July 1, 1897.1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE RÉPORT.
the District Grand Lodge and the Masters and should feel Yourself utterly oppressed by the Wardens of the Private Lodges in regalia and burden were You not sustained by the hope presented the address from the Masonic Lodges that Divine Providence would give You in the colony. He said-Your Excellency, with strength for the performance of it, when those your permission, I now advance as the District over whom You threw the royal mantle of Grand Master of the District Grand Lodge of a Queen in response assured You of their Hongkong and South China, accompanied by condolence for His Majesty's death and of their my District Grand Lodge Officers and the attachment to Yourself, when, little more than Masters and Wardens of the several Lodges a child as You then were, yet all hopeful and working under my jurisdiction, together with trusting, You confided in the presence of Your the Master and Wardens of St. John's Lodge Lords and Commons Your future to the wisdom working under the Scottish Constitution, to pre-of Your Parliament and the affection of Your sent from the Hongkong, Amoy, Foochow, and People, when a little later, on the 10th day of Canton Brethren, an address to Her Majesty, February, 1840, Your Own marriage bells rang and to ask you to receive and forward it for Her out Your happy union with Prince Albert of Majesty's gracious acceptance. In performing Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a union consecrated, if we may humbly say so, by mutual love, and endeared this, to us, most pleasing and grateful duty, would mention that this address embodies the by the sympathy of a Nation, who then conld spontaneous and unanimous good wishes and tell that You were predestined in the decrees of greetings of the Masonic Institutions which I the Great Architect of the Universe to accom- have named, and that it comes, as it purports to plish in the cycle of Time a reign not only un- come, from their best and deepest feelings. Sir, attained in mere length of years by any previous though. we may not, discuss the principles of Potentate of England but unequalled in its ever Masonry, we may yet be permitted to state that broadening, ever beneficial influence upon the it was in the far back vista of by-gone ages when races whose willing homage is Yours?
To those who are content to pass a light the mind of man was yet fettered by shackles
existence, careless of the signs of the times which happily have long been broken, and was struggling, perhaps unconsciously, and perhaps, and heedless of the events that make a world's as it may then have seemed, almost hopelessly, to history, Your reign may offer no ground for emancipate itself and take its proper place in reflection, no lesson to learn. But to him civilization, it was then that there were laid the whose thoughts rise to a higher horizon, who foundations of the Brotherhood which is called from the past is glad to draw something of to-day Freemasonry. As century after century knowledge, something of experience with which went by the Order gathered volume and power to guide his future steps, the record of Your until it stood in a line with other organisations Sovereignty cannot but bring sentiments of the created to further nature's highest teachings by deepest deference and admiration when he con- the amelioration of our fellow men. Amongst templates the profound and beneficent changes Under the loftiest and most cherished of the precepts which have marked Your royal career.
Your pure and ennobling Egis Rectitude in inscribed upon the banners of the Craft is now
Your land has advanced side by side with Free- and ever will be the bright Star of Charity, one of the most blessed virtucs that the world has. dom, the birth-right now of every Englishman, in You Peace has ever found a powerful and ready ever known, whose pure and shining rays vot- aries of every faith and sect and creed must hon-ally, under Yon Justice has compelled increased our and respect for all mortal time. Upon this respect for Your laws, and ignoring the accidents of status or caste has sought but to common ground, Sir, we approach the Throns
find the truth, under You the rights of person to-day, knowing as all the world knows that Her Majesty's commiserate heart is ever open to the and property have been more and more safe- olaims of deserving poverty, and ever sympa- guarded and enforced, and Commerce, the thises with the less happy of the creatures of breath of Your People, has been fostered, pro- God whose lives are shadowed by misfortune tected and enlarged, under You Art the beauti- and distress. Kinly actions bring a reward of ful has grown more beautiful, more perfect yet, and Science has revealed depths not only un- their own which is measured by no human standard, and surpasses all human bounds, and known and undreamt of sixty years ago but they, be they high or lowly, whose acts reflect wondrous and startling to the thinking mind, the gentle and humane sentiments of their and under You have been added to their parent hearts, gather for themselves a priceless store, flag those vast Possessions and Colonies which, above all earthly rank, riches, or grade. Amongst privileged to regard Your Country as their Mother, have been proud to call themselves its such as these, as we venture respectfully to say, is enrolled the name of the Queen Empress to children. whom we tender the address which I will now, Sir, read:-
!
Hongkong, 20th June, 1897.
TO HER MAJESTY VICTORIA,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, QUEEN, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, EMPRESS OF INDIA.
YOUR MAJESTY,
and we may be sure that the Queen is well aware of the fact that the exercise of charity is one of our loftiest and most cherished precepts. We can honestly say-
We are not divided All one body we,
One in hope, in teaching,
One in charity.
Her Majesty is endeared to all Masons by her personal qualities as a woman and as a mother, and we all who belong to the greatest Empire the world has ever known recognise the fact that she reigns in the hearts of her people in consequence of her deep sympathy with distress, and the unfailing charity that she extends to the humblest of her subjects. Worshipful District Grand, Worshipful Masters, and Brethren, that Her Majesty will graciously accept and fully appreciate this address which emanates from the best and deepest feelings" of the members of the Masonic Institutions to which you have re ferred, I am perfectly convinced. (Applause),
48
PRESENTATION TO THE REGISTRAR
GENERAL.
After the ceremonies at Government House were concluded the Chinese members of the Committee went to the Colonial Secretary's Office for the purpose of presenting a tablet from the Chinese Community to Hon. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, Colonial Secretary and Registrar General. Mrs. Lockhart and Miss Hancock graced the proceedings with their presence.
Hon. Dr. Ho KAI, in making the pre- sentation, said—I have been requested by the Chinese community to present this tablet In your to you, Sir, as Colonial Secretary and Re- gistrar-General of this colony. official capacity you have come into con- tact with Chinese of all classes, and it is only natural that in joining in the general | rejoicings they should think of presenting you with something in commemoration of this happy They hope that the tablet shall be event. hung up in the Colonial Secretary's office as a memorial of the loyalty and good feeling of the Chinese to Her Majesty and also to the officials who represent Her Majesty out here. yourself, personally, the Chinese wish me to express their esteem, and assure you that amongst them you have many sincere friends and admirers.
For
Hon. J. H. STEWART LOCKHART-Dr. Ho
Kai and gentlemen, after the eloquent speeches we have just had the pleasure of to which listening at Government House, I do not pro.. pose to detain you for any length of time now. It is needless for me to say that I am much gratified by the kindly feeling of the Chinese But though Destiny has cast Your lot amongst community which has again prompted them to the Rulers of the Earth, though Your regal present me with a tablet in honour of this rights and prerogatives are sacred, to us who unique occasion-an occasion which will always be remembered as one of the greatest in the are the subjects of many Powers You are more. than a Queen, You are a Woman, and in his history of Great and Greater Britain. This tablet will serve as a pleasing and lasting me. tory's as yet unwritten page Yon will be re- membered best by Your tenderest attribute,morial of the loyalty of the Chinese residents the gem of sweet compassion. Again and again towards the Queen, whom we all revere so much. Your heart has quickened to the call of poor 1 am glad that the Chinese have come forward so humanity, and You have striven in Your own readily and have joined so heartily in celebrat- Woman's way to alleviate the sufferings of ing the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's the bereaved and the distressed. The touches Reign. of Nature are the heritage of all, and own no allegiance but to Nature herself, and they who, like Yon, invade the domain of misery and want, and try to lift the wretched from themselves, sow with seeds of pity and of love a field whose harvest is immortal grain. Those whose burden You have helped to lighten,
Whilst the auspicious hours are yet passing which are commemorating the longest royal reign in England, Your Own, we, Brethren in Your farthest Eastern fortress of British Masonic Institutions. would in reverential esteem join our happiest wishes to those which from the North and the South and the East and the West will be tendered for Your accep- tance, and would ask Your Majesty to Graciously receive our congratulations on an incident hitherto never parallelled in the annals of the English Crown. In approaching Your those whose weakness You have helped to have paid me a very high compliment and have
Majesty we remember that we are addressing the Mother of our Grand Master, the most Worshipful the Prince of Wales, and, as such, our hearts go out to You and we send You kindliest Greetings from the East.
On the 20th day of June, 1837, Your Majesty ascended the Throne of England, and gathered into Your hands the reins of a realm which, great even then, has under your benign Sceptre developed into one of the mightiest Principalities of the world. When His late Majesty King William the Fourth, a monarch loved and honoured by his subjects, was called by a Voice which was not of the voices of Earth, when You avowed to Your country that the responsibility of administering the Govern. ment was imposed upon You so suddenly and at so early a period of Your life that You
strengthen, those over whose darkened path You have helped to shed the rays of Hope, those who through pain and travail have realized once more, by Your kindly aid, a belief in Christian Charity-these, even these, You will meet again on that day, the Dawn of Man's eternity, when the Lord shall make up His jewels.
HIS EXCELLENCY-Worshipful District Grand Master, Worshipful Masters and Breth- ren, as a brother Mason it will afford me much pleasure to forward to Her Majesty the Queen the address which you have just placed in my hands, and which embodies the spontaneous and unanimous good wishes and greetings towards Her Majev of the Hongkong, Amoy, Foochow, and Canton brethern. Her Majesty's sons and grandsonr all, or nearly all, belong to the Craft,
You have prospered greatly in this colony under the rule of the Queen and it is therefore only fitting and natural that you should on an unprecedented occasion like the present show your appreciation of Her Majesty's rule, and of the benefits you derive from it. It is gratifying to me to see around me so many friends, who, in presenting me with this tablet, Her shown their regard for the offices which Majesty has been pleased to confer upon me. again thank yon, gentlemen, most sincerely.
I
THE NAVAL AND MILITARY REVIEW. The loyal residents of Hongkong were never so suspicious of the weather as they were on Tuesday afternoon, when the grand review of the naval and military forces took place at the Happy Valley. It was really most tantalising in the morning to see the unsympathetic rain falling and to hear the cracks of thunder in the distance, and the question that forced itself into everyone's mind was " Will it be fine for the Review At 1.30 the weather cleared and the sun tried in vain to peep from behind the relentless clouds, but they, stuck with most aggravating persistency and during the whole afternoon not a single bright speck of sky
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