Installation Of Successors.

of either an incompetent or indolent retiring Master , is too good a joke to be swallowed seriously by those who know better . There are Past Masters who would sooner forfeit their jewels than concede what they deem to be their prerogative of installing every Master who succeeds to the

chair of their Lodge . They are founders , and fathers of the Lodge , and as such it would be to deprive them of their right , and to sully their pleasure and popularity , wore the brethren to insist upon the principle of every retiring Worshipful Master installing his successor . In such an

event the occupation of these zealous , but somewhat selfish Past Masters would , like Othello ' s , be gone , and they would subside into that limbo of obscurity which would be so purgatorial to them as to be unendurable . This class of active men who love to shine before their fellows , and who

delight in the work they have so well succeeded in accomplishing , say so straight ont , and have done with it . They " esteem it a high honour to be permitted , " & c . bnt do not , like sycophants , " wash their hands in invisible soap , in imperceptible water , " and lament the incapacity of the

brother , who has just completed his year of office , to instal his successor , while all the time he laughs within his sleeve , plumes himself upon his own superiority , and fattens upon the applause elicited by his own egotism and self importance . We do not say there are many cases of this kind ,

bnt there are some we have witnessed , with anything but pleasure or approbation , for we have seen good men wince "under a sense of the infliction of reproaches , perhaps not intended , but which came like barbed arrows when charges made by inference apply with peculiar fitness to the case

immediately under consideration . Thus , while fully endorsing the view so often expressed , that every retiring Worshipful Master should , if practicable and convenient to himself , instal his successor , it is by no means tantamount to saying that he who does not is an imbecile or a shirker

of his rightful duties . There are circumstances , as we have pointed out , in which men are utterly unable to spare the time for such work , without injuring themselves in their businesses , which would be most reprehensible , and opposed to the tenets of the Craft . On the other hand ,

there are 'always plenty of brethren who , having passed the chair , and caught the spirit of the theme , are only too proud and pleased to be lifted into the distinguished and honourable position of Installing Officers whenever the opportunity presents itself . In these matters , as in all

others in this life , mutual concession and consideration are most necessary and desirable , and it ill becomes one man to push his own popularity , or puff his own conceit , by triumphing over the apparent weakness of his neighbour . Having said thus much , it is our pleasant experience that

the installation of successors is becoming a more frequent practice of late than it was in the olden times , and that the antiquated race of perpetual Installing Masters are rapidly dying out . Every young Master should strive , if convenient to himself , to make himself perfect in the most

important of his duties ; but if from any of the reasons above indicated he does not feel equal to , or inclined for , the task , there is no great harm done after all , and the delinquency has no shame whatever attached to it . In making these observations we do so free from any bias or

personal feeling in the matter whatever , but only trust that the harmony and fraternal amenities of our Lodges will never be ruffled by even the slightest approach to unfriendly hints or inuendoes . If such is the case , happy we shall meet , and happy part , and happy meet again .

The Boys' School And Its Critic.

THE BOYS' SCHOOL AND ITS CRITIC .

WE are glad the Boys' School critic is no longer an unknown personage , and congratulate Bro . Capt . Nicols that he has had the manliness to avow his authorship of the letter which has created so much stir during- the past few weeks . It is to him , of course , a source of

satisfaction that the distinguished brother , the District Grand Master of the Punjab , who accompanied him , endorses fully his statements . But we cannot congratulate Bro . Nicols on the very curious reasons he assigns for having written the

letter signed " S . X ., " any more than on the tone and taste which characterised it . He tells ns that " several passages ( equally true ) of the original letter were omitted , lest

injury might be done to the prestige of the School in public opinion ; " and he goes on to explain that the " sole object " of his letter " was an hoDest endeavour to prevent a repeti-

The Boys' School And Its Critic.

tion of the unseemly treatment which visitors to the Institution may be subjected to , and to ameliorate the social regime with regard to tbe lads themselves . " He considers Dr . Morris , when he says that Bros . Col . Stewart and himself were only ten minutes at the Sohool , " admits the

whole gravamen of our complaint , which is this , that owing to the brusqeness of our reception , and the cynical curtness of his remarks , we were obliged to abridge onr visit , and had to wait three-quarters of an hour at the railway station . " He points ont that he wrote originally nnder the initials " S . X . " because he did not wish to make " a

public matter too mnch of a private grievance , " and because he and his brother visitor " felt satisfied that the Committee of Management , and Bro . Binckes as Secretary , would trouble themselves far more about facts affecting the interests of the Institution than the names of individual

visitors . " He concludes with this remarkably sagacious observation : " If the publication of this correspondence will eventually benefit the School , our object will have been attained . " The letter which contains the foregoing passages deserves , and shall have , at our hands a very careful analysis . Bro . Nicols does not tell us whether it was he himself

who struck out from the " original" letter the other " passages ( equally true ) " whioh did not appear , or whether it was done , in the exercise of his discretion , by the editor of our contemporary . The matter , however , is of no material consequence . What it is important to note is

that some damaging statements were allowed to stand , m the hope , we presume , that they might promote the wellbeing of the Institution , while other damaging statements ; which the writer speaks of as " equally true , " were struck out , " lest injury might be done to the prestige of

the School in public opinion . " We can understand that a man may not , to use a common expression , desire " to pile up the agony , " but Solomon himself would have been puzzled to explain how any one , professing to be anxious for the prestige of a School , conld publish , or rather ask

to have published , certain statements seriously reflecting on its management . We care not what was omitted from " the original letter ; " but it cannot have been calculated to cause greater injury " to the prestige of the School in public opinion " than what was allowed to appear in the letter of " S . X . " We cannot conceive what could have been

more injurious than the reference to " the awe-struck manner of one or two of the poor little fellows who had occasion to address our conductor , " the remarks , " I pity the poor boys here ; " " How different is all this from the happy contentment I observed at the Girls' School , at

Clapham , the other day , " the " pity for the poor boys themselves , whose natures might possibly be influenced through life under such moral training , " or the comparison of our Boys' Institution with "the Industrial

School at Feltham" where "the waifs of society are taught and trained nnder the strictest discipline ; " and where , in place of " awe-struck " faces , there was nothing but " confidence and evident affection . " It is not

necessary to enumerate all the bruises a man who has been well thrashed may have received in order to prove that he has been thrashed , and nothing beyond what we have quoted from " S . X . ' s" letter , as it appeared in print , is required in order to show that a school , of which such remarks , if

true or applicable , can be made , must be in a very sorry condition as to its system of management . Bnt Captain Nicols in tbe character of " S . X . " and Captain Nicols in his own proper person are apparently two different individuals . The former suggests that he and his fellow

visitor may have been " somewhat annoyed at their reception—the exact words were , " perhaps we were somewhat annoyed at our reception " —that a " want of system " appeared to them to prevail , and that there was need for a " more careful ' surveillance ' by the heads of departments

at the School" in the " details of the domestic arrangements . " These suggestions are followed by a description of the " awe-struck manner " of some of the " poor little boys , " which is heightened by several expressions of pity for them , lest iu after life their natures should be

influenced by " such moral training' and by an unfavourable comparison of the Wood Green establishment , in the first place , with our Girls' School , and , in the next , with the Feltham Industrial School . Hence his complaint

" against the unsatisfactory state of things " as they appeared "to him and his companion" at Wood Green . This is Captain Nicols ' s style of writing when he figures before the public as the mysterious unknown " S . X . "