The Grand Lodge Property.

certain expenses—it onl y ' enables them to pay just one fourth of those items . The legitimate mode of estimating the loss to be sustained is to assume an income , which may probably be increased to some extent by improved accommodation ; and , after taking the rate of profit on the mere provisions , to contrast that with the expenses which will be incurred .

The rates , taxes , repairs , & c , will remain as heretofore ; the establishment , except perhaps in the less frequent hire of occasional waiters , must be the same in number , with the addition of a manager at some four hundred pounds a year , and an improvement in the quality of the others . The sum that will be absorbed in these items is at least two thousand five hundred pounds a year . 'This is , of course , without reckoning cither for immediate repairs , for any furniture ( of which we at present do not possess one article ) , for the hoard of servants , or for lighting and fuel . These must be looked upon as amounting to another two thousand pounds a year , and this is still without calculating on any outlay for alterations .

_ I o meet this certain annual expense wc shall have the profit of probably six thousand pounds or seven thousand pounds a year , which at twenty-five per cent ,, would be about one thousand eight hundred pounds a year , so that the sacrifice , instead of being not more than ei ght hundred pounds , would be over two thousand seven hundred pounds a year ; and although that may possibly be reduced by subscriptions to a coffee room , yet that would only be to the extent of a very few hundreds of pounds , and would entail additional in suitable

an expense providing accommodation to the subscribers , apart from the item of alterations . This is the true method of calculating the cost of our whistle ; and although the time , I believe and sincerel y hope , will soon conic when the entire property will be occupied exclusively by the members of the Craft , I still think , as I have always thought , that our eight thousand pounds in hand is not sufficient to prepare the premises for our accommodation , and provide suitable furniture and stock ; and until that fund is sufficient for these purposes , and the sustaining of a loss besides , the carrying out of the proposed measures will be premature and hurtful .

I am , Sir and Brother , yours fraternally , Holies Street , 21 si March , 1859 . E . Romans , P . M . [ Xothing can be further from our intention than to mislead our brethren •and wc cannot conceive how the article referred to can in any way inihiencc the Craft to come to a wrong conclusion . Wc had imagined , from a careful

perusal of the circular of the Board of General Purposes , that the Craft is not now called upon to decide on the practicability of the scheme , but as to whether such a scheme will be desirable if it can be shown to he practicable ; and it appears to us that the questions arc so drawn as carefully to guard the brethren who reply to them from committing themselves to any expression of opinion as to practicability . We have gone furtherand iu

, discussing that question put forth some ideas of our own upon the subject , 'flic writer of the above letter is , doubtless , in the possession of information which leads him to the conclusion which he has announced—as he gives us no data , but assumes the cost both of building and management , he must forgive us if wc think that he has taken an exaggerated and erroneous view . We do not know what may be iu the minds of the Board of General