At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar.

At the Sign of the Perfect Ashlar .

The appointment of Lord Northcote , at present Governor of Bombay , to succeed Lord Tennyson as Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is not unlikely to raise the question of his retirement from the position of Provincial Grand Master of Devon . So highly is Lord Northcote

esteemed by our Devonshire brethren that there was scarcely a question of desiring a successor to be appointed when he assumed the governorship of the Indian province . Such appointments are for a comparatively brief period , and the affairs of the province being left in the capable hands of the

Deputy Provincial Grand Master , Bro . Major C . Christopher Davie , P . G . D ., it was felt that the interregnum would be satisfactorily bridged over , but the further term of office of his lordship creates a different situation , and appears to point to the probability of a successor being appointed with full power to deal with all the requirements of such an important province .

© © © Lord Northcote is the second son of the late Earl of Iddesleigh ( Sir Stafford Northcote ) , and was born in 18 4 6 . As a member of the Diplomatic Service he accompanied some important missions abroad , and he has been Financial

Secretary to the War Office and Surveyor General of Ordnance . He acted as private secretary to his father and to Lord Salisbury during the mission of the latter to Constantinople in 1876-77 , and has been a Charity Commissioner . He sat for Exeter from 1880 to 18 99 and at the end of the

, latter year was appointed Governor of Bombay , being created a Baron of the United Kingdom shortly afterwards . A baronetcy had been previously conferred upon him in 1887 . Lord Northcote has been Provincial Grand Master for Devonshire since 18 9 6 .

»© <©» « s » During the past year two English lodges have been formed in Tien Tsin , China ; both have been more than ordinarily successful , and have been warmly taken up by the naval and military brethren at that station . This has

naturally created a desire on the part of our American brethren in the district to establish a lodge in accordance with their own customs and usages , and the result has been an application to the Grand Master of the District of Columbia for a charter to establish a lodge under that

jurisdiction . In view of the fact that two English lodges were in existence there , Grand Master Walker feared that many difficulties might arise in the consideration of the questions involved , and the Grand Secretary has been authorised to correspond with the American Masons in Tien Tsin and obtain further information .

© © © In pursuance of his intention to visit in turn all the lodges and chapters under his jurisdiction , Bro . Sir Augustus Webster , Bart ., Provincial Grand Master of Hampshire and the Isle of Wightwas present at a recent meeting of

, Clausentum Lodge , Woolston , and took part in the working . A very cordial welcome was extended on behalf of the lodge by the Worshipful Master , Bro . Nalcler Roberts , to the Provincial Grand Master and the Provincial Grand Officers by whom he was accompanied . The brethren

afterwards partook of an excellent banquet . During the evening it was announced that the recent Masonic banquet at Southampton resulted in a profit of ^ 174 for the three great Masonic Institutions and an addition of nearly forty votes to the voting strength of the province .

Bro . Viscount Valentia , M . P ., Provincial Grand Master of Mark Masons for Berkshire and Oxfordshire , presided on the 21 st July at the annual Provincial Grand Lodge in the Town Hall , Maidenhead . All the lodges in the province were represented , and the attendance included several Grand Officers . Satisfactory reports were presented respecting the

position of the province , both numerically and financially , and the Provincial Grand Officers for the ensuing year were appointed and invested .

»©> « s » »©> Opportunity was taken of Lord Roberts' visit to Edinburgh on the 16 th August to invite him to visit the lodge-rooms of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Mary ' s Chapel ) , No . 1 , and that of the Canongate Kilwinning No . 2 , his Lordship being an honorary member of both lodges . In response to an

address of welcome by Bro . A . A . Murray , R . W . M . of No . 2 , Lord Roberts said he well remembered that just before he entered Pretoria he received a kindly message from the lodge , and he was pleased to fulfil his lirst duty towards it by subscribing his name on its list of members .

It was the lirst Masonic lodge in Scotland which had so honoured him . He had for a long time been a Mason , and had been Master of the Kyber Lodge at Peshawur . Since then time and circumstances had not permitted him to take a very active interest in the Craft , but he had still a warm regard for it . ©

o 0 ¦ The Grand Stand at Ascot was devoted for the lirst time in its history to Masonic purposes on the occasion of the meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berkshire , which recently assembled there to the number of nearly 900 for its

annual business . The Deputy Provincial Grand Master in charge , Bro . J . T . Morland , P . G . D ., presided . All the lodges in the province were represented . The reports were of a most satisfactory character , and a special vote of thanks was presented to Bro . Charles E . Keyser , P . G . D . and Treasurer of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys , for his munificent gifts to that Institution and to the Masonic Charities generally .

© © © We are pleased to learn that the magnificent sum of £ 3 6 , 393 is . 4 c ! ., which was announced at the Festival of the Boys' School as having been contributed to that Institution this year , has been further augmented by additional subscriptions from lodges and individual brethren , and that the total now stands at - £ 37 , 129 4 s . 4 c ! .

% > « s > © In referring to the celebration of the Centenary of the introduction of Masonry into Australia , of which we print a report in another page , the "Sydney Morning Herald " remarks that it was from small beginnings that Masonry began in New South Wales and Australia , and perhaps it is not to be

wondered at that the Governor of a hundred years ago was moved lo the repression of these efforts . He had a difficult problem to solve , between the home Government on the other side of the world and the official and convict population of the colony on this side . Any organisation which was

of its nature secret was naturally an object of suspicion to the Governor , and we cannot wonder that the strongest efforts were made to stamp out the brotherhood . But a hundred years have made a notable change in the attitude of the State towards philanthropic bodies of the kind . Masonry

has approved itself to be a beneficent institution , though here as in other walks of life unworthy motives have been displayed and upon occasions unworthy men appointed to lill office . From George III . to Edward VII . is a long step to take , from the monarch whose obstinacy cost the Empire the American colonies to the monarch who holds his people across the seas in particular memory .

© © © " In those clays societies with any measure of secrecy surrounding their proceedings were suspected of all that is bad . No enlightened monarch of our race would dream of imposing restrictions upon the observance of the secret