The Charities.

So that £ 1866 has to be found by tbe Craft , of which about £ 600 arises from funded property , leaving nearly £ 1300 to be provided by subscriptions , irrespective of tbe cost of management ; and bow much tbe Institution is in want of aid is shown by tbe fact

that there are at tbe present time nearly 40 male candidates and about 25 widoAvs seeking to be admitted on tbe list of Annuitants . The next festival will be for the Boys' School , before which we shall have a word or tAvo to say on behalf of that Institution .

Aristocracy In Freemasonry

ARISTOCRACY IN FREEMASONRY

An American contemporary , tbe New Yorlc Sunday ^ Evening Courier , which generally devotes about three columns of its space to Masonic matters ( though a copy of the paper but rarely comes to our bands , notwithstanding it was arranged , tliree years since ,

that we should receiA'e it regularly ) , has , we find , been taking us to task for having stated that tbe Grand Registrar , being ' ' the Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of tbe Order—the legal adviser of Grand Lodge and the Grand Master , " should be a lawyer , and from thence argued that a similar rule ¦ ought to prevail iu the pi * OA * inces , Ave observing—¦

" In the case of the death of a Prov . Grand Master , the Grand Registrar of England takes , ex-officio , the charge of the province until a IIOAV Prov . G-. Master is appointed . Were the same rnlo in appointments to prevail in Grand Lodge as appears to exist in the provinces , wc might find Bro . , the eminent tinman of "Whitechapel , presiding over the Masons of the Universities of Oxford ancl Cambridge . Tho force of absurdity could no further go . "

Upon this our contemporary contends that Ave have outraged all the principles that should govern Masonry , " that preferment should depend upon merit and ability , " and set up in its stead tbe doctrine that social position is alone to govern Masonic

appointments . " Upon this the writer says— " In fact if we admit the correctness of the doctrine , tinmen , tailors , and clergymen should be excluded , not only from Masonry , but from Prov . G . Masterships , and none "but lawyers ( Chancery , if possible , ) appointed ,

otherwise the oue or the other may be called on to preside over the Masons of Oxford or Cambridge . " "We never made any such assertion , and we bave in England more than one clergyman presiding as Prov . Grand Master over large bodies of Masons , and that

too mosfc efficiently , but Are did contend thafc , and shall continue to clo so , that certain officers in the Craft should , as far as possible , be always held by brethren Avhose pursuits in every day life best suit them to fulfil the duties of tbe position—thus a

Chaplain should be a clergyman—a Registrar or Law Officer , a lawyer—a Superintendent of "Works , an architect—an Organist , one conA'ersant with that instrument , and bad we in this country , as they bave in Scotland , a Grand Clothier , we should expect him to be a tailor . But in maintaining this doctrine how

do we depart from tbe principle that in Ereemasonry all men are on tbe level , and that preferment should be dependent on merit and ability . In laying down tbe proposition that certain offices should be held by men of certain professions we by no means say that every Tom Noddy who may

belong to these professions , being Ereemasons , are to be placed in such positions without regard to merit ancl ability , but we would seek out those brethren who are most distinguished amongst us , alike for their Masonic lore and tbe position ? tbey have gained in their profession , to be honoured by appointments in Ereemasonry , so that tbe appointments might reflect lustre alike on the office and tbe holders thereof . And

we do not go so far as to say that in Prov . Grand Lodges we would not sometimes prefer tbe appointment to the office of Grand Registrar of a brother , not being a lawyer , who had made Masonic laws and Masonic usages his peculiar study , than a laAvyer who bad never shown any interest in tbe Craft . But we

bave protested , aud shall continue to protest against brethren being thrust into offices of responsibility , ancl the A'ery names of which bespeak their character , AA'ho have no single qualification for them , beyond the position tbey bold in some particular lodge to wbicb a Prov . Grand Master or Deputy Prov . Grand Master Avishes to pay a compliment .

But our _ New York brother says : — " If over there Avas a genuine aristocracy on the face of tho globe Ave imagined Freemasonry coulcl lay just claims to bo such . If exchisiveness hacl any pretensions to the designation , then coulcl Masom-y boast of its being the possessor-, for the pre-requisites to becoming a Mason ,

were , that " the persons admitted members of a lodge , must be good and true men , " AA'hich we thought clearly proved tli at no ignoble or tniAVorfchy persons could receive its benefit , and therefore , that those Avho entered our sanctuary were God ' s noblemen—nature ' s aristocracy . Indeed AVC did imagine that moral worth and personal integrity ennobled every man ; that within the

precincts of the lodge room , all thus endoAved met upon the level ; and therefore proved the truth of fche 'Ancient Charge , ' thafc ' all preferment among Masons is grounded upon real Avorfch and personal merit only . ' "

But he continues : — . " If the Editor of the London FIUSEJIASOX ' S MAGAZIKE , Avhose journal is published ' AA'ith the sanfcion of the M . W . G-. ' Master of England , the Right Hon . the Earl of Zetland , ' bo a true exponent of fche principles of Masonry , our previous imaginings of its teachings have been clay dreams . Perferment among Masons must no longer be

grounded upon ' real Avorth , ' or ' personal merit , ' but social position in tho profane Avorld , is to be the open sesame . " Premising that tbe M . W . G . Master lias nothing