Contents.

CONTENTS .

L EADERS . Sfj The Drury Une Lodge , No . 2 r 2 J 86 Consecration of the Kingswood Lodge , No 2218 , at Elstree , Hertfordshire So " * ' •J CORRHSPONDSNCE- Minutes of the Old Druids'Lodge gr The Poet Burns 92 Notes and Queries ^ ZZZ ^ iiZZ !!!! 92 R . PORTS or MASONIC MIITINQJ- Craft Masonry 92 Instruction 9 " Royal Arch 96

REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGS ( Continued)—Mark Masonry o 6 Knights Templar 97 . . •, , . . .. Masonic Ball o £ the Humber Lodge , No . 57 , „ , "'" . . Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution 97 Obituary 9 ? Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Statistics 97 Masonic and General Tidings 9 S Lodge Meetings for Next Week 99

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, „ WE are pleased to be able to record that Bro . TERRY has been Approaching making further satisfactory progress in strengthening his Board R . M . B . I , of Stewards for the Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent

Institution , on Wednesday , the 27 th instant , and that already some 320 brethren have volunteered their services for the occasion . On the other hand , the Report we publish elsewhere of the proceedings of the Committee of Management , on Wednesday , makes it clear that further assistance is

needed if the solid phalanx of annuitants is to be reduced to within a modest compass . As matters now stand , only 17 men annuitants—14 immediate , and three deferred—can be elected in May next , from the list of 62 candidates ; and no more than 10 widow annuitants—seven immediate ,

and three deferred—from the list of 81 candidates . We trust the brethren generally vyill note these figures carefully , and by their subscriptions , on the 27 th instant , justify the Committee in further reducing , if possible , the number of those who must be unsuccessful at the next election , and who

will , consequently , be compelled to remain in their present hopeless state of poverty for at least another 12 months . * * * WE have received several letters on the subject of the The J

_ . Masonic Libel "Masonic Libel Case" which was heard at the Bow Street Police Court on Saturday last , and in which Bro . M . SPIEGEL , P . M ., lately . a member of the Joppa Lodge , No . 188 , appeared in answer

to a summons charging him vvith having libelled Bro . LAZARUS , a P . M . and Secretary of the same lodge . We must , however , remind the brethren who have favoured us with these communications that , as Mr . BRIDGE , the presiding magistrate on the occasion , has seen proper to remit the case for

trial to the Central Criminal Court , even if we had any desire to offer any suggestions as to the circumstances which have brought about this action on the part of Bro . LAZARUS , it would be a grave dereliction of duty on our part to do so while the trial is pending . We quite agree with

those who suggest that it is a scandal that a means was not found ° f preventing the case , which concerns the conduct of one Mason towards a brother Mason and member of the same lodge , from appearing in the law courts . Unfortunately , all regrets on this score are unavailing

"ow that it has so appeared , nor does it occur to us that it would be possible or proper for the Board of General Purposes —the Masonic tribunal by which all disputes between brethren should be settled—to intervene at this stage of the proceedings . The

magistrate , when appealed to by the defendant ' s counsel to adjourn the matter ° n the ground that a prima , facie case had not been made out , is reported to have said that "the evidence was conclusive if true , and he could not conceive any jury saying it was not a libel , " He therefore committed the

defendant for trial , and if our Board of General Purposes stepped in with a v'ew to preventing the case going any further , it might happen to find 1 self in a very awkward predicament . We see no objection , however , to Qur stating , on the authority of Bro . SPIEGEL himself , that he was not

expelled— Grand Lodge alone possessing the power of expelling a Masonic ° even excluded from the Joppa Lodge , but that he resigned of his own ree will and accord . Moreover , it seems , from Bro . SPIEGEL ' letter of

X P anation , that the initial differences out of which the present case has L j ^ 'sen have alread y been referred to and decided upon by the Board of I eneral Purposes . Under these circumstances , the onl y course is to leave I e case to be carried to its legitimate conclusion .

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IT is evident that Bro . the Earl of CARNARVON was quite Frcnc * right when he remarked in his speech at the installation of the Freemasonry , p r Prince of WALES as Grand Master , that while the Craft in England was scrupulously careful to prevent anything and everything in the way of religious or political discussion taking place in our lodges , he was afraid the same could not be said of the brethren in many Continental

countries , and that in the case of some of them there was fair ground for believing that men vvho happened to be Masons vvere not slow to avail themselves of the Masonic organisation in order to advance their own particular religious or political opinions . An illustration of the justice of his lordship ' s remarks was afforded the other day in Paris , when the members

of a lodge , which rejoices in the name of La Loge de la Repubhque Democratique , made the proposed initiation of a certain M . LALOU , who is a staunch supporter of General BOULANGER , the occasion for a violent anti * BOULANGIST demonstration within the sacred precincts of the lodge . The candidate did not present himself , but the demonstration was made

notwithstanding , and when the Venerable or VV . Master threatened to close the lodge if order vvere not restored , the anti-BouLANGiSTS became still more violent , and the Master hastily declared the lodge closed , and fled . Still more disgraceful violence ensued , and possibly a battle " royal" might have followed among the brethren of this democratic-republican lodge , but

some inspired individual turned off the gas , and the scene , perforce , came to an end . It is needless to say that the circumstances , as we have described them , have nothing whatever to do with Masonry , or Masonry as we understand and practise it , and as it is understood and practised by the bulk of the Fraternity . Such a scene would have been impossible in any lodge in the

British Empire or the United States , where the necessity of keeping the Craft clear of political or religious controversy is recognised and observed * , nor do we imagine it would be possible in countries like Sweden and Norway , Denmark , and wherever else thegenuine principles of Freemasonry are understood . Indeed , one of the chief objects vvhich the founders of the

modern or speculative system of Freemasonry had in view when they set up the English Grand Lodge of 1717 , was to provide a neutral ground on which people of every religious and political creed might meet arid enjoy each other's society , and by so doing learn to appreciate and respect each other ; and to enable this to be done , it was determined that nothing in the

shape of political or religious controversy should be allowed within the precincts of the tyled lodge . At the time our Grand Lodge was founded , the necessity for some such provision as this was apparent , if men of opposite political parties were to be brought to meet at all . There was great bitterness of feeling , approaching almost to the verge of hatred , between

the partisans of the rival dynasties of HANOVER and STUART . Only two years before the famous meeting of the Four Old Lodges , which led to the installation of ANTHONY SAYER as Grand Master of England , the rebellion known as that of the Old Pretender had been violently suppressed by the armed forces of GEORGE I ., but the STUARTS had still many partisans left , and

the spirit which prevailed between them and the supporters of the KING was not likely to have been made less rancorous by the blood that had been shed on the battle-field and the scaffold . Yet even in those days our lodges vvere kept freeand unpolluted bypersonal animosityand political partisanship . So it was in 1745-6 , when the second Jacobite rebellion broke cut and was

suppressed vvith similar violence and bloodshed , and so it has been since , both here and among all English-speaking peoples—no matter how extreme the political and religious rivalries of the day may have been , the Masons ' lodge has always remained secure from their violence . In France and elsewhere , however , it has been otherwise , and the recent occurrence in a French

lodge is the more to be regretted , because , since 1877 , a gulf impassable has been placed between the Grand Orient and our Grand Lodge , in consequence of the act of the former in eliminating from its Book of Constitutions the article requiring all Freemasons to avow their faith in the existence of a Supreme Being and the doctrine of a future state . It is to be regretted on

the further ground that this introduction at a Iodge meeting of the BOULANGIST and anti-BouLANGiST political rancour will strengthen the hands of the enemies of Freemasonry all the world over , who are never weary of vilifying Masons and their princi ples as being diametrically opposed to the maintenance of religious , political , and social order . They will assert ,

and with this experience of what passes in a French lodge we cannot deny they will have some grounds for asserting , that a meeting of Masons is merely a political meeting in disguise , and that it is the first duty of all governments to suppress with a strong hand the body or bodies wnich may

at any time be influenced to set themselves in opposition to their authority . If the Grand Orient of France is actuated by true wisdom , it will order La Loge de la Republique Democratique to be struck off its Roll of Lodges for its recent disgraceful misconduct .