The Masonic Charities.

which so fulfils the hopes and expectations of its founders , so developes the advantages of education to its happy and grateful recipients , or so does credit to the Order hy which it is so liberally and sympathetically supported .

I have said enough to SIIOAV IIOAV excellent and valuable an institution it is , ancl IIOAV deserving of our hearty good Avishes ancl our still heartier support . Many of my readers will have agreeable reminiscences of its former excellent Secretary ,

our very worthy brother , E . V . Patten , and Avill have equally regretted the loss of his valuable services to the Institution ancl

Freemasonry . But I think it is a matter of rejoicing that Ave have in his successor—Bro . R . W . Little—one AVIIO is so thoroughly competent to discharge the duties of his office , and AVIIO adds to his Avell-known Masonic zeal and knoAvledge , tho always

welcome attributes , of a readiness to oblige , and of courtesy to all . Unlike the Girls' School , the "Royal Masonic Institution for Boys " derives its origin from the seceding Grand Lodge or "Athol , " or " Antient " Masons .

According to Cole the idea originated in the United Mariners' Lodge , Xo . 23 , of that body , and at a meeting of the members of the antient fraternity on the 3 rd of July

1798 , "to consider the means of establishin g a Masonic Charity for clofchingand educating the sons of indigent Freemasons , " it Avas resolved to start and support such an Institution . The scheme seems to have been favourably received by that body , though their first

beginning , of six boj's Avas modest enough . In 1812 the Antient Grand Lod ge ordered five shillings on the registering of every neAV London brother , and of any provincial , and foreign , and military brother two shillings and sixpence , to he paid in aid of

the Institution—as it Avas then called—for "Clothing andEducating the Sons of deceased and indigent Ancient Freemasons . " But from 1813 , the year of union of the tAvo

Grand Lodges , tho Boys' School has continued to receive the support of the United Grand Lodge ancl the increasing aid of the Avhole Craft . In 1868 its name Avas changed to its present designation , "The Royal Masonic Institution for Boys .

Its beginning was unpretending enough ; and for many years all that the institution did AA as to provide the payment , to use a technical expression of our own days , of the " school pence " and clothing for the

boys elected . These boys seem to lurve been sent to school at the option of then parents near their residences , but it is obvious that such an arrangement Avas most defective in itself and insufficient as an

educational effort . In 1811 there AA ^ ere forty-eight boys thus clothed and their education paid for , Avhich number sloAidy increased to sixty-five in 1831 , and to seventy in 1851 . In 1850 a proposal to build a school had been made , but it Avas

not then entertained , Giving , apparently to the doubts then existing in tho minds of some , Avhether sufficient funds could be jirovuled for tho increased expenditure . It Avas not until 1856 that a house ancl ten acres of freehold land Avere purchased for

£ 3 , 800 at Wood Green . This building having been altered was opened as a school in the year 1857 , Avhen tAvonty-five boys

Avere admitted and received the benefits of a complete education , and the comforts of a home . Many of the boys then preferred , hoAvever , to remain out of the house , though IIOAV I am hap ] iy to say out of 146 boys only two are thus educated .

In 1862 the House Committee , oiving to tho patent defects of the old building and the increasing demands for admission , determined to build an entirely neAV school on the same site , and in 1865 the present school Avas opened for the reception of

eighty boys . It Avas impossible but that a building constructed as tho neAV school at Wood Green is , on all the improved princip les of ventilation and drainage , and