The Grand Lodge Property.

;! This sum divided by 8 J years , shoAvs an average excess for that period of about £ 2500 per annum . A portion of the income from Avhich this average excess of income over expenditure , amounting to tAvo thousand five hundred pounds a year is derived , may be represented by eight hundred pounds , the net average rental of the tavern ; ancl it is with regard to the latter sum

alone that the Craft are called upon to consider whether , in order to secure the " necessary property solely and exclusively to Masonic uses" they are " prepared to submit to some diminution of their annual income . " For our own . parts , even were the whole eight hundred pounds to be sacrificed to secure the setting aside of so much of the property as may be requisite " solely ancl exclusively to Masonic

, uses , " and giving us the advantages of "a library , reading , and refreshment rooms , " Ave should consider the improved status it would give us in society , and the opportunities afforded us for more constant communion AA'ith the brethren—not only of the metropolis , but from all parts

of the country—as cheaply purchased . But that the whole of the rent cannot be sacrificed , we think self-evident , AA'hen it is remembered that , even at the present moment , as the circular of the Board states , "the members of the society pay back to their tenants , for the banquets of private Lodges , and for their festivals , a sum of five thousand pounds per annum—from which sum it is reasonable to suppose

that the tenants derive a fair profit . " NOAV no one can suppose that a business of five thousand pounds a year , with tho prospect of what would bo expended in a Masonic coffee room , is so utterly worthless , as not to command a rental or commission for the privilege of undertaking it—OA'en if nofc another Lodge ( though AVO believe many more would do so ) held its meetings on

our OAA ' property—more especially as the committee inform us that " there arc meeting in London one hundred and twenty-lour Lodges and twenty-eight Chapters ; of the former , thirty-eight , and of the latter , eight , hold their meetings in the tavern , leaving eighty-six Lodges , and twenty Chapters who find their accommodation else-Avllfil-fi . "

Indeed we are inclined to think , that probably for the first fcAv years at least , ancl if found to work well , for a continuance , it would be desirable that the Craft , taking into its OAVU hands tho entire management * of the building , should farm the banquets and the arrangements of the coffee-room , in the same maimer as is done in some of the oldest established elubs —a system which has been found

to work satisfactorily to both parties . We believe that this mode of managing a difficult part of the business was suggested at a very early period of the consideration of the scheme ; and we havo little doubt that able and enterprising men can be found who would willin gly undertake it . Moreover , ifc is clear that under new arrangements which set the Lodges free from the regulations of a tavern , they must , injustice to the rest of the Craft , ( who are equally proprietors of the property with themselves ) , pay a small rent for the acconnnoda-