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PAIETY RESTAURANT , STRAND . LUNCHEONS ( HOT AND COLD ) , At Popular Prices , in BUFFET and RESTAURANT ( on First Floor ) , also Chops , Steaks , Joints , Entrees , & c , in the GRILL ROOM . AFTERNOON TEA , Consisting of Tea or Coffee , Cut Bread and Butter , Jam , Cake , Pastry , ad lib ., at Is . per head , served from 4 till 6 in RESTAURANT ( First Floor ) . DINNERS IN RESTAURANT From 5 . 30 till 9 , at fixed prices ( 3 s . 6 d . and 5 s . ) and a la Carte . In this room THE VIENNESE BAND performs from 6 to S . Smoking after 7 . 45 . AMERICAN BAR . THE GRILL ROOM is open till 12 . 30 . PRIVATE DINING ROOMS for large and small Parties . SPIERS & POND , Ltd ., PROPRIETORS .

Masonic Notes.

Masonic Notes .

R . W . —We are of opinion that the brother you refer to , being an Installed Master , is competent to undertake the office of acting Past Master of the proposed new ledge , notwithstanding that he has not completed his full term of service as W . M .

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^ S g ^ mSOTa SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER II , 18 97 .

Masonic Notes.

Masonic Notes .

We have received the voting pape rs , with the accompanying lists of candidatesfor election , at the approaching Quarterly Courts of Governors of our Scholastic Institutions , arid shall publish our usual article on the lists next week . In the meantime , we have to announce

that the Quarterly Court of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls will be held in the Large Hall of Freemasons'Tavern on Thursday , the 7 th October , at neon precisely , and that at 1 p . m ., or as soon as the general business of the Court has been transacted , the poll will

be opened for the election of 15 , from an approved list of 26 , candidates . The proportion of vacancies to candidates is rather less favourable than we have known it for some time past , but , even under these conditions , the prospects of individual candidates are the reverse of discouraging .

The Quarterly Court of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys will be held in the same hall and at the same hour on Fridiy , theSth proximo , and the poll will be opened at the same time . The number to be elected is also the same , but , unfortunately , there arc 49 approved candidates , or rather more than three for

every vacancy to be filled . 1 hus the brethren who are interested in the several cases will lind it hard work to obtain the necessary votes to ensure success , and we may there-fore look for a considerable amount of excitement in connection with this election . However , of this and other points that strike us we shall write at length next week .

Masonic Notes.

We are indebted to Bro . W . F . Lamonby for a correction of certain errors in our report of the meeting of United Grand Lodge on the 1 st instant . The point to which he is anxious to draw the attention of our readers will be found in the remarks erroneously

ascribed to Bro . S . Way , M . W . G . Master of South Australia , in which that distinguished brother is reported as saying that the English brethren in South Australia were desirous of remaining under the English Constitution . As Bro . Lamonby very properly points

out , there is not a single English lodge in South Australia which for many years past has had an independent Grand Lodge of its own . There is , howeyer , no need for us to insert his letter as we have already corrected this and other errors to which our attention has been drawn .

We have also been requested to state that it was Bro . C . J . Egan , Dist . G . Master of the Eastern Division of South Africa , not Bro . the Right Hon . S . Way , M . W . G . Master of South Australia , who spoke in favour of the amendment for the non-confirmation of a specified portion of the minutes of the June Communication .

It was likewise Bro . Egan , and not Bro . Way , who seconded the proposition for a vote of thanks to Bros . Sir Albert W . Woods , P . G . W ., G . D . C , and Thomas Fenn , P . G . W ., for their services in connection with the Royal Albert Hall meeting on the 14 th June . These errors are of exceptional importance , and on that account are the more deeply to be regretted .

It is evident that Bro . Egan , at whose request we have made these corrections , looks with great disfavour on the laws as they now affect our Colonial brethren . He lays it down distinctly and emphatically that the brethren in his District are desirous of remaining

under the British Constitution , and that the changes in the laws which have now been announced are as distasteful to them as they are to himself . In the concluding paragraph of his letter to us , he remarks : "By

this change in the Constitutions the Grand Lodge of England seems to be laying itself out to favour the formation of separate Grand Lodges in each of the Colonies , as if it felt that the government of the Colonial Districts was a ' millstone on its neck . ' "

* * Nor does Bro . Egan stand alone in his unfavourable opinion of the changes which have been approved . On referring to the report of the proceedings of a Quarterly Communication of the District Grand Lodge of

Queensland , held in Brisbane , on the 2 nd June , we find that the District Grand Master—Bro . the Hon . C . Gregory , C . M . G . —called upon the Asst . District Grand Secretary to read the proposed alterations , remarking that it was " really a very important question , but as it

was still sub jitdice , they could not take any action thereon . " When the proposed alterations had been read , Bro . F . H . Gibbon , Dist . S . G . Deacon , expressed his opinion that they should receive " the most earnest consideration of all Masons belonging to the English

Constitution in the Colonies , as they were " inimical to their existence . " He subsequantly remarked that " if no protest was made from this or the other Colonies , it would be assumed they tacitly agreed to them . "

We do not share in the opinions expressed by Bros . Egan and Gibbon that the new lxws are inimical cither to the interests or the existence of our Colonial lodges . The new Articles 21 SA and 21 SB provide for members of lodges "discussing" in open lodge at a

meeting held under a dispensition specially granted for the purpose by the District Grand Mister , ani " resolving on" on the question of " the formation of a Sovereign Grand Lodge , " nor will any resolution to join theproposed new Grand Lodge b ; valid unless carried by

" a majority of t . vo-thirds of the members present . " Under the old law , or rather in the absence of any law on the subject , any such discussion was out of the question . The brethren might discuss it among themselves as individual Masons , but not as a lodge .

Under o'd Article 219 , in the event of a majority of the members retiring from a lodge , a minority of three might retain the warrant , and work the lodge ; but under new Article 219 , when a lodge is reduced to five members , it must cease to meet , and the warrant must

be returned ; but it is in the power or the Grand Master to grant a dispensation enabling the members to meet " until he finally decides whether or not the lodge shall be continued . " It appears to us that by the new

provision the interests of our Colonial lodges are sufficiently safeguarded . A lodge may now discuss and resolve on the question—whether it will or will not join a proposed new Grand Lodge , but it cannot join it unless the resolution in favour of joining is carried by

Masonic Notes.

a two-thirds majority of the members present , while , as regards a lodge which is reduced to five members , it will not necessarily on that account be discontinued . # * * We do not imagine that any law , however carefully it may be framed will be entirely without blemish .

Whatever may be its provisions , they will certainly affect some , more or less , unfavourably . But so long as the rights of minorities are reasonably safeguarded , and while our Grand Lodge continues its present practice of recognising a newly-formed Grand Lodge in a British Colony conditionally on the rights and

privileges of any of its lodges which may desire to remain , in their allegiance to it being respected , we do not anticipate any greater danger to the existence of our Colonial lodges under the new than under the old law . Those of our Colonial lodges which desire to remain as now , under our Constitution , will never have the

slightest difficulty in doing so , and if Bros . Egan and Gibbon and others have any doubts upon the subject , we direct their attention to the three English lodges in Montreal which have remained true to their allegiance during the 42 years the Grand Lodge of Canada has been in existence .

In short , our Grand Lodge has at all times most scrupulously respected the rights and privileges of its lodges , while , at the same time , it has insisted as a condition precedent of recognition that the newlyformed Colonial Grand Lodges it has recognised should likewise respect those rights and privileges .

Of this we have a case in point in the Grand Lodge of Quebec , which our Grind Lodge was prepared to recognise as long ago as 1 S 75 , but the Grand Lodge of Quebec declined to accept recognition on the usual condition that the rights and privileges of the English lodges in Montreal meeting within its jurisdiction should be respected .

. # # * Our readers will have heard with regret of the death of Bro . Sir Lewis W . Cave , one of the judges of H . M . ' s HighCourt of Judicature . The deceased wasa Mason of long standing , having been initiated in the Apollo University Lodge . No . 357 , in 1852 . while a member of

Lincoln College , Oxford . In 18 S 1 , his Royal Highness the M . W . G . M . was pleasad to confer upon him the collar of Junior G . Warden , but the heavy claims upon his time prevented him from taking a very active part in Freemasonry . The late judge , who was appointed to

his office in 18 S 1 , had , it is understood , intimated to the Lord Chancellor his intention of retiring from the bench owing to the deafness with which for some time past he had been troubled , and in that case he would have been entitled to a pension . He had not long completed his 65 th year . # #

» We have received an important communication from the Prov . Grand Secretary of Eist Lancashire , in in which our respected brother , unler the circunstances therein narrated , conceives it to be his duty to administer a "Caution to Almoners" in respect of that

most undesirable of beings—the Masonic Vagrant . As it reached us somewhat late , we have thought it well to hold the letter over till our next week's issue , when we shall take the opportunity of emphasising the particulars with which he has favoured us with a few comments of our own .

* * * We are greatly indebted to Bro . Robert Marshall , of St . John ' s , New Brunswick , for the full report he has kindly forwarded to us of the annual Convocation of the Grand Chapter of New Brunswick , which was

held at St . John ' s on Wednesday , the 25 th ultimo , and also of the Grand Lodge held during the afternoon of the same day . We shall have great pleasure in publishing them next week , as well as one or two other reports with which our correspondent has favoured us .

* » * It appears from the sketch given in the Voce oj Masonry of the proceedings at the loSth annual communication of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire which was held in the City of Concord under the presidency of Bro . Henry A . Marsh , M . W . G . M ., on the

19 th May , that Bro . Marsh and Bro . Geo . P . Cleaves were re-elected to office , the former as G . Master and the latter as G . Secretary . From the statistics furnished at the meeting it appears there are 77 lodges on the roll of the Grand Lodge with an aggregate of 0111 subscribing members . The General

l'und amounted to S 030 dollars and the disbursements to 4254 dollars . From these few figures and from the lack ot any information to the contrary in our contemporary ' s summary of particulars we judge that the Craft in New Hampshire must be in a prosperous condition .