MASONIC FEMALE ORPHAN SCHOOL*. AMONG the many noble works of charity and beneficence by which the society of Freemasons have carried into practice the maxims of their Order, the Masonic Female Orphan School, in Burlington-place, Dublin, may justly be regarded as a striking illustration. Interesting, however, as it must in a special degree appear to members of the Masonic body, it furnishes a less direct but not less useful lesson to the casual observer, as a training institution in which the soundest dictates of reason and common sense are carried out, a complete education, phys. ical, moral, and intellectual, afforded, and a high cultivation both of the intellect and of the imagination shown to be not incompatible with a thorough training in the less shining but more useful homely duties of life. It is now some fifteen years since the governors of the Masonic Female Orphan School, which had previously been in existence upon a smaller scale, obtained a grant from the late Lord Herbert of a site in Burlington-place, on which the present establishment was built by donations principally derived from members of the Masonic Order resident in this country, and anxious to provide a suitable refuge for the destitute daughters of their poorer Brethren. The exterior of the edifice is plain and unpretending no expense has been lavished on decoration, but probably there are few buildings which so thoroughly answer the object designed. In 1860, in consequence of the increasing number of eligible candidates for admission, an additional wing was erected, rendering the establishment capable of accommodating 40 girls. To accomplish this object, the funded property of the institution was reduced by nearly £1000, but this, it is hoped, will gradually be replaced by the increase of donations and annual subscriptions consequent on the augmentation of the number of inmates. The wisdom of the governors, not alone in the site adopted, but also in the construction of the edifice, is proved remarkable by the healthy condition of the inmates, and the almost total absence of sickness amongst them. In trnth, the only part of the building that wears a deserted aspect is the hospital, which however, is a model of neatness and scrupulous cleanliness. The children have, of course, had their share of the maladies incident to juveniles they run through the usual infantile disorders of measles, whooping cough, and scarlatina; but no better demonstration can be afforded of the skill, care, and attention with which the medical officer, the matron, and her assistants, perform their duties, than the fact that for the past 14 years not a single death has occurred in the establishment. This desirable result is attained by three important agencies-pure air, wholesome diet, and healthy and invigorating occupation. Every apartment in the building, from the kitchen to the dormitories, is spacious, clean, and well ventilated. Each girl is provided with a separate bed. The bedrooms are clean and airy, communicating with and adjoining the apartments of the matron and her assistant. The bedding, the walls, and the very floor are accurately neat and clean-a result obtained by the system of the establishment, by which each girl is required to make her own bed, take charge of and *We take this article from the Dublin Express, and commend it to our readers as an admirable illustration of the practical operation of Masonry in a field suited to its genius and influence, and where both are employed to the greatest advantage -Ed. Mag. keep in repair her own clothes, and take her turn in washing and arranging the bedrooms. The lavatory (a separate apartment) is conveniently provided with the requisites with which each girl, even the youngest, is required not to "adore, with head uncovered, the cosmetic powers," but, what is far better, to keep her person perfectly clean, her hair and dress neat, and to acquire those habits of tidiness and order without which personal beauty and intellectual accomplishments lose half their attractions. The refectory is a spacious and comfortable apartment, adjoining the kitchen, and communicating therewith by an aperture through which viands and dishes may be removed with great saving both of time and trouble. Every part of the building is thus kept with the most careful attention to order and system. The school rooms, of which there are two, one for the elder girls and the other for the younger, might well furnish examples worthy of imitation in many a fashionable academy. From their entrance into the institution, habits of order, neatness, and self-dependence are inculcated and enforced. Even the youngest girl is required to make her own bed, to keep and repair her own clothes and wait on herself at all times. As soon as she is of sufficient strength, she is required to assist in kitchen and laundry, and even to wash out the rooms, and to discharge those various domestic duties, the performance of which is essential to the comfort of a household. No excuse save that of illness is allowed; nor is the least difference made between one child and another. The daughter of the quondam wealthy merchant who had been ruined by over speculation-the child of the aristocratic country gentleman, who perhaps had been stripped of his possessions by an adverse lawsuit-is given the same education of heart, head, and hand, as the offspring of the humblest individual who ever wore a Masonic Apron. To make any difference between one child and another in this respect would not only be a manifest injustice, but would render it impossible to preserve either the discipline of the school or the equality and affection which subsist among the girls. Sometime since, the parents of a girl, once affluent, but reduced by series of reverses to poverty, died, leaving their daughter utterly destitute. Having been admitted into the institution, she for the first few days positively refused to make her own bed, or to perform for herself those offices which in her parents' lifetime, had been discharged for her by servants. The poor girl had yet to learn that the truest independence is that of self-dependence, and that the surest way both to acquire and to enjoy prosperity is learned from the lessons which adversity teaches. For three days she remained stubborn, but eventually the firmness, patience, and gentleness of the matron prevailed, and she ultimately became one of the most tractable and best conducted girls in the school. It may here be observed that corporal punishment is never resorted to in the institution, yet the perfection with which discipline is maintained and obedience enforced would be inexplicable to those who do not understand what Chalmers has so well described as "the omnipotence of loving-kindness." These details, and the recital of such homely occupations as those in which the inmates are engaged, may excite a smile; but their importance, as conducive to the usefulness, and consequent happiness of the girls in after life, is not to be appreciated lightly. For precisely in these qualifications, girls brought up in charitable institutions are usually most deficient. Who, that has observed the inmates of the female wards of some workhouses, can avoid perceiving how lamentably ignorant they are of the commonest domestic duties? Nor is the case much better at the opposite extremity of the social scale, for even in the fashionable boarding-school it will be often found that habits of self-dependence, neatness, and the "household virtues" which give every-day life its charm, cheer the domestic hearth, and shed light on the path of the obscure, are too much neglected. In this institution not only is the performance of domestic offices enforced, but the culture of the intellect and the tastes is not neglected. Besides the rudiments of English education they are taught singing; and even the pianoforte. Their household work over, each girl, before afternoon, is ready to take her place in the schoolroom. What a con. trast do they present to the inmates of the workhouse! Neat and clean in appearance, plainly, but not ungracefully attired, with happy countenances and cheerful tones, they are ranged, not in silent, listless groups, nor with pale and stunted forms, evincing, in their prematurely aged countenances, the seeds of scrof. ula and consumption; their rosy faces and happy looks bespeak the care and attention bestowed upon them. They exhibit neither the stolid stupidity nor the meanness and cunning so often found in children who have been supported in charitable institutions. They can sing a few snatches of song and play an air or two upon the piano with correctness and melody. The visitor can hardly help asking could these be the same girls who in the morning were on their knees busy with scrubbing-brush and dust-pan; and when answered, as he assuredly must be, in the affirmative, it furnishes a proof of the possibility of a girl's being educated, and accomplished, and at the same time active, useful, and happy. Some of these girls, were their history known, might furnish many an interesting episode in real life. It is not many years since a trader, who had by his own exertions managed to support his family in a position of respectability, died, leaving his widow, with nine children, utterly bereft of support. Through the intervention of some friends, a situation was obtained for the mother, and she proceeded with her family to Dublin in order to enter on her post. But the cup of her misfortune was not yet full, and a still sorer calamity was about to fall upon the unhappy children. The very day of their arrival in Dublin, as the mother was descending a flight of stone steps, her foot slipped and she sustained injuries which, after some days' suffering, terminated in her death. Of the bodily and mental anguish which this poor woman endured, racked by a painful disease, and with mind torturing itself by the variety of its sad forebodings as to the fate of her orphan children, few can form any idea. But on looking over the deceased's papers, the Masonic certificate of the father of the children was found. This discovery led to their being assisted by some members of the Masonic body Two of the girls were eventually taken into the school, and provision was made for the others. The two girls who were inmates of the school have since been both respectably married. Among the girls who from time to time have been trained up in this estimable institution, a considerable proportion are daughters of men who once filled respectable positions in society, some were even in affluent circumstances and highly connected. Some years ago a gentleman, the proprietor of one of the most extensive estates in Ireland, lost it through railway speculations, and died, leaving a daughter in the deepest poverty. He had fortunately been a Mason for several years previous to his death, and through the assistance of some Masonic friends the girl was received into the school. A bandmaster in the army, a member of a highly respectable family, died, leaving a widow and two girls penniless. The mother emigrated to a distant colony, where she obtained a situation and sent a remittance to her children to enable them to join her. The passage-money had been paid, and the girls were in readiness to start on their long voyage when a letter came, announcing the death of their mother. They were left thus completely destitute, but their father having been one of the Masonic body, the girls were received into the establishment, and they are now both married to men in comfortable circumstances. It not unfrequently happens that those who have been inmates of the school testify in after life their grateful sense of their obligations to the institution by becoming subscribers. A girl was not long since sent to a situation in Australia, and she last year sent as a mark of her gratitude a liberal subscription to the school, with the intimation that it would be continued annually. Free admission is given in the Institution to the orphans of soldiers who have been Masons. It is a singular fact, that though several institutions exist, and in particular one noble establishment-the Royal Hibernian Military School-for the support and education of sons of soldiers, not one institution in Ireland opens its doors to the orphan daughter of the military man. To the ladies this school appeals with peculiar force. It may not be generally known that in many cases institutions which have been founded for the support and training of girls have not answered the expectations of the founders, the girls not turning out as well as was hoped and anticipated. That this failure has in every instance arisen from some defect in the management, is shown by the perfect success of the Masonic Female Orphan School. The female orphan has, indeed, claims of peculiar force on the charity and kindness of all who can assist her, for, in addition to all the distresses to which boys are subject, she has to withstand temptations to which they are exposed; and who are so qualified to sympathize with, and extend their assistance to their poorer sisters, as that better portion of mankind without which it has been said "the commencement of life would be without succor, the middle without pleasure, and the end without consolation?" MASONRY AND LOYALTY. A TRUE Mason is a true patriot, and will be true to his government. In an address delivered by Albert Pike, three years since, in New Orleans, he said: "It is not the mission of Masonry to engage in plots and conspiracies against the civil government. *** It does not preach sedition nor encourage rebellion by a people or a race, when it can only end in disaster or defeat; or if successful, in bloodshed and barbarism. *** It frowns upon cruelty and a wanton disregard of the rights of humanity, and it is alike the enemy of the mob and the autocrat; it is the votary of liberty and justice." Had all Masons, north and south, been true to these teachings, the calamities of civil war would have been avoided, and Albert Pike would not now be en gaged in the diabolical purpose of arming the fierce and bloodthirsty savages with tomahawk and scalping knife to carry desolation and death to our homes and firesides, and to destroy the Government that has so long fed and protected them. When Masons in high standing, who are regarded as lights in the Order, thus by their example give the lie to their teachings and the precepts of the Order, it is fit and proper on occasions like the present, and in a report of this character, to apply the corrective, and exemplify to all what principles govern the true Mason in times like the present.-G. L. of Dist. Columbia. SUPREME GRAND COUNCIL 33°. THIS distinguished body of M. P. Sov. Grand Inspectors General 33d, “Ancient and Accepted Rite," for the Northern Jurisdiction of the U. S. America, and the Sov. G. Consistory of S. P. R. S. 32d, appendant thereto, held their Annual Meetings in the city of Boston, commencing on the 21st ult., and continuing in session three days. There was a very large attendance of Sov. G. Ins. General, and Sub. P. R. S., notwithstanding the present distracted condition of our country, and the absence of many members of both of these grades, in the country's service. The meeting was doubtless the largest of any that has ever been held since the organization of the Council in 1813. As will be seen by the list below, there were nine States, and thirtyeight Bodies represented. A large amount of business was transacted; the best feeling prevailed, and entire harmony distinguished the deliberations. Among the members present were Brethren of eminent ability, of high professional and moral attainments; gentlemen of fine culture; of elevated social position, and distinction in the fraternity. We were particularly gratified to meet with the distinguished Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Maine. The former, the Hon. Josiah H. Drummond, who now fills the second office in the Council, has been Speaker of the House of Representatives, and is Attorney General of that State, having, as we are informed, been re-elected to that dignified office, after one term, by a unanimous vote. The Deputy Grand Master, Hon. William P. Preble, is Clerk of the Courts of Maine. Hon. Charles Doe, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire; Hon. Benjamin Dean, Senator from the Suffolk District, Massachu setts; Hon. Col. Newell A. Thompson, of Boston; F. G. Tisdall, Esq., Editor of the Saturday Courier, New York; Joseph D. Evans, Esq., Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, and Rev. D. B. Tracy, D. D., Chaplain of the 1st regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, were also welcomed, and took active parts in the deliberations. The Supreme Council was opened at the hour named in the Constitutions, viz. 10 o'clock, A. M., on Wednesday-the Puiss. Lt. Grand Commander presiding. The divine blessing was invoked by the Ill. and Rev. Br. Albert Case. There were present as officers III. K. H. Van Rensselaer, of Ohio, M. P. Lieut. Grand Commander. Ill. Winslow Lewis, M. D., of Boston, G. Sec. Gen. H. E. |