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PfeefflasoaS SATURDAY , APRIL 24 , 1897 .

Masonic Notes.

Masonic Notes .

On Wednesday next Grand Festival will be held , and the Grand Officers for the ensuing year will be appointed and invested . We have already been able lo furnish the names of several of the brethren upon whom his Royal Highness , the M . W . G . Matter , has been pleased to confer Grand honours . As regards the

Masonic Notes.

M . W . Grand Master himself , it is worthy of note that it is exactly 22 years to the very day since his Royal Highness was installed in office , the memorable meeting in the Royal Albert Hall , at which his installation took place , having been held on the 28 th April , ¦ S S- # * »

We regret to hear that the Board of Stewards for the approaching Festival , on Wednesday , the 12 th prox ., in behalf of thc Royal Masonic Institution for Girls compares sii ) 1 less favourably than it did last week with the Board as constituted at the corresponding period of the year for the Festival of 1896 . Seeing that the Easter Holidays have occupied most of the

interval since we last wrote , this , perhaps , is not altogether surprising , but it is very much to be regretted , and we trust that in thebrief time that remains a supreme effort will be made in order to ensure that the approaching Girls' Festival may be attended with results not unworthy of the Queen ' s Diamond Jubilee year .. We shall offer some remarks on the subject next week .

* * * . The report we publish in another column of the recent annual meeting of the Devon Masonic Educational Fund shows that that Fund is very capably fulfilling the purpose for which it was established , and that it is growing in favour with the lodges and

brethren in the Province . We do not for one moment question the correctness of the remarks made by the Chairman ( Bro . E . H . Shorto ) , when he moved the adoption of the report , to the effect " that the contributions to the Fund represented an average of only about £ 5 or £ 6 per lodge throughout the Province . "

This is certainly not a very great achievement for a body of S 3 lodges , but there was an increase in the funds last year from . £ 1586 to £ 1716 , while the receipts included between £ 104 and £ 105 , being the net proceeds of a concert in Plymouth Guildhall last December , under the conductorship of Bro . Willoughby . Moreover , there are at the present time 22 children

who are being educated and clothed at the cost of the Fund . There is , therefore , no doubt that the Devon Educational Fund is , as we have said , doing its _ work admirably , though it is conceivable and , in Bro . Shorto ' s opinion , desirable that it should receive a larger measure of support from the lodges and chapters . We congratulate Devonshire on the healthy condition in which this Fund is placed .

» . » ....... A circumstance of rare occurrence is recorded in the report which the Grand Secretary of Tasmania presented at the Annual Communication on the 28 th January last . It is mentioned as " an illustration of the universality" of Freemasonry , that in July last ,

a Captain Patrick J . Greenless—a recent arrival in the Colony— " died suddenly at the hotel in Hobart , where fie was lodging . " The report proceeds as follows * . " As soon as it was found from an examination of his effects that he was a Mason and a P . M ., the M . W . G . Master , R . W . Bro . Susman , and the G . Secretary , interested themselves in his affairs . It was found he

had not a friend or relation in the Colony , but his funeral was attended by representatives both of Grand Lodge and private lodges , and the service was conducted by Bro . the Rev . C . H . Talbot , P . G . Chaplain . Subsequently the Secretary discovered the address in England of a sister of our deceased brother , and was therefore able to forward her particulars of his sudden end , which were feelingly acknowledged .

* * The above circumstance not only exhibits " the universality of Masonry , " but redounds infinitely to the credit of our Tasmanian brethren , who acted thus nobly towards a brother who died while on a visit to a strange land , and to whom they offered precisely the same tribute of respect that they would have offered to

one of their own relatives or friends . We can well understand that the sister of our deceased Bro . Capt . Greenless , on learning that he had died suddenly , and been buried by his Tasmanian brethren in Masonry , must have been struck by this illustration of their sympathy and have "feelingly" acknowledged her gratitude for their kindness .

* * * According to one of our exchanges , there is a law in Colorado by which a Mason , who has been suspended frcm membership for thc non-payment of dues , and is desirous of being reinstated , must , in the first place ,

pay up his arrears . Having done this , he must petition in due form to be reinstated , and , after an interval of one month , the question is decided by ballot , a twothirds majority of the members present being required to ensure his reinstatement . There is also this further

Masonic Notes.

law in the same jurisdiction , to the effect that in lodges in which there happens to be no work in the Degrees , one of the principal officers shall deliver one of the lectures in turn , and report to the Grand ' 'Mi ' ster ^' or Grand Lecturer . ... . .. * -, >

* * * The Grand Chapter of New York held its 100 th annual convocation in the City of Albany on the 2 nd February last , when there was a large attendance of Grand Officers , Present and Past , and of the representatives of private chapters . M . E . Comp ., Ten

Eyck delivered an address of welcome , which was full of interest and in which he referred to the past career of the Grand Chapter in appropriate terms of eulogy . The Grand Secretary reported the aggregate membership in the jurisdiction as amounting to 19 , 886 . New Grand Officers for the ensuing year were elected , the

principal being Comps . John Webb , jun ., G . H . P . ; John W . Palmer , Dep . G . H . P . ; Joseph Crane , G . King ; J . Harris Balston , G . Scribe ; Herman H . Russ , G . Treas . ; and Christopher , G . Fox , G . Sec . ; the last named having been annually re-elected to his office during a period of 30 years . * » *

" The Grand Lodge of Louisiana held its 85 th annual communication on the Sth February , when Bro . Albert G . Brice , M . W . Grand Master , delivered the customary address , in the course of which he reviewed the principal events of the past year , and estimated the condition of the Craft in the jurisdiction . His opinion

is that though the past year was not one of general prosperity throughout the State , owing in one part of it to partial failure of the crops through drought , and in other portions to failures in the financial world , Masonry has held its own , and would have made considerably greater increase in membership than it has done had it not been for the misfortunes caused b y

these failures . And to judge from the address of Comp . Robert H . Gaze , G . H . P ., at the 50 th annual convocation of the Grand Chapter of the State on the following day , a very similar estimate appears to have been passed as to the position of Royal Arch Masonry , that is to say , it has fared tolerably well , notwithstanding the commercial and other depressions .

The Freemason s Repository reproduces in its March number , the " Declaration of the Freemasons of Boston and vicinity , " which at a critical time in the Anti-Masonic Crusade in the United States in the first half of the present century , was drafted by the late Bro . Charles W . Moore , adopted firstly by the Grand Lodge

of Massachusetts , and afterwards by those of Rhode Island and Connecticut , and subsequently circulated with the signatures appended of upwards of 6000 New England Masons . The writer of the Pretace or Introduction to the Declaration describes its issue as the "Turning point in the Anti-Masonic Crusade . " Though it was dated the 31 st December , 1831 , and it

was not till a few years later that the Crusade died out , there appears to be no reason to doubt that it had the effect he claims for it of causing a change in public sentiment towards Freemasonry . The Declaration is made in simple but earnest language , and when a favourable opportunity presents itself , we purpose publishing it in full . "

* » According to a pronouncement in the Voice of Masonry , the laws of the Grand Lod ge of Connecticut do not recognise a person as a Mason , who , after

having been rejected by a lodge in its o . vn jurisdiction , eceives the Degrees in a foreign country in a lodge working under the authority of a regular Grand Lodge , but without the consent of the lodge which had rejected him .

* « * The foregoing pronouncement is taken from a " Digest of Masonic Law" which forms quite one half of the March issue of that excellent periodical , and is by itself almost a complete work on American Masonic Jurisprudence , the subjects it deals with being

of the most varied character , while the cases cited in illustration of any particular law are taken from the laws of nearly all the Grand Lodges in the United States . . We commend this " Digest " to our readers who , if they study it carefully , will find much that is quite new to them and will doubtless cause them no little surprise .

A PORTION of the library of the late Bro . Sir Augustus Harris will be sold at Sotheby's Rooms , on Tuesday next . The most important lot comprises a collection of several hundred MS . dramas , farces , burletques , pantomimes , interludes , ope . as , & c , many of which were produced a : different tmes , under the management of the late Bro . Sir Augustus Harris and J . M . Maddox , at Drury Lane , Covent Garden , and Princess ' s . Theatres .