The New Year.

THE NEW YEAR .

We should be wanting in courtesy , as well as neglecting an obvious duty , if we allowed the present occasion to pass without tendering to our numerous friends and subscribers , both at home and abroad , our hearty good wishes for their prosperity and happiness during the New Year , and expressing at the same time our sincere thanks for the uniform kindness and consideration

they have shown us during the year which has just terminated . We have endeavoured , as usual and to the best of our ability , to keep them well informed as to the events that have been passing in our world of Masonry ; we haA-e expressed our opinions freely

on such topics of general interest as appeared worthy of comment ; and , above all , we have done what lay in our power to promote the well-being of our Society and the Institutions in which it takes so great and so legitimate a pride . We dare not venture to think that all we have said or done has commanded

the assent or approbation of our readers , but the increasing favour with which this Journal is everywhere received satisfies us that our efforts in support of Freemasonry are fully appreciated , and that more than at any previous period in our career

we are the representative organ of the Craft in the United Kingdom . We reiterate our thanks for the kindness we have received during the past 12 months , and , at the same time , we renew the expression of our hope that the year which we have just entered upon may prove as successful as its commencement is , in our opinion , promising .

Approaching Festival Of The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

APPROACHING FESTIVAL OF THE ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

With the beginning of the New Year it is necessary that we should draw attention to the earliest of its important celebrations . We allude , of course , to the Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , which will be held at Freemasons' Tavern , on Wednesday , the 25 th February , under the

able and genial presidency of Bro . Earl AMHERST , Provincial Grand Master of Kent . A month since we described at some length the circumstances of this Institution , but they will certainly bear repetition in brief . Its two Funds together provide annuities for 409 Old People—180 Men and 229

Widowsand there is also a varying number of widows who receive half their late husbands' annuities for a period of five years , or in the event of their being elected within that period , to receive the benefits of their own Fund , till the ist of June following the date of such election . The sum required for the payment of

these annuities is , in round figures , £ 15 , 000 , and there is also a further sum of about £ 3500 expended in maintaining the Asylum at Croydon and defraying the expenses of management , so that the total annual expenditure is £ 18 , 500 . Towards this large outlay the Institution is possessed of a permanent income ,

consisting of grants from Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter and interest on invested capital , which amounts at the very outside to £ 4000 a year . There remains , therefore , a sum of about £ 14 , 500 , which must be raised annuall y in order that the Institution may be enabled to fulfil the obligations it has contracted ,

and , as our readers are aware , it is by the means of the Annual Festival that the authorities look to obtain the bulk of this necessary sum . But there is still one circumstance which must not be overlooked—the authorities have gone as far with safety as they dare venture in the direction of increasing the number

of annuitants on the two Funds , but , unfortunately , the number of applicants has increased instead of diminishing , and though it is too early yet to learn the effect of the measures taken with a view to keeping this number within manageable compass , there

is no doubt whatever from the array of unsuccessful cases standing over from the election in May last , that the lists of candidates for this year ' s ballot will be about 150 strong , or as formidable as they were on the last occasion . In short , with a permanent income of about £ 4000 a year , the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution stands committed to an annnal expenditure of

Approaching Festival Of The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

£ 18 , 500 , while , in addition , it has about 150 worthy men and women with little or nothing to support them , and too aged and infirm to do anything for their own livelihood , applying for admission to its benefits . These are the circumstances which , in the discharge of our duty , we think it necessary to lay before our readers .

We have said the Committee of Management look principally to the Festival for the means with which to make good the annual deficit of about £ 14 , 500 . Well , the prospects as they now present themselves are certainly encouraging . Biro . TERRY is not the man to miss any opportunity for enlisting the sympathy

and support of the lodges and brethren , and to such excellent purpose has he laboured in his arduous vocation of Secretary since we last wrote on this Institution , that his Board of Stewards is , at this moment , nearly , if not quite , 206 strong . As may well be imagined , the Chairman ' s Province of Kent is numerously

represented on the Board , while brethren from both London and several of the other Provinces have promised their aid , and are already engaged in the work of canvassing for donations and subscriptions . But though the position is slightly more favourable than it was at the corresponding period of last year , there

can be no gainsaying the opinion that a very considerable increase in the number of brethren acting as Stewards is necessary if anything like the required sum is to be obtained . We earnestly appeal , therefore , to our friends in London and throughout the country to render all the assistance they can .

Let those who can send in their names as Stewards at once , while there is still ample time for them to exert their influence and eloquence to good purpose . There is no knowing what

may not be achieved in the course of the seven weeks' interval between now and the day appointed for the anniversary , if only those who have pledged their services will bestir themselves and a sufficient number of brethren will come forward now and

support their efforts . The task before them is a hard one , much patience is necessary , and many disappointments must be borne , ere so large a total as between £ 14 , 000 and £ 15 , 000 is obtained . But the amount has been raised and even exceeded in previous years , and as the auguries are favourable , we trust the triumphs of past anniversaries will be repeated next month .

Lodge Of Harmony, No. 133, Faversham, Kent.

LODGE OF HARMONY , No . 133 , FAVERSHAM , KENT .

Faversham is , in its way , a thriving , bustling , little inland port , connected with the outer world by the London , Chatham , and Dover Railway , on the one hand , and the creek which flows into the Swale on the other . An ancient member of the Cinque Ports , it has boasted of a corporate existence for many a century ,

and is one of the oldest boroughs in England . But before the railway was built its intercourse with the great city must have been fitful , and chiefly maintained by its trading vessels . To such a place the Masonic impulse must have come early , and yet we should expect the worthy Cinque Port Barons to have

but an indifferent acquaintance with all the ins and outs of the great Masonic movement of the eighteenth century . And such , to judge by records which have only lately come to my notice , was the case . There is a fine old lodge at Faversham , and to verify certain surmises which had been forced upon me by the

perusal of Bro . F . F . Giraud ' s " Freemasonry in Faversham " I lately paid the brethren a visit . My inspection of their records , dating in unbroken sequence from 1763 , was perforce hurried , but sufficient for my immediate purpose , so that the majority of the particulars to be noted are extracted from Bro . Giraud ' s pamphlet .

Bro . Lane , in his " Masonic Records , " states that a lodge was warranted by the "Ancients" in Faversham on the 20 th May , 1763 , as No . 114 , and that there are " no records after 1763 , " thus leading to the supposition that the bantling expired incontinently . The warrant apparently was never returned , or it would probably , like other "Ancient" warrants , have been