In Memoriam.

linked together , in some pleasant hour , of Masonic worker social fellowship , for time as it fleets by us so rapidly , as some one has said , " on its wines of air , " takes away one by one , many who

once were the prop and ornament of our lodges , —the soul , so to speak , of many a genial moment of kindly intercourse , the best of friends , and the truest of companions .

Such , we venture to think , will have been the thoughts and associations which must have arisen in the mind and memories of our readers , when they saw , last week , the little paragraph which

announced the lamented death of Bro . J . 11 Stebbing . For though he was probably best known and appreciated in his own distinguished Hampshire province , and in the South of

England , where the greater part of his good Masonic work was done , yet as a speaker and a working member he was well known in Grand Lodge , and the Board of General Purposes , and

other Masonic official duties , and his name is a very familiar one to our English Craft , and his Masonic reputation was , so to say , the common property of the Order . Most of us

have read from time to time , those eloquent speeches of his , delivered on various occasions , marked by his own original ideas , and personal characteristics , and which have always seemed

to us , to embody , in a striking measure , especially in their enunciation of iirst principles , the truest teaching of Freemasonry . Regretting then , as we do , the end of a honourable ,

hardworking , high-minded Masonic career , we feel bound to-day not to allow such a loss to our Order to pass altogether unnoticed or unrecorded in our pages ! For the loss of Bro . Stebbinjr is

a great loss to us , as a fraternity , take it as you will . We have happily in our Order many , very many , distinguished , and honourable , and able brethren , ornaments to their various

professions , and a credit to our sodality , but we have to deplore in the death of Bro . Stebbing , the removal from among us of a most typical representative of Masonic truth and Masonic

energy . It may be , that , in his long career we may not always have agreed with his views , propounded as they wero with outspoken animation , though we always honoured his motives ,

and though sometimes we found ourselves opposed to the Mason in the great interests of our common fraternity , we yet always loved the man . There was something in Bro . Stebbina

so thoroughly English , honest , reliable , and Masonic , that , no one could be brought into personal contact with him without liking him , and no one ever made his acquaintance

without wishing to know more of him . Unlike some men , he always gained upon acquaintance , and even when you did not always agree with his earnest and outspoken opinions , either on

men , or things Masonic , you learned to believe inhisown entire honesty and sincerity , the absence in him of anything merely personal or selfish . His zeal for the Craft was , we believe

unquenched to the last , and no one member of our entire English Order , has more openly proclaimed " in season and out of season" his entire

devotion to the principles and position of Freemasonry , amid the conflict of the hour , and " the strife of tongues , " and before that outer world

In Memoriam.

which knows nothing of our tenets , and yet is so apt to condemn alike onr professions and our practice . Bro . Stebbing will be a " missed man" in that province with whichhe has been so Iongconnecteci ,

and in which he held such high office , and in that town of whichhe has been so long a well-known and active citizen . He has filled very high posts of duty alike in municipal as in Masonic life ,

and has earned in both characters tbe good opinion and respect both of his fellow citizens and his brethren . It is always a sorrow to us to part with the old familiar face , to miss the

p leasant countenance , to listen no more to the well-known voice , and to feel that all of earthly companionship or association for the time is over . But yet the grief we feel is lessened , and

the sad sense of loss is mitigated , when we also rest assured that , that was indeed a true labourer ' s life whose close we now regret , that like a good soldier , our fellow pilgrim has died ,

so to say , " with harness on his back , that he has passed away doing his duty to the last , workins : the work of another and greater Master ,

until the nig ht came when none of us can work any more . In Bro . Stebbing ' s Masonic career we have a high example for our own Craft , old

or young , and in our deep regrets for his mourning family , and in our sympathy for the brethren of his province and lodge , we yet claim , in the

name , and with the fraternal respect of our entire Brotherhood to cast our humble wreath of " Immortelles" on the grave of our worthy , and zealous , and devoted , and lamented brother , J . R . Stebbing .

The Last Election Of The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

THE LAST ELECTION OF THE ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

We have received several letters complaining of the non-publication of the names of the successful and unsuccessful candidates at the last election of the R . M . Benevolent Institution for Aired Freemasons and their Widows . '' A

priori , " one would have thought , that the most natural p lace to find the earliest official information was in the pages of The Freemason , and we do not therefore , at all wonder at , or

complain of , the remarks of our correspondents . Certainly any one would say , " in our only English Masonic Newspaper , we shall find the information we anxiously seek , which , in one

sense , is purely Masonic . " According to Cocker , " any Freemason would naturall y look to the columns of The Freemason to find the official announcement of so great and so

valuable an institution of our Craft . But if we did really reason so , we should soon see the fallacy of our position , we should soon be entirely undeceived . That is by no means the way we do

our business at the head quarters of the institution in this metropolis of the country , and of Freemasonry . Nothing of the sort ! We are Freemasons who conduct this paper for the

information of the brotherhood , and therefore , we are the last persons to receive such official information from the Institution . Anxious , however ,

not to disappoint our readers , having received no official information from the office of the Society , we took the list from a paid advertisement in a non-Masonic journal . Can anything be more

The Last Election Of The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

absurd , or in truth unfair , or savouring more of hopeless red-tape ? We are the only Masonic paper in existence in England , and we are favoured neither with a paid advertisement or

an unpaid " communique . And yet , why we are thus left out in the cold , we do not know ! We have unceasingly advocated the cause of each of the Masonic Charities , and have been

at considerable cost to procure reliable reports for the brethren . Why then if we may not have paid advertisements , should we not have official information ? We have never refused

to publish anything sent to us , though our space is limited , and we do not therefore profess to understand what is to us a Masonic enigma . We have hesitated to dwell upon this topic

before , as we do again to-day , for fear we shall be fraternally answered / that we are only seeking for paid advertisements . But we will say this , once for all , with , we feel sure , the entire

concurrence of the Craft , that , as a respectable , and well-conducted Masonic paper , we have a right to expect , on the true principles of Freemasonry , some little patronage by this great Masonic

Institution of our only Masonic paper . But we would even dispense with paid advertisements , from the Benevolent Institution , if we could but receive unpaid official information . Yet

like some other Societies we wot of , the Royal Masonic Benovelent Institution is tied down , by some old and stereotyped rules , which do not apply to the passing hour . Because there

was a rule , at a time the Masonic press had but little circulation not to publish the advertisements in our Masonic papers , there is no reason why The Freemason should be now deprived of a fair

share of patronage by the Institution , and be compelled to cull from non-Masonic papers , and paid advertisements in non-Masonic journals , the official return which it professes to supply to the Order . Such is the inveterate force of

custom , that , we do not suppose that anything we have said will obtain a change in the system , which we regret , for the sake of the R . M . B . Institution itself . We have however thought it

well , from a feeling of self-respect , and in consequence of the complaints we have received , to state the matter really as it is , for the information of the subscribers of that admirable Institution , and for the consideration of the House Committee and the Craft .

In Memoriam.

In Memoriam .

Servant ofthe Great Master , whose "Well done ! Fell all too suddenly upon the ear , — Like muffled thunder speaking when the sun

Is shining , and the summer skies are clear : With silent grief we gather , one by one , Mournful and heavy-hearted , round thy bier , And give thee all that love cm give , —a tear .

How many a heart thy tender hand hath sooth'd j The widow and the orphan held thee dear ; Afllicton ' s roughest paths by thee were smooth'd ; And helpless sorrow ever found thee near .

Stebbing ! for thee our broken hearts lament ; And to thy name , in piace of marble , rear Love , as thy memory and monument . HENRY DOMAN , P . M . 319 .