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CONTENTS . PAGE LSADBRVeteran Grand Officers ... ... ... ... 4 ° 5 Proceedings Grand Lodge of New York ... ... .. ... 4 ° 6 Secret Monitor—Grand Festival ... ... ... ... ... 4 ° 6 Supreme Grand Chapter ( Agenda Paper ) ... ... ... ... 4 ™

Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Berks and Oxon ... ... ... 4 oS Instruction ... - - - - 4 ° S Knights Templar ... ... ... ... ... - 4 " Royal Arch ... . » - - - - 4 oS Science . Art , and the Drama ... ... ... ... ... 4 <> 9

M ASONIC N OTESQuarterly Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter ... ... 411 Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of Scotland ... ... 411 Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge ot Manitoba ... ... 411 Correspondence ... ... ... ... — •¦• 4 ' The August Magazines ... _ ... ... ... ... ... 4 412

To the Memory of Bro . Sir Frank Lock wood ... ... ... ... A Coronation March ... ... ... ... ... ... 4 ' Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... — — 4 ' 3 The Craft Abroad ... ... ... ... ... ... 4 ' 4 The Late Bro . Pope , K . C . ... ... ... ... ... 4 ' 5 Obituary ... ¦ . » ... ••• >•• 4 'S Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 4 ' ° POETRYSonnet for the Month of August ... ... ... ... 4 'G

Veteran Grand Officers.

VETERAN GRAND OFFICERS .

We have lately written much about the brethren of distinction upon whom Grand Office has been conferred , but for the most part we have gone no further back than the year 1 S 75 , when His present Majesty , then Prince of WALES , was

installed as M . W . Grand Master . But we must not forget that there arc many distinguished brethren , still happily spared to us , who had the purple of Grand Lodge conferred upon them in clays which , to Masons of this generation , must almost seem to

belong to a remote past , and who , if we cannot readily trace the services they rendered which brought them honour in our ranks , must , nevertheless , have done their devoirs manfully , and merit the esteem and respect of the whole body of Craftsmen . Their

names must be almost unknown save to the few whom duty compels or taste inclines to the study of our records , but the positions they attained are well worthy of being recorded at a time when we are entering upon a new regime under a new Grand Master .

The senior among these Veteran Grand Officers—senior as regards appointment , if not of the very highest rank in the lable of Masonic Precedence , is P > ro . Sir FRANCIS BEILBY ALSTON , who on retiring from the office of Chief Clerk of the

I ' orei gn Office after devoting 50 years of his life to the public service had the honour of Knighthood conferred upon him by her late Majesty the Queen . Sir PRANCIS comes of a good Masonic stock . His father , Bro . ROWLAND ALSTON , who was

for many years M . P . for one of the divisions of Essex , was appointed S . G . Warden by the Duke of SUSSEX in 18 35 and the following year Pro v . Grand Master of Essex , while his brother , the late Bro . ROWLAND GARDNER ALSTON , was

appointed J . GAV . in 1845 . He himself was appointed S . G . W . m 18 50 , when the then Grand Master , the Earl of ZETLAND , had onl y been in office about six years ; when the Grand Lodges in the United States numbered just over 30 whereas

, they now muster 50 ; when all the lodges of English origin ¦ n British North America were still on the register P our Grand Lodge , and no such organisation as an

independent Grand Lodge in a British Colony or dependency had been so much as dreamt of . The youngest lodge then on the roll was the Forest Lodge , No . 840 , Mansfield , which was

Veteran Grand Officers.

warranted about a fortnight before the appointment of Sir Francis , became No . 575 on the closing up of the lodges in 1863 , and was erased in 1867 . The youngest of the then lodges now on the roll is the Loyal Berkshire Lodge of

Hope , No . 574 , Newbury , which was warranted on the 21 st March , 1850 , so that more than three-fourths of our present lodges have been constituted since the year of his appointment , while if we look to our Districts Abroad , we shall

find that only a few of them were organised as Provinces as they were then known . The next in order of seniority of the same rank is Bro . BONAMY DOBREE , who was appointed S . G . W . in 1854 , and then we have the Marquis of RlPON , who

was appointed in 1856 , Lord STALBRIDGE in 1864 , and Sir M . HiCKS-BEACH , Bart ., M . P ., in 1865 . Thus , if not the oldest English Mason living , Bro . Sir F . B . ALSTON is the senior among our Grand Officers , even the veteran Lord LEIGH , whose appointment as Prov . G . Master of Warwickshire dates from 1 st

August , 1852 , being our respected brother s junior . The senior on the list of surviving J . G . Wardens is Bro . Sir WYNDHAM SPENCER PORTAL , who , in consideration of his great public services , was created a baronet by the late Queen at the

commencement of this year . Bro . Sir W . PORTAL was appointed Junior G . Warden in 1858 , the Duke of DEVONSHIRE , who , as Marquis of HARTINGTON , was appointed Prov . G . Master of Derbyshire on the 9 th May of the same year ,

though senior in point of rank , being his junior in the matter of appointment by a few days . The senior Past G . Chaplain is Bro . the Rev . W . K . R . BEDFORD , M . A .. who was appointed G . Chaplain in 1861 and 1862 , and is father to Bro . the Rev .

W . C . R . BEDFORD , M . A ., who was appointed to the same office at Grand Festival of the present year . The oldest Past S . G . Deacon is Bro . W . A . F . POWELL , who received his honour of Deacon in i 86 o , and is now Prov . G . Master of Bristol , the next

in seniority being Bro . J . E . SAUNDERS ( appointed in 1871 ) and Bro . Sir J . B . MONCKTON , who is now Past Grand Warden , but was appointed S . G . D . in 1872 . The senior of the Past Junior Grand Deacons is Bro . W . E . GUMBLETON , M . A ., whose

appointment as J . G . D . belongs to the year i 860 , the next in order being Bro . H . J . P . DUMAS , appointed in 1872 , and Bro . F . A . PHILISRICK , K . C , now Past Grand Warden , but appointed J . G . D . in 1873 . Bro . Sir ALBERT W . WOODS ( Garter ) is the

contemporary of Bro . Sir W . S . PORTAL , having been appointed to office as Asst . G . D . C . in 1858 , and advanced to the superior office of G . D . C . —which he still holds—in i 860 . The senior Past Grand Sword Bearers are Bros . H . BULLEYand J . TERT 1 US

COLLINS , who were appointed in 1 R 73 and 18 74 respectively , while the senior Grand Organ st is Bro . WlLllELM GAN / ., who served as Grand Organist from 1871 to 18 74 , when he was succeeded by Bro . WlLllELM KuilE . The senior Grand and

Asst . Grand Pursuivant is Bro . THOMAS G DICKIE , who was made Asst . G . P . in 1862 , and advanced to the G . Pursuivancy in 1862 , the next in point of seniority being Bro . C . A . COTTEURUNE , who was appointed A . G . P . in 1872 , and G . Pursuivant in 1873 .

To revert to the senior veteran of them all—Bro . Sir FRANCIS B . ALSTON—we remark that he has served under the following G . Masters , namely , the late Earl of ZETLAND , the Marquis of RlPON , the Prince of WALES—now King EDWARD

VIL—and the Duke of CONNAUGHT . The Dep . G . Master at the time of his appointment was the late Earl of YARBOROUGH , who occupied that office from 1846 to 1856 , and was .