“The Council in Washington, D. C., is in about the same condition as it was last year. My only official act touching its interest was to grant a dispensation for the election of its officers at a time subsequent to that provided for in its By-Laws. As to its future, I can only express a not too confident hope of its revival.

He reports having visited eleven Councils, and says, " as to the Grand Council, it is with much satisfaction that I can speak of its sound and healthy condition; there are no bills unpaid, and there is a handsome balance in the treasury."

Passing from local to general affairs, the Grand Master says:

“Taking an active interest in everything which affects the interests of the Capitular Rite, as well as this, I am clearly of the opinion, that in this commonwealth certainly, that Rite does not want to accept or usurp the functions of this, nor does this want to surrender them to it; that has all the degrees its officers can work successfully, and this ought to take care of its own, or put them at rest. If this body, or one of its members is sick, heal it or bury it; but do not seek to make the disease contagious.

"I have, on other occasions, indicated the reasons which have led to this admixture of degrees, and chief among them has been the fact that Councils were established where neither numbers, material, or means justified the action; and, after an unsatisfactory and ill-deserved existence, these unhealthy subordinates have out-voted those that might have lived, thrown their respective Grand Councils off their base, and the degrees into the Chapters.

"In such localities no regular Councils of Royal and Select Masters now exist, and the question for you to consider is, can persons claiming to have received the degrees of Royal and Select Master in Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, be justly regarded as regularly made, and entitled to all the rights and privileges of Select Masters, within the scope and meaning of the Rite, as practiced in this jurisdiction?' I refer this matter to your advisement."

The Grand Council passed the following:

"Resolved, That this Grand Council does not recognize as Cryptic Masons any but such as shall have received the degrees of Royal and Select Masters in a duly constituted Council of Royal and Select Masters, working under the charter of some regular Grand Council."

Companion J. W. DADMUN presents the Report on Correspondence; it is about as long as a nice cozy evening at home. with a good cigar, and is as thoroughly enjoyable.

We give his Alpha:

"Shall the unity of Freemasonry be preserved, or shall the Institution be divided into an indefinite number of independent bodies, so divergent in law and usage, that no Mason can travel outside of his own jurisdiction and be recognized as a brother and companion? These questions come home with peculiar force as we look upon the innovations made in the body of Masonry' by those jurisdictions which have consolidated the Council and Chapter degrees.

"Those Grand Councils which have transferred the Cryptic degrees to the Chapter, have done so in violation of masonic law and usage. The Grand Councils which retain their organizations, according to the estab

lished rules of the Order, are the only rightful custodians of the degrees; and therefore cannot recognize Cryptic Masons made in Councils appendant to the Chapter. Suppose a Grand Chapter should transfer the Capitular degrees to a Lodge, and that the Lodge should proceed to make Ŕ.. A. ́. Masons, could any Grand Chapter recognize R.. A.. Masons exalted in an 'irregular Chapter?' Every loyal Grand Council must declare all Cryptic Masons made in other than regular Councils,' irregular and clandestine. "By what right can a Grand Chapter assume control of degrees not recognized by the General Grand Constitution, or by the Grand Constitution of the Order? It is evasive to answer, We have not ingrafted these degrees into the Chapter.' To all intents and purposes those Grand Chapters which have made the Cryptic degrees appendant to the Chapter, have made them a part of Chapter Masonry. They have formally, by constitutional enactments, taken possession of them; ordered the officers to confer them; adopted laws and regulations for their government; rendered decisions relating thereto, which are made just as binding upon the officers and members as any laws relating to Capitular Masonry. To complete the adoption, only one thing more remains to be done, and that is, to make them obligatory on all R.. A... Masons; and that has already been done by Mississippi.

To say the Cryptic degrees originally belonged to the Chapter, is falsifying history. They were originally side degrees of the A.. and A.. Scottish Rite. By common consent they were organized into independent Councils, under special rules and regulations; and it is a breach of Masonic faith for any Grand Council to surrender them to any other Masonic body, without the consent of all the other Grand Councils. The following Grand Councils have disbanded, after transferring the degrees to the Chapter: Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Illinois. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Missouri, have taken initiatory steps to effect a union."

He reviews the proceedings of eighteen Grand Councils, among them Maryland for 1878 and 1879, which receives kindly notice. Commenting on the opinion that it was better for those Grand Councils who had returned to "the bosom," and our trust that snuggling awhile will restore in them sufficient vitality to again "go it alone;" he says:

"There is a great difference in 'bosoms,' and a great difference in taste; but if we are going to flee to a 'bosom,' we prefer to do it legally, then we shall not have to surrender to some other 'feller.'"

Under Pennsylvania he says:

"Companion CHARLES E. MEYER presented an excellent Report on Correspondence. As he adopts the following report by I.. Companion ALBERT PIKE, to the Grand Chapter of Arkansas, in 1853, we will transfer it to these pages; and we advise all our Companions in our own jurisdiction, as well as in others, to read it. After stating that the 'proposition to give the jurisdiction of Councils to Grand Chapters embraces one of the greatest Masonic absurdities,' he says:

"It is well stated by the Grand High Priest of Michigan, in his address to the Grand Chapter of that State, in January last, that the degrees of Royal and Select Master could not properly be conferred on any one until he had received the Royal Arch; and that no Grand Chapter pretends to know what is transacted in any assemblage of Masons above the Royal Arch.

"And suppose this Grand Chapter declares that it authorizes the subordinate Chapters to confer the Council degrees. It must direct whether they shall be conferred before or after the Royal Arch. If before, as it seems to be the notion of some Chapters that they should, will the Grand Chapter declare that they shall be a necessary pre-requisite to the Royal Arch? If so, here is a clear innovation; for it never has been held, anywhere, that they must necessarily be so taken. Besides, this would at once impose on every member of the Grand Chapter the necessity of obtaining the degrees, that he might be competent to decide questions arising in regard to them.

"If the Grand Chapter enacts that they shall be taken after the Royal Arch, then they are higher degrees, and you disqualify every Companion who does not take them to sit in a Grand or Subordinate Chapter.

The Committee on Foreign Correspondence of the Grand Chapter of Illinois, at its Convocation in September, 1852, very forcibly said:

"""Certain it is that the State Grand Councils, and the Councils holding under them, and the 33d, never will acknowledge, either directly or indirectly, the authority of the General or State Grand Chapters over these beautiful and indispensible degrees. With just as much reason can the Fellow Craft capture the Mark, and make it part of itself-can the Master's degree capture the Mark, Royal Arch, Royal and Select Master's, one and all, make them, with itself, one huge, but splendid degree, as for the Royal Arch to reduce the Council degrees to its jurisdiction. The degrees of Master and Royal Arch, as well as the degrees of Master and Select, have much more intimate connection with, and reference to, each other, than the degrees of Royal Arch and Select. Losing, finding, place, and why are different ideas, and yet may all, and generally do, have a most intimate connection with each other. Nothing is to be more deprecated in Masonry. than conflict in jurisdictions. There ought to be one common level."

The Grand Chapter of Kentucky holds that the General Grand Chapter has no power to decide whether the Royal and Select Masters' degrees are constitutional or otherwise, as they come properly after, and are above, the Royal Arch, and properly belong to separately organized Counils.

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The Grand Chapter of Missouri considers that the Grand Chapters can have no actual practical jurisdiction over Councils of Royal and Select Masters, and has withdrawn the jurisdiction from its own subordinates. The Grand Chapter of Illinois has done the same.

"The Grand Chapter of Mississippi, in January, 1852, passed a resolution, advising all Royal Arch Masons within its jurisdiction not to receive the Council degrees, except from a legally constistuted Council.

"""Time has created these distinct organizations. The York Rite has seen Chapter Masonry secede from it, organize and set up for itself. The Supreme Councils have seen the Royal and Select Masters establish Grand Councils, and decline allegiance to the power whence they derived their existence. Many years since, the same process was going on. Masonry divided itself into different Rites and jurisdictions, each within its own train of degrees, as peoples organize themselves into political communities. Time has confirmed each in its respective possessions, and prescription has ripened possession into title. It has become Masonic law, (if there is any such thing as Masonic law), that it is clandestine and un-masonic to invade another jurisdiction, or intermeddle with degrees to which such other jurisdiction has either original title or long-continued possession. No one encroaches on Royal Arch Masonry. The borders of her jurisdiction are at peace. She has to build no forts and man no walls to keep off any invader. Why, then, should she put forth her hand to take that which is not hers?

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She is even now engaged in a work of restitution, in yielding up the Past Master's degree to the Grand Lodge. Thou shalt not covet-anything that is thy neighbor's. Cursed is he that removeth his neighbor's landmark. Whatever may be the action of one or all of the Grand Chapters, or of the General Grand Chapter itself, all regular Council Masons, and we among the number, will ever regard those who receive the degrees of Royal and Select Master in a Chapter as clandestine, until they are healed. We shall never be present when those degrees are conferred in a Chapter; and, in all respects, all Council Masons will, under all circumstances and at all hazards, preserve their allegiance to the Grand or Supreme Council, to which it of right belongs.

""One thing, of course, is clear: that a Council would no more recognize a Royal and Select Master made in a Chapter, than a Chapter would recognize a Royal Arch Mason made in a Council or Consistory of the Scottisch Rite."

Companion DADMUN says, as his Omega:

"The merging mania has about spent its force. Only about one-third of the Grand Councils have taken decisive measures to effect a union.— The other two-thirds, which include many of the oldest and strongest jurisdictions, will never consent to be sacrificed so cheaply and so ignominiously. It is degrading the Council degrees to make them mere side degrees of a lower branch of Freemasonry, and when so made, they will be a dead weight to the Chapters, and also defeat the very object had in view, which is-as stated by the advocates of the measure-to reduce the number of Masonic bodies and simplify the Order. With the Chapter already overloaded with degrees, the addition of the Cryptic degrees will add complication and death to one or both of them. We love Capitular Masonry, and we protest against having a dead body attached to her, which will sooner or later make us cry out, 'O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death.'"

MICHIGAN, 1880.

The Twenty-second Annual Assembly was held at Jackson, January 19th, Companion HUGH MCCURDY, Grand Master; thirty-four Councils represented.

The tone of the Grand Master's address is suggestive of the fact that he presides over a healthy and prosperous Grand Council, and one that neither knows how to remain in statu quo or "advance" backwards. He announces the decease of Rev. Companion DOUGHTY, Grand Chaplain and Past Principal Conductor of the Work, who died June 9th, 1879.

He also gives a short history of the formation of the Grand Council by a convention of three Councils, at Detroit, January 13, 1858, and states that it now embraces fifty subordinates, with a membership of over two thousand, and expresses a just pride at their condition, and at the same time a feeling of sorrow for those Grand Councils who have proved recreant to their trusts. He reports having appointed Companion EDWARD T. SCHULTZ as Representative near the Grand Council of Maryland.

Companion WILLIAM BROWN presented his credentials as Representative of Maryland near Michigan, and was acknowledged accordingly.

The thanks of the Grand Council were tendered the various railroads, for courtesies extended to the delegates attending the assembly. To us this is refreshing, as similar corporations with us are notoriously "hide bound," and hold chalk at a high premium.

Companion G. B. NOBLE presented the Report on Correspondence, compiled from the proceedings of thirteen Grand Councils-Maryland for 1878 and 1879 included. Grand Master GORGAS' address is liberally quoted from, and his opinion is that Maryland "shows no weakness."

MINNESOTA, 1879.

The regular Annual Assembly of this Grand Council was held at St. Paul, October 13, but we have not received the printed proceedings. We are able, however, to report it in a healthy condition and thoroughly active, and one of the foremost in advocating and supporting the interests of the Cryptic Rite. Under our review of Maine we have quoted some decisions of the Grand Master of general interest.

MISSOURI.

We have no tidings from Missouri. The Annual Assembly was to have been held in May of this year, but we are unable to say if the proceedings were published. The proceedings of 1878 show that a committee was appointed to confer with a committee from the Grand Chapter in regard to transferring the degrees to the latter.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1880.

The ninteenth Annual Assembly was held at Concord on the seventeenth of May, Companion HARVEY L. CURRIER, M.. I.. Grand Master; six Councils represented out of eight composing the jurisdiction.

Companion CURRIER, in his address, speaks plainly of the condition of the Subordinate Councils, reviewing the condition of each in detail, and summarizes by saying that

"It will be seen by the above reports that while some of our subordinate Councils are alive and active, others are languishing, not because there is no real merit in Cryptic Masonry, but because the officers who have been placed in command have been sleeping at their posts. No one should accept an office unless he is willing to do his duty and do it well, sickness or unavoidable accidents only interfering, and I would in all kind