To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The FREEMASON is a Weekly Newspaper , price / - &« It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information , relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Subscription , including postage : United America , India , India , China , & c .

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Important Notice.

IMPORTANT NOTICE .

It is very necessary for our readers to advisus of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India j otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them . Several P . O . O . ' s are now in hand , but having received no advice we cannot credit them .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

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Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

The Wellington Lodge of Instruction stands over until next week . ROSE CHOIX . —Your communication received .

BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " The Masonic Newspaper , " " Der Triangel , " " Dickens ' Dictionary of the Thames , " " Die Bauhiitte , " " Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of F ' rce and Accepted Masons of MaEsachunetts , " "Thc Square and Compass , " " Weekly Picayune , " " Water for Nothing , " " Die New Yorker Bundes Presse , " " Dog Tray ' s Travels , " " The White Cats of York , " " The Play Grammar . "

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements not exceeding Four Lines under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . HILL . —On the irjth inst ., at Oak House , Tufnell-place , Holloway-road , the wife of J . R . Hill , M . R . C . S ., of a daughter . KELLY . —On the 20 th inst ., at Hamilton House , 18 , Riversstreet , Bath , the wife of Lieut . Colonel Kelly , late Ooth Rifles , of a daughter .

MARRIAGE . MONCKTON—MoiiniEw . —On the 14 th inst ., at St . Saviour's , Shanklin , Isle of W'ight , Frederick Edward , son of Bro . W . Monckton , of Basted , Wrotham , to Emily Maud Minna , daughter of the late W . Morphew , Esq ., of Bitchttt ' s House , Seal , Kent .

DEATHS . BAIIKEII . —On the irjth inst ., at Honiton , after a few days ' illness , Mr . William Henry Barker , aged 47 , late manager of the National Provincial Bank , Honiton . Friends will please accept this the only intimation .

Lt'iiiiocK . —On the 20 th inst ., at High Elms , Down , Kent , Ellen Frances , wife of Sir John Lubbock , Bart , M . P . MASON . — -On the 20 th inst ., at Fountains Hall , aged 64 , William Mason , Agent to the Marquis of Ripon . Friends will please accept this intimation .

Notice.

NOTICE .

The Cosmopolitan Masonic Diary and Pocket Book for 1880 is preparing for publication early in November . To ensure accuracy a form for filling up has been sent to every lodge , and those

Secretaries who have not yet made their returns will greatly oblige the Publisher by doing so at their earliest possible convenience . The Freemason Office , 198 , Fleet-street .

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THE FREEMASON . SATURDAY , OCTOBER ' 25 , 1879 .

Masonic Charity.

MASONIC CHARITY .

The scene which is presented at our Masonic elections is a very remarkable one indeed . So remarkable is it in all its incidents and all its bearings that it may be doubted if any similar scene exists in this country , or , in fact , any other portion of the world . America , for instance ,

with its 700 , 000 Masons , knows nothing of it , and it is reserved for us English Masons , happily , in the good Providence of T . G . A . O . T . U ., to exhibit an " outcome " of Masonic Charity before which our enemies may well be silent , and of which our friends may be justly proud . The

English Craft is a great organization . It raises £ 40 , 000 annually to keep up its goodly Charities , which minister to the feebleness of old age , which aid and educate the sons and daughters of Masons . Each year , as it passes over our heads , serves but to attest the wonderful , nay

increasing value of these goodly Institutions , inasmuch as with a growing brobrotherhood the claims on our Masonic sympathy and benevolence are augmented in about a two-fold ratio , and there seems at present no limit either to the one or the other , no probable

bar to the former , no possible restriction to the latter . Old age and calamity know no repressive or Malthusian laws . They exist , and always will exist , and the very prosperity of Masons , on the whole , is too often only the prelude to hours of adversity . Indeed it is affecting to remember

how many of those who thus at our elections appeal to our good feelings and ask for our support , are the children of those whom we once met in lodge , who filled the same social sphere as ourselves , were our friendly mates , our genial companions . Memory takes us , back a long

flight when one worthy brother was an habitual subscriber , a member , an officer of cur own old lodge , and with him , perhaps , are bound up , too , the unfading reminiscences of pleasant days and vanished friends . And here is his child asking from us help for that education and care which , had he

been spared in the infinite wisdom and preserving care of T . G . A . O . T . U ., it would have been his glad duty and his zealous effort to have procured . Alas , his place in the lodge knows him no more , and we , like good and true Masons , stand , sympathetically and Masonically " in loco parentis "

to that poor child . This is the sublime , and yet practical , idea of our Schools , and a very sublime and yet practical idea it is . When then to-day men deride us or assail us , question our utility or our work , we have always thought , ( are we not right in so doing ?) , that the best , the truest

argument for our * ' raison d ' etre " is to be found in the good we do , the " charity " we labour for . Our lodges are very pleasant social gatherings , our Grand Lodge is a wonderful organization . The members of our Order are many , educated , and distinguished : the rank we win and the

decorations we wear need be despised by none . But , after all , all these things sink into comparative insignificance when we consider the superabounding , the overwhelming claims and grace of Masonic Charity . That is the " salt " which

seasons all our " symposia , " that is the " leaven " which leaveneth our whole framework , that i s the end and goal of all our efforts , that is the reason of all our true Masonic labour . Without it we might be a mighty sodality , but we should have no vitality of existence , no power of endu-

Masonic Charity.

rance , the scorching " simoom " of the world ' s great wilderness would exhaust our being and shrivel our external form , or " the encroachino * hand of time" would sweep away our little building , level it to the ground , or consign it to

the dust and oblivion of ages . And so , wherever Freemasonry has forgotten Charity it has degenerated into one of two shapes , — it has either become a purely social body , given up to galas and great festivals , or it has become mixed up with politics , and it has ere

long been found to be inimical to authority and destructive of social order and constitutional laws , Happily in England , avoiding these pitfalls , we have kept by the via media of practical w ork and charitable efforts , and there our Freemasonry evidences itself , alike to the outer world as to its

own members , in that its utility is unquestioned , its position recognized , and the unostentatious good it does is recognized and experienced . We therefore rejoice to note the increasing votes for our Charities , and find no fault with our many claims . They are for the most part unavoidable ,

the necessary result of the onward and expansive march of Freemasonry in this country , and must be watched ever carefully , and when they exceed our present means of dealing with them , must be looked at from no niggard or grud ging point of view , but as true Masons we should ever

treat the light . ful claims of those who make a fair appeal to their principles ancl their pockets . One word of warning , however , comes in here . Speakers at meetings are apt sometimes , dilating , upon the duty of giving to the Charities , and properly enough in all sound measure , to ignore

the fact that all Masonic charity is not confined to giving to the Charities . There are many ways of giving in Masonic charity , which , as Freemasons , we should always seek to aid and forward , and whether in lodge , Provincial Grand Lodge ,

Grand Lodge , or in our support of the Charities , and , above all , our private gifts , we should ever bear in mind that it is not so much what we give as how we give it , in what real , true spirit we make the offering , that constitutes its value , help , and blessing .

Uniformity Of Ritual.

UNIFORMITY OF RITUAL .

In the earlier days of this paper a movement for uniformity of ritual was looked upon with some favour b y its then able editor . But " tempera mutantur , " and as we also change with them so do editors . There is no finality or infallibility in editorship , neither is there any reason

why because once upon a time an opinion , favourable or unfavourable , was expressed on a particular subject , therefore the same opinion is always to be expressed at all times and under all circumstances . It very often happens in journalism that the view of one editor is not the view of

another , and , indeed , journalism itself could not exist if we were supposed to be always bound by casual opinions and ancient theories . It is more than probable that had the able brother who once conducted our paper been still editor he would have completely endorsed the views of the writer

of a late review in our pages on this old controversy . But be that as it may , we who now have the honour to address our brethren week by week in Bro . Kenning ' s widely-spread paper , have conscientiously expressed the opinion we have always held on the subject , to which we have

given frequent utterance in lodge and out of lodge , and which a long and careful study of our ritual and our archaeology has only confirmed and consolidated the more . We feel quite sure of this , that no more unhealthy or unsound movement could be carried on , than that which would

serve to bring about a slavish adherence to , a rigid uniformity of ritual . In the abstract something may perhaps be said \ s priori for an uniformity of ritual , but in practice we are persuaded nothing , nay , less than nothing . The only result will be a system of " cram" and "cribbing , " idle officers , and the encouragement of surreptitious

formula :. As it is , we are suffering just now , and we speak feelingly , from personal knowledge and experience , from that want of a close mastering of our ancient lore , which is best to be obtained in lodges of instruction and from expert teachers , The differences about which so much is often said amount in reality to an infinitesimal quantity , while on the other hand a certain