Masonic Relief In The Provinces.

to doubt was a Mason . About six fmonths ago an application was made to us officially for a temporary loan of money by a young German , having a certificate of his having been initiated in a Scotch lodge . He gave his name as Siegmund Sax , and his address as 17 , Kolhofen-street , Hamburg . He appeared to be about 27 years of agewas rather below the middle

, height , was possessed of pleasing , gentlemanly manners , and had intensely black , short curly hair . He represented that he had been travelling through Scotland and the north of England for orders in the silk trade on behalf of the firm of Messrs . Michelson & Co ., of Hamburg . That he had been for several

years in the United States , but that he now visited this country for the first time , and that the allowance of 15 s . a day made to him for his travelling expenses , although sufficient on the continent , was inadequate here , and that , consequently , he had fallen short of funds to take him back home . He showed his purse containing about £ 3 in gold , and asked for

a loan of £ 4 i to enable him to reach Hamburg , promising to remit it within a week . He produced a large roll of his bills at hotels at various places in Scotland and England , which , he said , he was keeping to show his employers what his expenses really had been . Although there was much about his story that led us rather to doubt its accuracy , his

plausibility and apparent simplicity of manner induced us to give him the benefit of a doubt , and , the result was , that we advanced him the £ 4 , taking his receipt for it and an undertaking to repay it within seven days . As may be imagined , we have neither seen him nor the money again , and , although more than one

attempt has been made to hear something respecting him at Hamburg , it has been without success . Unfortunately neither my colleague nor I made a note of the name and locality of his lodge , but his certificate had one peculiarity—a marginal note , to the effect that it had been issued as a duplicate—the ori ginal certificate having . been lost during the war in America .

This , and his description , will be sufficient to put your readers on their guard should he pay any of them a visit . Lately , ono foreigner has succeeded another rather rapidly . Last week a Frenchman , advanced in years , presented himself , stating that he had been in Mexico as

a soldier with Maximilian ; that he had just succeeded in escaping from prison and reaching Liverpool , and asked for aid to got to the Due D Aumale , at Twickenham , when lie should at once be fees from difficulties . Of course " all his papers had been taken from him when prisoner . " Two days later be was followed by another foreignerstyling himself " an ex-Hungarian general . "

, He also had just escaped out of prison somewhere , and he likewise had been deprived of his Masonic certificate . A day later succeeded one calling himself a physician , who had just escaped from Siberia . Now I cannot say whether those statements were true or false , but I givo them as examples of the applications made to us for relief by foreign Masons in one week ; and I may add

that the ex-Hungarian general smelt very strongly of beer ; and it is no unusual thing for a " Mason in distress " to present himself in a state of intoxication . The greatest tax upon us , however , is made by the Scotch Masons ; these may La said to come , " not in single files , but in battalions , " and I greatly fear that the facilities existing in that country—through which far too many persons , not "in respectable circumstances , " are admitted into the Order for a very small fee—offers a pre-

Masonic Relief In The Provinces.

mium to many in the lower ranks of life to become Masons for mercenary and unworthy motives- * I will now , sir , whilst apologizing for the length of this letter , which , however , still leaves much untold on . the subject , ask you and your numerous readers whether some practical plan cannot be developed for , at least , cheeking the successful career of the knaves by whom ,

under the false names of " distressed Masons , " the provinces are infested , whilst substantial relief may be afforded to really deserving cases . l ? rom the rather strong epithets which I have applied to individuals calling themselves " Brother Masons , " some may perhaps think that I and the province which I represent are wanting iu charity . f I will , in order to remove any such

impression , only state that , when two years ago I served as a Steward at the Festival of the Eoyal Masonic Institution for Boys , I was so liberally supported that I had the honour of sending in the largest list of any individual Steward—upwards of £ 200—so that our charity cannot be said " to begin at home and end there . " Tours fraternally , D . P . G . M .

A Leeson Testimonial.

A LEESON TESTIMONIAL .

TO IHE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS * MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIBB 02 . Dear Sir and Brother , —I noticed , buried in an article where I ; in common with many others , should not have looked for it , a very excellent suggestion for doing honour to so illustrious a brother as the learned Doctor Leeson , until recently , your English M-P . Sov ., G . Com . A . and A . R ., by following a precedent so excellent as

that you illustrated with two engravings ia your last number . As a foreigner , and a member of the same Order under a foreign jurisdiction , it might be thought to be bad taste on my part to add more remarks , and my English , too , is not equal to the task of addressing your readers properly on this subject , and doing it justice . Paris , . . Tours fraternally , Sept . 9 th , 1868 . In . Bno . 33 ° , or FRANCE .

Give Honour To Whom Honour Is Due.

GIVE HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE .

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS * MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROE . Dear Sir and Brother , —I have never seen any report in the FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE of the meeting of the Grand Chapter Rose Croix , which was held in London nine months ago , and which was , I have been told , a really splendid meeting of all the principal English Masonic luminaries , and , as my informant told me , they

were as handsome and highly intelligent set of gentlemen as ever he met with in any society in Europe or America—and he has travelled greatly . He told me , too , at that time that a resolution was unanimously carried , that a suitable testimonial was to be presented by the body to the retiring M . P . S . G . C , Dr . Leeson , aud that a committee was named and agreed to . Yours fraternally , H . K .