Freemasonry In 1891.

FREEMASONRY IN 1891.

The year which a few days hence will have run its course is by no means the least memorable in the annals of our English Craft . True , there has been no event of special importance , as in 1875 , 1887 , and 1888 , which has , comparatively speaking , either thrown all other events into the shade , or may be considered as the cause of the good fortune which has undoubtedl y attended our Society during the past 12 months . But in all the different

branches of Masonic work the standard of progress as determined by the average success of the last 16 years has been well maintained . The increase in the number of lodges on the roll is less than in 1 S 90 , but on the other hand we are not aware of any diminution in consequence of lodges having fallen into abeyance or withdrawn from their allegiance to our Grand Lodge . There is the usual tale of losses to record , but none has befallen us of such

serious moment as that which occurred in the summer of 1890 . There is also , we regret to say , the same dissension existing , and it may well be in a more accentuated form , among the various sections of the Craft in one of outmost important Colonies , nor is there , we fear , a very bright prospect of the differences among the brethren in the Colony in question being reconciled . But in England itself and wherever else in the British Empire United Grand Lodge

exercises jurisdiction either on its sole account or conjointly with the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland , there is a community of good feeling as there is a community of interest . In the Provinces , where the authorities are exercising a greater amount of supervision over the lodges under their control than was customary in former days , the duties of the year have been more ably discharged , and at the same time more promptly . The support

extended to our Central Masonic Institutions , though more unequally distributed amongst them than in any past year we can call to mind with the exception of 1888 , has been greater by not far short of ^ 20 , 000 than in 1 S 90 , while the local Charities have increased both in number and efficiency . In short , if the dissension which prevails among the Freemasons of one of our British Colonies were terminated , and we could rely with certainty on

the exercise of that caution in the acceptance of candidates which our leading members impress so earnestly on the lodges , we do not believe there would be found anywhere a single cause for disquietude , and we should be in a position to record that in the United Kingdom and generally throughout the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown , the condition of Freemasonry had been one of sound and most gratifying prosperity .

CRAFT MASONRY .-The number of new lodges for which since the Quarterly Communication of United Grand Lodge in December , 1890 , his Royal Highness the Grand Master has been pleased to grant warrants is 34 , as compared with 52 in the previous 12 months . For a wonder London has had the largest accession of strength in theshapeof the following 13 lodges , namely , the Galen , No . 2394

, intended for members of the chemical profession ; the Avondale , No . 2395 , which meets appropriatel y in the Clarence Rooms , Cold Harbour-lane , Brixton ; the Bishopsgate Lodge , No . 2396 ; the Columbia , No . 2397 , a kind of supplementary edition of the Anglo-American Lodge , No . 2191 , which , like its prototype , will afford a special home for brethren visiting us from North America ; the Holborn , No . 239 S ; the Ordnance Lodge

, No . 2399 , a kind of semi-military lodge intended for members of the Ordnance Store Department who are or desire to become Masons ; the Brentford , No . 2400 ; the Hampstead , No . 2408 ; the Woodgrange Lodge , No . 2409 ; the Lodge of / Esculapius , No . 2410 , intended for members of the medical profession ; the Clarence and Avondale , No . 2 \\ i ; the Hiram Lodge , No . 24 . 16 , for architects ; and the Bolingbroke Lodge , No . 2417 , which meets in

the neighbourhood of Clapham Junction , and which , therefore , will have one advantage over other Metropolitan lodges of being accessible from all parts of the world , though it is to be hoped that those who purpose visiting it will riot lose themselves in the intricacies ofthe Junction in their endeavours to reach it . The new Provincial lodges arc 12 in number , Cheshire being enlaged by two , of which the Clarence , No . 23 S 6 , intended for military

brethren , meets in the city of Chester , while the Avondale , No . 2389 , is located at Middlewich . Durham has also had its roll extended by two additional lodges , namely , the Tristram , No . 2415 , which meets in Shildon , and is named after the reverend and respected Canon who is Deputy Provincial Grand Master of the Province , and the Hedworth , No . 2418 , meeting in So . uth Shields , and bearing one of the names of the distinguished

brother—Sir Hedworth Williamson—who rules the province . East L'incashire and West Lancashire have each of them added one to the roll , the Manchester Dramatic Lodge , No . 2387 , being the newcomer in the former Province , and the Ionic , No . 2405 , meeting in the town of St . Helen ' s , in the latter . Kent has strengthened itself by establishing a third lodge in Chatham , namely , the Lord Charles Beresford LodgeNo . 2404 which we trust will

, , do honour to the gallant naval officer and worth y Past Grand Warden of England whose name it bears . The Exmoor Lodge , No . 2390 , Minehead , is an accession to the roll of Somersetshire , and was consecrated by its new chief , Bro . Viscount Dungarvan , while the Orde-Powlett' Lodge , No . 2391 , located in Middlesborough , will serve to perpetuate the name and services

of Bro . the Hon . W . T . Orde-Powlett , P . G . W . of England and D . P . G . M . of North and East Yorkshire . The remaining three are the Hicks-Beach Lodge , No . 2407 , which has its quarters in Stroud , and had the honour of being consecrated b y the distinguished brother after whom it is named--Bro . Sir M . fcE . Hicks-Beach , Bart ., M . P ., Prov . G . M . of Gloucestershire ;

Freemasonry In 1891.

the Ashfield Lodge , No . 2412 , meeting in Sutton-in-Ashfield , in the Province of Nottinghamshire ; and the Wychwood Lodge , No . 2414 , which meets in Burford , in the Province of Oxfordshire . 'ihe additions to the Colonial list are nine in number , of which three belong to Queensland , namely , the Charlevillc Lodge , No . 2393 , meeting in the town of the same name ; the Lodge of Trinity , No . 2413 , Cairns ; and the Lodge of Hope ,

No . 2419 , Allora . The Eastern Division of South Africa has had its roll increased bytwo—the Harmony , No . 2388 , Stutterheim , and the Amatole , No , 2406 , meeting at Alice , Victoria East . The Victoria Lodge , No . 2392 , is quartered in Accra , West Coast of Africa , and the Kli p River County Lodge , No . 2401 , in Ladysmith , District Grand Lodge of Natal . The St . George ' s Lodge , No . 2402 , Larnaca , is the second lodge established

in Cyprus since the island came under the rule of this country , and the Borneo Lodge of Harmony , No . 2403 , meeting at Sandakau , in the northern part of the island , will , we trust , prove the pioneer of many other lodges in this remote British possession . The proceedings in Grand Lodge have been somewhat more eventful , and have therefore attracted a greater amount of attention than usual . At

the Quarterly Communication in March , Bro . George Everett , P . M . 177 , the sole nominee for the Grand Treasurership during the ensuing 12 months , was duly elected to that office . It will be in the recollection of our readers that Bro . Everett was a candidate for the same office in 1889 , but was defeated by Bro . Edward Terry . The congratulations , therefore , which he received on this occasion were all the heartier from ' the pluck he had

exhibited in offering himself for the second time as a candidate , and a few months later the members of the lodges and chapters with which he is connected entertained him at a complimentary banquet at the Criterion , Piccadilly , and at the same time presented him with a complete suit of Grand Lodge clothing to mark their sense of the valuable services he had

rendered to them particularly and to the Craft as a whole , and likewise to testify the pleasure they experienced at his success . The other proceedings at the same Communication were of the usual character , with the solitary exception of the resolution which , 011 the advice of Grand Registrar , Grand Lodge agreed to unanimously —( 1 ) for the deprivation of Bro . Sir Robert Stout of his " rank and status as a Grand Officer of the

Grand Lodge of England , " and ( 2 ) reporting him to the District Grand Master of Otago and Southland as having by his conduct in assisting to found a clandestine lodge in New Zealand brought himself within the provisions of Article 204 , Book of Constitutions , " with a view to the withdrawal " of his " patent as Deputy Grand Master of that district , and to his being further dealt with by the District Grand Lodge according to

Masonic law . A case of this kind is happily of rare occurrence , as may be gathered from the fact that the Grand Registrar in seeking guidance from the proceedings of United Grand Lodge found himself under the necessity of going as far back as 1816 for a precedent , while as regards the second clause of the resolution it may as well be stated here that any action on the part of the District Grand Master and District Grand Lodge

of Otago and Southland was rendered unnecessary by the retirement from English Freemasonry of Bro . Sir R . Stout . In April the Grand Festival was held , as usual , nor would it have been necessary to refer to the occasion bvit for the fact that the office of Pro Grand Master , which , nearly 12 months previously had been rendered vacant by the lamented death of Bro . the Earl of Carnarvon , was on this occasion tilled up by the

appointment by his Royal Highness the M . W . G . M . of the Earl of Lathom , while the office ol Deputy Grand Master , which his lordship had held continuously since 1875 , and which he thus vacated , was filled by the appointment of Bro . the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , Prov . G . M . of Cornwall . In September the action of the Prov . Grand Master of Jersey in suspending a lodge under his more immediate control for contumacy was sustained , while in

December the Grand Registrar , feeling that the position he had advised the Colonial Board to assume towards those lodges in New Zealand from which a majority of the members had retired for the purpose of joining a Grand Lodge which the Grand Lodge of England had solemnl y declined to recognise , was untenable , under the circumstances advised Grand Lodge to pass a resolution , by which every lodge in New Zealand , even though a

majority of its members had seceded , would be entitled to retain its warrant and exercise its lawful privileges in accordance with the provisions of Article 219 . It is needless to say that acting on this advice the Grand Lodge passed the resolution unanimously . At the same December Communication Bros . J . D . Murray , of Wigan , P . P . G . D . C . West Lancashire , and J . S . Cumberland , P . P . G . W . North and East Yorkshire , were severally nominated for the office of Grand Treasurer during the year 1892-3 , while on the same

occasion two resolutions were adopted amid general manifestations of enthusiasm . By the first of these , which was brought forward by Bro . Sir J . B . Monckton , P . G . W ., Grand Lodge voted a contribution of ^ 525 towards the approaching Jubilee Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , and by the second it was determined that in recognition of his lordship ' s valuable services during the last 16 years as D . G . M ., a portrait of the new Pro Grand Master , Bro . the Ear ! of Lathom , be painted and hung on the walls of Grand Lodge .

Among other events which may properly be recorded in this part of our Summary must be mentioned : in the first place , the installation at A ylesbury in the month of May of Bro . Lord Carrington , Past M . W . G . M . ot New South Wales , and P . S . G . W . of England , as Provincial Grand M ister of the newly-constituted Province of Bucks , the ceremony being performed by the Dukeof Clarence and Avondale , P . G . M . of Berkshire ; theinstallation at Bath in the same month by Bro . the Earl of Euston , P . G . M . of Northants