American Items.

opened in their Hall , formed a procession , andlnarehed , preceded by the Paris brass band , to Bro . Dunham's and escorted the Deputy Grand Lodge to Amphitheatre Grove , a place formed by the Supreme Architect , more beautiful than art could have done , with a cloudless canopy for a covering , and the leaves of the forest for a carpet . The amphitheatre is in the form of a circle , and is five hundred feet in diameter from brow to brow . In the centre is a level fifty feet overaround which the ground rises in a regular

, ascent to the brow . The whole is shadecl by a grove of trees . In the centre of this amphitheatre a platform was erected , on which was spread a carpet . On this Grand Lodge and the new Lodge took their several stations . After uniting in prayer with the Chaplain , the R . W . ordered the S . W . to proclaim to the J . W ., and he to all the Brethren present , tho object for which we were assembled . The new Lodge was then consecrated , dedicated , and the officers installed in due form . Bro . Murray then delivered an extempore

address on Masonry , its utility , its obligations , and usefulness to mankind . IOWA . —Immediately after the close of the Grand Lodge , June 5 th , the custodians of the work assembled , organized regularly by the election of Grand Master Benton as Chairman , and Bro . AV . B . Langridge Secretary . They selected six points for Schools of Instruction to be held the ensuing yearviz .: Independence (

im-, mediately following the session of the Cf . Chap , in August ) , Des Moines , Keosauqua , Council Bluffs , and Dubuque ( immediately previous to the next session of the Grand Lodge ) . NEW HAMPSHIRE . —The Grand Lodge was opened in June 14 th , at 10 a . m . In consequence of the ilbiess of Grand Master Paul , the Deputy Grand Master opened the Grand Lodge . Thirty-seven Lodges were represented . Grand Master Paul ' s address was read

, and his recommendation of a return to the AVebb work was referred to a committee , who reported favourably upon it , and the Grand Lodge adopted the report . In the evening Bro . Porter , at the request of the Grand- Lodge , and before a most brilliant assemblage of the craft , exemplified the work .

AN AMUSING ERBOB OI ? AN ARCHAEOLOGIST . —The Archaeological Institute while holding their annual meeting at Gloucester , several of the members proceeded to St . Mary de Lode church to hear a lecture on the " ancient font , " which was to be delivered by Mr . Parker , the eminent antiquarian and writer . The audience were collected near the font , and Mr . Parker commenced his lecture , ¦ describing the font as a fine specimen of the work of the fourteenth

century . But archaeologists , like Iago , are nothing if not critical ; and one of the audience interrupted the lecturer by expressing his opinion that there must be " some mistake . " The lecturer averred that there was no mistake at all , and proceeded to point out features which were indubitable proofs . But still the doubter doubted , and at length Dadge , the verger , was requested to arbitrate on the point . Did he know anything about the font ? Now Dadge

is a modest man , and shrunk from giving an opinion on a point on which two learned pundits differed , one of them an authority , too ; but he said there was a man outside who knew more than be did , and he called in that ancient worthy , Michael Jennings , the gravedigger . Now gravediggers , judging from the groat dramatic one , are very plainspoken fellows , having no respect for persons—at all events hearty old Michael had no scruples in settling the point , and on being nsked if the font was not hundreds of years oldirreverently

ex-, claimed , " He old ; why he ain't -long been a new one 1 " AVe need scarcely describe what followed ; some of the antiquarians laughedfor , gravefaeed fellows as they are , they enjoy a joke keenly ; while the lecturer explained that he was nearsighted , and had prepared his lecture beforehand , and had never seen the font he meant to describe , and that it must have been removed , as the fact is ; but we have not heard whether he rushed oil to the railway station

, and shook the dust of the city oft'his feet for ever . The font was placed in the church in 1845 , instead of another , a wretched specimen , which is now standing in the yard of Mr Niblett , builder , and which was evidently erected at the time of the general restoration of the church in or about 182 S . —Bristol Press .

BOARDEBS AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS . —If there he any value in the puplic-school system of England—and it is , I think , of the greatest value in the formation of the national character—a "boarder" is , in a ten-fold degree , more of a public-school boy than his young companion who , every night of his life , is thrown back upon the amenities and indulgeneios of home . Mere book-learning is the smallest of the advantages which a boy derives from his public-school career . England wants men more than scholars , although , of course , it is quite right that a limited number of persons in a nation , with special faculties and aptitudes for the work , should devote them-

American Items.

selves to the business of keeping alive the old traditions of sound learning . These are not to be despised . I do not see that the youngsters of the present day are at all likely to grow up into more energetic or useful men than their fathers , although they know all about " ologies" of which we never heard . They are apt to sneer at our Greek Iambics and Sapphics , and can't see how such exercises can help us on with steam-engines and tubular bridges : but

for myself , I confess I should not despair of a lad if I saw that he was a good cricketer and construed his Sophocles freely . —Once a Week . JAPAN AND CHINA . —In strange contradistinction to China , whence many of their laws and ordinances must have been derived , all rank and office in Japan is hereditary , and the old feudal system of AVestern Europe exists to-day in a well governed and powerful

empire on exactly the opposite side of the globe . In Japan we have rough , strong-handed justice without what we should term liberty ; but still the people of that country are a vast deal better governed , better protected , the laws better enforced , the public and private reputation of its officers and servants stand far higher , and a much better condition of social and moral polity exists , under the rule of the 'Taikoon and his princes , than can anywhere be fbimd amongst

the court , mandarins , or masses of China . The results of the two systems pursued in China and Japan have brought the former to decay , both politically ancl morally speaking , and given to the latter stability , prosperity , and a strong government . —Once aWoek .

Under The Violets.

UNDER THE VIOLETS .

Her hands are cold ; her face is white ; No more her pulses come and go ; Her eyes are shut to life and light;—Fold the white vesture , snow on snow , And lay her where the violets blow . But not beneath a graven stone ,

To plead for tears with alien eye ; A slender cross of wood alone Shall say , that here a maiden lies In peace beneath the peaceful skies . And gray old trees of lragest limb Shall wheel their circling shadows round To make the scorching sunlight dim That drinks the greenness from the ground , And drop their dead leaves on her mound .

When o ' er their boughs the squirrels run , Anil through their leaves the robins call , And , ripening in the autumn sun , The acorns and the chestnuts fall , Doubt not that she will heed them all . For her the morning choir shall sing

Its matins from the branches high ; And every niinsfcrel-voice of spring That trills beneath the April sky , Shall greet her with its earliest cry .

"When , turning round their dial-track , Eastward the lengthening shadows pass , Her little mourners , clad in black , The crickets , sliding through the grass , Shall pipe for her an evening mass . At last the rootlets of the trees

Shall find the prison where she lies , And bear the buried dust they seize In leaves and blossoms to the skies . So may the soul that warmed it rise ! If any , born of kindlier blood , Should ask , What maiden lies below ?

Sn-v only this : A tender bud , That ' tried to blossom in the snow , Lies withered where the violets blow . OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES ,