An Original Dissertation On Public Speaking.

While features augured all his tongue alleged And tones winged home each barbed shaft they edged , Ancl Avitli spontaneous sallies bright and bold ,

Resistless streams of oratory rolled !" And what a grand thing this oratory is . What a noble end , in dying , to be recognised as one of England ' s greatest speakers , to lie side by side in our great Valhalla , Westminster Abbey , Avith great soldiers ,

philosophers and poets , ancl have it said : — "There lay the warrior , and the sou of song , And there iu silence , till the Judgment Day , The Orator , whose all persuading tongue Had moved the nations with resistless SAvay . "

Leaving School.

LEAVING SCHOOL .

BY MRS . G . M . TWEDDELL , Author of ' ' Rhymes and Sketches to Illustrate the Cleveland Dialect . " A noise of children ' s voices Sounds along the street

; A noise of patter , pattering , Of many children ' s feet , All coming from the school-house , With hearts as light and gay ; Their lessons all are over , — Now is the time for play .

0 , happy , happy children I Enjoy life while vou may -. No hours to come can equal those , You spend in childish play : Wealth may be yours iu years to come , Or fame may deck some brow

, But Avealtb nor fame can make you feel , As you are feeling now . The boys are setting wickets up , The girls have fonn'd a ring , Ancl hand in hand around they go ,

While merrily tbey sing . Sing on , fair children ! girls and boys , Those are your happy clays ; A few short years , and then for you , Begin life ' s thorny ways . Hose Cottage , Stolcesley .

The Minute Book Of The Lodge Of Industry, Gateshead.

THE MINUTE BOOK OF THE LODGE OF INDUSTRY , GATESHEAD .

BY THE EDITOR . THE Minute Book of this old lodge has been placed iu my bauds for perusal and publication , in the general interests of Masonic Archaeology ; and I have the

greatest pleasure in submitting the following " excerpta" to the notice of the readers of the Magazine , ancl to fellow Masonic students everywhere . In a small history of the lodge , published by authority in 1870 , we find the following statement

, and with it I think well to begin the paper : — " The precise date when this lodge was founded cannot now be accurately ascertained , but there is good reason for believing that it existed as an operative lodge ,

and in proper Avorking order , about the time Avhen the Grand Lodge of England was resuscitated in 1717 . " The original home of the lodge was at the village of Swalwell , in the county of Durham , about four miles from Gateshead ;

ancl a tradition existed amongst tbe elder brethren of the lodge , that it was founded by the operative Masons brought from the South by Sir Ambrose Crowley , Avhen lie established bis celebrated foundry at \\ inlaton about A . D . 1090 . There is , hoAvever , no evidence in existence to support this theory .

" The oldest minutes of the lodge are Avritten in sheets , bound up with a copy of the Constitutions of Freemasonry , published in 1723 , edited by the celebrated Dr . J . T . Desaguliers , D . G . M ., and dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Montague , Grand Master .

" This Minute Book , with tbe Warrant and other valuable documents and property of tbe lodge were lost before the year 1770 ; but the Minute Book was fortunately recovered by Bro . John Etridge Wilkinson , who found it exhibited for sale at a book stall , purchased it , and presented

it to the lodge in 1845 . The various minutes of lodge meetings , annual appointments of "Worshi pful Master and Officers , ancl indenture of Apprentices Avere duly recorded in the old book , furnishing to the Brethren of Lodge of Industry an interesting record of Masonic History .