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NOTICE . THE H OLIDAYS . —Brethren leaving town for the holidays can have the Freemason forwarded to any new address on communicating with the Publisher . Non-Subscribers can have copies forwarded for two or more weeks on receipt of postage stamps at the rate of a-J . I per copy .

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TO OUR READERS . Tae FBEEJIASJM is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper ; price id . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual Subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / 6 . P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the Chief Office , London ,

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TO ADVERTISERS . The FREEMASON has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can herefore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS to ensure insertion in current -week ' s issue should reach the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the FRKEMASON , may be addressed to the Office , 8 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India ; otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is ( iow enabled to send the " Freemason " to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in

advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfoundland , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United States of America . & c .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

The late lamented Bro . Merzdoiff ' s important work , •'" lie Gehein-Statutcn des Ordesnsdes Tempelherren , " will De reviewed in our next issue . HERor-WArto—and A TRAVELLER in our next . H . B . —Letter received under consideration . BOOKS , & c , RECEIVED . " Michigan Freemason ; " " Masonic Review ; " ' •Keystone ; " " New York Dispatch . " Music—Oh ! were I a Spirit ; B . Turner , Manchester .

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . Cd . for announcements , not exceed ing four lines , under this heading . ]

BIRTHS . Cox . —On the 14 th inst ., at Uuyton , near Liverpool , the wife of the Rev . Henry Cox , M . A ., of a daughter . SMITH . —On the 17 th inst ., at The Vicarage , Stoney Middleton , Derbyshire , the svife of Urban Smith , jun ,, of a son ( Albert Urban ) . WALTERS . —On the 19 th inst ., at 372 , New Cross Road , New Cross , S . E ., the wife of Bro . Frederick Walters , P . P . G . D . Middx . P . M . 73 , & c , of a daughter .

MAKKIAGES . BOWES—ST . AMASD . —On the 18 th inst ., at St . James ' s Church , Piccadilly , by licence , John Bowes , Esq ., of Streatlam Castle , county of Durham , to Madame Alphonsina Marie de St . Amand , Comtesse de Courten , of the Valais , Switzerland , and 44 , Rue de Clichy , Paris .

WILKINSON—ELLIS . —On thc 18 th inst ., at the Church of St . Mary Magdalene , Croydon , by the Rev . G . Moon , B . A ., John Wilks , younger son of Joseph Wilkinson , of St . George ' s-road , Southwark , to Fanny , second daughter of the late C . J . Ellis , Esq ., of South Hackney , and Mrs . Ellis , of Addiscombe , Croydon . No cards .

DEATHS . BURRELL . —On the 11 th inst ., at Annett ' s-cresent , 290 , Essex-road , Islington , London , Eliza Burrell , late of 29 , Brunswick-road , Brighton , deeply and affectionately lamented . Friends please accept this intimation .

DARBY . —On the 18 th inst ., at 42 , Burlington-road , St . Stephen ' s-square , London , Eliza , fifth daughter of the late Geo . Darby , Esq ., of Leghorn , aged 73 . HARTLEY . —On the 19 th inst ., atBuxton House , Highburyhill , Fountain George , eldest and dearly-loved son of George Hartley , of Aldermanbury , E . C .

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TheFreemason,SATURDAY , AUGUST 25 , 1877 .

The Special Court Of The Boys' School.

THE SPECIAL COURT OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

By an unanimous resolution the proposed increase ofthe Boys School , at an approximate expenditure of ^ 3000 , to take in 32 boys , was agreed to on Monday last , and measures will at once be taken to carry out the present needful and proposed extension . We are glad to state

that it was distinctly understood that if the necessities of the Institution demand it , the School could be still further increased by another 100 boys , and we feel persuaded that in about two years the School will have to be enlarged to that extent , as the yearly demands upon it are

increasing instead of diminishing . Then will be the time to consider both the admission of fresh orphans , and the need of a preparatory school . Both these contingencies are , in our opinion only a question of time , and when the requirements of the School and the Craft imperatively ask for

such an addition , we have no fear or doubt what the response will be . But just now this moderate extension will suffice for our pressing wants , and we think it better to look always at the good old motto , "festina lente , " than by unadvisable haste to arouse the complaints of the captious , or the opposition ofthe faultfinding .

We may add , from all that we hear , never was the School so flourishing or so thoroughly efficient as now . Under Bro . Dr . Morris , it is rapidly attaining a character for steady progress and good work . We believe that there is but one wish in the Order , namely , to afford to it a warm , a generous , and an united support .

A Few Words To The Roman Catholic Authorities.

A FEW WORDS TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AUTHORITIES .

We wish to ask these right reverend and sapient gentlemen whether they really think that any good can possibly accrue to religion or Roman Catholicism by the ' . repetition of such acts of intolerance as disgraced the good town of Macclesfield on Monday ? For there it was , it

seems , that Canon Walker , ( such was the good man ' s name ) , refused the rites of a religious funeral to a Roman Catholic Freemason , T . Tynan Delany , an excise officer under supervisor Purchas , in the Macclesfield District . Delaney , who was 27 years of age , was only seized with

illness on the previous Saturday , and he had attended the Roman Catholic place of worship a fortnig ht ago . Orders were given by the deceased ' s family for the preparation of a grave in the Roman Catholic portion of the Macclesfield Cemetery , and Canon Walker was requested

to officiate . It appears , however , that it had come to the knowledge of the rev . gentleman that Delaney was a Freemason , and he therefore refused to commit the body to the grave , remarking that it was contrary to the rules of his church to inter a member of any secret

society . Now we are quite aware what the Roman Catholic reply will be , to our complaint of intolerance , namely , that they are bound by the various allocutions of Pius the Ninth , based professedly on the anterior Bulls of Pius VII . Leo , Benedict , and Clement . The

Roman Catholic position is this— ' we are compelled to obey the orders of our superiors , " and this , if true , is one , no doubt , which deserves every consideration . Buttwo points come in here , which we beg to press upon the attention of the Roman Catholic authorities . Is not the

Bull of Clement , now among the Bulls " non usitatae , " even in the Roman Catholic church , for many of the Bulls of the Roman Catholic Popes are admittedly in this category ? Under the Bull of Clement not only are all Freemasons to be handed over to the Inquisition

and the secular arm and their property confiscated but the master of the house in which the lodge is held is to be heavily fined , imprisoned , and his house pulled down . We apprehend that no Roman Catholic canonist , and no Roman Catholic lawyer would hold such a bull to be " foro conscientioe , " or obligatory . 1 1 It is

A Few Words To The Roman Catholic Authorities.

in fact altogether , " caput mortium , '* a de . ceased bull in as far as Roman Catholic authority and discipline are concerned , and cannot be revived by the allocutions of Pius IX The infallibility of the occupant of the see of St . Peter comes in here " proprio vigore , " tc

render what is defunct , living , what is obsolete new . And secondly have such Bulls any force in England whatever ? We doubt it greatly even on Roman Catholic teaching , inasmuch as they are illegal "ipso facto . " The laws of Edward III and Richard II , as regards bulk

and premunire have not yet been repealed ,- and no Roman Catholic Bulls , except under pain of premunire can legally be promulgated in England by any Roman Catholic authority . In consequence of their actual illegality , these Roman Catholic Bulls have never been published in

England , nor can they be , and therefore , according to Roman Catholic canonists , they can have no binding obligations on the clergy or larty of the Roman Catholic obedience within this " Realms of England . " " Lex non est lex nisi promulgata . " We say nothing here

of the scandal caused by such acts of unreason and intolerance to all who reverence religion and admire the divine teaching of pure charity , by the refusal of the last rites of the Roman Catholic Religion to Freemasons qua Freemasons . The only effect of such unwise

perversity is to shake the authority of the Church of Rome over its own people , because such harshness to a Roman Catholic , only because he is a Freemason . is felt to be alike impolitic , unjust and even irreligious . We know of a case , for instance , where a poor foreign Roman Catholic

Freemason was denied tha rites of Christian sepulture by the Roman Catholic Authorities , because he refused to give up his Order , and where the whole Roman Catholic community , turned out and reverently listened to the service of the Church of England read over our

deceased brother , by a Clergyman of the Anglican Church , a distinguished dignitary of our Order . So in the present case , Roman Catholics accepted the services of a clergyman of the Church of England , Mr . Hurst of Hurdfield , who we hope to hear , is also a brother of our

Order . In the interests of common sense and true religion we protest against the disrespect to their own religionists thus evinced by the Roman Catholic Clergy , but as they are apparently in their present " scare '" in respect of

Freemasonry , lost apparently to the sense 01 what is kindly , what is even decent , and as moreover they are intent in their blindness on cursing the living that we cannot expect them to exhibit ( as a recent South American case has shown us ) , either mercy or good feeling towards the dead .

The Atrocities Of War

THE ATROCITIES OF WAR

We recur to this subject , because since we wrote , horrors seem to be accumulating on horrors , and disgrace upon disgrace to the sacred cause of civilization and humanity . Let our readers think over the following two paragrap hs from a letter of a correspondent of The Times , under date August 3 , and we feel sure that the one sentiment which will animate their

minds , as it did ours , will be that of strong loathing and indignant shame at such fearful crimes , at such detestable barbarism . " Yesterday I visited a large Bulgarian village- ° ' upwards of 300 houses that had been sacked , burnt , and the people massacred by the

Bashj-Bazouks on the 30 th of July . The village called Kara-atli , about 16 miles from Tirnova , towards Philippopolis . The place is a totil wreck , hardly one stone standing on another : It is more completely destroyed than any other I have visited . The people had all fled , so it ' h

difficult to say what became of them , thoug the account of the survivors seems probable enough . This is that a great many ' " them had left before the 30 th , and gone to " ~ lippopolis , but about 900 remained , chiefly woffie and children . They all ran away into the

woods and fields , ' on the approach of Bashi-Bazouks , and many were caug ht a " slaughtered at once , and others are roa ?*' ° about until a similar fate overtakes the •Of the few corpses I saw , the most shock ing was a woman with her head half "