nothing gives the Craft, in any one of its branches and departments, greater pleasure and satisfaction than to have him come amongst us, and take part in our gatherings and festivities. (Applause.) Responding to this toast this evening. I am quite sure that we are all very much obliged to the Dean for coming here and taking charge of this very important toast. I for one much regret that the Prior of North and East Yorkshire, Lord Londesborough, who has just received so well merited a distinction at the hands of our Gracious Sovereign the Queen, and is now the Earl of Londesborough (applause) is unable to respond to this toast, and that it has fallen into such comparatively feeble hands as mine. But let me say that ever since his Royal Highness has been so gracious as to place himself at the head of the Order of the Temple in England, it has, like the various other branches of Freemasonry, thriven and prospered immensely; and I cannot but think that so long as every one of us in these various branches of the Craft is true to the three grand principles of loyalty, philanthrophy, and patriotism, that every one of these Orders will prosper in this country. (Applause.) But the prosperity of those Orders in England, so far as Knight Templary is concerned, is not felt in so great an extent as in the United States of America I had the honor of being here not many years ago-in this very hall-when we received the Commandery from Chicago, and I rejoice to be present at this latest re ception. So far as the Province of West Yorkshire is concerned, with which province I am intimately connected, the Order of the Temple has prospered immensely, and during the short time I have had the honor of administering the affairs of the Temple of the West Riding, every one of our Preceptories has been resuscitated, and is now in a very prosperous condition. It affords us very great pleasure to night to have the honor, my Lord Mayor, of meeting under your presidency and joining with the Knights of York in giving eclat to this meeting. And I am quite sure that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, if made aware of the enthusiasm of this meeting towards him as our Grand Master, would be gratified with these feelings and sentiment of loyalty and attachment to him as heir to the throne. I thank you very much for the noble and generous manner in which you have received this toast, and thank you for the hearty manner in which you have responded to the health of the Prince of Wales, and I hope that in every one of our homes the sentiments will spring up and bear fruit in sincerity and truth"God bless the Prince of Wales." (Loud applause).

The Quartette sang a verse of "God bless the Prince of Wales." Bro. J. W. Woodall, Sub-Prior of N. and E. Yorkshire, gave the toast of "Charles Roome, G. M. of the Temple in the United States and the Grand Encampment." He said: I can assure you that it is with feelings of very great pleasure that I rise on this occasion to propose to you the toast which I have in my hands, al

though I feel I shall not be able to do it justice I believe that I am the only Freemason in Yorkshire in this room who has had the pleasure of being present at a gathering of our brethren of the United States, and more particularly in that great city of Philade · phia, from which many of our brethren hail. (Applause.) I am sure you will allow me to say just for one moment how glad we are to find that the same principle which actuates us in this country is so largely developed in the United States, and that every brother stands by brother, and tries to do the best he can there just as we have been trying to do in this country for many years past. If in troublous times we should hang out a signal for a pilot, I have no doubt an answer would be given from the United States of America. (Applause.) The toast I have to propose to you is "The Health of Bro. Charles Roome, the Grand Master of the Temple in the United States, and the Grand Encampment" (Applause.) Many of you, no doubt, will have read of the great development of the Templar Order in the United States, and I trust that many of you will be able before you leave the world to make yourself acquainted with the organization that exists there, and see how admirably the usages and traditions of the old Society have been revived and shaped to the exigencies of the new community. I trust we shall always be able, in this country, to hold out the right hand of fellowship, and to wish them God speed in their undertaking, feeling sure that they are working for the best interests of their own country, and in so doing for the best interests of the world. I am directed to couple with this toast the name of one who has filled the throne of the Order with great ability-the Hon. J. H. Hopkins. I feel sure you will all give him a hearty reception. plause.)

Choir" Star Spangled Banner."

(Ap

Bro. J. H. Hopkins, Past Grand Master, and especial representative from the present Grand Master, said: I have very great pleasure in responding to the toast of the Grand Master's health.— Standing at the head of sixty thousand Knights of the Temple, selected because of his exalted character, his eminent ability, and his great zeal for the Order, and supported by the loyalty and love of the vast array who follow his banner-he certainly occupies a proud and enviable position, and deserves any honor that can be paid him. (Hear, hear) And yet he will be especially grateful to know of the distinguished courtesy shown him by the brotherhood of Templars here; and in his name I thank you for the most graceful and eloquent manner in which you have proposed the toast, and all the Knights, and Brethren, and ladies present for their most cordial greeting. I take this occasion to thank you all most profoundly for your most generous hospitality and kind consideration shown to your guests. Although our homes are separated by thousands of miles, and although we never looked in each

Even

other, eyes before, we have not been received as strangers. these walls seem to smile round a welcome for us, and instead of barred and defended gates, we find the portals thrown wide open, and your hearts wider open still. (Applause.) It is true, as has been said, that we have the same lineage, and the same language, and the same literature. We have a common inheritance of glorious memories. We have the same aspirations and the same hopes; but more than that, as the Very Rev. the Dean has said, we have the common tie of Brotherhood, which is wide as the world-(hear, hear)-and is universal as humanity. (Applause.) Zealous Mahomedans willingly toil in the dreary desert for the acquisition of fancied blessings to be derived at the tomb of their prophet; devout Roman Catholics perform wearisome pilgrimages to kneel before the shrine of some favorite saint; and so these American Te nplars, without any of that superstition, but with all the same enthusiasm, leave their homes, and cross the stormy sea to visit this ancient and historic city, where almost a thousand years ago Freemasonry found a home, which has been sheltered through all the intervening centuries, through all the vicissitudes of government, through all rises and decays of many dynasties. And, remembering this historic fact, and sitting, as it were, under the shadow of the ivy covered memory of York, the mother to our Freemasonry- (loud applause) -through the mists of time we are enabled to see the origin and grafting of the Order of the Temple upon the sturdy trunk of the Craft. We know that the union has been honored through ges. Amidst these crowding memories we can almost expect to hear the martial tread of those olden knights along the corridors of time, and to see their stately forms marshalled for another crusade, or ready for a gallant fight. We cannot but honor the stern and rugged virtues of those knights, who, finding no geniality in the society of their day, separated themselves from the world, and its temptations and vanities, and devoted their lives to the unselfish service of their fellow-men, and to the devout, though quiet, worship of their God. Their postures and prayers, their penances and exercises, their inexorable statutes and rigorous discipline, made all these firm zealots of religion and heroes of mankind. (Applause.) And that spirit lives yet, ennobled and brightened by the higher and purer civilization of our day. Remembering the one rule of the statutes of St. Bernard which denied a Knight of the Temple the luxury of a smile from any fair friend or even relative, and, seeing that our board to night is enlightened by the bright eyes and the grace and beauty around this table-(loud applause)--who would turn back the hands upon the dial of time? Your Poet Laureate has expressed a thought which I am sure we all feel to-night, that it is better to have the peaceful and refined enjoyment of one such a night as this than a whole field of slaughtered Saracens, or even a hard-fought tournament (Applause.) But let us not forget that

Vol. 68.-No. 2.-3.

these are but the light draperies which conceal somewhat, but do not weaken the plated armor of the Knight. In the name of the Grand Master of the United States of America, I bring you Knights of the Temple of England the loving homage of a far distant, but filial, child. (Applause) We will return and give the fraternal blessings to our Grand Master, cheered by the tender regard you have shown to him through us. (Loud applause.)

Bro. T. B. Whytehead said I think this is the third time I have had the honor of rising to propose "The Health of the American Knights Templar" who have visited York. I do so with great pleasure on this occasion, because we are visited by brethren who were here several years ago-such brethren as our Bros. Meyer, Sutter, Packer, Matthews, and others of the Order of the Temple, whose acquaintance and friendship we made with the greatest pleasure so many years ago, and who have now returned once more to renew the fraternal grip in the ancient city of York. (Applause.) Our Bro. Hopkins has made allusion to the connection of ancient Freemasonry and Templary with this city. Well, that connection is very ancient, and very close, and very interesting. You doubtless all know that it is supposed the first Grand Lodge ever held in the world was held in York. Traditionally it was held in the year 928. when Athelstan granted a charter to the Masons who met here. Traditionally we hear of various meetings at different times through the several reigns of kings and queens, and when we come to the reign of Elizabeth we are told that then a suspicion rested upon the Freemasons of York of seditious proceedings, and that her Majesty sent down from London Sir Thos. Sackville to prosecute the Masons of York and to close peremptorily the Grand Lodge then being held. Sir Thomas came down, and being a Mason himself, took the officers who accompanied him to the Grand Lodge in York, had them initiated, when they were treated so well that the officers reported immediately to her Majesty that the Masons in York were a most estimable body of men, and there was nothing to fear from them. (Laughter and applause.) And we Masons of the Victorian era are anxious to win for ourselves the same character for good behavior, good cheer, and good fellowship as our brethren of the sixteenth century. With regard to Templary, one of the most touching episodes in the history of the suppression of the Temple is to be found in the kindly protection thrown around the remnants of that body in Yorkshire by Archbishop Greenfield in York, who, when, as you know. tyranny and greed had persecuted and tormented those unfortunate brethren of the Order of the Temple, declined positively to put them to the torture or to the " question," as it was politely called, but pensioned off all the knights brought before him at the Castle of York in various monasteries for the rest of their lives. Therefore we have in York a very ancient connection with the Order of the Temple, and I think we have one of the earliest

minutes of modern Templary that is known to exist. We have a minute book more than one hundred years old, which records a meeting of Knights Templar in York, and we find that this was not. the first meeting but a combination of a series of gatherings of the Order. In York the Order appears not to have flourished very much in that period, for within thirty or forty years the members ceased to meet, and the warrant which they then held from the Grand Encampment of England was purchased by some brethren of Hull, and may now be seen by any Templars who are curious in such matters We have had some brethren here to-day who work under that warrant, and every Knight Templar will find it well worth making a pilgrimage as far as Hull, to see the little bit of parchment, which I believe is the only warrant of the kind in existence in England. Well, brethren, we greet with the warmest feelings of fraternal regard the brethren who are here to-day from the United States. They know what our feelings are towards them. We have exhibited it in various ways, and I have been in friendly correspondence with a number of Knights whom I see before me at the table, and whose friendship I prize exceedingly. There is one privilege yet left to me in my Masonic life, and that is to pay a visit to the United States. (Applause.) If time and circumstances permit, I should like to go over and meet them on their own ground. I have met them and shaken hands with them in England, and I want very much to see them in their magnificent Temple, whose picture hangs in our Masonic Hall in York. I need hardly say anything further, because, really, the object of our meeting to-night is to welcome our American guests, and I therefore will give you the good health, long life, prosperity and happiness of our American guests, and I especially name the Mary Commandery-(Hear, hear, and applause) and Bro. Charles E. Meyer.

Choir" Ancient Ebor," (Solo part by Bro. Walter Blenkin.) Bro. Chas. E. Meyer, in responding, said the Mary Commandery was very much like the Ebor Preceptory, for, since the time of its inception, its aim had been to take the first place in Templary, not only in America, but in the world. Through seventeen years they had striven and they had done what they could to advance the Order of the Temple all over the world. On several occasions they had what might be called national anniversaries, and in 1869 among the invitations sent out was one to the St. John's Commandery, which claims to be the oldest Commandery in the United States. They also sent invitations to the different Preceptories and Commanderies in the world, and amongst those represented was one working under the English Constitution, from the extreme southern portion of the world. They had a representative there from the Cape of Good Hope, and on other occasions they had present the Mayor of Scarborough (Bro. Woodall), Bro. Macliver (Bristol),