The Masonic Charities.

school arrangements , should be otherwise than costly . The sum of £ 47 , 116 4 s . Avhich the budding has cost , has necessarily been , and must be , for some time to come , a m-eat source of anxiety to the House

Committee and the many friends of the Institution . One consequence of this great improvement has been the absorption of all the funded capital , and though the debt on tho building fund is UOAV happily

discharged , with the exception of £ 500 Sustentation fund , the Boys' School is entirely dependent on the annual subscriptions and donations of the brethren . That this ivill not be wanting both to keep up the school in its full efficiency , to replace gradually

the capital sunk in the building , and at no very distant date to increase the number of boys educated , I think A \ e may fairly believe , from the continued sympathy , nay , the increasing liberality of the Craft . In 1811 the income from all sources Avas £ 187

7 s . 4 d . In 1872 it amounted to £ 10 , 764 6 s . 7 cb , while in this year the annual festival Avitnessed the striking return of

£ 7 , 103 and up to the present time , the institution has received in all from the Brotherhood £ 9 , 150 , for 1873 . Of the 146 boys noAV in the books Of the institution , according to the report for 1872 , tAvo are educated out of the school ,

tAvo are scholarships from West Yorkshire , one is an East Lancashire presentation , eighteen are purchased nominations , the remainder being elected by the votes of the subscribers . There can be no doubt , that as an Order Ave may speak in tho fullest

terms of praise of the institution as an educational establishment . It is giving a thoroughly good commercial or classical education as the case may be , to the orphans of our deceased brethren , and there is no reason Avhy it should not

become as useful and efficient a seminary as any one of our great public schools ; like Eton , or Harroiv , or Winchester . That its utilit y and value are appreciated is evident ,

not only from the large number of purchased nominations , but from the constantly increasing number of candidates for admission . Indeed , the fact , that there were sixty-nine candidates last April , and only

nineteen elected , is a sufficient proof of the demand for education , ancl ought to be a stimulus to us all , to increase our efforts , ancl not to slacken our zeal on behalf of so needful and so excellent an educational , establishment . Since the institution Avas

commenced in 1798 , 1 , 218 boys have received a good education , and a fair start in the great journey of life , ancl many are filling excellent stations in society , ancl do great credit to the education they have received .

I . am happy in being able to add here , that the House Committee have determined , OAving to the pressure of applications for admittance , to increase the dormitory accommodation by an outlay of £ 1 , 800 . The recommendation to increase the

number of boys educated from 125 to 153 , has also been adopted . Of this increase of tAventy-eight , fourteen will be elected in October , though OAving to a death vacancy ,

fifteen Avill then really be elected , and fourteen in April 1874 . In addition thus to the one hundred ancl fifty on the foundation , so to speak , there Avill then be nineteen admitted by purchase , tAvo West Yorkshire presentations , one East Lancashire

presentation ; one life - nomination ; in all one hundred and seventy-six boys . This is a large number and a most advisable and praiseworthy increase ; but such are the demands for admission that it Avill not be long , I feel convinced , before Ave shall have

to make provision so that two hundred boys may be comfortably educated in the present admirably arranged buildings . The increasing Avants of our Brotherhood AVLII

serve to stimulate our zeal still further , and enable the House Committee alike to Avelcome and provide for tAvo hundred foundation pupils , at tho least , Avithin the comely