The Mark Benevolent Fund Festival.

THE MARK BENEVOLENT FUND FESTIVAL .

The ample report which appears in another part of our columns is proof indisputable that the Festivals of the Mark Benevolent Fund are an established success , and though at the close of our brief Analysis of the Returns we have tendered to Bro . Sir LIONEL E . DARELL , Bart ., J . G . Warden , who presided

as Chairman at this 21 st Anniversary , and the Stewards , and gr 0 . C . F . MATIER , G . Secretary , who supported his advocacy to such excellent effect , our hearty congratulations on the result , we regard it as a duty to repeat those congratulations still more formally here . We do this with especial pleasure in the case of

Bro . MATIER , who was invested as the new Mark Grand Secretary only a few hours before the Festival was held , and who thus made his debut in his new capacity under circumstances which must have been particularly gratifying to him as well as to the

Chairman and Stewards in whose behalf he has worked so zealously and indefatigably during the past twelve months . We trust that future anniversaries of this Fund may always prove as successful . . *

The Province Of Berks And Bucks.

THE PROVINCE OF BERKS AND BUCKS .

Very general regret has been felt that Bro . Sir DANIEL GOOCH , Bart ., was prevented by the state of his health from presiding at the recent meeting of his Prov . G . Lodge of Berks and Bucks , and everyone will join in the hope so well expressed by his Deputy , Bro . the Rev . J . S . BROWNRIGG , that our R . W .

brother will be able to resume his position when the lodges and brethren under his authority again have occasion to meet for the transaction of their ordinary or some special business . The regret at his absence was the more keenly felt because the

various reports that were rendered of the proceedings of the past year were of the most satisfactory character . A new lodge at Datchet had been added to the roll , and there had been an increase in the number of subscribing members to the extent of

about 70 brethren , the report of the Prov . G . Secretary showing a total of 25 lodges and 8 99 members , or an average of 36 members per lodge . The report of the Prov . G . Treasurer was also favourable , while the Charity Committee were able to show that

some excellent work had been done during the past year . Out of this latter report , however , a very important discussion arose as to the propriety of dividing the province into two , members of lod ges both in Berks and Bucks appearing to be of the opinion that , considering the number and efficiency of the lodges , the time had arrived when each county might be constituted as a separate and distinct province . The suggestion is one that must be left to be dealt with by his Royal Highness he GRAND MASTER , to whom it belongs as a nart nf

' js prerogative to determine what counties or groups ot counties shall be organised as Provinces , and under whose authority , when so organised , they shall be paced His Royal Highness , however , has uniforml y shown imself anxious to consult the wishes of the country lodges on us point , and if it can be made clear to him that Berks and it -lf K re each of them stron § er > ough to stand alone , and that Co Wl f ! to the furtherance of Masonic interests that they should ^ nshtute two provinces instead of one . we have no doubt what-U'Pl" rhn < - L . '_ n ITI- »» MI , * , ' will be

nee J ^ oyal riighness pleased to direct that the The eSSary StCp S should be taken to S lve effect t 0 the suggestion . Berk ^ arC alreacJ y . severa ^ provinces with fewer lodges than thei S ° ^ uclcs wn i are well organised as provinces , and do if th " appoi " work excellently well , and it is quite certain that jealc . 6 COu " ties are separated as proposed any slight feeling of usy that may have heretofore existed between the two narts

that m ° i ? COmmunit y . anything in the nature of friction Will ^ e a " at an y time in consequence of such jealousy , rivaliv h & Way ' and in place of [ t we sha 11 find an honourable m ° st a HU 6611 the tW ° aS to which of them can accomplish the there 1 u beSt WOrk " We are ver y far from asserting that Bu cks h n J ealous y or Miction between the Berks and the on the n ' but if at an y time there has been a little soreness have be ^ / T * * T itner at tne manner in which provincial honours kudos th If ributed > or because one has obtained a little more an tne other on some particular occasion , it would not

The Province Of Berks And Bucks.

be so very wonderful . However , if , as we gather from the report of the recent meeting , the desire for a separation is exhibited mutually , we dare say the Grand Master will find a way of meeting their wishes , and then no doubt we shall hear of Berks and Bucks enjoying the same degree of prosperity as separate provinces which till now they have enjoyed as one province . . —^

The New Essex Lodge.

THE NEW ESSEX LODGE .

There can be no doubt as to the progress that has been made by the Province of Essex during the Provincial Grand Mastership of Bro . Lord BROOKE , M . P ., who was installed early in 188 3 , as successor to the late Bro . Lord TENTERDEN , and who has , therefore , held office for six years . . In this comparatively brief

period there have been consecrated as many as nine lodges , the seniors of the nine being the Brooke , No . 2005 , Chingford , and the Tilbury , No . 2006 , Tilbury , which were consecrated in the year of Lord BROOKE ' S accession to office . In 1884 , the Lodge of St . Osyth's Priory , No . 2063 , Clacton-on-Sea , and the Epping

Lodge , No . 2077 , were added to the roll , and in 1886 , the Joshua Nunn Lodge , No . 2154 , Halstead : —so named in memory of the late President of the Board of Benevolence—and the Royal Victorian Jubilee Lodge , No . 2184 , Chingford—or Tilbury , whichever version in the Calendars is correct . Last year , Chingford

obtained a further accession to its strength in the shape of the Philbrick , No . 2255 , so named in honour of the learned Deputy Provincial Grand Master , and the Warner , No . 2256 , and on the 15 th inst ., as reported in our colums last week , was consecrated the Lennox Browne Lodge , No . 2318 , in the new neighbourhood

of Buckhurst Hill , the lodge being thus named after a most respected brother who has already done good service in connection with the Empire and Warner Lodges . This increases the roll of lodges in the province to 29 , and is the ninth that has been warranted under the auspices of Bro . Lord BROOKE as

P . G . M . Such an amount of activity , uniformly extended over the period of his presidency , speaks well for the zeal of the Craft in Essex—a zeal which will no doubt be still more conspicuously in evidence at the meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge on Tuesday , the 6 th prox .

Brief Essays On Curious Subjects.

BRIEF ESSAYS ON CURIOUS SUBJECTS .

1 . —ST . GEORGE AND THE DRAGON . The discontented hero of Tennyson ' s " Locksley Hall" proclaims himself the " heir of all the ages "—thereby announcing the fact that we are inheritors- of the past and Servants of the Dead ; a startling statement no doubt , but nevertheless true . The following remarks , which may be further supplemented in

a later issue , will show the connection between current fables and ancient beliefs , not necessarily Masonic , but establishing the evidence of an unbroken chain linking us with the very night of time . Conceding this point , why , just as readily , may not our mysteries have descended through the ages to the revival of

1717-20 ? We know in various ways that the ancient wisdom and esoteric teachings veiled in the Kabbalah , Hermetic Philosophy , and the Vedas have filtered down to these days of

hardheaded criticism , when many scholars take an apparent delight in dispelling our cherished ideas , and in their onward march remind us of a country devastated by a barbarian horde , intent on destruction only .

Let us examine the Jubilee sovereign—though many of our other coins would serve the same purpose—and we find on one side of it the familiar representation of St . George and the Dragon . The canonised butcher of Cappadocia typifies a principle in the continual struggle between the opposing forces of

good and evil , the latter being portrayed as a reptile , and it is with this phase of one of the great Solar myths that we propose to deal very slightly . The dragon and the serpent are practically the malefic and benefic aspects of the same Deity , though

not invariably so . The Apophis of Egypt is the equivalent of the dragon which the Chinese endeavour to banish , when at the time of an eclipse , he is supposed to be devouring the luminary whose light is obscured .