Freemasonry In China.

ties , however , are all over ; and in the zeal , experience , and discretion of so expert a Craftsman as Bro . Donaldson , Masonry in general has good assurance that it will prosper and become more ancl more respected .

Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, London.

HAMILTON PLACE , PICCADILLY , LONDON .

Ever-groiving Tyburnia is naturally impatient ^ to get to still-increasing Belgravia Avithout passing and encountering the straits and terrors of the Park-lane end of Piccadilly . The life of the great Duke of Wellington was more than once endangered at the Gloucester House comer of

Parklane ; the poet of the " Pleasures of Memory , " who enjoyed his daily walks iu ancl about the Green Park and Piccadilly , dreaded the same terrible crossing , with its cross-fire of carriages , cabs , heavy Avaggons , and butchers' carts . It is UOAV worse than it was when , compelled by my

daily occupation , I shot the crossing with a ready step . What " shooting the bridge" in a boat at Old London Bridge was to our forefathers , shooting the Park-lane crossing of Piccadilly is to their great grandchildren of the year 1865 . The Hon . William Cowper has a Cowper's "Task" before him in endeavouring to satisfy the requests—nay , demands—that are made upon him to relieve Park-lane of some of its ceaseless

traffic . Hack cabs , it is thought , might be allowed to diverge from the lane into the park at Stanhope Gate , and lessen the traffic the other Avay by entering Hyde Park at Hyde Park Corner , and making their exit at Stanhope Gate . But the Chief Commissioner turns a deaf ear to their arguments and

¦ entreaties , ancl insists on keeping the park as it is—a private , not a public carriage thoroughfare . It Avas said , sarcastically , and in some respects truly enough , by Gifforcl , the editor of the Quarterly , that Old London Bridge Avould not be taken doAvn until either an alderman or a cargo ¦ of turtle were lost beneath it .

Caroline , Queen of George IL , spoke of shutting up St . James's Park , and converting it into a noble garden for'the palace of that mame . "She asked my father" ( Horace Walpole used to relate ) " what it would probably cost . " "Only three ¦ crowns , " was the reply .

What , we will ask and reply , will her Majesty Queen Victoria gain by opening to public carriages a part of Hyde Park ? Our Lady the Queen will save the lives and limbs of many of her subjects , ¦ and endear herself additionally to all of them . I have already had occasion to refer to the great

Duke of Wellington , and the clangers of the Parklane crossing , ancl in doing so , have had thus pleasantly produced to recollection an anecdote of the Iron Duke truly characteristic of tho man . The principal records of England Avere stored for security in the Norman Chapel of the great White

ToAver of the Tower of London , and in the vaults of the White Tower Avere deposited a Waterloo-

Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, London.

sized supply of " villanous" gunpowder . We may fairly assume that no sane man with an addiction to field sports would keep his title-deeds in his gun-room ; but what- Avas the field-Marshal and Constable's reply , — "Oh , if the powder is in danger , I must see to that ; you can possibly

afford to lose your records , but 1 cannot afford to lose my powder , " —a reply at once sensible ancl humourous . After this prelude and , I trust , not unpleasant digression , I shall rush into the middle cf my subject . '

In the House of Commons , a week bnt since , on the second reading of the " Piccadilly and Parklane ( New Roads ) Bill , " Sir J . Fergusson , on rising to ask for some explanation from the representatives of the Metropolitan Board of Woz-kssaid" There were two

, , questions AA'hich he should like to have ansAvered . Some years ago a bill Avas introduced by Lord Llanover , then Chief Commissioner of Works , for this purpose , but it was abandoned in consequence of the law officers-of the CroAvn , the present Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice of England ,

having given their opinion that its provisions Avoulcl violate the rights of the Crown tenants . He should like to ask the Chief Commissioner how it Avas that this measure Avas better worthy of support than that which was then abandoned . It was true that since that time Parliament had

sanctioned an interference with the rights of CroAvn lessees in the case of the Thames embankment , but in that instance g-reat concessions of land were in return made to the CroAvn tenants ; and , even if that had not been the case , it could hardly have been argued that because the rights of such

persons had been interfered with in one case they were ever afterwards to be entirely disregarded . He should further like to know why the Chief Commissioner of Works had , since last year , changed his mind upon this subject . In a letter elated July 2 , 1864 , and addressed to the

Metropolitan Board , the right hon . gentleman objected to the transformation of Hamilton-place into a thoroughfare , on the ground that it was not wide enough'to accommodate the traffic which it was intended to carry through it , and that the alteration would be an expensive and uneconomical measure . He should like to knoAV whether

Hamilton-place had grown wider since last year , or Avhy the right hon . gentleman had changed his mind . " Our only M . P . architect ( and he is always in his place Avhen architecture is asked about , and up to the question before the House ) spoke , in the course

of his remarks , as folloAVS : — Mr . Tite did not wish , to enter into a discussion of estimates , AA'hich he admitted Avere matters of considerable uncertainty , but he appealed to the plain sense of the House Avhether it Avas not obvious that the alteration of Hamilton-place , Avith its six houses on one side and two [?] on the other , must