Royal Arch.

MONMOUTHSHIRE . NEWTOKT . — Silurian Chapter ( No . 471 . ) — The regular monthly convocation of the companions of this chapter was held on Friday the 26 th ult . There were present Comps . Pickford , Z . ; Hellyer , H . ; Thomas J . ; and about twelve other companions . Bros . Tweedy and Hosking , of the Silurian Lodge were balloted for and unanimously accepted , and both were afterwards exalted to the Sublime degree of Royal

Arch Masonry , the ceremony being very ably performed by the three principals , assisted by Comp . Gathe , as P . S . The bylaws were then put for confirmation and carried unanimously , and after the brother had been proposed for exaltation at the next meeting the chapter was duly closed in due form . We understand Comp . the Rev . S . Fox intends delivering a lecture on Royal Arch Masonry at the next chapter meeting , when we hope to be present and report progress .

Mark Masonry.

MARK MASONRY .

YORKSHIRE ( NORTH AND EAST ) . SCARBOROUGH . —Star in the Fast Lodge ( No . 95 . )—A lodge of Mark Master Masons was held at the Freemasons ¦ Hall , Scarborough , on Wednesday evening 24 th . ult ., by Bros . Win . Foster Rooke , W . M . ; J . W . Woodall , S . W . ; Richard II . Peacock , J . W . ; J . Rasper , as M . O- ; James Frederick Spurr , S . O . ; Win . Peacock , S . D . ; H . W . Garnett , as J . D . ; D . Fletcher , I . GK , •& C The lodge was duly opened , the minutes were read and

confirmed , and the Masons set to work . Bro . the Rev . Henry Elane M . A ., Chaplain of 643 , was advanced to the degree of Mark Master , after which the lodge was closed in harmony and with prayer at nine o ' clock .

Funeral Lodges In Honour Of The Late Bro. John Stewart, Esq., Of Nateby Hall, Lancaster.

FUNERAL LODGES IN HONOUR OF THE LATE BRO . JOHN STEWART , ESQ ., OF NATEBY HALL , LANCASTER .

"His work was not done , yet his column is broken , Mourn ye , and weep , for ye cherished his worth ; Let every tear-drop be sympathy ' s token , Lost to the Brotherhood , lost to the earth . " Very much to the regret of the Craft in Dumfriesshire , their Provincial Grand Master , the R . W . Bro . J . Stewart , of Nateby Hallhas passed into the silent lodge at tho early age of

fifty-, four . He died on the 17 th of March last , at Edinburgh , whither he had gone for the benefit of medical advice in tho treatment of a malady from which no fatal consequences were at first expected to issue . He had but recently returned from a lengthend tour in South Africa , aud had begun to evince renewed interest in the advancement of Freemasonry—a fraternity to whose sublime principles he was deeply attachedand with whose

, ceremonies he was fully conversant . Bro . Stewart was initiated in the Lodge St- John , New Abbey , Kirkcudbrightshire , was an affiliated member of St . Clair , Edinburgh , and was , in 1853 , commissioned by the Grand Lodge of Scotland to the Provincial Grand Mastership of Dumfriesshire , an honour of whicli ho

was in possession at the time of his death . He was stricken down when his arrangements for tho reorganisation of his Provincial Grand Lodgo and for the frequent official visition of the lodges within his province were on the eve of completion , and when the brethren were in full expectation of a prolonged season of Masonic revival under the auspices of their greatly esteemed Provincial Grand Master , whose somewhat sudden removal from the field of his usefulness they now regard as a

great loss to the Order . A fond and devoted husband , and a dear and much loved father , he is mourned with intense sorrow , and tho recollection of his honourable and manly bearing , his kindness , his love of truth , and hatred of falsehood , Iris condescension , his tender-heartedness , and his unsullied fame as a man and a brother , is his brightest and best eulogy , and will long live in the remembrance of all who knew him . Wishing

to do honour to the memory of their departed brother and Prov . G . M ., and to place on their records a memento of their love and affection for him , the brethren of St . John , Thornhill , No . 252 , held a Funeral Lodge on Friday . The brethren , at a previous meeting , instructed the lodge secretary to transmit to the widow of Bro . Stewart , and to J . L . D . Stewart , his son , a letter of condolence and sympathy under their sudden and sad bereavement , and which was ordered to be engrossed in the

Funeral Lodges In Honour Of The Late Bro. John Stewart, Esq., Of Nateby Hall, Lancaster.

minutes . A suitable and feeling reply was read to the meeting as having been received . The impressive and solemn proceedings were opened by the Chaplain of the lodge , Bro . Dr . Hastings , giving out a suitable selection from the 14 th Paraphrase , to which the choir chanted solemn and appropriate music , as they did at intervals throughout the whole of the proceedings . Praise was followed by prayer by the Chaplain , after which Bro . William Brown , Treas ., delivered a highly impressive address . He said : —

R . W . Master Wardens and brethren , —In seeking to improve for a few minutes the very solemn occasion of our present meeting , you will no doubt expect me to refer more particularly to the loss we have so recently sustained by the sudden and unexpected death of our belovecl and respected P . M . Little did any of us think when last honoured with his visit that we should see his face no more . He was so happy in our lodgerejoicing in our prosperty ; and encouraging us to go forward

by giving us another proof of his attachment to St . John ' s , Thornhill , in recommending and accompanying his amiable and only son * for initiation into the glorious light of Masonry in 252 ( in September last ) , and in countenancing with his presence our time-honoured ceremony . Brethren , I do not know how he came to take such an interest in us ; first , in setting us at the top of all the lodges in the province by the gift of the beautiful

medal of merit , to be worn by the R . W . M . of St . John's , Thornhill , in all time coming ; and then to bring his son so far for initiation—unless it was his ardent desire for the spread of our noble principles ; and he believing that these were carried out with us in great perfection . One thing , I am sure , you will agree with me in is this—that the more wo knew the more we loved and respected him , and surely brethren we are honouring

ourselves to-night by honouring the memory of one who while living so greatly honoured us , and with whose widow and son it is becoming that we should carry out those principles which call upon us to " weep with those that weep ; " and to cherish the hope that their and our loss is his gain , and that he has now taken his place in the Great Lodge above , where he shall go no more out , but is made a pillar in the temple of his God , and has the name of his God , and the name of the city of his God written in his forehead , and shall serve Him day and night

without weariness or distraction . . . The passing shadow - that flits across , the fields on an April day , the morning mist which tho rising sun so speedily scatters , the grass that growefch up in the morning , but ere night is cut down and withered , the flower that blooms and dies , the tale that is soon told , the narrow handbreadth , & c . These are some of the emblems that the sacred writers havo employed to describe the frailty of the human race : well has the poet said" Our

, life contains a thousand strings , " & c . The grand lesson then to be learned from all this is , act well and wisely our parts while here stndying more and more not only to profess but to live out those Masonic principles which so strongly teach us to love our God with all our hearts , and our neighbour as ourselves . Under these feelings and impressions may we so improve this dispensation of Providence , and so live that when these feeble frames

shall slumber beneath the clods of the valley , the needy and distressed , tho widow and the orphan , may point with regret to our sleeping ashes , and each exclaim There lie tho men whose compassion soothed my woes , whoso maxims tranquillised my perturbed spirits , and whoso bounty relieved my pressing waats . Bro . George' Thomson also gave a congenial address , full of the feeling of brotherly love , and sought to improve in an

effective manner the solemn occasion of this meeting of the brethren . He descanted in eloquent terms upon the charaeter of the P . G . M ., and in vivid language dilated upon the loss the province had sustained , and this lodge particularly , by the death of Bro . Stewart , who , he said , was honoured not simply from the high position held by him in the neutral world , but as a brother by the tie which binds all men together in the bonds of love and affection . It was from such considerations as these that tho lodge of St . John ' s now did honour to tho memory of their late P . G . M .