Monthly Masonic Summary.

Monthly Masonic Summary .

T HERE is little to note for the past month , except the increase of Lodges and Chapters , Av-hich is very marked . Indeed , the rapid advance numerically of English Freemasonry is a very striking fact per se .

AA ^ e trust that it will be for good , though we cannot fail to be sensible that many " indicite " are prevailing , that too little caution is exerflised in

the admission of candidates into our Lodges . There is one step , and that is only a partial remedy for the evil- —namely , the raising of admission fees , Avhich for the moment can at all arrestif it can

, , this influx of new members . Many of our Lodges have far too IOAV a scale of fees , and , in our opinion , they require a considerable increase . One new

London Lodge that Ave know of has recently increased its £ 7 7 s . to i ? 1010 s ., and Ave are quite sure that it is a move in a right direction . It seems useless to preach to Lodges " caution " as regards candidates . They will not

heed you ; the more so , as a large number of our Order are infected "with the amiable heresy that if a man can pay his fees , & c , that is all that needs attending to . Serious mistake ! and most antagonistic to every true teaching

of Freemasonry . The Freemasons can say , like many others , " video meliora proboque , deteriora sequor . " Let us hope that we have seen the last of the Masonic Pamphlet system . A distinguished Province—to use a

common expression—has fraternall y sat upon " the writer of certain pamphlets , and so in future we hope

that he will be good enough and Masonic enough to control his " eacoethes scribendi , " and keep within due bounds Ms peculiar taste and undeniable tendency for foolish personalities and libellous pamphlets .

It ' s a queer taste , any IIOAV , just as it is a queer Avorld , my masters . The good old Pope , is still backing up the combative and cantankerous Bishop of Olinda in his disobedience to the laws of his country , and in his senseless

persecution of the Brazilian Freemasons , has contrived again to censure and to curse all Freemasons everywhere ! This is a " strong order , " and we confess that it takes a good deal to stomach it . But we will , as good

Masons , make kindly allowances for the genial old gentleman , and believe that it all arises moie from the "Proper

Gander Fidei , " and that uncivil lot the Roman Curia , than from Pio Nono himself . He is too fond of a joke to be deliberately ill-natured to any one . But it is the system—and a very curious system it is , turning a friendly ,

and pleasant , and Avarm-hearted old boy into a fiery persecutor and anathematiaer of the most approved inquisitorial pattern . As a fact , the whole affair is too ridiculous to comment upon . Indeedit is beneath our notice

, as Freemasons . We understand that Bro . G . M . TAveddell is preparing for publication Tales , Poems , and Masonic Papers , by Emra Holmes , Avith a Memoir of the Author . Bro . Holmes is Avell knoAA'n

as a public reader and a contributor to the Metropolitan and Provincial Press . And as he kindly proposes to present any pecuniary profit that may be derived from the publicationof the volume