At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar

Rather a good story is going the rounds about the Postmaster-General , Lord Stanley , Provincial Grand Master of East Lancashire . Some of his Masonic friends have been honoured with his portrait in full regalia . A brother , resident in Bury , received one of these portraits in damaged condition . As the souvenir came through the post he made complaint

forthwith to the postal authorities . His complaint did no good , however , for the official reply came that the sender , and not the post office people , were at fault . If Lord Stanley , as Provincial Grand Master , makes application for redress to Lord Stanley , as Postmaster-General , he will receive an

official snub from his other self , and perhaps be given a hint to make himself acquainted with the ordinary rules of the postal service . © © < S > At the last Quarterly Communication of the Grand Loclge

of Scotland the minutes of a conference held in London in June between representatives of the Grand Lodges of England , Scotland , and Ireland were approved , the opinion being expressed by the Chairman of the Foreign and Colonial Committee that the agreements come to would be attended with the

best results in the interests of Freemasonry , and would be the means of avoiding all differences on the points disposed of by the conference in the future . During the past quarter grants amounting to . £ 251 14 s . were made from the fund uf Scottish Masonic Benevolence .

Our American brothers , true to their national reputation for exercising an intelligent anticipation of coming events , have , according to the American Tyler , already offered suggestions regarding the celebration of the 200 th anniversary , of the formation of the Grand Loclge of England .

Grand Master Miller , in his annual address at the recent communication of the Grand Loclge of Iowa , said : '' Some time since Bro . Joseph E . .. Morcombe , committee on correspondence of this Grand Loclge , proposed through the Masonic press that the Craft of the entire world

should take steps towards properly celebrating its bicentenary . The present Grand Loclge system had its beginning in London , June 24 th , 1717 . It is thus proposed that in the English metropolis in 1917 the Masons of the world shall gather to review the two centuries of history > to estimate present tendencies , and judge of the future . It is with pleasure I endorse the suggestion , believing that as an

Iowa brother has been first to propose the same , the Iowa Grand Lodge should also be first to accord such endorsement . It may appear that this is looking far into the future , but twelve years will be necessary to properly bring out and perfect-Hie details of such . a meeting . " The committee on Grand Master ' s address brought in a special report on this

subject , stating that they had " examined that part of the address relating to a bicentenary celebration of Masonic Grand Lodges proposed to be held in England in the year 1917 . The members of the committee are in sympathy with the movement . We believe a celebration of the organisation

of the Mother Grand Loclge , held at the time and place proposed , would tend to promote a general era of good-fellowship throughout the Masonic world , and thus bring about that spirit of fraternity between the Grand Lodges of the world found so helpful when applied to individual membership of the Craft . "

Ihe Earl of Shaftesbury ( Provincial Grand Master ) will preside over a special meeting of Freemasons , to be held at Weymouth , on Thursday , October 5 U 1 , during the session of the Church Congress . The meeting is intended for members of the congress who are Masons , and is the second of its kind , the first having been held at the Liverpool Church Congress last year , under the presidency of the Earl of Lathom .

« S > i * . , £ > The Very Rev . Bro . Dean Clarke , R . W . District Grand Master of South Africa , Western Division , accompanied by Mrs . Clarke , has arrived in England after a very long absence from it . The venerable brother is bent on an extensive tour . He is an old traveller , having many years ago visited the Holy Land and other Eastern countries .

«* < Ss < G > After a most successful tenure of office , covering a term of ten years and embracing the whole of the period of the Boer War , Bro . G . Richards has resigned the position of District Grand Master of the Transvaal . Bro . Richards '

services to Freemasonry during that trying period cannot be overestimated . Not only did he personally keep in touch with , and preserve intact , the whole of the lodges under his jurisdiction , but with rare tact and judgment succeeded in maintaining the principles of the Order amongst a community ,

not only antagonistic politically , but in deadly conflict in the field . The Masonic amenities between Boer and Briton , which have been recorded so frequently , were largely the outcome of Bro . Richards' tactful rule .

< s > < s > <© His successor is the Deputy District Grand Master , Bro . Charles Aburrow , who was inducted as District Grand Master at Johannesburg by R . W . Bro . Wesley Francis , District Grand'Master of Natal , in the presence of the

District Grand Masters of the Irish and Scotch Grand Lodges , and R . W . Bros . Daniel Haarhoff , Dr . C . J . Egan and Dean Barnett Clarke , District Grand Masters of the Central , Eastern and Western divisions of South Africa .

o © o By a legacy under the will of the late Mrs . Williams , widow of Bro . Alfred Williams , of Bankside , Southwark , the Benevolent Fund of the Grand Loclge of Mark Master Masons has benefitted to the extent of , £ 5 , 400 . Bro . Williams was

an ardent and enthusiastic Mason , and took a special interest in the Mark Degree and its Benevolent Fund , to which he was a generous contributor during his lifetime .

¦ if v O The tendency which , throughout , the chronicle . of English Freemasonry , has been exhibited to mark passing phases of thought or historical events by deducing from them names for new lodges is once more illustrated by the newest of all .

The Garden City is the name of No . 3112 on the register of the Grand Loclge of England , founded by members of the Institution of Sanitary Engineers , who , it is said , have selected the name as embodying their object—hygiene by healthy surroundings and practical leaching by demonstration . The

Letchworth experiment—no reference , of course , being here intended to the fact that the Grand Secretary of English Freemasonry is Sir Edward Letchworth—thus " dates " this new lodge as absolutely as the King ' s Friends and the Con-

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