The Asylum For Aged Freemasons And Their Widows.

show that the subscription has been well commenced—and we hope that in om * next we may be enabled to state it has been successfully completed . Those of our brethren who intend to subscribe to the Fund , should recollect that their donations will assume the greater value in accordance to the promptitude with which they are forwarded to the Secretary .

The Boys' School.

THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

The festival of the Boys' School , which took place on the 14 th ult ., may be regarded as extremely successful , notwithstanding the attendance was not so numerous as Ave could have wished , and the banners of some of the stewards were altosrotfier unsupported . A better chairman than the R . W . D . G . M- < = unlcl not well be found , and sure AA e are that no ? i .. c . fW oidd have heard his well-timed ancl judicious observations to

the children without feeling an inward satisfaction that we have amongst the heads of the Craft , a nobleman who so truly understands and acts upon his Masonic obligations . The festival was weR arranged , and did great credit to the stewards for the order with which everything was conducted , but we wish to persuade future stewards to abolish the glee-room as altogether an unnecessary surplusage to the entertainment of the

evening . Let there be well-regulated tea rooms provided , in which the ladies can meet their friends at the close of the proceedings , but let the music cease with the chair being vacated—not to be renewed that evening-. If , 'however , the stewards will persevere in keeping up what is felt by everyone to be little short of a positive nuisance , at least let them do away with , or abridge the half hour during' which the brethren are notallowed to enter the glee-room after the chairman and his officers have quitted the liall . At the festivals of the Benevolent Institution and the

Girls' School , last year , the time was reduced to five minutes , and was shown to work advantageously . In tlie course of tlie proceedings of this festival , the E . W . D . G . M . recommended that a second festival should be held towards the close of tlie season to aid the building fund , in order that the boys may be brought together under one roof , and their education be thereb y placed under the closest supervision . We have no

doubt , from the manner in which it was hailed , the proposition will be earned out and ihe second festival held , when the noble Earl has promised to head the subscription list with a donation of . £ 50 . We trust , when we get the school completed , the boys will not be marked with a badge like that , which in our opinion , it is a degradation to the brethren to let tlie girls wear . We should equally know them to be the children of the

Freemason ' s school without the badge as with it , and we never see the red patch like a newspaper stamp on the sleeves of their frocks without a Mush mantling on our cheeks , that the children of our brothers , because they may not have been quite so fortunate in the world as others , should he subjected to continually bear a degrading badge of charity about them . The holding of the second festival , when the stewards need not be trammelled by tlie useless foz'ms of custom , will be also a good opportunity for trying the experiment of dispensing with the glee room . We warrant its success .