Events And Things To Be Remembered.

to the Papal Allocution directed against Freemasonry , and calculated to rc-assuro those Avaverers who contemplate leaving the Order under the spiritual anathema launched against it . In the statistics of the craft in France there are reported to be seventy lodges working under the Rite Ecossais , or Supreme G . Conseil , 33 ° , and two hundred and thirty under the Grand Orient , making a total of three hundred lodges . In Paris and its environs there are fift-three under the G . Orient and thirty-three under

y tho Rite Ecossais . There are eighty-nine state departments , and tAventy-tAVO of them have no lodge of any kind . Bro . Proudhom ' s AvidoAV has received twenty-five thousand francs for the support of herself and daughters , but , owing to the estimation in Avhich he Avas held , at a recent meeting it Avas determined to increase the amount to sixty , or seventy , thousand francs .

The American Grand Lodges are beginning to settle down to business after the partial interregnum they have experienced during the late Avar . The Grand Lodge of NCAV York is thus summarised in the New York Courier : —The number of Lodges which made returns at the annual communications of 1864 , " was 486 . From these returns the folloAving statistics are derived : — The number of initiations for tho year ending June 1 st . 1864 , A \ -ns 8591 The number of affiliations 840

Whole number registered . 9431 Demittod 887 Expelled 32 Suspended ......... .. 29 Stricken from roll for non-payment of duos ... .. 897 Restored to membership ' . . . 230

, Died 540 Total number of members in good standing on the lst /? Junc , 1864 40 , 480 The late King of the Belgians , Leopold I ., then an officer in the Russian service , Avas Initiated into Freemasonry at Berne , in Switzerland , in the year 1813 , he being then twenty-three years of age .

The most deserving of tlie charities supported b y Freemasons , The Eoyal Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and their Widows , holds its Annual Festii-al at Freemasons Hal ] , on Wednesday the thirty-first day of the current month , under tho presidency of the popular , generous , and universally beloA'ed , Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Atkins Bowyer , Prov . G . Master for Oxfordshire , Provincial Grand Commander of the same , and Lieutenant-General of tho Supreme Grand Council of the 33 ° , for England and AVales , & c . & c .

Let us hope it is not necessary to advocate the claims of this charity beyond stating that it steps in where the Board of Benevolence leaves off . It comes forward to do that Avhich ought to be done , exclusively , by the Grand Lodge of England , the receiver of quarterage from CA-cry brother for the support of those OA-ery mason swore to cherish and protect , in preference to all who A \ r ere not of his own family and connections . As a rule , AVC look upon the , so-called , Masonic Charities as perfectly extraneous to the craft , —the admission to Avhich is onl

y to be observed as a favour , —yet so long as tho Grand Lodge of England neglects its first and paramount duty , —that of providing for the decayed brother or his AvidoAV , —AVC Avill do our utmost to plead for THIS CHAEITV and its IMPERATIVE CLAIM : on EMSZRY BEOTHEE Avho values the Avords ho spoke at his reception . May the Festival be a most prosperous one , and may Ave of the hi gher grades , AVIIO so Avarmly esteem the amiable and excellent chairman on that occasion , act up to our profession by doing our utmost to mitigate the shortcomings of the Grand Lodge of England , and help to secure a home and its comforts , for our decayed brethren and their Avidows .