ENGLISH FREEMASONRY.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1871, 21 February 1880, Page 3

ENGLISH FREEMASONRY.

DuriDg the year 1879 the income of the three Masonic charitable institutions, derived from all sources, amounted to the sum of £44,583 lis 9d. For the year 1877 it amounted to over £42,000, but in 1878, in consequence of the depression of trade, and public charity being largely diverted to other channels, it fell to £40,312 43 3d. Notwithstanding the continued depression of the year 1879 the amount has not only risen, but has far exceeded that of any former year. The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, for the third year in suooessioD, heads the list with £17,781 12s 10d, or £3IOO more than it obtained in 1878. The second place on the list, which in 1878 was taken by the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, was in 1879 taken by the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys, with £13,776 6s lOd, or over £I2OO more than in the previous year. The girls' school takes the third place with £13,025 12s Id, or about £l6O in excess of its income of 1878. Included in the Benevolent Institution's £17,781 12s lOd is the amount of £2685 4j 4d for dividends on stock for a year and a half, and £1207 10s represents the same source of income for the girls' school for one year included in the amount of £13,025 12a Id. Out of the £13,776 6a 10d, the income of the boys' school, only £305 is attributable to dividends, the sum invested being only £BSOO. The Benevolent Institution has between 300 and 400 male and female annuitants on its books. The boys' school houses, clothes, maintains, and educates 215 boys j and the girls' school 205 girls. These institutions depend entirely on the voluntary bounty of the craft. In addition to these large amounts contributed to the institutions the Lodge of Benevolence, which meets at Freemasons' Hall on the last Wednesday but one in every month, dispensed in the year 1879, to distressed Freemasons and the widows and orphans of deceased Freemasons, the sum of £8238, exceeding the amount dispensed in 1878 by £3,254. The largest sum voted at any one meeting was £1035, and the smallest £390.