wich, in that State, for the purpose of dedicating and consecrating the apartments of Connecticut Sovereign Consistory in the beautiful Masonic Temple recently erected in that city. In the performance of the ceremony prescribed for this purpose the following Active and Honorary Members of the Supreme Council assisted :

CLINTON F. PAIGE, 33°, Gr.. Sec..-Gen.'.

REV. J. L. SEWARD, 33°, Gr. ́. Prior.

CHARLES T. MCCLENACHAN, 33, Gr.. M.'. of Cer..

CHARLES H. HEYSER, 33°, Gr... Marshal.

GEORGE M. CARPENTER, 33°, Deputy for Rhode Island.

W. R. HIGBY, 33°, Gr... Standard Bearer.

W. HOMAN, 33°, Acting Gr.. Captain of the Guard.

After the conclusion of the dedicatory services the degrees from 19th to 32d were conferred upon a large class of candidates, the 30th being rendered in full. It is needless to say that your officers were received most cordially, and cared for with unstinted hospitality, and all carried away with them the most pleasing impressions of Norwich and her people. Judging from what we saw there, no doubt can be entertained that the interests of the Rite in Connecticut are in safe hands.

I have made no other official visitations during the year, but have had the pleasure on two occasions since our last meeting of dropping in upon New York Consistory informally, and on each occasion witnessing the conferring of a degree under the direction of the Commander in Chief, Ill.. CHARLES T. MCCLENACHAN and his expert corps of assistants.

Our relations of amity and friendship with all the Supreme Councils with whom we are in correspondence remain of the most satisfactory character. No questions have arisen involving any controversy between any of them and this Supreme Council.

Controversies have arisen between two or three foreign Supreme Councils involving questions of interest to the craft, but which it is not deemed expedient to discuss at present.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

It is not, as a rule, desirable to make frequent changes in our constitution. It is generally preferable that the fundamental law when once established should remain permanent, with as few changes as possible, and amendments thereto should be limited to such only as experience may demonstrate to be needful for the better government of the large and rapidly increasing constituency of the Supreme Council, and such as may be necessary to correct

errors in and perfect the existing law. With much hesitation I submit two or three suggestions for the consideration of the Supreme Council and its Committee on Constitution and Laws:

1. We have now in this jurisdiction a class of members, numbering about six hundred, who, an account of their rank, are not subject to the disciplinary jurisdiction of the subordinate bodies of the Rite to which they belong, but are alone amenable solely to the Supreme Council. We have no penal

code, and no method by which a trial can be had, except in the Supreme Council when duly convened. If a complaint be made and filed with the Grand Commander, or the Grand Secretary-General, neither has any authority to take any steps to inaugurate proceedings, nor for the purpose of facilitating a trial without the order of the Supreme Council. It is suggested, therefore, that an additional article should be added to our constitution, providing how, when and to whom changes may be presented; how and by whom they may be served; what notice shall be given to the accused, and how such notice shall be given, and making all due and needful provision for taking testimony on behalf of each party and for the conduct of the trial to its final conclusion. This suggestion is not made in view of any anticipated case, but because it seems proper that this deficiency in our law should be remedied, and in my judgment it is better to do it now and let the law be framed, considered and adopted in accordance with general principles of jurisprudence than to await a time when a case shall arise, and then legislate for the special case that may be before us.

2. A communication was received from the M... W... of a Chapter of Rose Croix, calling my attention to Article LXIX of our constitution, and inquiring whether in case of the absence of the M... W... and P... M.., both Wardens with the requisite number of brethren must be present to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Article LXIX of the constitution provides as follows: Five members of a chapter constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, provided the Most Wise and Perfect Master, or the Most Excellent Senior and Junior Wardens be present. The corresponding provisions relating to a quorum in the other bodies of the Rite differ from this. A quorum in the Consistory requires the presence of the requisite number of brethren, "Provided the Commander-in-Chief or one of the Lieutenant Commanders be present," Article LXIV. A quorum in a Council of Princes of Jerusalem consists of the required number of brethren, provided either of the first four officers is present, Article LXXIV. A quorum for the transaction of business in a Lodge of Perfection consists of five members. provided either of the first four officers is present, Article LXXVIII.

Upon examining our previous constitutions for the purpose of tracing the history of this provision as to a quorum in the Chapter of Rose Croix, it

appears that in the constitution of 1867 the quorum was made to consist of five members and the M... W... and P... M.., or in his absence the Senior or Junior Warden. This provision was repeated in the same language in the constitutions of 1873 and those of 1877. The change first appears in the constitution of 1885. No reason is apparent for requiring the presence of two qualified presiding officers to enable a Chapter of Rose Croix to transact business, which would not apply with equal force to either of the other bodies. I have thought that the change might have been made by the copyist or printer inadvertently substituting the word "and" in the last line of the article for the word "or,” as it stood prior to 1885. This is presented for your consideration at the suggestion of the brother who addressed me upon this subject. It would save Chapter of Rose Croix much inconvenience if the old provision should be restored.

On the thirtieth of March last I appointed and duly commissioned Ill.. Bro.. CHARLES MAHLEN COTTRILL, an Active Member of this Supreme Council, as its Deputy for the State of Wisconsin, to fill the vacancy in that office occasioned by the decease of Ill.. Bro.. A. V. H. CARPENTER— commission to expire at this Session of the Supreme Council.

On the twenty-first day of August I also appointed and commissioned Ill. ́. Bro.. CLINTON F. PAIGE as Deputy of the Supreme Council for the State of New York, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the decease of Ill.. Bro.. JOHN HODGE. This commission also expires at the present Session of the Supreme Council.

OBITUARY.

When, at the last meeting of the Supreme Council, we had concluded our labors, and the time had arrived for us to part, and going to our distant homes take upon ourselves again the burden of our daily cares and sorrows, and return to the performance of our duties in the world, we were assured that our Father in Heaven "mercifully hides from us the ills that the future has in store and leaves us hope"; and, reminded that we might not all assemble again in Council, we bade each other farewell. We separated, cheered by the hope that we might all be spared to again assemble together at this place and at this hour. That hope proved delusive, and the tenderly expressed suggestion that all might not be here has become an accomplished fact. We did not then know that to many members of this Council then present that "farewell" was the last greeting which would pass between them and the dear ones whose kindly faces will gladden this council chamber no more forever. We did not then know that the future held in store for us a great and grievous sorrrow which would fall upon us within a brief period of time. Ill.. Bro.. CHARLES BROWN, a Sov.. Grand Inspector-General, and a Past-Active Member of the Supreme Council, departed this life at his home in Cincinnati on the sixth day of November, 1894, within twenty days after the

close of the last Session of the Supreme Council. A circular letter was issued announcing his decease, a copy of which is herewith submitted. ILL. BRO.. BROWN became a Sov.. Grand Inspector-General May 18th, 1865, and was crowned as an Active Member September 22d, 1881. He remained an Active Member of this body until the last Session, when he voluntarily resigned the position. His resignation of the active membership afforded the strongest evidence a member can give of his devotion to the Rite, and of his willingness to sacrifice all personal considerations to the promotion of its interests. Brother BROWN was satisfied with his position as an Active Member of the Supreme Council, and knew that he enjoyed the confidence and respect―nay, more, the love of all its members, and that all of them parted with him as an associate with sincere regret. But he became satisfied that the interests of the Rite in his State would be best subserved by placing an Active Member of the Supreme Council in the central portion of the State, and as the number of Active Members, to which the State was entitled was already filled, he magnanimously and voluntarily surrendered his membership in order to promote what was dearer to him than place or official station-the interests of Scottish Rite Masonry in his State. This act of his furnishes the key to his entire character. He was a true Free Mason from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. He was always ready to put aside all personal interests for what he believed to be the interest of the craft. A dear and intimate friend of his has spoken of him as "a devoted husband, an indulgent father, a public-spirited citizen, and an honest man; kind, charitable, unassuming and unostentatious; a man of honor and integrity, whose word was as good as his oath, whose face was as sunshine to those who knew him, and those who knew him best loved him most." One of the leading newspapers of Cincinnati, where most of his life was spent, and where he was a prominent business man, concluded an elaborate sketch of his life, character and business career with the following well deserved words: "As a man and a Mason he was above reproach." What remains to be said? Any man who can earn this encomium must be a good man and a good Mason-a man who honors any association with which he is connected. Our brother has departed from us. We shall look upon his face no more. Let us cherish his memory as a precious treasure and emulate his bright example.

The next to receive and obey the call of the Master was I.. Bro.'. A. V. H. CARPENTER, Sov. ́. Grand Inspector-General, an Active Member of the Supreme Council, and its Deputy from the State of Wisconsin, whose decease occurred at his home in the City of Milwaukee on the ninth day of March, 1895. The Masonic and personal history of ILL.. BRO.'. CARPENTER is given in the circular announcing his decease, herewith submitted, and I will not weary your patience by repeating it here. In the Scottish Rite he received all the grades to and including the 33 in the Wisconsin bodies of the

Rite and was for several years Commander-in-Chief of Wisconsin Consistory. He received the 33° July 25th, 1870, and became an Active Member of the Supreme Council September 19th, 1882, and at the same Session was elected Deputy for Wisconsin, which position he held to the time of his decease. BRO. CARPENTER's decease was the culmination of a long course of suffering running through a period of several years. For some two years prior to his decease he was entirely deprived of sight. and, therefore, could neither read nor write. These were two great sources of pleasure for him, for while he had the ability to avail himself of them, he devoted much of his time to his books and his pen. To add to his afflictions, his wife, who had been his constant attendant, sickened and died. For nearly or quite all of the last two years of his life our dear brother sat in the darkness of total blindness, unable to move without assistance, unable to recognize his friends and brethren save by their voices, unable to go out without the assistance of a nurse or attendant, and yet all this he bore with uncomplaining fortitude, waiting patiently for the day of his release to come. ILL.. BRO.. CARPENTER was an earnest and enthusiastic Free Mason, and, as long as his health would permit, he was active in the performance of all Masonic duties. He was very regular in his attendance upon the meetings of his Lodge, Chapter and Commandary, and of the Scottish Rite bodies. He enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence and respect of the community, and especially of the business public, with whom he had much to do.

By the decease of ILL.. BRO.. CARPENTER the Supreme Council has lost an able, earnest, zealous member and a faithful and competent officer; but his loss is most keenly felt by his brethren of all grades of Freemasonry in Wisconsin, for there he was in daily communion with his brethren, giving earnest attention to all their affairs until failing health debarred him from further service. His loss is sincerely mourned by an unusually large circle of friends and brothers.

Illustrious JOHN HODGE, 33°, a Sovereign Grand Inspector-General and Active Member of this Supreme Council, and its Deputy for New York, died at his home in Lockport, New York, on the seventh of August last. He had been ill some little time, but so far improved in health as to be able to go to his office and give some attention to business, when his summons came so suddenly as to shock his family and friends and the entire community. He was ever an ardent and active Free Mason. In ancient craft Masonry he passed through all the successive grades of official position and attained the highest rank possible, having been elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York in June, 1894, which position he laid down only two months prior to his decease. In the A.'. A.'. Rite he was a member of Lock City Lodge of Perfection, of which he was thrice Potent Grand Master for eight years. He received the remaining degrees of the A.. A.. S... Rite to and