Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS SSi ) Lodge of Benevolence 59 ° Instalation ot the Duke of Albany as M . E . Z . of the Apollo Chapter , Oxford ... 590 Provincial Grand Chapter of Northumberland ? 0 ° Masonic History and Historians 590

CoRREsroxnEvcr . ( continued)—The Agon * Column S 93 Our New W . M . ' s 593 Reviews J 93 Masonic Notes and Queries 593 The Grand Lodges of Engla-d and Quebec 593 RF . I' - RTS 01- MASONIC

MEETINGSThc Grand Lodges of England nnd Quebec J 91 The Patternmakers' Company and Bro . George Lambert , G . Swd . 13 591 C ORRESPONDENCEThe Rituhl Question S 93 Masonic Reporting 592 Curious Bye-Laws 59-Olficcrs Visiting Lodges 5 * 93

Craft Masonry -. 594 Instruction .. ' . 597 Royal Arch 597 Ancient and Accepted Riic 59 * 3 Royal Ark Mariners SOS Amusements 59 $ Masonic .-Hid General Tidings fi ) 9 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 600

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CHRISTMAS will soon behereagain . with all its wonted joys of social gatherings and peaceful family reunions . Before we again greet our many kindly readers another Christmas Day will have been added to the departed anniversaries of close on to 1900 years , and all that constitutes the " outcome" of abnormal family assemblies and domestic rejoicings will be once again but a

memory and association of the past . " Happy , happy Christmas , " says one of the most popular and effective of modern English writers , and so say we , which can invest so much that is common-place and purely earthly with all that is gentlest in tone , and most graceful in sentiment , and can supply for a few , short passing hours as much of personal happiness and loyal

fellowship as is good for us all to claim and lean upon as our own here . Yes , Christmas throws overourcustomary andeven baserlife to-dayall that is poetic in sympathy , ali that is beautiful in emotion , all that is true and goodly and beneficent in practice . To very many Christmas is the far off goal of ardent hopes , the " Ultima Thulo" of genial associations , a meeting of harmony to

compensate for the rough discords of hie , a reward for toil , a sweetening , return for duty , a help and a consolation , and a happy alleviation for a little space , of many hard lots , stalwart struggles , and bitter disappointments in the world . And therefore to-day we hail " King Christmas " once again ; may it bring with it all of health and happiness for many true patrons , and

unwavering friends of ours , much radiant happiness for the young , much heartfelt contentment for the old . Laden with gifts of affection , and fragrant with sympathies of love , may it indeed be " A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL I'OR WHOM WE WRITE OR CARE FOR , * " TO ALL FREEMASON'S WHITHERSOEVER DISPERSED OVER THE FACE OF EARTH OR WATER . To THEM , ONE AND ALL , OLD AND YOUNG , PUBLISHER AND EDITOR TENDER MANY ,

MANY SINCERE AND HEARTY GOOD WISHES FOR A VERY VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO THEM AND THEIRS . * * CHRISTMAS has two sides to its appearance , year by year amongst us all , as the calendar of time closes in and the great stream of time rolls

on turbidly and muddily to the greater sea of Eternity . It has its joyous fellowship j it has also its sadder aspect . For thc present inevitably recalls the fast . It is impossible for , us to-day to associate with the gay gatherings of Christmas , to stand , perhaps , a " weary sojourner , " amid thc songs and shouts of the young , the charming , the brilliant , and the blooming , the

unwithered hearts and untainted sympathies of many a happy family circle , without remembering those who are missing from the assembly and the festival , from the innocent festivities of a benign and benevolent sociality . Some , alas , " are not , " whom we sadly miss to-day from our sides or from our very midst . The pleasant presence , and the warm heart ; the silvery

voice , and the sunn }* ' smile , the gifts and graces of early and of later years , are no longer with us to help and comfort , to cheer and to delight . Still they are not forgotten by that true and tender memory which is never ashamed to linger on amid that dear departed company even now j still those who are wanting to us ' seem , as it were , to shed over the scene of many a goodly festivity the soothing influence of " auld Iang syne , " the

tender recollections of a true but cherished " long ago . " Are we striking too serious a chord for some if we conclude these few faltering lines ( may be ) of ours , with the beautiful words of the REV . GREGORY SMITH ' S , which as set to music by Mr . HERBERT OAKF . LEY , were used in a hymn termed "Past and Future , " before thc QUEEN and nearly the whole of the assembled Royal Family on the anniversary of the death of the muchlamented PRINCE CONSORT , a few days ago ?

" Adown the river year by year the fragile bark flies past ; And still a fond reverted gaze is fixed upon the past . Yet soon a golden ray shall dart across the eastern sky , To bid the weary world rejoice : at last her Lord draws nigh ,

And though the voices dearly loved have breathed their last farewell , Their precious tones within the heart still unforgotten dwell . O time , fly fast ! O ages , end ! that He , whom we adore , May gather round Himself His own , foe ever , evermore ! Amen . "

* * * THERE is a " point which deserves note and comment" even in these quiet and friendl y pages of the Freemason . It is this , that Christmas is meant to be enjoyed and not abused . We are aware that some foolish persons

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dislike and some weak minds object , to all words of friendly warning , or reasonable reminder , and term them " puritanical " or oven " hypocritical . " For our part we venture to think that the Freemason is never so well occupied as when , without pharisaic ostentation or pretentious sentimentality , it seeks , amid the din of conflicting follies and unreasoning "isms , " to allow a

few words of friendly counsel and salutary wisdom to lighten up the otherwise dull routine of mere customary platitudes . Christmas is not merely a wordly jubilee ; it is not a pagan festival •it is not , and cannot be , onry intended for unlicensed indulgence . The message it brings is one of " moderation in all things , "—alike in the good thingsof life , thegay fellowship of society , thesongs

and plcasuresof a happy " merry meeting . " All these things are good and proper in their measure and in their place , their use and their enjoyment ; and he is the wisest and most religious person who , neither seeking to be singular nor " idios 3 * ncratic ,- " accepts gratefully all the " good gifts " to man of T . G . A . O . T . U ., and avails himself of them one and all in self-restraint

and self-control . Tho " Golden Mean " is still as ever the search and the aim of the true Masonic philosopher ; that " Golden Mean , " I say , which avoids equally avarice and profusion , excess and childish asceticism . So there is , as we said before , a *" point " to be noticed by all our readers , and which we beg to commend to their fraternal and serious consideration .

WE need hardly remind our friends that Christmas is a good time to remember those who have none of the blessings and good things we so freely enjoy . Just now there are so many pressing claims on our personal means , so many excellent , and valuable , and truest charities asking , nay , " imploring" for succour , that it becomes almost invidious to particularize

and difficult to select . There is also , though wc sometimes forget it , an , enormous amount of unknown suffering and penury which it may do some of us good to try to enquire into and search out . Some of our Christmas festivities may be made truer festivals of the heart , happier memories for us all ,

if we can recall to our mind the reality that we have sought to make some poor boy or girl , some one suffering and poverty-stricken home , some haunt of misery and disease , brighter , happier , more endurable , alike by friendly words of sympathy , and kindlier gifts of charity . .

* * H . R . H . the Duke of ALBANY was installed First Principal of the Apollo Chapter in the Friends in Council Chapter b y M . E . Comp . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE , G . S . E ., on Saturday last , at 33 , Golden-square . We need hardly add that the ceremony was performed by our excellent and esteemed

Companion with all that clearness and effect for which he is so admired . There was a brilliant assemblage of Installed First Principals , some of the very " elite" of our Order , and many more were unavoidably prevented from being present . Those who were not present missed a great treat , and were deprived of a great pleasure . . His ROYAL HIGHNESS was most warmly received by the as ever loyal companions who filled the hall .

* * * WE rejoice to note that the LORD MAYOR ' Fund for Distressed Ladies in Ireland has in reality reached to over ^ 8000 , after eleven days' appeal , to the

beginning of this week , and we trust that when Christmas Day has dawned upon us , the fund may not fall short of £ 10 , 000 or £ 12 , 000 . Every aid , however small , is urgently needed and will be gratefull y received . The personal accounts from Ireland are most distressing .

* * * ALL our readers will appreciate and admire poor Lad y BALCARRES' beautiful letter which appears in our daily contemporaries . It will be the hope of us all that ' some discovery may be made " ere long which will restore the bod y of the late Earl of BALCARRES to the mausoleum at Dunecht , and frustrate both the aims of cupidity and the cruel cunning of profanity .

-fr * * THE LORD MAYOR has received from the BURGOMEISTER of Vienna the following reply to his friendly message : "The sympath y of London with the mourning City of Vienna is a great consolation in these days of public accidents . In the name of the Municipality I beg to tender my best thanks for the expression of such sympathy . "

* * WE all in England are deeply shocked with the progress and incidents of the " GUITEAU Trial . " They seem to shame utterly our sense of decency and decorum , of order and propriety , in similar trials . So painful , so humiliating are some of the details , that for once we wish actually that this trial took

place " in camera , " to prevent the flood of folly , of blasphemy , and of profligate impiety thus poured down upon us in the too eager columns of newspapers . The Abbe DoMENECH . ina missionary work on Texas , tells us a good

story of an United States judge , who , when Texas was first settled and he first appeared on the scene , gave as the sentiment of the evening to an assembly of the Bar and legal profession generally , gravely and sonorously , " Justice modified by circumstances . " Can such an axiom still prevail in any