which we felt it to be our duty to allude . Unwise it is , as probably inflicting irreparable injury on the Boys' School , which is

now in full and active work , where everything and everybody , we are assured , under the new regime , are falling into their proper positions . All is now proceeding harmoniously , and we fancy that there is little real doubt where the original fault lay . As we read over some published papers ,

printed too under very strange circumstances , we fancy that we can put our finger readily on the true cause of all the pettiness and unseeml y sp irit which have been exhibited . Some amusing exaggerations have been scattered broadcast among the Craft . It has been stated , for instance

that the four retiring Masters were university men . There is not a word of truth in the statement . Whether any of them had ever been at any university we doubt , certainly they had not university degrees . Exhoc disce omnia . The course as proposed to be pursued by the Prov . Grand

Lodge of West Yorkshire by Bro . Cawthorn is , we think , most unwise therefore on every ground , as regards the true interests of the school , but Masonically we also deem it to be thoroughlyunsound in principle . Bro . Cawthorn is , we understand , not even a subscriber to the Boys '

School at all . How can he propose such a resolution ? And how can the Prov . Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire pass such a resolution , still less hand it on to the Grand Lodge ? What possible rig ht has the Prov . Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire to express such an opinion as a

corporate body ? It has , it is true , paid certain monies to the school in days of old , and it has received a return in votes , and there its interest practicall y ends . It is impossible that on any known princip le of Masonic Jaw or equity it can pass such a resolution without thoroughly stultifying

itself . We hope , therefore , that for the "honour and dignity " of West Yorkshire , the resolution will be withdrawn with a good grace . But how can Grand Lodge even interfere r How could it receive such a resolution ? How could it act upon it ? It gives £ ' ° annually to the

institution , a purely voluntary institution , which receives £ 10 , 000 in round numbers annually from the Craft as private donations and subscriptions . How can it on its grant of ^ ijo profess to have a right to enquire as to the expenditure of the £ 10 , 000 5 It may , indeed , enquire how its £ 130

are appropriated , and , if not satisfied with the explanation tendered , may withdraw its own annual grant , but it can do no more , and can go no further . We think that those who propose such a resolution can hardly have realized to themselves its full effect , as if it could be passed

it would , we venture to say , be fatal to the independence and self-supporting character of all our metropolitan institutions . No one can deny that Grand Lodge in times past has been very liberal to all our great charities , but such grants do not give it a right to appoint a committee to examine

into the expenditure , past and present , of the Boys' School or the Girls' School , or even of the Benevolent Institution , andto . lay down the salaries of the officials , and the proper mode of conducting the proper work of each , for such , though ingeniously veiled over , is the actual bearing of

Bro . Cawthorn ' s motion . The only proper course for any to follow who have complaints against anything or anybody , is to go to the General Court , or to lay the matter officially before the House Committee . Until that has been done no one has a 1 ight to pretend to say that he has

exhausted all modes of redressing real or imaginary grievances . Above all , no one , we venture to repeat , should seek by such revolutionary proceedings to undeimine the very foundation on which the Boys' School rests , as a great voluntary institution , aided , no doubt , by Grand Lodge , but supported by the Craft at laige .

Masonic Egotism.

MASONIC EGOTISM .

Those of us who know much of Freemasonry , ( and some of us have seen ils sunny as well as its I 1 . 1 Z ) sk ' e forna n * long years ) know well how

Masonic Egotism.

often we have been bored , and how much the Craft suffers from the personal egotism of more than one worthy and , perhaps , well-meaning brother . Too often the harmony of a lodge , the peaceful flow of work , the serenity of the witching hour of refreshment , are all alike sadly

marred and affected by the intruding tendencies of an irrepressible personal egotism . Many of us even now can picture that well-known and active brother of ours , with many good points no doubt , in his character , whose theory of Freemasonry is entirely based on its opportunity of

individual display , or its occasions of personal assertion . To him Freemasonry , no doubt very good , proper , useful , and agreeable , whether in work , refreshment , or principles , is only worth anything at all to him as it affords him the means of putting forward his own overwhelming

claims to position and to prominence . Hence he is always to the fore- go where you will you find him always busy , always agitated , always loquacious . He will take any work , or propose any health , or return thanks for

everybody and everything . In short he is a Masonic " factotum , " or " teetotum , " call him what you like , so versatile are his talents , and so shifting are his " poses . " Sometimes , no doubt , he degenerates into an awful bore , even a trying nuisance , as the educated and cultivated often

protest inwardly and groan outwardly at his slipshod English , his unmeaning and unceasing assertions of his love , and his respect , and his labours for Freemasonry . They have heard it all over and over before ; they have to listen to it , and will have to listen to it , over and over again .

Well , this brother Tripod of ours is a not uncommon character , and many a lodge , as well as many a province , has to lament that every gathering , that every " alba dies , " are made , as it were , only to minister to his personal grandeur , not to advance the career of brotherhood , not to

enhance the wholesome influences of Freemasonry . No doubt something may be said , looking at the question merely sociall y , in favour of egotism , in respect of the struggles of life . As a general rule we are all taken at our own valuation , and some of our satirical writers have

undoubtedly held , that if any of us wish to get on , or push our way in the world , we must assert ourselves , we must impress others around us with the prevailing idea of our own cleverness , ability , shrewdness , superiority . Indeed , some go so far as to assert that that man is

always most looked up to who so proclaims his own merits that he makes himself disagreeable even to other people . They are the meek , the forbearing , the " goody-goody , " as our young ladies say , who go to the wall . Such a view we believe to be a fallacy , and one , moreover ,

that does but little credit to humanity . It may be that by the vulgar and tawdry trappings of the Vanity Fair of life many are blinded and misled to-day ; it may be that the recklessness of selfassertion and the claims of personal egotism may often impress the weak , the wavering , and the

coarse-minded ; but on the whole we are inclined to believe that the noble qualities of the mind and heart still sway , after all is said and done , the feelings and consciences of , at any rate , the most elevated of our race . Freemasonry , in its gentle and true teaching , ever

forbids the domination of that encroaching egotism which claims all for No . 1 , and forgets its nei ghbour , its brother , and its friend . Still , as of old , despite much of untoward and illomened individual selfishness amongst us all , still though egotism abounds on every side of

us , and seems sometimes to go with us from our cradles to our graves , all who are not merely following in the ruck of the purely worldly , selfopinionated , self-seeking , irregular , and , as the Germans say , " gemein , " must admire the holier and better laws of modesty and abnegation . We

are not to y ield to the bully or the blatant , we are not to fear the " tall talk " of the blusterer , we are not to surrender to the ingrained selfishness of the egotistical , but , preserving the golden mean between selfishness and sentiment , between

modesty and self-assertion , we are never to forget that we are " members one of another , " that we are brethren of one great family , creatures of one Creator . Above all , we are ever to prefer the interests of another to our own selfish strivings ,