Another Year.

with " Eminent Masons at Home , " the " Signed Article , " and the ordinary features of tlie monthly issue revised , a journal which should be found on the table of every Mason in the kingdom . We purpose also discarding all attempt to chronicle the ephemeral and unimportant daily events of the Order , and to increase the size of

the paper by four pages at the end of the present volume , by which time our arrangements with resident correspondents in several parts of the kingdom and the outer world , for short monthly articles upon local affairs will be complete .

Round And About.

Round and About .

It is pleasant for us to remember that among the immediate male members of the Royal house who will assemble as usual at Windsor Castle some time during the month , to enter into those bonds of friendship which every family undertakes at this season of tlie year , only two are not members of the Craft . Our Grand Master has had a year of very hard work , and very hard work of a nature much

more fatiguing than mere bodily labor . He has not been able to honor any Masonic gathering of importance with his presence , but it is his present intention to preside at the quarterly meeting of Grand Lodge in March next . The last Royal wedding has every prospect of turning out to be one of those few which , we are told ,

are manufactured in the regions above , and a rumor is afloat that a marriage between Prince Albert Victor and his cousin , the beautiful Princess Mary of Teck , is " being arranged . " Of Prince George we shall hear more later on . He is a splendid young fellow in health , mind , and body , and nobody at present loves him more than his youngest sister .

* * * The Langton Masonic Benevolent Association has just completed its labors , having collected nearly £ 1 , 350 on behalf of the Masonic charities during the four years of its existence . A new Association is about to be started , of which Bro . Hugh M . Hobbs is Hon .

Treasurer , and Bro . Gordon Smith—ihe candidate for the Secretaryship of the Boys' Institution—Hon . Sec , positions which they have filled in the expiring Association with so much success . It is through institutions of this kind that the Masonic charities derive a large portion of their incomes , and it is hoped that all who take interest in the good work thus carried on will give their hearty support to the new Association .

* * * I happened to get into the tea-drinking saloon that runs through from Piccadilly to Lower Regent-street tiie other afternoon , and was astonished to behold the crowds of people drinking and waiting to drink the wholesome concoction of the Aerated Bread Company . The place—which seats , I should imagine , between two and three

hundred persons—was literally packed to suffocation , and the servinggirls had great difficulty in supplying the requirements of importunate ladies and fussy old gentlemen . The sight of a vacated chair caused a stampede of hungry men and women , and the promptitude with which " cocoa and seedy " or " coffee and plum " disappeared

was somewhat astonishing . I partook of a cup of tea and a piece of plain cake , which were very good , and for which I paid fivepence , and then struggled out of the place with the intention of starting a teashop myself some da )' . The prime cost of that cup of tea and slice of cake could not have been more than a penny-three-farthings , and

tlie ultimate return to the shopkeeper , after heavy rents and contingent expenses are allowed , must be very great . The poor unfortunate licensed victualler , fenced round with fearful taxation and buried beneath the thumb nail of the brewer and distiller , is a pitifid object compared to his respectable brother , the bread-and-butter merchant .

The freedom of trade in this dear old village is beautiful to contemplate . It infuses into our hearts so much of the milk of human kindness that we never crave for drink of a strong nature , and it reconciles everybody to those examples of injustice just as I am reconciled to the injustice of the Post Office insisting on a postage

Round And About.

rate of three-halfpence for each copy of the MASONIC REVIEW , when it permits The Graphic and the Illustrated London News , and dozens of other journals , bulkier and heavier , to travel at one-third the cost . * * * Canon Knowles is neither the first nor the only man who

condemns Freemasonry , and his attack upon the Society is as ancient in method as his arguments are pointless . From an exterior impression the Craft shows little that commends itself to mankindif we exempt , perhaps , the one item of charity . I have heard almost convincing arguments against the Cralt from men whose

intellect and argumentative impressions are high , and these very arguments would convince most persons who contemplated joining our ranks . We , or our customary reticence , are to blame for a deal of this , for our doings are surrounded by a series of mysterious manoeuvres which give a curiously-misleading idea as to what our Society really is .

* * * The public-house element of the Craft again represses good opinion . People will not see—and we do not explain—why most of our suburban Lodges are held in licensed premises . We do not tell them that these establishments offer the only accommodation it is , in such instances , possible to secure . They , consequently , draw

their own parallel between Freemasonry and "drinking , " and those of them , such as Canon Knowles , whose duty it is to teach and impress the doctrines of life , start their objections on a wrong tack , and unwittingly injure . For myself , I should like to raise the tone of Masonry in the minds of the outside public by ridding it of all

that buffoonery which is levelled on an initiate , previous to his initiation . The " gridiron" and " cold cream" business , and all that foolery , impressed upon the mind of a man anxious to enter the Craft , lowers incalculably and for ever his appreciation of its bran ties .

* * * The fourth degree in this country , perhaps , will never be disconnected from the working of Lodges as it is in America , where Freemasonry is gaining in strength , in value , and in repute . This is where re-organisation is required . We want to repress the

ignorant , idiotic , and sickening aspect of the ordinary Masonic speech , reeled off , month after month , for ages and for ever , as if mankind stood still to listen to meaningless mouthings devoid of sense and decency . And one other matter which demands serious thought is tlie class of " harmony " permitted in very many of the

" banquets " with which we are inseparably connected . I heard on one occasion a brother , who had most successfully disposed of his share of the "banquet , " render a song entitled , "I did it , " and , judging from the applause which greeted its conclusion , and the way in which the meeting was reported in a contemporary , I

imagined it was the class of ditty that was most appreciated b y the company present . This song is of the lowest possible order . It treats of the wife who " kicked up a rumpus , " and the mother-inlaw who requested to be knocked down by the son-in-law , who "did it . "

* * * From this feature alone , such men as Canon Knowles would seem entitled to attack Freemasonry . He would say that such a song would not be tolerated in decent circles , he would say that a gentleman should not connect himself with institutions that

countenanced such songs , and he would seem to have a iierfect moral right in doing what he has done . I , therefore , think that though his method of attack is ancient and his arguments pointless , the foundations of his attack are tenable until we ourselves dispel them .

* * -si-Death again is busy with us , and has removed many whose place among us will be missed . There is Bro . Fred . Davidson , P . G . D ., P . G .. Treasurer and P . G . M . of the Grand Lodge of M . M . M . ; the Rev . Bro . G . Warburton Weldon , M . A ., Past Grand Chaplain ; and Bro . James W . Edwards , P . G . M . of the Lancashire Prov . G . M . Lodge . These men , with many others who have joined the grc . t majority