ness say to the officers of the several Councils in this jurisdiction, that if you expect your Councils to prosper and flourish you must be required to do your duty or make room for those who will."

He reports having commissioned Companion HERMON L. EMMONS, Jr., as Grand Representative near Maryland.

In regard to the action of those Grand Councils who have adopted the Mississippi plan, Companion CURRIER says:

"This action seems to me to be not only wrong, but wholly uncalled for, and as a Grand Council cannot lawfully transfer that which is not exclusively its own, but the common property of all Grand Councils, ought not to be encouraged. I therefore recommend that this Grand Council follow the action of the Grand Councils of Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont, and refuse to recognize, as a legitimate Cryptic Mason, any person who shall receive the Council degrees in or by the authority of any Royal Arch Chapter, and that the doors of the Secret Vault in New Hampshire be closed against such companions as do not hold allegiance to some regular and duly constituted Council of Royal and Select Masters, working under the authority of some legally constituted Grand Council of the Cryptic Rite.

He recommended the appointment of delegates to the Detroit Convention, "with instructions to oppose to the full extent of their ability the so-called Mississippi,' or any other plan' that may be presented, having for its object the surrender of the Cryptic degrees to the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, or any State Grand Chapter."

The Grand Council adopted the following:

"Resolved, That this Grand Council unequivocally condemns the action of any of our sister jurisdictions favoring the so-called 'Mississippi plan,' and declares that the successful advocacy of such a policy will be fatal to the perpetuation of these degrees in their purity and sublimity wherever such plan' be adopted.

"Resolved, That this Grand Council hereby enters its solemn protest against the merging of the Cryptic degrees into the hands of any Grand Royal Arch Chapter, and, also, hereby declares that any persons who receive the Cryptic degrees under such authority, are clandestinely made, and as such cannot be received with fraternal greeting within this jurisdiction, either as visitors or as applicants for affiliation."

Constitutional amendments were offered to raise the dues from subordinates from fifteen to twenty-five cents for each member; also, to authorize the conferring, without fee, of the Super-Excellent degree on any Royal and Select Master residing in the jurisdiction who had received the latter degrees in any jurisdiction where the Super-Excellent was not recognized or worked.

Companion HENRY LEWIS was received and accredited as the Grand Representative from Maryland.

There is no Report on Correspondence, but the proceedings of other Grand Councils, including Maryland for 1878-9 are acknowledged.

NEW JERSEY, 1880.

The Twenty-second Annual Assembly was held on the 20th of January; Companion FRANK A. FENTON, M... I.. Grand Master; five Councils represented.

The address of the Grand Master refers to local affairs only, and shows that he is greatly exercised at the condition of Cryptic Masonry in the jurisdiction. He attributes the depressed condition of a majority of the subordinates to the stringency of the times, and in some of his correspondence with their officers, the intimation appears by way of contrast that some of the Councils are not in the healthy condition desirable. He recommended lenient measures, which were accorded by the Grand Council, together with a reduction of membership dues from fifty to twentyfive cents.

The Grand Master referred in feeling terms to the death of Companion THOMAS J. CORSON, late Grand Recorder, and a special committee subsequently submitted a fitting tribute to the memory of that illustrious and dearly beloved Companion.

There is no Report on Correspondence, but the Grand Recorder acknowledges the receipt of the proceedings of a number of Grand Councils, but Maryland is not among the number. As they were duly forwarded, failure to reach their destination is chargeable to "Uncle Samuel's" carelessness, or perhaps the fact that we omitted to attach foreign postage.

NEW YORK, 1879.

The Empire State sends her proceedings in a beautiful volume, adorned with the portrait of the Grand Master-Companion GEORGE M. OSGOODBY, of which Companion WM. W. AUSTIN, Chairman of Committee of Correspondence of Indiana, says: "it gives life and hope to the faint hearted, never give up,' and come along are written all over the face. Had there been twenty such GEORGES at the helm in '77 and '78, it would have been good-bye to all plans of bosoming, and the old Cryptic Craft would have put out to sea with every sail set, and the good old flag, bearing aloft the trowel, would have cheered the heart of Zabud in every sea."

The Annual Assembly was held in the City of New York, September 2nd-three score and ten years since the organization-twenty-six Councils represented.

Grand Master OSGOODBY made a lengthy address, in which he thoroughly canvassed home affairs and the condition of the Rite in the jurisdiction.

He reports the following decisions:

"Statement First.-A Companion Royal Arch Mason, resident of Illinois, petitioned a Council of Royal and Select Masters for the Cryptic Degrees and was elected. But before receiving the degrees, he removed from the State. The Council in which he was elected has, with the other Councils of the State, turned over their degrees to the Royal Arch Chapters to work. The Chapter with which this Council consolidated declined to repay the candidate his money, but offers to confer the degrees upon the candidate or to grant permission for him to receive them elsewhere.

Question.-Can the Chapter retain the fees and confer the degrees or grant such permission?

"Decision. It cannot confer the degrees nor grant permission for him to receive them elsewhere, and it should return the candidate his money. "Reasons. First.-When the candidate petitioned, was elected and paid his fees, the Council had jurisdiction to confer them so that the recipient would be recognized by all Royal and Select Masters in every jurisdiction as one of their number. Now, if he received them in the Chapter he could only be recognized by jurisdictions working clandestinely, as all the regular organizations of Cryptic Masons treat those working under the Mississippi plan' as clandestine and withhold fellowship from them. Hence the candidate cannot receive what the contract between him and the Council which elected him called for. Second-The Chapter (were it conceded that it had the power to confer the degrees at all) lost jurisdiction when the candidate removed from the State, and now has no more jurisdiction over him than it would have had if the candidate never resided in its jurisdiction. Third.-The Chapter should, according to the instincts of common honesty, to say nothing of Masonic integrity, refund the candidate his fees, for it cannot fulfill the contract. His receiving the degrees in the Chapter will not entitle him to visit a Council in this jurisdiction.

"Statement Second.-A person who has received the Degrees of Royal and Select Masters in a Chapter of Illinois applies as a visitor to a Council in this jurisdiction.

“Question.-Can he be admitted without being healed, and what effect does the healing have upon him?

“Decision. He cannot, and in order to be healed it must by a petition, duly made, committee appointed, their report received, and he must pass the ordeal of the ballot-box; if elected, he must sign the Constitution and By-Laws, after taking the obligation. He then ceases to be a visitor and becomes a member of the Council which accepts his petition and heals him.”

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He goes for the Mississippi plan in a manner so unmistakeable, and withal so characteristic of OSGOODBY when on this subject, that we quote him entire. For once in our life we confess to having no sympathy with the "under dog."

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There is one subject which lies near the hearts of those who love the Cryptic Degrees, and which has been a source of great solicitude to us in this jurisdiction as well as elsewhere. And it has hindered our advancement both here and elsewhere very much. I refer to the so-called Mississippi plan.' I should not do my duty to you and to the Cryptic Rite if I did not dwell upon this subject to some little extent. This plan has tended to demoralize the work and advancement of our Order very much. Many who were looking forward to and intending to take these degrees even in our own jurisdiction, have held back and failed to acquire them, fearing that the plan of merging with the Chapters would eventually succeed; and during the past year we have had this bug-bear to contend with, which has impeded our work and prevented the accesion to our ranks of many that would have come, and has also prevented the resuscitation of several

Councils that would otherwise be ready to again assume their former relations with us and become living stones in our Temple. Eight StatesMississippi, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina, Missouri-have already adopted it substantially; some others are deliberating on the subject. This plan has been very appropriately called The Modern Jonah and the Whale.' The Representatives of these States to this body have been by the action of our last assembly discharged from further attendance upon this Grand Council in their representative characters, and the commissions of our Representatives near the Grand Councils of such States have been revoked.

"The action of these Grand Councils presents to us the curious estimate which their officers place upon the binding effect of their solemn obligations. Their Grand Masters, after having taken upon themselves the solemn obligations to support, maintain and uphold the Constitution of their respective bodies, proceed deliberately to violate the obligation and forswear themselves; and, instead of building up the body, attempt its destruction. In some instances the election of the officers and their taking the obligation was only a part of the programme to destroy the organization, for the resolutions had been prepared in advance, and the committees selected to perform the dirty work, who had sufficient elasticity about their consciences to enable them while taking the obligation to be conceiving a way to get absolved from the same. The reasons actuating these Grand Bodies to the act are also worthy of being placed on record. Some Grand Masters, (and I would like to give names, but the record of the act is sufficiently shameful, without our aiding in passing the names of the actors down to be enrolled in Masonic history by us as recreant to every idea of honor and integrity,) asserts that it is because they had nothing to do; another thinks because the Grand Chapter of his State is the debtor in a large amount to the Grand Council, and he is particularly interested in the Grand Chapter, that if it swallows up the Grand Council and pays its indebtedness in that way, the interests (?) of Masonry will be advanced. Still, another wants to raise a fund for the support of the indigent, and the benefit of those depending on our charities for support; and so the reasons pass on, hard times, lack of interest, &c., &c.

"Nothing for a Grand Master to do!' then let him resign and put some one in his place who will find work in the Master's vineyard, for the harvest is plenty but the laborers few. If you had, my Companions, such an officer, I know very well what your answer would be, whether his office was high in rank or in the lesser, but none the less important place. The officers who makes these reports, have invariably worked and sought for the honor of the position to be conferred upon them, respectively, that it might add lustre to their names; but in the future, posterity will regard it as a cloak of shame to them that they are recreant to their trust. The one who desires to pay his Grand Chapter's debt by having it act the part of the modern Whale, and take in the Grand Council as a modern Jonah, exhibits not only his idea of the sanctity of an obligation, but also the deep, underlying foundations of his integrity; taking money, that upon disbanding the Grand Council belongs and should be distributed amongst the subordinates, and letting the Grand Chapter swallow, with the Grand Council its indebtedness, to gild the pill.

"And as for those who desire to destroy a Masonic body to raise funds for the indigent, and at the same time destroy his own sworn obligation— allowing us to choose--we should prefer some one else to handle the fund, as untrue in one essential particular, is such a one trusty in others?

"This language may seem harsh to use, but I have drawn upon the cord that holds the vail of charity in order to cover the horrible spectacle from view, but the vail refuses to obey, and, like the spot of blood upon Mac

beth's hands, the sight again comes before us in all its hideousness. And though we say, 'Out, damned Spot! out, I say,' it will not out, but will ever remain in our history as a Desert of Sahara, one which the Masonic student and traveler must pass to acquire a history of the Cryptic Rite in America. While, then, in future years the principal actors in this unholy alliance can, with Macbeth, say:

"What hands are here? Ha! they pluck out mine eyes;
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No; this hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green-our red.''

The Committee on Constitution and By-Laws offered an amendment to the Constitution, changing the title of "Deputy Grand Master," to that of "Grand Deputy Master." We notice that this latter title prevails in some other of the jurisdictions. One new Council was chartered, and a resolution adopted authorizing the Grand Master "to adjust the indebtedness of any subordinate Council as shall in his opinion best subserve the interests of the Cryptic Rite."

The Report on Correspondence, reviewing twenty-three Grand Councils, is from the pen of Companion CHARLES G. HUDSON, or rather we should say the pen and scissors; though the latter are used liberally, he is equally as free in giving his own views on every point of interest. He honors several of the "dear departed" with obituary notices. Under Arkansas for 1879, he says:

"The Grand Council of Arkansas was always a weak jurisdiction, and singularly wanting in enthusiasm and enterprise. Its Annual Assemblies were always devoid of interest, and its Proceedings were always the most meagre reading of any we received. In all the years during which we have received them there never was any Report on Corresspondence. The addresses of the G... M., were always short and full of lamentation. We do not wonder that the degrees were so easily surrendered.

"The death of this Grand Council is of very little importance any way, but is a fit ending to its past inglorious career."

Under Illinois for 1878, he says:

"The Grand Council of Illinois is like a bat, neither bird nor mouse. Like the coffin of Mahommet, it is suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is neither dead nor alive.

"We have before us the Proceedings of the Grand Chapter, with those of the Grand Council appended. We spent much precious time out of a short life cutting its leaves. We thought after we had read it, that we should have taken warning by the uncut leaves, and passed it by as not worth reading.

"We find plenty of legislation in the Chapter concerning the Council Degrees, and a regular assembly of the Council. We had thought it was in a cataleptic trance of two years, before it should be interred in the capitular tomb; but no, it is lively, and like Daniel Webster, it ain't dead yet.'

"The address of the G... H.. P.. says he sent to the Chapters the 'joint action' of the Grand Chapter and Grand Council, as their warrant to confer the Cryptic Degrees. He had confined himself to conferring the degrees,