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NOTICE

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To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The Freemason is a sixteen page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in

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To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

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Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

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" X . Y . Z . " and W . Kelly " next week . S . B . E ., many thanks—written . The following stand over : — Bro . C . J . Parkinson at Aberdare ; Stour Valley Lodge , 1224 . "A Mark Master" and "Bro . Major Burgess" also received—See Leader .

LODGE WAIIBANTS . —Is it legal to consecrate a new lodge , and instal the first Master in the absence of the warrant ? I have always considered that the production of the Grand Master ' s authority was absolutely essential , but it saves some trouble to be enabled to dispense with it . —LEX . [ In our opinion most certainly not , and we

apprehend such W . M . so installed would be in a " great strait " before Bro . Monckton , and the Board of General Purposes . —En . ] E . W . J . —The medal is fast approaching completion . Due notice will be given i : i the columns of the " Freemason , " when ready . A letter awaits L . of L . at the London Office of this

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The Freemason ,. SATURDAY , SEPT . 4 , 187 C .

Scottish Freemasonry.

SCOTTISH FREEMASONRY .

We are greatly rejoiced to hear of the movemeat in Scotland to raise the fees of initiation , for we are quite sure that such a step is a step in the right direction , a reform that long has been

Scottish Freemasonry.

needed . We some time back called attention t ) the subject in a friendly and fraternal spirit , and we hope that our remarks to-day will be appreciated as they are intended and understood , as they are penned in the highest feelings of respect and good will for all our brethren of the mystic tie in

Scotland . Wc have private and personal reasons of our own for feeling the deepest interest in al ! that concerns " North Britain , " and our leader to-day is the " outcome" of honest sympath y with Scottish Freemasonry , and of kindly aspirations for its progress , and honour , and welfare .

" Revenons , " then , " a nos moutons . " Much as we are pleased to hear of this desirable movement , which we are assured is spreading among the lodges in Scotland , we yet venture to remind a'l Scottish Freemasons of what is really the " fons et origo " of all their " malorum . " We are

convinced that the absence of an annual lodge subscription , and of an annual payment to their Grand Lodge and their Provincial Grand Lodges for benevolent purposes , is at the bottom of any weakness which may be alleged against their general system—of any default , so to say , in their

practical working out of Freemasonry . We are quiteawarethatsomelodgeshaveannual payments , but they are the very few to the very many . We also know that some Provincial Grand Lodges require , and properly require , a payment from each entrant to the Provincial Benevolent Fund .

It is also , no doubt , quite correct to say that some Provincial Benevolent Funds , nay even private lodge similar funds , are both important in themselves and well managed by the brethren . But what we are very anxious our Scottish brethren should realize , is the advisability of

adopting in toto our English system of annual payments . For until they do so all Scottish benevolent efforts must be , we fear , both fragmentary and spasmodic . Some one has said that " system " is everything , and that isthe very point on whichwe say it with deference—Scottish Freemasonry

is deficient . For instance , what a change would take place in the whole Scottish organization for good , in every way , if every lodge in Scotland outside of the metropolis paid 2 s . as quarterage annually to the Grand Lodge Benevolent Fund , and as . to its Provincial Grand Lodge Benevolent

Fund , for every member ? In England , in our metropolitan district , all lodges pay 4 s . for quarterages annually to the Grand Lodge Benevolent Fund , and 2 s . in the provinces . Why should not such a simple and practical regulation be grafted into the Scottish Book of Constitutions ? The Scottish Grand Lodge has admitted the

principle by section xxii ., cap . xx ., page 52 , but the provisions of the Scottish Book of Constitutions unintentionally tend , in our opinion , to promote any such system becoming general . For though the power to " levy an annual contribution not exceeding 20 s . ' - ' is given , yet , " all lodges availing themselves of the above license " are bound to set aside one half of the sum " as

Charity Fund for the lod ge " and " for contributing to the said fund of Scottish Benevolence " fifty per cent ., in fact the lodge only " retaining 10 s . to defray the ordinary expenses . " This is too elaborate a svstem to work . Were

the Grand Lodge of Scotland , as with us , to be content with 2 s . for provincial and 4 s . for metropolitan members as a capitation payment , the margin would be an inducement to the private lodges to enforce an annual subscription . As it is , the proportion is clearly too great of enforced

payment in Benevolence , and such a regulation stands in the way of any general adoption by the private lodges of an annual subscription . We do not presume to say what the maximum or minimum of lodge subscriptions should be , but until such are rendered imperative on all lodges and

brethren , nothing effective we feel persuaded , will be done in the way of benevolence b y the Freemasons in Scotland . We hope that what we have said may commend itself to many of our long-headed , and practical , and well-disposed brethren in Scotland . We might pursue the argument further , but we have said enough , we

think , for our purpose , which is to ventilate a very important question amongst those best qualified to consider and deal with the subject . We shall endeavour next week , in the same sympathetic and fraternal spirit , to point out , in our opinion , some of the patent evils of the present Scottish system .

Church Restoration.

CHURCH RESTORATION .

We publish in another column a letter from Bro . the Rev . J . J . Farnham , with reference to his wants for Westhorpe Church , Suffolk , and we refer our readers to the "Masonic Magazine " for September for a print of the church and most interesting appeal from our rev . brother

Wc arc very glad to have the opportunity of commending the matter to the notice of all our readers and we earnestly recommend them carefull y to peruse Bro . Farnham ' s letter in our impression of to-day , as well as his longer statement in the " Masonic Magazine " for September . It seems

most befitting that as our operative forefathers built so well and so beautifully the " Houses of God on our land , " and which have stood so well the " wear and tear" of several centuries , we , their speculative descendants , should help in our time and generation to restore and renew what

'I nne s effacing hand has weakened or destroyed . Of course such work , and such a recommendation from us , it is understood , are suggested and offered in complete liberty of thought and action . Though we are ourselves on every ground strongly in favour of this appeal , there may be

some of us who , for various reasons , do not see the matter exactly as we do . All , therefore , that we write to-day we write in the conscientious freedom of Englishmen , and the full toleration of Freemasons . For we feel this ourselves , and we feel it strongly . There is nothing , as it

appears to us , which appeals more earnestly to every Englishman than the ' sight of a peaceful and comel y parish church . And though we are Freemasons , we do not deprive ourselves , outside the lodge at any rate , of our inestimable birthri ght , whether as patriotic citizens or humbler members of

some greater or smaller reli gious denomination . We think , then , that all of us feel , more or less , no doubt , the power of architectural design , the beauty of proportion , and the strength of religious associations , when we pass by some isolated village church in its sheltered God ' s Acre ,

to which for many generations the " rude forefathers of the hamlet " have been wont to repair in all the fervour of simple devotion , and \ L all the piety of believing worshippers . That huwble little building , or that stately fane , as the tfese may be , is bound up with some very tenojer

memories of humanity . Our ancestors wl \ o lived and died in that old manor house , olt rural grange , or in yon gabled farm-house , ol trellised cottage , set great store by that conse * crated tabernacle of the Most Hi gh . They spent ^ their earthly existence in that quiet village , and \

they grew old , and grey , and bent within its well-known limits . They were baptized in that Church * they were confirmed there , they received their first Communion there . They were married there , their children too were also received into the Church there , and some of them ,

and not a few of their friends , are lying under those little hillocks of fragrant turf . They , themselves , when their time has come , expect to be committed to their rest near unto them , and under the " slanting shadows of those old grey walls . " Such were their feelings , such we

believe to be shared in fully and deeply by many ot our readers , by very many of our great brotherhood . When , then , to-day a worth y and reverend brother , no great dignitary , it is true , simply " the curate in sole charge , " a hardworking brother clergyman , asks us to assist

him to render this House of God fit for public worship , to recover it from decay , and to restore it to decency and beauty , will we say nay ? That very building , now " inextremis , " was once reared by our operative forefathers ; their cunning chisel elaborated , and their skilful designs

constructed , from their tracing-board in the pure Craft lodge , that goodly building for the duties and services of religion . Their marks are upon many stones , their emblems on many a window , and we , it appears to us , have a claim upon us , alike pressing and even Masonic , to aid the efforts of Bro . Farnham . That old church is

still very dear to many , perhaps some brethren of our own . Many have been able to hear there the Word of Life , have knelt and worshi pped there . Many have taken sweet counsel togethere , and " walked in the House of God as friends , " and they know every stone of its courses , and every fantastic form of its gargoy les .