Charities, and positively performed that duty in dumb show. An insult so gross as this might surely have been considered as the ne plus ultra of offensiveness. But it was as nothing compared with the event which followed it. After Bro. B. B. Cabbell's attempt to be heard, Miss Louisa Pyne, the most elegant and accomplished of our native artistes, commenced a song; and though silence was commanded by the Grand Master, and those Brethren, who were not dead to every sense of shame, entreated that this lady might be heard, she was crushed by the noise, compelled to desist, and driven from the Hall in tears!

We can imagine that many of the Brethren, who had not the common decency to remark that a young and elegant female, who had come thither to minister to their pleasure, was positively, though we would fain believe unintentionally, insulted,―will join in the refrain of the Entered Apprentices' song on some future occasion; but if they have any recollection remaining of their not having abstained from the gratification of their palates, when Miss Pyne was attempting to be heard at the Grand Festival, like Macbeth's "Amen, which stuck in his throat," these words must surely do so

"We are true and sincere,
And just to the fair!"

If we may judge by our own feelings of indignation on the occasion, we can, in some measure, understand what the many elegant ladies, who occupied the gallery, must have thought of the scene passing beneath them. As many of them as were the wives, daughters, and sisters of Freemasons must have been disgusted with the entire proceedings, and thoroughly ashamed that any relative of theirs was committed by his presence to such conduct; whilst those who had no family connection with the Craft must have congratulated themselves thereon, and recorded a silent vow that, as far as their influence could extend, no relation of theirs should ever be a Mason.

We have very little doubt that the exposure of the conduct, which prevailed at Freemasons' Hall on the evening of the

Grand Festival, may bring down upon us some degree of obloquy; that many who were present, and have not the feeling to perceive how sadly such conduct, in which they shared, must tell against the usefulness, no less than the character of the Craft, will be very angry that we should have brought this matter to "light ;" and that others who were present, and reprobated such conduct and some who were not present-may blame us for taking such cognizance of a noisy scene, of which "the least said," in their opinion, "the better." Much as we shall regret to be exposed to the angry vituperation of the one, or the vehement objurgation of the other, we will not shrink from doing our duty to the Craft,the welfare and the usefulness of which we have devoutly at heart, and which we fearlessly repeat it is brought into immense discredit in the popular world, by the too frequent repetition of habits and bearing, which belong rather to a former than to the present century. We speak out thus freely, faithfully, and unequivocally, because we know that the proceedings of the last Grand Festival have engendered feelings of disgust in the minds of many highly respectable and influential Brethren from the Provinces,-who have not hesitated to avow their sentiments, to assert that nothing shall induce them ever again to subject themselves to similar annoyance. We speak freely, faithfully, unequivocally, because we also know that hundreds of Brethren are annually kept away from the Grand Festival in consequence of the noise and uproar which invariably prevail. They will not be put to inconvenience and be made uncomfortable at seeing the M. W. the G. M. treated so discourteously, or endure the heat and suffocation of the room, combined with doings that excite disgust and painful recriminations afterwards. However much we must blame such Brethren from abstaining from the Grand Festival,-because if they would "put their shoulder to the wheel" to effect a reformation, it would speedily come, and if they would but attend they could at once put down such a spirit of insubordination, they undoubtedly feel that the nuisance is too great to be encountered.

The Grand Festival of 1852 has, however, at length brought the matter to a crisis. The confusion, which, we understand, equally prevailed at the Festival of the Girls' School-to which our report refers-has added to the accumulated necessity of something being done to remove a blot and stigma from the character of the Craft. The task would doubtless have been a difficult one for the Board of Stewards to have effectually fulfilled, had they done their duty; but, as they did not seem even inclined to make the slightest effort to do so, the time has clearly come when the Board of General Purposes must take the matter up, and make such provision, both for the musical arrangements and for the comfort of the Brethren, as shall preclude the possibility of a repetition of scenes like these, to which we have, most painfully, felt it our duty to allude in the strongest terms of censure.

Such discreditable conduct would not, and could not by any possibility, occur in any similar gathering in the popular world. Even could it, however, once occur, it would not for a moment be tolerated, much less be permitted to be perpetuated year after year. We have attended many public dinners, unconnected with Freemasonry, at which a far greater crowd has been assembled than were present at Freemasons' Hall, on the 28th April; but never have we found any but. Masons-whose profession of obedience to authority is so loud—not only not attending to the speakers or vocalists, but utterly disregarding the Chairman's appeals for order. If such a state of things is to be perpetuated, if noise and uproar are to be continued, and if Freemasonry is to be converted-as it is too often supposed to be, chiefly through the faults of a few of its members-into a mere convivial society, at least let the invitations given to the members of the fairer sex to come to witness such scenes cease; for at such indecency they cannot but express contempt and loathing.

But proceedings, so utterly unworthy of the character of men and Masons, which took place at the last Grand Festival, cannot go on. Something must,—something WILL, forthwith

be done to prevent a repetition of similar occurrences, that Freemasonry may gain the credit of verifying the proverb of the poet,

"Didicisse fideliter artes,

Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros."

MASONIC IMPOSTORS.

We find that our American Brethren have recently been compelled to intimate, throughout the various States, that the time has arrived when it is positively necessary to take some steps to give an immediate check to the travelling vagrancy of many persons, who, either having unfortunately been admitted into the Craft, or pretending to have been so, are making a trade of its benevolence by passing from town to town, levying contributions both upon Lodges and individual members of the Order. To so great an extent has pseudoMasonic mendicity extended in this part of the world, that its very offensiveness is likely to prove its speedy remedy; and doubtless, ere long, a system, which has been regularly arranged, and is acted out in concert, will be thoroughly exposed, and broken up.

The Boston Freemasons' Monthly Magazine" for May thus alludes to the subject, under the head of "Travelling Mendicants:

"Scarcely a month passes that we are not called on to expose the deceptions and impositions of a class of idle vagrants who are travelling about the country, begging their way from one town to another, by urging their necessities and claims on the Lodges or individual Brethren. Our readers in the cities and large towns can have no adequate conception of the extent to which this evil has grown within the last five years; for the parties are usually careful to confine their operations to the smaller interior towns and villages, where they run less hazard of detection and exposure. They are, almost without exception, foreigners of the lowest class; and, though prepared to exhibit any quantity of diplomas, certificates, and indorsements, their Masonic pretensions are usually as doubtful as is the propriety of their claims to relief from any quarter. The Committee on foreign correspondence in the Grand Lodge of North Carolina have felt this to be a serious evil in that state, where it probably exists to a much less extent than in many of the northern and western states. They refer to it as follows:

"There are many persons travelling in the country as Mendicant Masons, who have generally met with some severe loss or severe affliction, stout, able men, capable of doing an abundance of hard work. We have no sympathy for such mountebanks, and no charity for them further than present food and rest.

If such wandering vagabonds have ever been made Masons, they are prosti. tuting it most shamefully; for a Mason is taught to be industrious, and to strive to gain an honest living by the sweat of his brow. But we do not believe they are Masons, for there is no Lodge in the world that would permit her members to go forth into the world to beg from door to door, so long as the means of relieving their necessities were left.

"When such persons come along, give them work, or assist them to find work, give them victuals and lodging, and nothing more. It is wrong to sign passports for them from one Lodge to another, for many are deceived thereby. If the beggar be really a Mason in distress, he has another passport to the hearts and pockets of the Fraternity more powerful than all the written recommendations he could carry.'

A nuisance similar to this has for some time past been growing in London, and requires the immediate attention of the Masonic authorities. It is not merely that, month after month, cases of Brethren asking for pecuniary aid find their way to the Board of Benevolence, which, when thoroughly sifted as they invariably are by the dispensers of that Masonic fund-are too generally found to be undeserving of attention, or of the slightest consideration, but the houses of wellknown Brethren are beset, particularly by foreigners, who are loud in their demands, and most impertinent if the help they claim be not immediately given to them. As a general rule -as in all other cases of mendicancy-it is a great mistake to give money to such applicants. In nine cases out of ten, these, upon inquiry, will be found to be if not unworthy Masons-nothing better than impostors, who, having laid hold of a foreign certificate, and obtained some idea of a sign or a pass-word, thrust themselves into the houses of the Brethren, to their great annoyance, and to the discomfort of the members of their families.

Doubtless many worthy foreign Masons are at this time in England whose cases, if examined, would be found to be deplorable, and to whom the extension of the hand of benevofence would be indeed an act of mercy; but the greatest discrimination is required in investigating the particulars connected with their distress, and in seeing that the relief afforded to them is not instantly swallowed up by claims outstanding against them, or by their own imprudence. Where, however, one deserving case meets the consideration of the Brethren, nineteen undeserving instances will come before them; and, therefore, the time has assuredly arrived when imposition should be tracked and exposed, and the innocent and deserving be emancipated from the injury, which they cannot but suffer by the abuse of true benevolence, which has become almost proverbial.