To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The F REEMASON is a Weekly Newspaper , price _ d . 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 Kincdom . the Continent , & c . Via Brindisi .

Twelve Months ios . Od . 12 s . od . 17 s . 4 d . Six „ 5 s . 3 d . Os . Od . 8 s . 8 d . Three „ 2 S . 8 d . 3 s . 3 d . 4 s . Od . Subscriptions may be paid for in stamps , but Post Office Orders or Cheques are preferred , the former payable to GEORGE KENNING , CHIEF OFFICE , LONDON ,

thc latter crossed London and Joint Stock Bank . Advertisements and other business communications should be addressed to the Publisher . Communications on literary subjects and books for

review arc to be forwarded to the Editor . Anonymous correspondence will be wholly disregarded , and the return of rejected MSS . cannot be guaranteed . Further information will be supplied 0 ' ? application to the Publisher , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

Ar00801

REPORTS , etc ., intended for insertion in current number , should reach the Office , ( 198 , Fleet-street ) , by 12 o ' clock noon , on Wednesdays .

Ar00802

IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India- otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

Ar00803

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

Ar00804

TO ADVERTISERS . The FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , 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 , hy 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

VV . GOODACRE . —Much thanked , —a report already in type . BOOKS & c , RECEIVED . "Der Bund , " "Loomis _ Musical and Masonic Journal , " "Masonic Herald , " "Keystone , " "The Watchman , " Boston ; "Popery—What is it ? " "Scriptural Extracts , < _ c , for Masonic Ceremonies ; " " Corner Stone , " " New YorkJjDispatch , " " Irish Freemasons' Calendar and Directory . "

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 S . ( id . for announcements , not exceed ing four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . CUTHBEHTSON . —On the inth inst ., ' at Lordship Park , N .. the wife of F . Cuthbertson , Esrj ., LL . D ., of a son . DRUMMOND . —On the 29 th tilt ., at Ahmcilabail , India , tin wife of Col . J . H . Drummond , of a son . MAW . —On the 20 th inst ., at Hyde Park-terrace , W ., the

wife of C . Maw , of a son . PETEK . —On the 14 th inst ., at Great Malvern , thc wife of J . Peter , Est ; ., of a son . HAND . —On the igthinst ., at Spencer-road , Wandsworthcommon , the wife of W . G . Hand , of a daughter . SMITH . —On the 21 st inst ., at Chester-square , thc wife of A . L . Smith , of a daughter .

DEATHS . HAIITLETT . —On the 2 ist inst ., at 149 , Drummond-road , Bermondsey , Mary Marh , wife of Bro . Henry Bartlett , P . M . 147 , aged 48 . HANKEY . —On thc 18 th inst ., at Brighton , Mary Matilda Alers Hankey , aged 24 . INNES . —On the 19 th inst ., at Portsia , Catherine , wife of

the Rev . J . Innes , aged 52 . 1 ' ALLISER . —On the 1 Gth inst ., at Russell-road , Kensington , aged 72 , Fanny , widow of Capt . R . B . Palliser . WILKINSON . —On the 20 th inst ., at Beaumont-street , Portland-place , Sarah , widiw of V . Wilkinson , aged 61 . WILLIAMS . —On thc 16 th inst ., at Duffryn I- ' rwd , near Cardiff , Evan Williams , in his 78 th year .

Ar00810

The Freemason , S ATURDAY , J ANUARY 26 , 1878 .

Most True

MOST TRUE

Since the appearance of our little " note of warning" we have had several communications , literary and personal , which convince us how true , " most true " says a good friend of ours , were the humble words we then thought it well to psn . We fancy from what we hear , that we

have greatly underrated the evil . Like the "Gaul " of old , it is " at our gates , " in our very midst , and unless we " put our foot upon it , " unless we check it ancl crush it with a firm but kindly hand , it will , so to say , cat out the very life of Freemasonry in our lodges . So , first , let ns

see how it is working now , and it is likely to work in the future . We find when we receive our lodge summons a long list of proposals for initiation or " joining , " the names of those of whom we know nothing . And though no doubt , as ISishop Butler would have said , both

faith and probability must be our guides , more or less , in this life , yet we feel we should like to know a little more of those whom we are about to admit into our lodge . We are , therefore , about to suggest a change in the bye-laws of many of our lodges which we know has workedivell . It

is this , that each candidate should be proposed two months before the lodge , that is , that Bro . Jones should announce his intention in January of proposing in February Mr . Trotter as a member of the Lodge Generosity , and that the notice appears in the summons for February as well as

in March , when Trotter is balloted for . Of course , we feel , that there is an objection peculiar to Lcndon lodges—which is , that as they only meet in November , January , February , March , April , and May , for the most part , such " hanging up " of the candidates for two

months will restrict the possible number of initiates . We do not , however , think , that such an objection is insuperable , and it would undoubtedly let all the brethren know who are those new members who seek admission into the good old lodge , We

have often heard it said , "Ah ! we made a mistake , we were in too great a hurry , we knew little or nothing about him- he ought never to have come into our lodge . " Too often within our knowledge has the entire harmony of a lodge been impaired by the admission of one uncongenial

brother ¦ too frequently have cliques and coteries bsen the consequence of yielding to the unwise dictation of some pig-headed or perverse brother , who looks upon the rejection of the candidate he proposes as a personal affront to himself . We cannot he loo cautious in regard to those whom we admit into Freemasonry , And then , again , . let

of our lodges , which is too often endangered by this hasty admission of those of whose antecedents , nay , of whose actual position we know absolutely nothing . It must be remembered our charities are not mere eleemosynary institutions , on the

principle of a benefit club or as material benefits , but are meant for decayed freemasons and for decayed Freemasons alone , those whom untoward fortune or unforseen calamity have reduced from affluence to poverty , from comfort to adversity , or for those widows and orphans who have been

bereft of their natural protector in the mscrutable dispensations of T . G . A . O . T . U . We cannot expect , nor would it be well or wise , to make our charities co-extensive with our numbers , and , therefore , our object always has been , and is necessaril y now , to guard tlieir administration with

checks and counter checks , to render them in fact alike truly useful , truly valuable , truly charitable , and truly Masonic . They constitute , in fact , in one direction , the " outcome " of all our professions , the expression of the beneficent teaching of Freemasonry . No doubt there are

many other ways in which true Masonic charity is felt and becomingly expressed , but in our great Masonic Institutions it finds alike a happy freedom and a sensible manifestation . We ought not then to admit those who from

certain antecedent conditions are pretty certain to swell the already overpowering demands on our charities . For such there are many valuable ben . fitorders in existence , extern to Freemasonr * , " ,

us look at the social " status " us look at the social " status "

Most True

and there let them seek the material aid they are certain ere long to require . Too many are seeking Freemasonry not for what it is , but for what it may be to them , and we cannot conceal from ourselves or our brethren that unwise precipitancy in the mode and means of admission to

our lodges must if persisted in be productive of most serious consequences sooner or later . They say one illustration is worth a hundred arguments , and we take one to conclude what some may deem a rather long-winded address . We shall have at the Boys' School election in April seventy

eight candidates . There were forty six unsuc " cessful candidates in October , and there are forty to be elected . But as the list has alread y increased thirty-one since October , we have no reason to doubt that in October we shall probably have very nearly another list of seventy

to deal with . When all these alterations are completed , we shall be educating jjoo children in the two schools , and we feel strongly that this is not only a very wonderful , but a very serious tact to contemplate per se . We therefore , as we said before , greatly deprecate the undue exten

sion of our Order which is going on amongst us as we feel sure that it can but have the result we have already ventured to predict . But as we think it always right to recognize the certainty that there are two sides to every question , we propose in the next Freemason to call attention

to another view , which has occurred to us while writing , and may have occurred to others , and which perhaps we may be disposed to accept as a satisfactory answer on the whole to this some what trying question . Though we may bs

" peripatetic" philosophers , Jwe neither profess to belong to the " cynical" or the "howling " school , and we think it well always to obtain what consolation we can , amid the doubts , the difficulties , and the conflicts of life .

What Does It Mean ?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN ?

We find in the Batihiitle of January 5 th , edited by our esteemed Bro . J . G . Findel , of Leipsic , a passage which we cannot understand , and which we shall be obliged to any German brother to explain fully . Bro . Findel takes , as will have been seen from our pages , a very strong

view indeed , as regards the question of the Grand Orient of France . In this he differs from all our English brotherhood . For we in England , just as in Scotland , and Ireland , and America , and Canada , decline to give up the unwavering declaration of Freemasonry to please

the "libres penseurs " of France . Bro . Findel does not like either the resolution of our Grand Lodge , or the remarks of the Freemason , or the speeches of our brethren , lhat we can clearly understand and appreciate . But in the Bauhiiite

of January 5 th , he uses words which we do not profess to comprehend in any measure . Speaking most kindly as he always does ofthe Editor , and expressing his regret at our English view , and insular perversity , he then closes with these remarkable words . " frotz dem tout aus

dem munde jedes linglischen Frmrs aus Kreu _ mit ihm , " and "der Jude wird verbraunt . " For those of our readers who do not understand German it may be sufficient to ob serve that thc import of these words is as follows —Nevertheless there echoes from the mouth of

every English Freemason . " To the cross with him , and the Jew will be burnt . " Now we beg to say to Bro . Findel , that this charge against English Freemasons , whatever it may really mean , is as unjust as it is absurd . There is no such tolerant body in existence as the English

Grand Lodge . Since 1 S 13 that Grand Lodge has practically declared for universal toleration , and in the recent struggle in Germany against the unwise exclusion ot Hebrews , the toleration of the English Grand Lodge has more than once been appealed to by Bro . Findel himself . It is

rather too bad , that because he disagrees with us as to our view of the French Grand Orient question , he is to denounce our English Craft as persecutors and intolerant , in terms ] which we must beg leave to say to our good

friend Bro . Findel are equally offensive and untrue . We persecute no one , we excommunicate no one , we condemn no one . All we have ever contended for is this , that in this unwise and uncalled for revolution , the French Grand Orient