Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADER— PAGE The Diamond Jubilee .,. ... ... ••• i The Lessons of the Great Fiasco ... ... ... ••¦ 3 ' Supreme Grand Chapter ... ... ... •¦• — 3 22 Consecration of the Sarnian Royal Ark Mariners Lodge , No . 425 . Guernsey 323 The Parke Memorial—Dedication of a Masonic Hall at Canick-or .-Shannon , Co . Sligo . . ... ... ... ... ... ... 323

MASONIC NOTESFestival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys ... ... ... 325 Belfast Masonic Charity Fund ... ... ... ¦¦• 325 Death of Bro . Dr . WiUiam Spark ... ... ... ... 3 * 5 Correspondence ... ... ... ... ... •¦• 326 Board of Benevolence ... ... ... ... ... — 3-6 Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution ... ... ... ... 32 ( i

Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... 326 Our Portrait Gallery ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 S Royal Arch ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 S Mark Masonry .,. .,, ... ... ... ... 3 * 8 Lodge of Instruction ... ... ... ... ... ... 330 Obituary ... ... .,, ... ... ... ... 330 Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 33 °

The Diamond Jubilee.

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE .

The great event , to which every one has been looking forward for many months , has at length passed off amid such a display of loyalty ancl enthusiasm as has never been witnessed in any country or at any epoch in the world ' s history . Other

peoples have no doubt celebrated particular national fetes with equal splendour , and it may be even more demonstratively . But though it is probably no longer true that we English take our pleasures sadly , we are the reverse of an emotional

people . We are for the most part able to keep our feelings well under control . Wc do not go into ecstasies of excitement . On Tuesday , for instance , though our gracious QUEEN was cheered as no sovereign was ever cheered before , by thousands

upon thousands of her subjects densely packed along a line of route that extended for close upon seven miles , the crowds for all their demonstrations of loyalty were perfectly self-possessed , The order that prevailed from the time her Majesty left

Buckingham Palace until her return home was marvellous to behold . There was , of course , plenty of pushing where the streets were narrowest and the throngs densest , as well as in the immediate neighbourhood cf certain coigns of vantage , and enough of

pressure to tell even upon the strongest man , but it was all taken and borne good-naturedly . The people had turned out en masse to see their QuEEN on her way to ancl from the great Metropolitan Cathedral to express her gratitude to the Most High for the

blessings vouchsafed her and her subjects during the longest reign in our annals , but the feelings of joy that pervaded everywhere , though loudly and enthusiastically enough expressed , were always kept well in hand , and the programme of the day ,

as it had been ordered by the authorities , was carried out from first to last without a hitch of any kind , and without anything serious to speak of in tlie way of accident . It was indeed not one crowd , but a succession of crowds , that lined the streets

traversed b y her Majesty , and as each in turn acclaimed her as she passed on , it stood fast quietly until the favourable moment came for those composing it to disperse and wend their way homewards . The Commissioners , both of the Metropolitan and

City Police , the officers commanding the troops that lined the route , the County Council and the other local authorities , must indeed be well satisfied with the complete success of the

arrangements they hacl made , while thc people themselves must realise that they too contributed in no small degree , by their orderliness and self-possession , to the success of the celebration . For ourselves , we are only too glad of the opportunity of expressing our admiration at thc splendid manner in which this

The Diamond Jubilee.

grandest of all our national fetes passed off . ft was no mere chance ebullition of loyalty or patriotism which brought all those crowds together that lined the streets of our Metropolis on Tuesday . The feeling that prompted people to assemble as

they did in the earl y hours of thc morning , wait patiently for hours to catch a passing glimpse of hcr Majesty , and then trudge homewards onl y to return again into the streets and view the illuminations , was a deep-seated ancl an enduring one . The

shouts of the people were loud enough , as the shouts of many thousands of people must necessarily be , ancl there can have been no mistake about their thorough heartiness , but they were a long way from expressing with any approach to adequacyj the love ancl devotion whicli the whole nation entertains for the

sovereign who has presided over ils destinies for so many years with the fixed determination never to be found wanting in the duties of her exalted station . However , "Queen ' s Day" has come and gone . We , hcr loyal subjects , have each of us striven

to thc best of our humble ability to do honour to the occasion , and if the expression of our love ancl loyalty falls short of what we truly feel , it is because thc latter is too deep for expression by mere words or acclamations .

The Lessons Of The Great Fiasco.

THE LESSONS OF THE GREAT FIASCO .

Most personal attacks are , more or less , unworthy means to satisfy personal feelings of envy or selfishness . Sometimes the insatiable thirst of a quarrelsome disposition prompts them , but

in that case truth is often respected , whereas in the others it rarely is ; but , whatever the motive , the church-going scandalmonger is despised even in his own church , and hated generally , as only a pious liar can be hated , by honest people .

Now , whatever the motives and objects of tlie Catholic Church may have been in attacking Freemasonry so virulently , so long , as the Masonic conscience was clear , fhe writer has always advocated a dignified silence as the best reply to undeserved calumny . There is not a single influential utterance in print from a Catholic source which does not condemn itself , and the

Taxil revelations have already sufficiently proved that time is a better vindicator of truth than argument in cases of this kind . It is likely that the Pope really does not know as much about Freemasonry as we do , but if Brown , Jones , Robinson , ancl thousands more are persuaded that he does , they arc ; not likel y

to listen to reason ( which word , by the way , has been interpreted now rather over a century , when it comes to the front , to mean Atheism , ancl nothing else to Catholics ) . So let the Pope bear the infallible burden of his infallibility , and settle , as other

men have to do , with his conscience . Let priests rant for promotion if they will , and do likewise ! Whatever material gains maybe procured by fraud or falsehood , the dishonour always clinging to such means is more than a makeweight , against

success . We would , however , notwithstanding rccognise ' a distinction between truth and veracity ; truth is ahvays truth , but a man may be veracious while erring from the truth . He may have beeu mistaken or misled by others ; conscious he is right so far as to

believe that what he has stated is true , though with regard to the actual truth of the statement he may be wrong . So we would be the last to impugn the veracity ofthe Pope , but with respect to

the uncalled-lor preposterous ravings of his priests ancl disciples actually printed in the Catholic and public Press , put them down to zeal or anything else , ( hey are not entitled to the least sympathy , much less excuse , from Freemasons ; if , as has been in-