The Earl Of Carnarvon, Pro Grand Master.

The Earl of Carnarvon , Pro Grand Master .

For a long time past the health of our respected Pro Grand Master has been a cause of the most serious anxiety to his family and friends , and the more so , as it was well known that his constitution , never at any time a very strong one , had been greatly enfeebled by successive attacks of illness . But the

relapse , which came upon him so suddenly last Aveek proved fatal in so short a time that Ave are hardly as yet able to realise that the distinguished brother who , during a course of more than 30 years , had proved himself so great a scholar , so elegant a Avriter , such an able Statesman and administrator , and so learned a

member of our ancient Fraternity , is no longer amongst us . His lordship , who was born on the 24 th June , 1831 , and had , therefore , only just completed his 59 th year , had been lying ill for some time at his residence in Portman-square , and hopes were

entertained of his recovery ; but on Thursday , the 26 th ult ., the relapse took place , the excruciating pains from which he had been suffering returned with greater force than ever , and on Saturday last , in spite of the efforts of his able medical advisers , he passed quietly away to his eternal rest . His lordship Avas initiated into Freemasonry in the Westminster and Keystone Lodge , No . 10 , in February , 18 *^ 6 , not

very long after that ancient and distinguished lodge had been revived by Bros . W . W . B . Beach , M . P ., the late Rev . Canon Portal , Wyndham

S . Portal , P . G . W ., and other leading members of the Apollo University Lodge , their chief object being to make it chiefly a kind of London

home for Oxford University Masons . Having taken the further Degrees , he was at the installation in the May folloAving appointed by the new W . M ., Bro . Wyndham Portal ,

as his S . W . In May , 1857 , he Avas installed in the chair of K . S . in the presence of Bros , the Earl of Zetland , M . W . G . M ., Lord Panmure —afterwards Earl of

Dalhousie—Deputy Grand Master , very many Grand Officers and Prov . Grand Masters , and other leading Masons of the time , those present at this brilliant gathering being about 200

in number . The ceremony was performed by the retiring Master , Bro . W . S . Portal , and at the banquet which followed , the noble Earl , Avho presided , in the course of an

eloquent reply to the toast of his health , said : " Each fresh step I take in the study of our great science , each fresh line I find in the pages of our history , convinces me still further of its incalculable

ramifications , and makes me gaze withwonder and with aAve on the boundless origin of its influence . " Later on , in the same speech , he

remarked , Avith reference no doubt to the somewhat warm discussions which were at that time frequent in Grand Lodge , and in which his lordship frequently took a leading part : " We have met sometimes to agree , and perhaps sometimes to differ ; but let me assure you that whenever Ave do meet , nothing can be more

pleasant or more congenial than the thought that , when we do differ , it is only from a sense of duty — from a conviction of principle . That difference of principle , therefore , need not imply any diminution of the respect and regard which is due from Mason to Mason . " These words made a deep

impression on the brethren who heard them , and their value will be appreciated the more at this moment from the knowledge that in the course of the 33 years which followed their utterance his lordship was never once known to deviate from the principle he

then so strictly defined . The occasions on which he differed from other leading brethren in Grand Lodge were many , but on no single occasion did he allow such differences "to imply any diminution of the respect and regard which is due from Mason to Mason . "

In the course of this year ( 1857 ) he became a joining member of the Apollo University Lodge , while in the year that followed the members of the Westminster and Keystone Lodge re-elected him their Master for a second year . In 1868 , on the resignation of the late Bro . Colonel W . A . Adair , the late Earl of Zetland

The Earl Of Carnarvon, Pro Grand Master.

appointed his lordship Prov . Grand Master of Somersetshire , and in 1870 the Marquis of Ripon , on the occasion of his installation as M . W . Grand Master , selected the Earl of Carnarvon for the post of Deputy Grand Master , a selection which it is needless to say was received with pleasure throughout the Avhole

English Craft . In April , 18 75 , at the ever-memorable meeting in the Royal Albert Hall , South Kensington , his lordship had the great honour of installing his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as M . W . Grand Master , and at the conclusion of the ceremony was at once appointed Pro Grand Master , an office

which is only sanctioned when the chair of Grand Lodge is occupied by a Prince of the Blood , and which entitles the holder to precisely the same honours as are accorded to the Grand Master himself . A few days later , on the installation of the Prince as Grand Z . of Supreme Grand Chapter , his lordship was

honoured with the appointment of Pro Grand Z ., and these exalted offices , as well as that of Prov . Grand Master of Somersetshire , the noble Earl filled at the time of his death , his influence and authority having become more and more firmly

established year by year , while the respect and regard in which he was held personally were such that any further increase of either feeling was hardly possible . The various duties which had devolved upon or been undertaken by him had been performed in a manner which , if it could not well add lustre to a

name already so distinguished , at least had the merit of conferring additional honour on Freemasonry in the eyes of the world at large ,

who recognised at once that our Craft must exercise an influence for good , when they found that among its chiefest rulers Avas the noble

Earl whose death we are now lamenting . There were two other branches or systems of Masonry with which

the late Earl was connected , and in which he had attained to equal eminence . These were Mark Masonry and the Ancient and Accepted

Rite . In the former , after acting as Deputy to Lord Leigh , the first Grand Master of the Mark Grand Lodge from 1857 to i 860 , he was elected his successor in the chair

of A ., while from 1858 to 18 79 he was Prov . Grand Mark Master of Somersetshire . In the Ancient

and Accepted Rite he Avas a Past Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council , 33 ° , and when occupying that office , had

the honour of assisting to confer the 33 on the Prince of Wales when his Royal Highness A \ 'as pleased to become the Patron of the Rite .

The occasions on which the late Pro Grand Master played the chief jiart in some important functions are too numerous for all of them to be included in this memoir . He

occupied the chair at the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution in 1869—the year following his elevation to the post of Prov . Grand Master of Somersetshire ; in 18 75 he performed a like graceful duty in aid of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys ; and in 18 7 8 he was Chairman at the Girls' School Festival . We have already mentioned that he installed the Prince of Wales as Grand

Master in 18 75 , while in 188 4 he acted in behalf of his Royal Highness—who was obliged , by the death of his brother , the Duke of Albany , to delegate the office to another—at the

ceremony of laying the chief corner-stone of the new Central Tower of Peterborough Cathedral . He also occupied the throne in Grand Lodge when , in a most eloquent speech , he moved certain resolutions in favour of the withdrawal of our Grand

Lodge from its previous friendly relations with the Grand Orient of France , in consequence of the latter having eliminated from its Book of Constitutions the necessary declaration of its faith in a Supreme Being and a future state . Latterly , in consequence of his health , he had not been so frequent a visitor at Grand

Lodge , but whenever he did take his appointed place , the reception accorded to him was most enthusiastic . Nor , in the case of so distinguished a nobleman , can we entirely overlook the public claims he had on the respect of Englishmen generally . That he was a scholar of no ordinary attainments is shown b y his graduating with first-class honours in