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CONTENTS . LKAOEfS - . PAGE Masonry at the Mansion House ... ... ... ... 613 History of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Mary ' s Chapel , No . 1 ) ... ... 613

Masonic Jurisprudence ... ... ... ... •••, — 614 Board of Benevolence ... ... ... ... ... •••"' 5 Science , Art , and the Drama ... ... ... ... ... GiO The Playgoers' Club ... ... ... ... ... ... 010 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ••••¦•6 l 7

MASONIC NOTESDeath of Bro . A . Stewart Brown , P . G . D . . ; . ... ... 621 Recent Masonic Meeting at the Mansion Hjuse ... ... ... 621 Visiting Worshipful Masters ... ... ... ... ... 621 Appointment of the Earl of Radnor as Provincial Grand Master of Wiltshire ... ... ... ... ... ... 621 Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Leicester and Rutland 621 The Kelly Memorial Fund ... ... ... ... •••621 Death of Bro . K . Thorpe , P . G . Std . Br . ... ... ... 621

Correspondence ... ... ... ... ¦•••••622 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... - fi 22 Royal Arch ... ... ... ... .. - - . 624 Instruction .. ... ... ... ... ••••••" 24 SECRHT MONITORConclave of Mourning in Memory of the late Dr . I . Zacharie , P . G . S . R ... C 26

Ancient and Accepted Rite ... ... ... ... ... f > 26 Obituary ... ... - •¦••¦••••- r ' Provincial Priory of Somerset and Monmouth ... ... ... ... <> ' 7 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of South Wales ... ... ... G 27 The Craft Abroad ... ... ... ... ... ... 627 Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... — faS

Masonry At The Mansion House.

MASONRY AT THE MANSION HOUSE .

It was in the last degree improbable that so prominent a Mason as Bro . Alderman Sir A . NEW TON , Bart ., would allow his year of office as Lord Mayor of London to pass without dispensing I he hospitality of the Mansion House to a representative body

of the Craft with which he has been honourably connected for so many years . Hence the meeting , by dispensation , of the lodge which bears his name , of which he was the principal founder and lirst W . Master , and his son , Bro . II . K . NEWTON , is the

present Master . The meeting was a stated one and differed in no respect save one from other meetings of a similar character . The business on the Agenda included the initiation of three candidates for the mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry , and

al . 1 later stage in the proceedings Bro . II . K . NEWTON , W . M ., was heartily congratulated on the able and impressive manner in which he performed the ceremony-. These congratulations

must have been the more welcome as the meeting , though it was , as we have remarked , a regular meeting , differed greatly from must other such meetings in the matter of attendance . The

rulers of the Craft—the Present and Past Grand Officers of Failed Grand Lodge—were present in force , among them being many of the greater luminaries of the Society in England , whose names are familiar to Craftsmen in every country in which

I'i ' eeniasonry has established itself . It was the presence of these worthies , coupled with the fact of the lodge being held in the official residence of the Chief Magistrate of the metropolis ° l Ihe British Empire , that gave especial vela I to the gathering .

Moreover , as Bro . Sir JOHN B . M . ONCKTON , P . G . W ., in l ( , sponding for the Grand Officers , was pleased to remark , "This ls an age of records , " and it is certainly an event without precedent in the annals of English Freemasonry that a lodge

hearing the honoured name of London ' s Chief Magistrate , and presided over b y his son , should have met in his official home 'lll ( l fulfilled its duties in the presence of such a brilliant muster "f the magnates of the Craft . We heartily congratulate the

' ¦ ° rd Mayor on the success which attended him as host on this particular occasion , and his lordship's son on the manner in which he performed the duties of presiding officer both in lodge 'Hid at the festive board , under circumstances of a peculiarl y

Masonry At The Mansion House.

trying nature ; and we trust that if other meetings of a like character are held under the same hospitable roof they may prove at least as successful as that of the Alfred Newton Lodge on the 13 th day of the present month of October in the closing year of the 19 th century .

History Of The Lodge Of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), No. 1.*

HISTORY OF THE LODGE OF EDINBURGH ( MARY'S CHAPEL ) , No . 1 . *

The first edition of this History , which was published in 18 73 , was so elaborately written ; so much care was taken in its compilation to distinguish between historical fact and the fiction which so many Masonic writers had seen fit to palm off upon

their uninstructed readers as fact ; and ii * the course of the author ' s investigations he had succeeded in bringing to light such a mass of authentic information as to the early history of the Craft in Scotland , that at first si ght there would appear to have

been no special reason for the issue of a second and equall y elaborate work . But the 27 years that have elapsed since Bro . LYON established himself as , par excellence , the historian of Scottish Freemasonry , constitutes the period of closest and most

searching inquiry into the origin and development of our Society , both generally and in particular countries . Not only are the fables which once passed current as Masonic history now laughed to scorn , but there is even a tendency noticeable in

some of our most approved authorities , in their determination to accept only what is capable of absolute proof , to reject those moral certainties which are only one degree less worth y of acceptance than legal certainties . We do not complain

of this tendency . On the contrary , we are of opinion that it has a salutary effect in restraining people from adopting loo readily and without due inquiry on their own part the theories which writers who preceded them have seen fit to

promulgate . At all events , since Bro . LYON ' S History was published in 18 73 there has been a complete revolution in Masonic history . A generation of writers has arisen who have had the courage to think , search , and resolve for themselves ,

and Freemasonry is no longer open to the reproach that its historians are mere writers of fable . In England we have our GOULD and Hue . HAN ; Ireland boasts of its CIIETWODE CRAWLEY ; while the splendid example set by MURRAY LYON

has been followed with great advantage b y " quite a number of Masonic students , " who , as the author remarks in his Preface , " have in book form given the result of their researches

amonothe records of the most famous of our old Scottish Lodges , " prominent among these students being Bros . ALEXANDER R . OSS , ALLAN MACKENZIE , I ") . CRAWFORD SMITH , J AMES SMITH , WILLIAM HUNTER , and THOMAS J OHNSTONE . Under these

circumstances it is not surprising that Bro . LYON , in his very natural desire to make his History of Lodge No . 1 as complete as possible , should have complied with the request of its Master and . office-bearers for a new edition , while the

Tercentenary celebration in the summer of 1 S 99 furnished the opportunity for its publication . Of the result of his labours we have already said it is impossible to speak too highly , and so we must content ourselves with remarking that the new edition is worthy in every way of the lodge at whose request it has been