Grand Chapter.

GRAND CHAPTER .

A QUARTERLY CONVOCATION of the Supreme Grand Chapter will bo held at Freemasons' Hall , London , on Wednesday , the 1 st August , at six p . m . BUSINESS . Tho Minutes of last Quarterly Convocation to be read for confirmation . REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL PURPOSES

To the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England . The Committee of General Purposes beg to report that they have examined the Accounts from tho 18 th April to the 17 th July 1894 , both inclusive , which they find to be as follows :

To Balance , Grand Chapter - - £ 695 1 10 „ „ Unappropriated Account 200 11 8 „ Subsequent Receipts - - 534 18 9 £ 1430 12 3 By Disbursements during the Quarter £ 355 18 8 „ Balance - - - - 842 17 5 „ „ Unappropriated Account 231 16 2 £ 1430 12 3 which Balances are in the Bank of England , Law Courts Branch .

The Committeo have likewise to report that they have received the following Petitions : — 1 st . From Companions Isaac Mann Shields as Z , Hormusji

Limjibhai Batliwalla as H , Kanoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar as J , and nine others for a Chapter to be attached to the Cyrus Lodge , No . 1359 , Bombay , to be called " The Cyrus Chapter , " and to meet at the Freemasons' Hall , Byculla , Bombay .

2 nd . From Companions William Humphreys Hodge as Z , Geo . Waterman as H , Joseph Shepherd Old as J , and fifteen others for a Chapter to be attached to the Star of Agra Lodge , No . 1936 , Agra , to be called " The Jumna Chapter , " and to meet at the Freemasons ' Hall , Agra , Bengal .

3 rd . From Companions Ephraim Robert Dale as Z , Robert Lees as H , William Thomas Godfrey Fitzgerald as J , and six others for a Chapter to be attached to the Alexandra Lodge , No . 1065 , Jubbulpore , to be called " The Clarence Chapter , '' and to meet at the Freemasons' Hall , Jubbulpore , Bombay .

4 th . From Companions Clemens M . de Wet as Z , Joseph Da Silva as H , Solomon Hershfield as J , and six others for a Chapter to be attached to the Gold Fields Lodge , No . 2478 , Johannesburg , to be called " Tho Gold Fields Chapter , " and to meet at the Masonic Rooms , Johannesburg , South African Republic .

5 th . From Companions Arthur Edward Harris as Z , Gcoigo Gregory as H , Joseph Henry J . Frye as J , and nineteen others for a Chapter to be attached to the Jordan Lodge , No . 201 , London , to be called " The Jordan Chapter , " and to meet at the Guildhall Tavern , Gresham Street , in the City of London .

The foregoing Petitions being in all respects regular , the Committee recommend that the prayers thereof be respectively granted . The Committee have also received a Memorial freni the Kandy

Newera Chapter , No . 454 , Kandy , Ceylon , asking for permission to hold the meetings of the Chapter at Kandy and Colombo , alternately , at Kandy on the 3 rd Saturday in February and August , and at Colombo on 3 rd Saturday , in May and November , to suit the members who reside in various parts of the Island .

The Committee recommend that the request , under the circumstances , be granted . The Committee have to report that the Charter of the Rose of Sharon Chapter , No . 1 C 06 , St . Day , Cornwall , has been returned by request of the Provincial Grand Scribe E . Cornwall . The last Exaltation in the Chapter was in 1884 .

The Committee recommend that the fact of the return of the Charter of Chapter No . 1006 , bo reported to Grand Chapter . The Eclectic Chapter , No . 1201 , London , having exalted a candidate before the expiration of twelve months from the date of

raising , previously to the alteration of the Law , the Committee ordered that the Chapter bo censured , and the Candidate reobligated . { Signal ) ROBERT GREY , President . Freemasons' Hall , W . C . 18 th July 1894 .

The annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Chapter of Kent will be held on "Wednesday next , 1 st August , at Dover .

o o o The installation of Lord Llangattock , the recently appointed Provincial Grand Master of the Eastern Division of South Wales , is expected to take place at

Cardiff , on the 27 th September next . Among other eminent members of the Craft who have signified their intention of being present , are the Earl of Lathom Pro

Grand Master ( who will doubtless officiate on the occasion ) , and the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe Deputy Grand Master .

Masonic Funds And "Refreshments."

MASONIC FUNDS AND " REFRESHMENTS . "

A FORTUNATE accident has placed in the hands of " Porcupine" the statement of accounts of a certain Liverpool Lodge of the Order of Freemasons . It is beyond question most interesting reading , and affords an unusually large amount of the proverbial food for reflection . There is no order the secrets of which are better kept than those of Freemasonry , and

it would be no part of " Porcupine ' s " purpose to unveil a single one of these secrets , were it not that a perusal of this remarkable little document points out a very obvious duty . To join the Order of Masons—or , indeed , any order which binds its members together in the possession of common secrets—is simply taking a leap in tho dark . Anyone , therefore , proposing to join any such order , must

bo guided in his decision by the more or less accurate reputation which that order bears . It is not the purpose of " Porcupine " to canvass tho question as to whether any member of society is justified in binding himself by solemn vows to an order concerning which he is only informed by vague and general report . But it is

permissible to urge that if the general reputation of any order be an erroneously favourable one , grave personal discomfort may result to persons who , joining that Order on account of its favourable reputation , find on initiation that they are bound by irrevocable vows to proceedings which they cannot approve and associations which are nothing less than revolting .

What is the general reputation of the Order of Freemasons ? Speaking broadly , and without regard to certain emphatic informants of the " Porcupine , " it is that Freemasonry is an organisation existing for the propagation of human brotherhood , and for the practico of a lorgc-hearted benevolence . Is this a correct ostimate of the objects of a world-wide Order ? This small

cardful of figures shall answer . From fees and subscriptions the ineomo of the Lodge from 1 st July 1893 , to the 30 th ultimo was some £ 3 S 2 . Fees to tho central department of the Order and general expenses of the Lodge itself account for , in round figures , £ 182 . There are set down to various benevolent funds items

amounting to some £ 50 . Small balances account to about £ 5 , and the remainder , £ 147 , goes in two items : one , " refreshments " £ 134 , the other , " pic-nic , " £ 12 12 s . £ 147 ! Nearly 40 per cent , of the whole income of the Lodge , as against a mere £ 50 for benevolent purposes and £ 180 for general expenses !

Some idea of the nature of tho refreshing process iudicated may bo gathered from the fact that a whole pic-nic cost merely twelve guineas . Pic-nics arc usually considered to imply a fairly substantial course of feeding . One may , with justification , suppose that this twelve-guinea pic-nic boasted a " knife and fork tea . " And yet it only cost twelve guineas . Ono is lost in wonder ,

therefore , before the discovery that the " refreshments " ran away with no less than £ 134 19 s 5 d . Refreshments is a term usually considered as indicating something in the nature of what the conventional novelist terms " a slight repast . " The word conjures up visions of small cups of tea and coffee , ices , creams , grapes , the thousand and one varieties of cake—all trifles light as air . How

then , do theso trifles manage to weigh down the scale of this particular Lodge to the extent of £ 135 , while a heavy pic-nic , doubtless with full complement of horses , waggonettes , favours , and knife and fork tea , only counts a paltry twelve guineas ? Here beyond a doubt bo mysteries . Now , it will occur to the reader that even if the same £ 135 was disbursed upon no more

debatable comestibles than bottles of ginger beer and Ecclcs cake , there is a certain disproportion between it and the £ 50 worth of benevolence . It may well be that there are people who , on joining a great and philanthropic institution , would be disappointed , not to say shocked , on discovering that its benevolence stood to its appetite in the proportion of one to three . It is possible that

notwithstanding the innocuous nature of ginger beer and Eccles cakes , a person of strong philanthropic instincts would consider that tho expenditures might at least be reversed , so that philanthropy might claim £ 135 , even if the craving of that Lodge for Eccles cakes and ginger beer should necessitate , under the head of refreshments , an expenditure of £ 50 . It is further possible that a really philanthropic person might consider that a pound a week

—even on ginger beer and Eccles cakes—was an unduly large expenditure for a philanthropic institution whose total income only amounted to £ 183 . There , are , however , other features in the case . We have no satisfactory guarantee that the manufacturers of ginger beer and the purveyors of Eccles cakes were enriched by all , or , indeed , any of this £ 135 . There are possibilities which would make this expenditure not merely an extravagance , but a disgrace .

Little as the uninitiated public know of the mysteries of Masonry , it has always appeared that one of its most obvious raisotis d ' etre was the ministry of the inner man—the ministry of what the Cretans were such expert exponents . That is to say—to drop allegory and resume simple Saxon—it has long been feared that Masonry was an order whose chief pursuit was that of eating

and drinking , unfortunately even more of the latter than the former , and this fear is rendered almost a certainty by a glance over this little four-page statement of accounts . In plain words , theie is every reason to believe that no small proportion of the £ 135 spent by this Lodge between 1 st July 1893 , and 30 th June 1894 , has gone in intoxicants . It is just remotely possible that

the supposition is unjust , but the possibility is too remote to justify the withholding of this criticism . The worst of it is that there are facts which bear out the belief that the expenditure of the Lodge on " refreshments " is no exceptional one , and that , indeed , an almost equally large proportion of outlay upon intoxicants is the general rule . A prominent Liverpool gentleman of philanthropic

views was approached a short time ago , and urged to join the order of Freemasons in order that he might assist in forming a Lodge in which expenditure on intoxicants should be forbidden . He was significantly told that in twelve months such a Lodge would be at the " top of the tree " for prosperity and benevolence . Other facta there are , not quotabio here , which go to provo the existence of a