after which they will be driven to the foot of Main street, where, at four o'clock, they will embark on board the Steamer " Pilgrim" for a sail on Lake Erie, returning about seven o'clock P. M. Street cars will be in waiting to convey the party to the Hotel. Sublime Princes, 32, members of this Consistory and their ladies who wish to participate in the ride on the Lake should report as above not later than four o'clock; music on board ship.

Wednesday, 1 P. M.--Take Steamer "Pilgrim" from foot of Main street, sail down Niagara River to Chippewa, change to Electric Railway, thence to Queenston on Canadian side of falls and river, change to ferry across Niagara River to Lewiston, thence take cars of the great American Gorge Railway back to Niagara Falls. At eight P. M., banquet at International Hotel. Twelve o'clock midnight, special train to Buffalo via N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R.

Our guests will be furnished with complimentary tickets, including banquet.

Executive Committee: Charles W. Cushman, 33', Chairman; John L. Brothers, 32, Geo. L. Brown, 32°, David F. Day, 33, John S. Bartlett, 33, Charles A. DeLaney, 32°.

Committee on Entertainment: John T. Gard, 32°, Chairman; Henry Altman, 32, Geo. S. Gatchell, 32°, G. Barrett Ritch, 322, John L. Williams, 32, Geo. H. Woolley, 322.

Committee on Transportation: Howard J. Ball, 32°, Chairman; Charles E. Markham, 32, W. S. Grattan, 32, Walter Hurd, 32°.

Reception Committee: Horace A. Noble, 32°, Chairman; Joel H. Prescott, Jr., 32, Henry E. Boller, 32°, Chas. J. Close, 32°, John W. Fisher, 32, John C. Grezinger, 32°, Hon. Edw. W. Hatch, 32°, Hon. Edgar B. Jewett, 32', Hon. Chas. F. Bishop, 32, Wm. C. Colwell, 32, Chas. H. Funnell, 32, Wm. C. Lennox, 323, Thomas Penney, 32°, Hon. Jacob Stern, 32°, Moses Shire, 32°, Hon. Jos. L. Wittett, 32°, Edw. R. Wilson, 32°, Charles Lee Abell, 32°, Dr. Chas. S. Butler, 32°, George Clinton, 32, Dr. Joseph Fowler, 32, Philip Hoenig, 32, Chas. R. Huntley, 32', Albert C. Marcus, 32, Geo. Bleistein, 32°, Leonard Dodge, 32, Chilion M. Farrar, 32°, Hon. D. H. McMillan, 32°, Chas. A. Pooley, 32', Wm. J. Runcie, 32 ̊, Hon. Robt. C. Titus, 32, Francis G. Ward, 32, Frank B. Hower, 32°, Dr. Wm. F. Elmendorf, 32, Henry R. Clarke, 32°, David H. Desbecker, 32°, Dr. Walter D. Green, 32°, Chas. E. Hayes, 32°, E. C. Knight, 32°, Harlow W. Bailey, 32°, Frank S. Coit, 32°, Alvin W. Day, 32°, J. H. Horton, 32°, Peter C. Miller, 32°, A. E. Perren, 32°, Edw. C. Schafer, 32', Geo. W. Voss, 32°, DuMont A. Whiting, 32°, Frank T. Gilbert, 32°.

The kindly welcome and cordial invitations were eloquently responded to by the Sov.. Gr.. Commander.

The M.. P... Sov.·. Gr... Commander then delivered his annual address, as follows:

ILLUSTRIOUS BRETHREN OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL :

You have been summoned hither for the purpose of holding the Eightythird Annual Session of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand InspectorsGeneral, 33, for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America, and I bid you all a cordial welcome and extend to each and every one of you a hearty. fraternal greeting.

When so many of our loved associates are constantly falling in life's struggle, it is a great comfort and a real pleasure to meet once again the friends and brothers with whom we have been long and intimately associated, to look again upon their familiar forms and through their speaking eyes commune with their loving souls. As the years pass rapidly by us to the rear, as our life's sun sinks lower and lower in the western horizon and the evening shadows grow longer and longer, we realize that the privilege of thus gathering together and communing with each other is one of priceless value, for the enjoyment of which let us with grateful hearts render thanks to our Father in Heaven, from Whom cometh all good gifts.

I can conscientiously congratulate you upon the results of last year's labor within this jurisdiction, so far as regards the number who have been admitted to the inner mysteries of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, the character and standing of those who have been added to our brotherhood, the efficient and satisfactory manner in which the teachings of the order have been rendered by those in charge of the work and the harmony and good fellowship which prevails among the craft throughout the jurisdiction. The returns from the several working bodies of the Rite show that during the last Masonic year the numbers initiated were as follows:

This is a very considerable increase in each grade over the number advanced to the same grade the preceding year, and this work has been well done. Those charged with the duty of superintending the labors of the craft, and instructing the uninformed in our mysteries, have demonstrated their fitness for the duties they have performed, and have exhibited a zeal born only of their love for Scottish Rite Masonry and their love for their fellowmen. We are assured from every valley that those upon whom the high privilege of membership in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite has been conferred by your subordinate bodies during the last Masonic year have been carefully chosen

from the great mass of Free Masons for their special and known fitness for advancement; that they were in every respect worthy of the honor conferred upon them, and that in the selection of candidates absolute fitness and worthiness for promotion has been the first consideration.

Every State Deputy from whom a report has been received gives us unequivocal assurance that peace and harmony prevail throughout the section of our common vineyard committed to his charge.

I invite your attention to the schedule of work of the several subordinate bodies of the Rite, compiled from the records of the Grand Secretary-General, and it shows the work of each in detail :

SCHEDULE OF WORK FOR THE YEAR 1895 AS COMPARED
RETURNS OF CORRESPONDING TABLE FOR 1894.

WITH THE

REPORTS OF DEPUTIES.

Reports have been received from the Deputies for the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio. These reports and other sources of information indicate that Councils of Deliberation have been held in the States of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. As the reports of Deputies and the proceedings of such Councils of Deliberation as have been held will be reviewed by the proper standing committee, I shall refer to them now only for the purpose of presenting such matters contained therein as call for the consideration of the Supreme Council, to the end that they may have an early reference to the appropriate standing committees.

DISPENSATIONS.

On the third day of November of 1894 the building owned and occupied by the Scottish Rite bodies, located at Indianapolis, in the State of Indiana, was destroyed by fire, together with its contents, including the charters of the several bodies of the Rite which were occupants of the building. On the twelfth of November last, on request of the Deputy for Indiana, I issued dispensations to Adoniram Lodge of Perfection, Saraiah Council of Princes of Jerusalem, Indianapolis Chapter of Rose Croix and Indiana Consistory of the Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, authorizing each of them to resume and continue their labors, and exercise all of the powers conferred upon them by their charters and the constitution and laws of the Rite until the present meeting of the Supreme Council. In addition to their building, the Scottish Rite bodies lost by the fire all their furniture, costumes, scenery, organ, paraphernalia, and worse than all, because irreparable, the Hacker Masonic Library. New charters should be granted and issued to these several bodies in place of those destroyed by the fire, and I think without charge. Our Indiana brethren undismayed by this sad catastrophe, not cast down nor discouraged by the great loss they had sustained, resumed their labors and at once set about the erection of a new building, the cornerstone of which was laid on the twenty-fourth of June last, and which is now well under way, and will reach completion in a few months. In the meantime they have rented temporary quarters and are pursuing their labors with their wonted zeal and energy.

On the twenty-fifth of September, 1894, a dispensation was issued to open and hold a Lodge of Perfection at Lancaster, New Hampshire, to be known as North Star Lodge of Perfection. On the same day a dispensation was issued to hold a Council of Princes of Jerusalem, to be held at Littleton, New Hampshire, to be known as Littleton Council of Princes of Jerusalem. On

the same day a dispensation for a Chapter of Rose Croix, to be held at Littleton, New Hampshire, to be known as Littleton Chapter of Rose Croix. The Deputy for New Hampshire, in his report, asks that charters be issued to these bodies.

On the fifth of March last a dispensation was issued to a competent number of qualified petitioners authorizing them to open and hold a Council of Princes of Jerusalem at Augusta, Maine. A dispensation was issued July 12th, 1894, for Kennebec Valley Lodge of Perfection, to be held at Augusta, Maine, which at the last session of the Supreme Council was ordered to be continued in force until the present time. The Deputy for Maine reports that a Council of Deliberation for Maine convened at Portland on the twenty-fourth of May last, at which it was unanimously voted to "approve the granting of these two dispensations, and to recommend that the Supreme Council supplement the dispensations with charters at its next Session."

The Deputy for Massachusetts reports that a consolidation of Boston and La Fayette Lodges of Perfection has been effected; that the charters of the two bodies have been surrendered to him, and that the proceedings in connection with the union of these two bodies and a petition that a new charter be issued to the consolidated body under the name of Boston-La Fayette Lodge of Perfection, and requested that the consolidated body take precedence as of the date of the present charter of the older of the two bodies, would be presented for the action of the Supreme Council, and that this action and petition have the approval of the Deputy, and that the Massachusetts Council of Deliberation formally approved the union of the two Lodges of Perfection thus accomplished, and recommended that a new charter be issued to them, giving to Boston-La Fayette Lodge of Perfection precedence, as of January 21st, 1842, the date of the old charter of Boston Lodge of Perfection. This union of the two bodies in question is unquestionably in the interest of the Rite in the Valley of Boston, and their request to be allowed to retain the rank and precedence as of the date of the present charter of the older of the two lodges thus consolidated is a reasonable one.

The Deputy for Ohio reports the proceedings had on the trial of a member of Gabriel Lodge of Perfection at Dayton, resulting in conviction and a sentence of suspension, an appeal therefrom to the Council of Deliberation, and a confirmation of the finding and sentence by that body, and an appeal from the decision of the Council of Deliberation to the Supreme Council. The papers relating to the appeal are herewith submitted.

The Deputy for Ohio also presents an official communication from Ohio Consistory requesting the Supreme Council to hold its next meeting at Cincinnati.

In May last, on the request of the Deputy for Connecticut, I visited Nor