The Province Of Surrey.

THE PROVINCE OF SURREY .

The Province of Surrey is to be congratulated on having had its interests entrusted to a brother , whose family has been long resident within its borders , and who has himself won high

distinction in the ranks of Freemasonry . Lord ONSLOW was appointed Senior Grand Warden of England in 1880 , and there is little doubt that , if the movement in New Zealand some few

years ago in favour of establishing a local Grand Lodge had met with anything like a practically unanimous , support on the part of the brethren , his lordship would have been elected and installed its first Grand Master , with the full concurrence of the

authorities of our Grand Lodge . However , his desire to occupy a position in which he might render important services to the Craft has at length been gratified , and on Saturday , the 6 th instant , he was

installed in office as Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent of Surrey , in succession to the late Bro . Col . MONEY , C . B ., with the splendour and solemnity which properly attend so great a function . That his lordship will have an uphill task

before him in his endeavours to emulate the success of his predecessor ' s administration may not be questioned ; but he is an able man , who has won honour as a Colonial Governor , and only 3 week or two ago was appointed to be one of her MAJESTY ' S

Under-Secretaries of State . Moreover , as we have before mentioned , his family has been long resident in Surrey , so that he will enter upon his new duties under the most favourable auspices . The Province , too , has been well administered . In

the person of the late Bro . General BROWNRIGG , who was appointed to preside over it in 18 71 , Surrey had one of the kindliest and most capable of Provincial Grand Masters . In the late Bro . Col . MONEY it was equally fortunate , and the progress it

had made under Bro . Gen . BROWNRIGG was successfully maintained during the MONEY regime , the number of lodges that were placed on the roll of its Provincial Grand Lodge during the four years of its continuance being five . It now has 40 lodges in a

nourishing condition , and of these no less than 17 have Royal Arch chapters attached to them . There will , therefore , be plenty to occupy Lord ONSLOW ' S attention in his two-fold capacity of Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent , and we have

every confidence that when his lordship has had time to make himself familiar with his duties , and the brethren , whose goodwill towards him is undoubted , have become accustomed to his presidency , his administration of the Province will prove to be

as satisfactory as that of either of the predecessors of his lordshi p we have named . Indeed , if the very hearty congratulations which have been showered upon him on all sides since his

appointment became known are an augury of , as they are undoubtedl y an encouragement to , success , the success of Lord ONSLOW ' Provincial Grand Mastership is already assured .

The Masonic Vagrant.

THE MASONIC VAGRANT .

It is to be hoped that the discussion upon this subject , which has been carried on in our columns for several months past , will be attended with beneficial results . As one of our correspondents remarked a short while since , the Masonic Vagrant is a

"timing question , " and the speedier and more effectual the measures taken to cope with this class of question , the better it ls 'or the community . If anything can be done to mitigate the Ilu 'sance caused b y the professional Masonic vagabond—a uisance , be it remembered , which is ever-recurring and . wide-

The Masonic Vagrant.

spread—the attention lately bestowed upon him will not have been bestowed in vain . No member of our Society can entertain the slightest feeling of sympathy with such a person . Not only does he make his living by a series of impostures , but more

frequently than not he prevents the honest poor brother from obtaining the help he so greatly needs , and which the well-to-do brother is at all times so ready to furnish . Lodge Almoners and subscribing brethren generally , when they discover they have

been duped by a worthless vagabond , are apt to think that all applicants for relief must be tarred with the same brush . Or , as not infrequently happens , they employ the limited means at their disposal for relieving distress in succouring the impostor ,

and then they find they have nothing left for the wayfarer who really and truly needs their help . Of course , it is hopeless to expect that even the best-devised measures will have the effect of wholly stamping out this nuisance of Masonic

Vagrancy , but there is no reason why some scheme should not be adopted with a view to mitigating it , and it appears to us that the present is a convenient time for formulating and adopting some such scheme . Thanks to the many letters which have

appeared in our correspondence columns , the Masonic Vagrant has at length succeeded in securing a position of prominence to which , in a certain sense , he is justly entitled . Hitherto he has received but scant , or only occasional , attention . There has

been a kind of vague general knowledge that he was a man of predatory habits , who roamed about the country at will , relieving innocent-minded brethren of as much of their spare cash as they were silly enough to part with , palming off upon

them any dirty piece of paper that could be made to do duty as a certificate , and cramming them with stupendous lies about the position in the Craft he had once occupied and had lost through unavoidable misfortune . But this vague and general

knowledge has at length been supplemented by a tolerably clear insig ht into the character of the various devices by which the Vagrant has succeeded in his imposition . We know now by what dirty tricks and under what aliases he has been

able to impose upon a benevolent public , and we are not without hope that the brethren generally are prepared to make the most of this supplementary knowledge . The Province of Kent , at the instance of Bro . J W . LITTLE , Almoner of the Medway Lodge ,

No . 16 7 8 , Tonbridge , has already taken the subject in hand , and at its annual meeting at Maidstone on the 3 rd instant , it was ordered that a copy of the circular which had been drawn up by the lodge Almoners should be sent to each lodge in the Province

for its careful consideration , and any observations or suggestions it mig ht see fit to offer . Last week we published a letter from Bro . ALKRED C . MUTTON , of the Royal Albert Edward Lodge

No . 1362—not 1326 , as erroneously printed—Red Hill , in which he announced that his lodge had recently passed a resolution to the effect "That the W . M . be authorised to communicate with

the Prov . Grand Secretary with a view to arrange a meeting of representatives of all lodges in the Province to consider the best means of dealing with the Masonic Vagrant ; " while Bro . WILLIAM SMITH , P . M . and Secretary of the Sondes Lodge , No .

99 6 , East Dereham , who is Prov . Grand Treasurer of Norfolk , has favoured us with one or two communications , from the tenour of which we may reasonably hope that any measures which it may consider desirable to adopt towards

mitigating the nuisance of Masonic Vagrancy will have the sympathy and support of the Province of Norfolk as well as of those of Kent and Surrey . But with three Provinces in favour of something being done , there