The Province Of Dor Set . In Stallation Of The Ri Ght Hon. The Earl Of Shaftesbury As Provincial Grand Master .

The Province of Dorset . Installation of the Right Hon . the Earl of Shaftesbury as Provincial Grand Master .

THE installation of a successor to Bro . Montague Guest , as Provincial Grand Master of Dorset , took place at Poole on the 8 th January . The Guildhall , by the courtesy of the Mayor , was made available for the meeting , and the building was thronged with an assembly of nearly 400 brethren .

It was hoped that Bro . the Earl of Warwick , Deputy -Grand Master , would have carried out the ceremony of installation , but to the regret of the members his lordship was struck down with influenza , and not having wholly recovered had been ordered abroad for the benefit of his

health . Under these circumstances Bro . Montague Guest undertook the duties of Installing Master . The ordinary business of the meeting having been disposed ¦ of , the installation ceremony was commenced . Bro . Montague Guest , as the Installing Master , accompanied b y the Grand Officers , entered the lodge , and having been saluted in ancient

form took his seat upon the dais , which had been vacated by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master , Bro . Col . Brymer , M . P . The Installing Master then addressed the Provincial Grand Lodge in the following terms : —The object of the assembling of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Dorset at this unusual season of the year is of an important nature . It is to instill

into the presiding chair of this province a new Provincial Grand Master . It had been the intention of the Deputy Grand Master of England , the Earl of Warwick , to fulfil this important duty , and I am sure we must all regret his inability to be here to-day to discharge this office , more especially

that the"cause of his absence is an attack of inlluenza , which has necessitated his departure from England to a warmer and more congenial climate . Under these circumstances , your new Provincial Grand Master Designate , Bro . the Earl of Shaftesbury , has done me the singularly gratifying honour

of asking me to undertake these duties on Lord Warwick ' s behalf , and I have a peculiar pleasure in acceding to his request , though I feel that the substitution will come upon the province as somewhat of a disappointment . The cause

which has brought about the necessity for the appointment of a new Provincial Grand Master for this province has been , as you are all aware , the resignation of that office b y the humble individual who stands before you . The reason which induced me to take the step which I did was not , I can assure you , that I had ceased to appreciate and value the

honour which his Majesty the King , as Grand Master , conferred upon me , now more than live-and-twenty years ago , in confiding to my care tin ' s distinguished province . I was actuated b y two considerations alone . The lirst of these Avas that it was good for the province that younger and newer blood should be infused into the life of Freemasonry among

you . The second was , that , having now no abiding foothold in the county , I ought to resign into the hands of some other brother , who might have his home in your midst , the duties which I have had the privilege to discharge since the year ICS 77 . How I discharged those duties it is not for me to determine ; I cannot , however , but be conscious of many

faults and many failings . The choice of a brother to assume the office which I resigned into the hands of our present Grand Master , the Duke of Connaught , has fallen upon that eminent and distinguished nobleman the Earl of Shaftesbury , the present representative of a name which is a b y- \ vord in English history , and which has been for generations connected with the county of Dorset . It is a

name which has been influential in obtaining man } - and lasting boons for the people of this country , from the time of the first Lord Shaftesbury , Lord High Chancellor of England , who secured for his countrymen the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act , which safeguards every citizen of this realm from prolonged and unjust imprisonment , and gives him the right

to be brought before the judges of the land for speedy trial . Passing to another Lord Shaftesbury , equally illustrious in the annals of literature , we come down to the later period of that great philanthropist , the noble and single hearted peer whose face and figure still lives in the happy memories of many of us in this country , familiar to us as our Lord Lieutenant and

as the sympathetic friend and helper of all in trouble and misfortune in our land ; himself having been a member of the old Apollo Lodge at Oxford , and one of the lirst subscribers to the Masonic charity of this province , when it was first started . The present representative of this noble house is the brother whom I have this clay the privilege to

instal into the chair of King Solomon as head of this province . His life , as yet , has not been a very long one . He has the inestimable benefit , the glorious attribute of youth , being now only thirty-four years old , an age when man is in the full possesion of his vigour , and has every prospect of many years

to devote to the well-being of his fellow creatures . He has in the few years that have passed over his head , qualified himself by his early training for the great duties of his station . At an early age he entered into the services of her late Majesty

Queen Victoria as an oilicer of the 10 th Hussars ( the Prince of Wales ' s Regiment ) . He served for five years as aide-decamp to Lord Brassey , when Governor of the Colony of Victoria , in South Australia . He holds high office in the household of Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales ; he has been an officer in the Yeomanry of this county ; he

has sat as a member of the London School Board ; and he has married a fair and popular lady of the house of Westminster . As a Freemason , he is the present Provincial Grand Master of the Province of Antrim , in Ireland , where he has , besides his ancient home in Dorsetshire ,

large possessions . This is 110 trifling record of the familv , and of the man whom His Royal Highness , the Grand Master , has honoured the Province of Dorset b y appointing as its Provincial Grand Master , a brother who has shown that he is well fitted to undertake the duties of his high position , and is ready and willing to perform them

with ability and with credit to himself and to those b y whom they have been entrusted to him . I have now , brethren , only to plead with you on his behalf for the allegiance and lovalty , that consideration and help which you have at all times in the past accorded to me and to those who have gone before me in this chair ; and , in conclusion , let me

express my deep sense of gratitude to all those who have given me their ready and valuable support during so many years in carrying out the duties of that high office , which I have thought it incumbent upon me , in the interests of the province , to relinquish into the hands of the Grand Master .

At the close of the address , which was listened to with rapt attention by the brethren , the arrival of the Provincial Grand Master Designate , the Right Hon . the Earl oi Shaftesbury , was announced , and the subsequent ceremony of installation was carried out most impressively . Addressing the Provincial Grand Master Designate , the Installing Master said : I congratulate you most sincerely