The Present Position Of English Ereemasonry.

twenty-four lodges in round numbers . As we know at the close of 1871 , our Annual Calendar exhibited the names of 1 , 372 lodges , and at the close of 1872 , the number had still further risen to 1 , 417 . There seems moreover to be little doubt but that

our Order is still on the increase , and that succeeding years will witness the addition of fresh names and fresh numbers to our Masonic Calendar . These figures though simple enough in themselves , are full of very interesting

consideration for all English Freemasons . In the first place , they clearly mark the steady , continuous , and , let us hope , permanent progress of our Order ; and they also show iis tin ' s , how under good government and wise regulations the Craft has flourished

in a most remarkable degree . "We should not be doing justice to our own feelings , or to those we know of many English Freemasons , if we did not take the opportunity of reiterating the opinion we have before publicly expressed , how much our

Order hi this country owes to the wise government and benignant " regime" of Lord Zetland . Though he was more than

once attacked , and very unjustly , during his Grand Mastership of twenty-six eventful years , he ever followed that wisest of all courses , he took no notice whatever of the idle cavil or the frivolous complaint , least of all did he ever condescend to answer

the anonymous comment or the personal imputation . His government was unfailingly marked by strict and constitutional adherence to the great Masonic principles of order and law , of impartiality and fairness ,. of consistent firmness while

yet of considerate toleration . He might fairly at the close of his Grand Mastershi p , say , as an older Grand Master of ours said , " Si momimeutum quceris circumspice ; " if you wish to learn what my rule has been , you have only to view the Order nearly

doubled numerically during my presidency , and displaying in numberless ways , and on every occasion , unmistakable proofs

not only of its unfaltering attachment to our time-honoured landmarks , but of its substantial welfare and material prosperity . "When Lord Zetland succeeded to the supreme direction of the Craft it was slowly emerging from angry contests and

heated discussions . Under his auspices nearly three Decades ' of poacefnlness and harmony have succeeded in effacing all memories of older conflicts ; and our Brotherhood , happily united in the bonds

of fraternal harmony and concord , has been free to devote itself to its own proper work—the tranquil celebration of its ancient ceremonies , the peaceful manifestation of its distinguishing principles , the increase of its numbers , and the augmentation of

its material prosperity . May such continue , — not that material prosperity is everything , nor should it ever he made by us any safe or abiding test of our real

Masonic development , but we all shall 1 wish that our Order may fairly continue to share in the general prosperity of the times in which om- lot is east ; and that it may succeed in gaining , and that it may endeavour to retain hi its expanding

material prosperity , the good opinion and the flattering confidence of its fellow men . * If we look now at the social condition of English Freemasonry , we are able also to discern that it is in truth one of progressive and decisive improvement . We

do not mean in saying this , to allude merely to a question of " caste " or degrees of society . On the contrary , we have always been among those , who have openly advocated the admission of bona Me operative lodges , if possible ; we

believe that the general framework of Freemasonry would be strengthened by their reception . Therefore in saying that there is a general improvement in the social