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GLASGOW . St Enoch Hotel ( Adjoins Glasgow Terminus of the Midland and G . & S . "W . Railways ) . The SI . Enoch Unit ! is DIU- of the finest in Great Britain , and is the most conveniently situnlcd tor holh pleasure and rmsiucss centres . Lounge . Kcstaurant and drill Koom . Good Cookine ,, Good Service . Electric Light . Lifts . Bedrooms : Single from 4 s . ; Double from 6 s . 6 d . Hotel . stationAYR . . Xt'u- Lounge . Electric Light . Xt'U * Llt ' i . Good Cooking . DUMFRIES . Station Hotel . For Hums' Country , Lovely Drives , Walks . Golf . Good Cooking . Electric Light . Bedrooms : Single from 3 s . Gd . ; Double from 6 s . 6 d . NO ClIAKliK 1-IIK ATTENDANCE AXI 1 El . ECTKlC I . IGMT . Fi'r descriptive , uul interesting tariff ( free ) , apply—Chief Office : — J . H . THOMAS , Manager , ST . ENOCH HOTEL , GLASCOW . G . & S . W . Ky . Co . ' s Hotels .

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PERRIER-JOUET & Cos . CHAMPAGNES . FINEST VINTAGE RESERVE-CUVEES . THE FAVOURITE MASONIC BRAND . Agent—A . BOURSOT , 9 , Hart Street , Hark Lane , London .

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ASSURANCE . EXCHANGE ROYAL INCORPORATE ! " A . I ) . 1720 . Funds in Hand Exceed - - 5 , 250 , 000 FIRE , LIFE , SEA , ACCIDENTS , BURGLARY , EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY , ANNUITIES . The Corporation will act as : — EXECUTOR OF WILLS . TRUSTEE OF WILLS AND SETTLEMENTS . Apply for full Prospectus to the Secretary . Head Office : —ROYAL EXCHANGE , LONDON , E . G .

The Grand Treasurer.

The Grand Treasurer .

lafaaoBic

UlUSTBATEDA PROPOSAL that demands ; i poll of the whole Craft under the Constitution , must be one of considerable importance , and deserving of careful consideration . Whatever is done as the result of the present appeal , it may be taken for granted will not readily be undone . We are

therefore on the point of legislating , not only for the present , but ior the next generation as well . True the cash book is not it landmark , like the Volume of the Sacred Law , and even if it were , there are those who say that the connection of the Grand Treasurer with the Grand Cash Book has become so

attenuated as to be almost undisceniable . This argument for the abolition of the office may be considered later . Meanwhile there seems to be unanimity of opinion that change of some kind is necessary . Neither the unanimity nor the opinion has been of hasty growth , because for years past the circumstances attendant upon the election of successive

Grand Treasurers have never failed to call for comment in the Masonic press , and , not infrequently , in the profane press . We need not , therefore , re-open the past , but , without seeming to pre-judge the issue , or even to influence those to whom it is confided , we may add somewhat to the circular which the Board has so wisely sent round for the information of

brethren . The office was not always the sinecure that it is now said to be . From the time of Bro . John Dent , to that of Bro . John Creator ) , that is from 1813 to 188 3 , successive incumbents of the office have been treasurers in fact as well as in name , The transfer of financial responsibility , from treasurer to secretary , began early in the eighties . In 188 3 , Bro . Creator ) , who had been re-elected as a matter of course

since 1 S 79 , was again proposed . Certain influential brethren seem to have conceived the idea , or perhaps recognised as a fact that the office bade fair to become a life tenancy , a freehold , in fact , like that of the Grand Secretary or the Grand Tyler . An agitation sprang up , which differed from the present , in that no official notice was taken of itand

event-, ually Bro . Allcroft was nominated in opposition to Bro . Creaton . Readers of the Masonic literature of that period will not easily forget the paper warfare that raged for some months . Bro . Allcroft was elected , and when he had served for a year , to every one ' s amazement , his friends put him up

for a second term of office . Such a volte face demanded explanation , and Bro . Allcroft ' s friends were not without courage , for many of them wrote to the papers to say that during the past twelve months the }* had undergone a change of opinion with regard to the advisability of an annual change of treasurer . When the clay of election came round ,

however , these gentlemen proved to be in a minority , and Bro . H . B . Marshall was elected , and the principle then seemed to be established that the office was not tenable for

two years in succession . Ihere seems to have been some recollection of this , in the present proposal that Past Grand Officers shall be ineligible . That is , that what was previously a convention , shall be crystallized into a regulation . This is of course the true spirit of legislation , the crystallization of public opinion . Whether it be for the good of the Craft that the present relation between the Grand Treasurer and the Grand

Secretary shall continue , is a question outside our present province . But one word of warning may be uttered . It may not always be the case . In the State , the constitutional practice is for the popular representatives to keep command of the purse , and no one has ever discovered any disloyalty to the person or the office of the sovereign , because of this

important limitation of his prerogative . As things are today , possibly the public money might be a good deal more profitably spent if the monarch had the spending of it , and the same mav , with equal truth , be said of the finances of the Craft . In fact , such is our confidence in the constitutional

nature of our government that we have for so many years been content with the nominal hold upon the finances represented by the popular election of their nominal guardian . But is it certain that this will be the case for ever ? Should Grand Lodge ever want to regain effectual

control , nothing but a departmental re-arrangement would be necessary as things tire , but if it had ever surrendered the only hold it hits , recovery might be next to impossible , without the exhibition of a good deal of disloyalty .

This is the only point of view from which it seems unadvisable to transfer patronage from Grand Lodge to the Grand Master , for , although another reason has been adduced that has a plausable look , there is really nothing in it . Grand Lodge is made up of an official and a popularly elected element . These are the Grand Officersthe nominees of the

, Grand Master , and the brethren on the floor who represent the lodges . The latter number some ) 6 , , are in such an enormous majority , that the objection to any increase of the Grand Master ' s nominees has no real weight . In civil