The Platform Of The German Masonic Reformers.

proceedings , motions for reform , undertakings of a more general character , insofar as distinctions of grades do not preclude such activity . Special affairs of grades , both in small and more extensive unions of lodges , should be transacted in private

conferences of the Congress , and the resolutions of these should not obviously counteract the general legislation of either the respective lodge or union of lodges . IV . —Position in face of the Civil Authority .

§ 24 . Every Mason is bound to conform himself in every respect" to the laws of his State ; every division of the Order working in any country is , eo ipso , subject to the laws on secret societies or associations in force in such country .

Public Charities.

PUBLIC CHARITIES .

One of the most estimable virtues with which mankind is adorned and enriched is the quality which instigates those who are prosperous to render aid to their less fortunate fellow-men . Our countrymen , and especially those who belong to the Craft , have ever had the credit of possessing

charitable feelings nowhere to be excelled , and not often rjarallelecl . It is almost a work of supererogation to quote instances in support of this statement , as the slightest attention to the matter will at once call up remembrances of an infinity of cases where extraordinary exertions have been

made , not- by a few individuals , but by the nation at large , to assist those who , in times of famine or other calamities , the weight of which falls chiefly upon that class in which the daily food is earned by daily labour , failing when employment ceases—¦ without such timely aid must have been reduced to starvation .

in order to obtain the greatest amount of good from public charities , not only is it necessary to carefully collect the most ample funds available , but also to see that they are properly administered when collected . This latter point is certainly neglected in many instances , and the result is

that institutions intended for the relief of the poor are not nearly so useful as they should be for the money expended upon them . The enormous extension of unaided poverty in the metropolis , accompanied as it is by vice and disease , micht , we thinkbe more effectually mitigated ba reform

, y in the administration of existing charities than by an attempt to establish new ones . Ordinary workhouses we shall not allude to , as generally their management is so notoriously bad as to be sufficiently obvious to all who take the least interest m the topics of the day , ancl we cannot hope for

much improvement so long as they are ruled according to the present system , which , notwithstanding its faults , appears to be intimately

associated with the liberty ofthe subject ( that is to say the subject who has ample means of living ) , and therefore considered as one of its supports . The real effect of this branch of local self-government consists in giving each parish the power of oppressing its own poor .

But to our immediate object—the consideration of those charitable institutions which are supported by voluntary contributions . There , at all events , it appears probable that the management might be so improved as to allow of a great extension of their usefulness , but the difficulty is how to set

about such improvement , for the only class by which it is likely to be effected is that of which the members are usually too much occupied with their own businesses to be able to give more than their money towards the relief of the poor or sick ; hence the organisation of the establishments on

which that money , is expended must of necessity fall into the hands of paid agents , or if not nominally so , it Avill generally so result practically ; hence the work of administration , instead of being , as it should be , if the system were perfect , a labour of love , becomes a matter of doing * a certain amount

of work for a certain amount of money . In making this remark we must not be misunderstood . We in no way intend to cast any

ungenerous reflection upon those who undertake the management of hospitals and asylums , for they undoubtedly do their part as well as it is possible , according to the established modus operandi . The fault rests , then , not in those who manage the machinery of these undertakings , but in the system

itself , ancl that is what constitutes the great difficulty militating against a reform of the kind to which we allude . An examination of the expenditure and number of patients relieved at various hospitals will show that the former is very excessiveand this is clue

, to the complexity of the means of affording such relief . This matter has more than once been brought before those who should be interested in the affair , but up to the present time scarcely any improvement has been made—nor , indeed , can it

be expected that it will , until those who supply the funds themselves insist upon their being so applied as to yield the greatest good to the greatestnumber . Let us consider the usual routine of getting up ancl applying a subscription for the relief of poverty

in England . First , it is discovered that a certain class of people are destitute , or that some appalling misfortune has suddenly overwhelmed a particular district . A subscrip tion is at once set on foot and money flows in apace , the wealthy vieing with each other in munificence . Then probably

the press is overrun with suggestions from correspondents as to the best mode of applying the funds ; but this part of the business ends by a committee of management being appointed , and after that all is quiet again until some other object of charity rises upon the social horizon . In the