Masonic Female Orphan School, Dublin.

On the chair being taken Ly The Most Worshipful his Grace the Duke of Leinster , Grand Master , The brethren present ( and the pupils ) saluted his Grace " by a running fire of eleven coming down on the third , " the time being

taken from the Right Worshipful the Deputy Grand Master . The proceedings having been opened by the singing of a portion of the hundredth psalm , joined in by the entire assemblage , Right Worshipful J . F . Elrington , Q . C .,

read—The report of the governors for the year ending December 31 st , 1 S 73 , which stated that the revenue of the school from all sources , including a balance from the previous annual account of £ 778 , amounted to the sum of X ' 3 , 511 6 s . 1 id ., not any material increase over the previous year .

Of that sum £ 1 , 621 gs . od . had been expended in the maintenance and education of the pupils , and in the necessary repairs and supplies for the school house , as well as the providing outfits and apprentice fees for those who had left the institution during the year . The capital stock

had been increased by the purchase of £ 900 in Great Southern and Western Railway stock , and by the investment of £ 265 in Masonic Hall snares , and a balance of £ 747 4 s . 8 d- was carried forward to credit . The annual subscriptions showed a falling off of /" iSs ios ., when

compared with those of last year ; and the individual life donations also are less than those of 1872 by the sum of £ 55 ios ., but these deficiencies were , in part , made up by the official life donations , which were nearly double the amount of those in the last year ' s account , and

on the whole the income of the school , including a sum of , £ 250 on deposit receipt , transferred to the current account , shows an increase of £ 25 on the year . The expenditure showed an increase , arising chiefly from the hi gh price of provisions and fuel . The Governors had

completed negotiations for the purchase of a plot of ground on the north side of the schoolhouse ; but it had been a matter of much consideration whether , in the event of the building of an enlarged schoolhouse being decided on , should such be erected on the presents site , looking to

the increase of buildings in the neighbourhood , and the limited area of the ground , even with the addition thus secured . One of the pupils ( Emma Walsh , aged 1 , 3 ) died during the year of rapid decline ; and another ( Maude White ) was in delicate health ; but with these exceptions

the health of the pupils during the year has been satisfactory . No change in the educational department had taken place since the last report , except the appointment of one of the senior pupils , Lizzie G . Williams , as pupil teacheran arrangement which promised to work

satisfactorily . The progress of the children in their studies has been good . During the year nine girls were elected , but of these only six had as yet been admitted in consequence of the crowded state of the schoolhouse . During the same period three girls in addition to the one appointed pupil

teacher , had been provided with situations ; one had been returned to her mother , and one had been removed by death as above stited . The report concluded with a graceful reft rence to the loss which the institution had sustained by the death of Bro . Edmund R . Digges La Totiche ,

who for many years filled the office of honorary secretary of the institution . Bro . the Right Worshi pful Lord Plunket , who was received with loud applause , said : —I have the honour of moving the following resolution" That the report now read be adopted , printed ,

and circulated , and that the thanks of this meeting are due to the members of the several committees of the institution , and also to the medical officers of the school , for the zealous and efficient manner in which they have discharged the duties devolving upon them , and for the lively interest they manifest in

everything conducive to the prosperity and progress of the pupils of the Masonic Female Orphan School . " I must remember that this is a meeting for the distribution of prizes , and not for making ^ speeches , and therefore I will try and follow the good example generally set by your Grace , and detain the meeting here as short a

Masonic Female Orphan School, Dublin.

time as possible by my remarks . It is now , I think , just eleven years since I had the honour of moving a resolution in the very same words as those which I have just read . I had only then been very recently made a Mason , and I took the opportunity of stating the reasons

which had induced me . to join the Order , and the advantages which I hoped to obtain from connecting myself with that ancient and honourable brotherhood . Eleven years have now passed , and I can truly say that my expectations have not been disappointed . My experience has

taught me that the Masonic Order isnotmerely an institution established for the purpose of initiating its members into certain mysteries which they have the privilege of keeping secret from all , even from the importunacy of their wives ; how great that privilege is I leave it to the

married members of my order to confess . Nor is it an institution which gives us merely an opportunity of displaying or airing our oratorical powers in our respective lodges , or of exercising our gastronomical powers at our feasts ; it is something more , I am happy to say . It is an

institution , as my experience teaches me , for bringing together in loving bonds of social union men of different opinions and creeds and views and tastes and feelings , making them to love one another daily more and more as brothers . It is an institution which above all

brings us together upon the common platform of Christian charity , and which teaches us all , as this meeting does , to do that which the blessed book that was carried before us in procession this evening , the symbol and emblem of

what our lives should be and the standard beneath which we should never lower our aspirations , to do what that blessed book tells us is the great element oi pure and enli g htened religion , to visit the fatherless and widows in theit

affliction and to support them in their distress . Upon the same occasion I had also to ask the meeting to return their thanks to those who during the past year had acted upon the various committees of this excellent institution , the Masonic Female Orphanage , and dwelling as I

did then upon what appeared to me the anomalous duties of those gentlemen who find to act on committees , I claimed from the meeting an unanimous response , and received it . Now eleven years have passed , and for my own part , though 1 have attended innumerable committees

during the interval , I have not found them one whit more pleasant than they were . then . Let me say here openly , I hate committees , I consider it even a more trying ordeal to be summoned to a committee than to be invited to an afternoon tea , and that , as a friend near me

observes , is saying a good deal . But then if you go to an afternoon tea you may hear good music , or you may converse with some of your friends , and if they are disagreeable you may go up to your hostess , make some complimentary remarks , go down stairs , take your hat and coat ,

if somebody else has not done that before you , and go home to your wife , whereas if you go to a committee you have to listen to some gentlemen uttering dry platitudes , about the election of a new Secretary , and if you think his remarks are rather tiresome , and begin to speak

to a friend , yon are called to order , ar . d if you take up your hat and go out in despair , you go under the ban of general disapprobation , and feeling that you have been guilty of a dereliction of duty . Therefore I say that really an afternoon tea is better than a committee . However ,

committees are necessary evils , and all one can do is to tender our thanks to those who , at much self sacrifice , take upon themselves the arduous dut y of attending them . And now , since you have so heartily responded to that , there is one point more which I must not omit bringing before you , that among the committees connected with

this institution , there is a ladies' committee . I know that a poet has said that men must work and women weep , and I remember one man being so profane as to interpretthat thus : " Men must work and women talk ; " but for my part a more atrocious calumny on the fair sex I never heard . What greater proof of that could there be than the fact that to the ladies' committee is owing very much of the present successful condition of the institution . They are the workers ,

Masonic Female Orphan School, Dublin.

and now I , poor humble man , am the talker . But you will , I am sure , properly appreciate their labour . That response shows that you agree with me in thinking that we are under obligations to the ladies , and it would be a piece of monstrous superfluity to prove a foregone

conclusion . I will merely conclude by moving the resolution I read , and by asking you , after it is seconded , to adopt it with acclamation . Bro . the Right Worshipful Edward Hudson , Kinahan , D , L ., High-sheriff of the county

Dublin , and representative of the Grand Lodge of Virginia , in seconding the resolution , testified to the excellent manner in which the schools had been conducted during the past year , remarking that he did so after frequent personal observation .

The resolution was then put , and adopted amidst applause . Bro . George Woods Maunsell proposed the second resolution , as follows : —That whilst

acknowled ging with gratitude the liberal support and assistance which the Masonic Orphan Schools have hitherto experienced , the Governors would earnestly invite the co-operation of the brethren in order still further to extend the usefulness of

these institutions . He mi ght ask this magnificent meeting which was gathered around them , he might ask the distinguished members of the Order of which he had the honour to be an humble member , what was the cause of their assembling here to-night , if it were not through the

medium of such a meeting to extend the usefulness of the Order . He had heard such meetings as this made little of , as if they had no value or importance in promoting the objects of this great and noble institution . They were met here for many and valuable objects . They were met ,

first fo render an account to the subscribers to the institution of how their money had gone , and how the institution had prospered ; they were met here to enlist recruits for the institution ; they were met here to carry forward into the future the blessings which it had so far extended and they were here—as he had heard it

statedto add bricks to the temple which had already been built . He thought he might congratulate the Order upon the benefits which had been hitherto achieved . It was happily said by the present Prime Minister at one of his orations , he thought at Glasgow , that now-a-days men liked to become their own executors . Men liked to

see the value of these institutions , which at other times were only carried out in intention during life time , and were left to executors to be fulfilled . Now a new principle was introduced , and men were found in the length and breadth of the land devoting in their lifetime the sums which Providence had placed at their disposal , to create and extend institutions which carried

blessings to all around them . Pie hoped that among those who heard him there were some who might become their own executors in the extension of this school , so that the wish of the governors might be realized , by increasing the number of pupils from 40 to 70 . Let them hope thai the

governors would soon be able to carry out their intentions of placing the institution in such a position that no brother leaving a family unprotected would feel there was a difficulty about getting them a home and education ; that there would be placed over them those who would

train them , and who would feel they had moral beings to discipline , and souls to save . So long as there was a large class in the world who must eat the bread of industry on the condition of good behaviour , so long would cases arise that called for the support , the protection , and the assistance of the brethren he saw around him . Let them

hope that that assistance would be given , and the usefulness of the institution extended either by buikljng an addition or planting the institution on a larger space . Bro . the Right Hon . the Vice-Chancellor , in

seconding the resolution , said , as he had served on committees , the labours of which had been depicted as so irksome , and for more years even than Lord Plunket had mentioned , he would venture to bring before them some facts to which he asked their serious attention . Their

income , as stated by their Secretary , consisted of annual subscriptions this year of , £ 890 . That presented a diminution from last year of £ 183 .