Our Masonic Charities. Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

to distinguish them from the pupils at any other public school . The definition of the Committee , "that the object ofthe institution is , hy eliminating from its administration all trace of charity in th e cold signification of the Avord , to elevate the moral tone of the pupils , " is felt to be truthful before you have conversed Avith the lads five minutes . But no

written description can bring the peculiar merits of this Wood Green establishment fairly before the reader . There are about it , over and above its material excellencies and architectural splendour ; a thousand delicate lights and shades , all implying

that it constitutes a tenderly watched and gently disciplined Home to those to whom it opens its charitable doors . It must be seen to be appreciated , or even understood ; and often as Freemasons may have heard the claims and excellencies of

" Boy ' s School" urged at their lodge meetings , the day of the first visit to it Avill be ever after marked with a Avhite stone , for it Avill prove IIOAV far short of its real merit has been every Avord spoken in its praise . Those who remember the caution taught at their initiation should ins ] Deet it , to see that the funds they give for benevolent

purposes are properly applied ; those AVIIO value the pillars of their order should go to see IIOAV stable and sound this chief one is ; the man recently admitted should go in order that he may comprehend Avhat his apron means—in other Avords the

practical fruit of the lessons impressed upon him ; and the old and " rusty" mason should go to see what the stirring doings and the new blood of the last half-dozen years have brought about . In short , every Freemason Avho shrinks from

beingbranded as lukeAvarm ought to make himself acquainted Avith the establishment Ave have described as soon as practicable . There is no difficulty about admission , the way is easy , the time occupied insignificant , the expense to Londoners nominal ,

and the duty obvious—so that there can be no reason , save supineness or indifference , for holding back . "

English Gilds. *

ENGLISH GILDS . *

( Continued from page 267 . ) To mention another incorporated trade , I take the Cutlers in Sheffield . Alread y before 1790 the masters there must have attempted to violate the customary restrictions as to apprentices ; and they were probably hindered in this by the

journeymen . But far from Avithdrawing from the cooperation , they complained of these restrictions in 1790 to Parliament , and petitioned for alleviations in the bye-laAvs of the Company . These were granted in an Act of June the 7 th , 1791 ; and

forthwith , on the 9 th of September of the same year , Ave find combinations among the Scissorgrinders and other workmen . On the 3 rd of April following the Scissor-smiths' Benefit Society Avas formed . According to Mr . Hill's account , it

Ava . s a Trade-Society to oppose the actions of the employers , Avhich probably took the shape of a Friendly-Society to evade the 39 th and 40 th Geo . III . chap . 106 .

The same phenomena which we observed in thetrades incorporated by charter , or under the Sth Eliz . chap . 4 , recur in those which had been ahvays free from any legal restrictions . Among these was the trade of the Calico-printers .

Nevertheless , though the regulations of the 5 th Eliz . chap . 4 , had no power over this trade , yet they were observed in it as the order sanctioned by thegeneral custom of trade before the introduction of machinery . But simultaneously with the introduction of machinery , about the year 1790 , the

unlimited employment of apprentices in the placeof adult journeymen became general in this trade . And the disproportion betAveen journeymen and apprentices Avhich , not restricted by even the possibility of a legal prosecution , arose in the

counties of Lancaster , Derby , Cheshire , and Staffordin England , and in those of Lanark , Benfrew , Dumbarton , Stirling , and Perth in Scotland , surpassed by far that existing in all other trades . Iu Lancashire there Avere cases of fifty-five apprentices to two journeymen only ; and in the county of Dumbarton cases of sixty to two . These

proportions had liOAvever been in no way caused by a want of hands from the great rise of the trade after the introduction of machinery . On the contrary , Avhilst all apprentices Avere Avorking full time in the factories , the journeymen sought in

vain for Avork . And Avhenever the state of the trade necessitated a discharge of hands , the journeymen Avere always disharged first , whilst the apprentices remained fully employed . The reason Avas rather this , that the masters , by employing

apprentices instead of journeymen , saved one-third in Avages . Aud it Avas not rare " that apprentices Avere discharged immediately upon the expiration of their apprenticeship , although the work was