Our Architectural Chapter.

OUR ARCHITECTURAL CHAPTER .

BRO . W . COOKING , P . M ., No . 31-2 , who has already served the office of Prov . Grand Steward , has been appointed Prov . Grand Superintendent of Works for West Yorkshire . We should like to know whether Bro . Cocking is an architect . We are indebted to Bro . J . W . Brcitling , for an account of the Lodge or Hall at Stuttgart in Wurtenibiirgof which he was one of

, the founders . Wc would ask him again to give an account of the building , as that may very , likely furnish ns with some useful hints ; the financial plan described by him is very interesting . The cost of the Lodge of William of the Setting Sun was £ 2 , 500 , raised on the share or debenture scheme , bearing a fixed interest of four percent ., and redeemable out of the initiation and other fees .

The initiation fees , it will be seen , produce to the Lodge about as much as in . England , and , as Bro . Breitling observes , form a competent fund . There arc , however , further fees required for passing ancl raising , according to the ancient practice of Masonry observed in most continental countries , aud , like many other customs , altogether obsolete in this professed country of landmarks . There is no reason for

passing or raising without a fee , any more than there is for passing or raising as a matter of form at the next monthly Lodge . The Constitutions do not preclude a . Lodge from requiring a fee for these steps , and it would have a very salutary effect to demand a fee , in order to slacken the eagerness of initiates to got on ( before they have received any instruction ) aud of their friends to push them on . The

Consti-, tutions do not compel Lodges to pass at the next month , or raise in the following one , but this is done as a matter of course ; and many Worshipful Masters are under the impression that the Constitutions do compel them so lo advance apprentices . Now the clause is , " Nor shall a higher degree be conferred on any brother at a less interval than four weeks from his receiving a previous degree . "

The spirit of the law , it will be seen , is clearly that not less than four weeks must elapse , and that it is desirable a longer period shall pass before tho brother be advanced . We pride ourselves much that wc do not , as the publicans in Scotland sometimes do , make a Master Mason iu one night—but we forget that we do wholesale mischief by making a Master Mason in what we call two months ,

which iu reality afford only two sittings . Even where there is tho aid of a Lodge of Instruction , the instruction comes to very little , and the candidate , even if of superior education and attainments , is not in nineteen cases out of twenty competent for advancement . The German Lodges are assuredly more careful , and seek that in each degree the brother shall have time and opportunity to acquire instruction ; nay , they go further than wo do , for before a brother