Consecration Of The George Price Chapter, No. 2006.

oanions who had been installed were no doubt impressed with the charges delivered to them . Those three Principals formed a triumvirate , or trinity , and when he said there was , and should be , a unity between them , they would know what he meant . He knew the power that had been given them vvould be used for the benefit of the whole Craft , and he therefore asked the companions to heartily drink their health .

Comp . HUGH M . HOBBS , M . E . Z ., in response , said the three Principals were extremely obliged for the manner in which the P . G . Superintendent had introduced the toast . He was delighted to think they had honoured him in the way they had . He could truly say that since he had been a Mason he had never willingly given offence to a brother or

companion , and he hoped that during his year he should not do or say anything that would make them think less of him . If in the end of his term of office they looked upon him with the same regard they evinced now , he should be more than gratified . Comps . LANGTON , H ., and FRASER , J ., also replied .

Comp . Rev . A . F . A . WOODFORD , in responding for the toast of "The Consecrating Principals , " said that after the kind way in which the M . E . Z . had spoken of the Grand Officers , and after the able replies of the Prov . G . Superintendent and their excellent friend the Grand Scribe E ., he thought it showed no little ingenuity in getting a third speech on the subject . They were p leased to be associated with the consecration of a chapter in memory of a companion so worthy and well known in the Province of Surrey . He

could say from a long experience of Royal Arch Masonry , having been exalted in 1843 , that the longer he had been connected with it , the more he appreciated it . His senior officers would agree with him if he advised the companions to study the beautiful principles and ceremonials of Royal Arch Masonry , and if they did so , they would be more than repaid for their investigation . He assured the members that their wishes were for the prosperity and success of that new chapter .

Comp . J . F . H . WOODWARD , Prov . G . S . E . Middlesex , on behalf of the visitors , returned thanks for the hospitality shown them . It had afforded them much pleasure to be present , and it had given no one greater pleasure than himself to see his old friend Comp . Hobbs installed as M . E . Z . He knew him within a few days of his initiation , and he had seen him rise more rapidly than any Mason he had known ; but he was quite sure he would

not have risen to his present position if he had not thoroughly deserved it . He would say one word of comparison between the two Provinces of Middlesex and Surrey . There had always been a sort of friendly rivalry between them . At the time Surrey had nine lodges , Middlesex had 25—the former had three chapters , when the latter numbered nine . Now both provinces numbered 13 chapters , Middlesex numbering 49 lodges and Surrey 31 .

" The Officers " having been given , the Janitor ' s toast closed the proceedings . The musical arrangements were successfully carried out under the direction of Comp . F . Cambridge , P . P . G . O . Surrey , assisted by Comps . E . J . Bell , F . C . Atkinson , and W . A . Frost .

The Queen's Jubilee.

THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE .

The sun never dawned upon a fairer day than that which completed the fifty years of her Majesty ' s reign . It was remarked by some who had been witnesses of the Queen ' s Coronation that it was just another such day as they remember it was then—a cloudless sky , a clear June atmosphere , a brilliant sun , with the heat tempered by a cooling easterly breeze . But in all other respects the scene was entirely changed . The transformation

which London itself has undergone would alone have produced that result ; but even the new London was itself transformed . The Royal route from Hyde Park Corner to the Abbey was not only filled to suffocation by a countless surging mass of loyal subjects , but the very fronts of the houses seemed to be made of a wall of faces ; every window , ledge , and balcony being filled with people , and temporary structures having been erected in

what vacant spots there might be along the line . Imagine the sea of heads in the streets , hemmed in by a wall of faces on either hand—the whole scene radiant with life , colour , and beauty ; the triumphal arches , the waving flags and banners , the gay festoons of flowers and greenery , the forest of tall masts each supporting a gold-and-velvet crown ; then , down the centre , the

broad roadway kept for the procession by the military and police , the former seen as a thin red streak at either edge of the two black masses of people ; and finally , this roadway filled with the flashing brilliancy of the procession as it passes on from Palace to Abbey amidst the tumultuous roar in which the nation ' s loyalty finds its inadequate expression .

By ten o ' clock everything was practically ready for the pageant of the day to begin . The Yeomen ofjthe Tower had been marched into the Palace ; a guard of honour of 500 blue-jackets had taken up its position inside the palace-gates ; a detachment of the Scots Guards had marked off an immense

square just outside ; the troops had been disposed along the whole of the route ; the Abbey itself was filled with its vast and distinguished congregation ; and the people outside were in high-strung expectation . First [ came the Indian Princes and their suites from Hyde Park , attired in the many coloured , gem-decked turbans and flowing vestments of their native land . The Maharajah and Maharanee of Kuch Behar and the Maharajah Holkar

, whose shoulders were covered with bullion woven into his tunic , were recognised and loudly cheered . But , apart from the personalities of individuals , the subject that gave rise to the most excited comment and the greatest amount of wonder vvas the turban of his Royal Highness the Rao of Kutch , which , when the sun flashed upon it , really blazed with the scintillating

"gins of diamonds , rubies , and emeralds . Next came the Kings' procession— - a disappointment , it must be confessed , for the carriages were closed , ^ till , it was an illustrious company—the Kings of Denmark , the Hellenes , the Belgians , and of Saxony ; the heirs to the thrones of Austria-Hungary , Sweden , Portugal , and Greece ; the reigning Grand Dukeof Mecklenburg-•Jtrehtz ; and Princes of the Royal Families of ItalGreeceand Spain .

y , , , " of unequalled magnificence and interest for the English nation was the Queen ' s procession—or rather , the Queen and her escort of Princes which at half-past eleven swept out ofthe Palace-gates up Constitution-hill , and so into the midst of the people . There were the Queen ' s sons ,

grandons , and sons-in-law—an illustrious body-guard indeed , worthy of the overeign of a world-wide empire ; four of them heirs in direct succession Th n ° ^ t ^ mosl powerful thrones that have ever been set up in the world . e Lrovyn Prince of Germany , in his white uniform of a cuirassier of the ;^ lI ^ rcl > with the Imperial crest in his helmet and his Field-Marshal ' s baton n 's hand ; the Grand Duke of Hesse , in the blue uniform of a German

The Queen's Jubilee.

General ; Prince Christian in red ; Prince Albert Victor of Wales in the blue and gold of the 10 th Hussars ; Prince George in navy blue and gold ; the Dukeof Connaught as a Major-General ; and the Duke of Edinburgh as an Admiral ; the Prince of Wales in the full dress of a British Field-Marshal , with the other Princes in the brilliant appanage of their military and naval rank : these formed the body-guard , at once princely and of her own family , which escorted the Queen to the scene of her Jubilee

thanksgiving . But even this bare recital gives an imperfect idea of the pageant ., For the picture we have outlined must be filled in with lance and sabre , with gaily caparisoned charger , with nodding crest and plume , and with every attribute of military pomp and royal magnificence . Thus did the Queen move in state from the Palace to the Abbey ; and now , if we can imagine the scene , we may see her and her escort pass beceath the venerable porch , where a very different scene meets the eye , and where the boisterous tumult of the crowd is exchanged for the solemn silence of the sanctuary .

There is one spot in the Abbey to which all eyes are turned . It is where the Queen sits in the chair in which she was crowned , with the Princes of her family , the Kings who have come to do her honour , and her peers and commoners around her engaging in a solemn ceremonial , the very simplicity of which increases its solemnity . One point that strikes the mind at once is that the heart and core of this magnificent display , the lady whose

personality is present in all minds , is the most simply attired of all , her simple white bonnet being her only concession to the brightness of the occasion . Amid the organ-notes the voice of the Archbishop of Canterbury is heard offering up the prayer composed by film , in which fhanksgiving for the past and supplication for the future are happily blended into something which helps us to realise in a reverent spirit the significance of the scene before us . The service itself is brief , and presents little that can be described in

detail until we come to the very end , when an interesting and probably unique incident , certainly an unexpected one , occurs . As the Queen rises , the Prince of Wales steps forward and salutes her on the hand , receiving in return a kiss on the cheek . The Crown Prince and the Grand Duke of Hesse pay their homage likewise . Then , carried away by the impulse of the moment , her Majesty embraces all the Princes and Princesses of her family , even calling back her sons-in-law , the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke , to confer upon them the privilege they have failed to claim .

The return from the Abbey was as triumphal a progress as the journey from the Palace . Whitehall is scarcely described adequately by any language that has been employed in respect of the narrower thoroughfares of the route . Compared with the vast area covered by the crowd , even the broad roadway kept clear by the troops was but a narrow chasm , along which it seemed impossible that the procession could make its way . In Pall Mall

and St . James s-street all the resources of clubland were brought into operation , and it is not too much to say that the scene of grace and beauty opened up to the Queen as she turned round from Charing Cross into Pall Mall will never be paralleled . There was , perhaps , less of tumultuous cheering in these aristocratic regions than in Piccadilly , Regent-street , and Trafalgar-square ; but that loyalty which was not so plainly manifested to the ear was even more plainly manifested to the eye . When Piccadilly

was reached the scene of an hour or two before reproduced itself ; and when the Queen ' s carriage passed finally within the precincts of St . James's Park , there was a burst of cheering from more than 10 , 000 people who had congregated in the vast area of Hyde Park Corner . So far as the Queen vvas concerned the ceremony of the day was now over . But for the people it was to be prolonged into the afternoon and evening , and far away into the night and early morning .

As twilight deepened into such darkness as these short summer ni ghts bring with them , the streets of London burst forth in a great blaze of illumination , produced by means which are themselves curiousl y typical of the progress of the last half century . Great flaming gas-jets lit up the tall facades of our mercantile palaces , while the electric light , poised high above like a midnight sun , or tracing its way through foliage and flowers ,

like fairy lights held by invisible hands , might have been seen at many points in the long main thoroughfares or in the quiet aristocratic squares . To tell of the crowds of people who moved , for the most part , in awe-struck silence through the illuminated streets , or to describe in detail the effect of the illuminations themselves , is to attempt to portray in precise language what had much better be left to the imagination . It will be enough to say that

from first to last , as a State pageant , as a religious ceremonial , as a popular festival , as a political event , and as demonstrating the personal affection which forms so large a part of the loyalty of the English people to their Quetn—as illustrating , moreover , the material progress of the nation in the past fifty years , and so celebrating a national no less than a Royal Jubileethe commemoration in which the empire on Tuesday engaged , wilh the metropolitan pageant as its centre , was a transcending and supreme

success . The streets were crowded until dawn with people desirous of witnessing the illuminations . Even at that hour many vvere again walking over the route to view at leisure the scene of Tuesday ' s display . Although some became boisterous towards the close of the evening , the crowd generally was

thoroughly orderly , and kept continually moving . The rowdy element would make a rush with a view of causing a stampede ; but beyond a momentary confusion nothing serious resulted . The arrests of disorderl y persons were extremely few , and the people hurt during the night did net in any way approach the number who were crushed in the daytime .

The most novel and picturesque feature of the celebration was perhaps the series of beacon fires which blazed upon the principal inland hei ghts and the loftiest of promontories around the coasts . The signal rocket shot up from Malvern beacon at ten o ' clock , and was visible to watchers in ten counties around . The signal was flashed on from point to point till it reached the crags of Shetland and Orkney across the sea in the north and

to Land s End in the south , while fires were burning along all the chief mountain ranges of the country . The ceremony of lighting the Malvern beacon fiie was preceded , according to custom , by a little allegorical prelude . At nine o ' clock a procession was formed on the terrace at the eastern base of the hill , and a number of the principal inhabitants , bearing torches , wound their way up the height to a plateau known as St . Ann ' s Well . Here they halted , and the National Anthem vvas sung by thousands of voices , on

which a venerable " hermit of the hill emerged lrom the hill fastness and inquired the cause of this disturbance of his repose , and after a reply by a youthful " fairy of the spring , " the intruders proceeded on their way ; the procession dividing at this point , one portion turning towards the north and ascending to the top of the North Hill , where the rockets were to be fired , and the other proceeding as direct as circumstances permitted up the Worcestershire beacon to light the bonfire .