The Grand Treasurer And The London Almshouses.

THE GRAND TREASURER AND THE LONDON ALMSHOUSES .

The Corporation of the City of London having some time since voted the sum of £ i 1 , 500 for the rebuilding of the London Almshouses , Shepherd's Lane , Brixton , Bro . H . B . Marshall , C . C , F . R . G . S ., Grand Treas .,

Chairman of the Orphan School Committee , lost no time in consulting his colleagues and making arrangements for carrying out the proposed work in the most suitable manner possible . Designs for the new building

were prepared by Messrs . Davis and Emmanuel , Architects ; Mr . Mark Gentry ' s contract , amounting to £ 10 , 500 , was accepted ; and the preliminary

arrangements having sufficiently advanced to allow of an inaugural ceremony taking place , Bro . Marshall ,

accompanied by Bros . Sir John B . Monckton , Town Clerk ; A . Brookman , C . C , F . R . G . S . ; Geo . Manners , C . C ; Messrs . VV . Creasy , C . C ; R . Grant , C . C ; F .

Dadswell , C . C ; Jack Billingburst , C . C : VV . H . Bateman , C . C ; J . Cox , C . C . ; Graham King , C . C . ; J . Beck , C . C , F . R . A . S . ;

Joshua Jones , C . C ; J . Hughes , C . C ; G , Taylor , C . C ; and others , met at the appointed site in Brixton , on the 17 th instant , and Bro . Marshall formally laid the

foundation stone of the new building , and in doing so declared it in the name of The Great Architect of the Universe to be well and truly laid . ( Cheers ) . The stone bears the

following inscription— "This stone , which is to commemorate the rebuilding of the London Almshouses , was laid by Horace Brooks Marshall , Esq ., F . R . G . S ., Chairman of the City of London Freemen ' s Orphan School Committee , December 17 , 1 SS 4 , " and

underneath it was deposited a vase containing copies of the Times , City Press , Citizen , Freemason , and other newspapers , a number of gold aiid silver coins of the realm , and also a document recording the names of the Chairman and the Committee .

At the close of the ceremony the trowel used by Bro . Marshall was presented to him . It is a very handsome specimen of the

The Grand Treasurer And The London Almshouses.

silversmith ' s art , weighing 130 ZS ., and was designed and manufactured by Bro . George Kenning , of Little Britain , . it being in renaissance slyle , with civic and Masonic

emblems surrounding the cenlrc of the blade . The handle is of best African ivory , very beautifully carved ,

with ornaments to match the blade . Upon the handle is a chased silver monogram and crest . The accompanying illustration will serve to give our readers some idea of the richness and artistic character of thc design . The following is thc inscription , namely * •— " This

trowel was presented to Horace Brooks Marshall , Esq ., F . R . G . S ., Chairman of the London Freemen's Orphan School , and Grand Treasurer of the English Freemasons , upon his laying the foundation-stone of the London

Almshouses , Shepherd ' s-Iane , Brixton , Wednesday , December 17 , 1884 . " The National Anthem having been played by the boys of the Orphan School ,

Miss Wright , daughter of the late Warden , and Mr . Hall ( Warden ) , on behalf of the inmates of the almshouses , presented Mrs . Marshall with a handsome silver tankard and a bouquet . Bro . Marshall acknowledged the compliment , and in doing so said lhat the

year had been quite an eventful one of testimonials and presentations to his wife and himself . The one Mrs . Marshall had just received would ever be remembered , and they would never use it or look upon it without

remembering tbe affectionate regard of those who had presenlcd it . The question of rebuilding the almshouses had agitated lhe minds of the Committee for the past four years , and they had had to remove obstacles one by one , and

to overcome difficulties wilh the pertinacity justifiable by the righteousness of their good cause ; they had , however , been successful , and he congratulated his colleagues on lhe successful result of their efforts . ( Hear , hear ) .

In the evening an entertainment was provided for the almshouse people and the children of the Orphan School . In connection with the new building , it may be mentioned that four blocks of houses , containing 38 tenements , are

to be erected , three blocks having eight tenements each , and one block 14 .

James Anderson, D.D.

JAMES ANDERSON , D . D .

His name is well known to all Masonic students and readers as the compiler of thc first authoritative book issued by the Grand Lodge of England . There had been indeed , in 1722 , published by John Roberts , " The Old Constitutions belonging to the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons . " But to James Anderson belongs the credit , by

order of the Grand Lodge , of giving to the Craft and to the world the first official account of Freemasonry . It has been contended that Desaguliers is the author of the Constitutions of 1723 . But those who thus contend forget that Anderson himself says , at p . 74 , edit . 1723 , that he was the author—he being then Master of Lodge 17 . Of James Anderson little

however is known . He was said to have been born at Edinburgh in 1684 , some say 1662 , which is , we apprehend , erroneous . He was , it seems , minister of Lhe Scottish Presbyterian Chapel in Swallow-street , Piccadilly , but more than this , so far , is not discoverable . It is not known where or when he was initiated into Freemasonry , but he was Worshipful Master of No . 17 in 1723 .

According to the Constitutions of 1738 , the seventeenth lodge met at Berry ' s Coffee House , Bridges-street . But we must remember , Bro . Hughan points out , that the 17 of 1738 was not the same as the 17 of 1723 . We know not , therefore , what it was . ' Anderson then , apparently , was living in

Exeter-court , Strand . In 1723 , as we said before , appeared the first book of the English Constitution , now somewhat rare . In 1738 Anderson put out asccond and much augmented edition , and a third appeared in 174 6 . This , however , is only 1738 , with a new title-page . Some say that Anderson died

James Anderson, D.D.

in 1739 , others in 1 746 ; 1739 is right , as announced in the " Gentleman ' s Magazine . " We do not agree with Mackey ' s view , that considerable interpolations and alterations had been made by Anderson without authority in the edition of 1738 . There are , no doubt , considerable additions , but they

are made in bona fides , and were evidently the result of Anderson ' s more complete and careful study of MS . documents and Constitutions , which have not yet been identified . The " Pocket Companion " of 1754 says that the alterations occurred owing either to his "ill-health" or the " management of strangers . "

It appears to us that Anderson has been the subject of much unfair criticism . F-Ie was not ordered to write a new and florid history of Freemasonry or to compile one on his authority ; but he was to " peruse , correct , and digest into a new and better method the history , charges , and regulations of the ancient fraternity , " and this he certainly , did . He gave us a

clear and connected account of the Guild legends , and pointed distinctly to the fact , that the true history of Freemasonry is , after all , only the history of operative sodalities and successive ages oi architecture . He did not profess to criticize or analyse the old traditions of the Guilds ; hc merely arranged them in a clear , readable , and concise narrative , and such as those old histories themselves of the Guilds were , such is Anderson's record .

Anderson may probably have held what others have maintained , that Freemasonry through the Guilds went up lo the mysteries , [ lie outcome of corrupted antediluvian teaching , and thus lo the-lore of the " theodidaktoi . " But there is nothing to blame in such vif'Vs , and we cannot , it appears to us , judge Anderson fairly by our colder criticism of to-day , as the cases are essentially different . —Kenning ' s Cyclopcedia of Freemasonry .