Grand Priory Of Canada.

Grand Master Mason and Great Prior of the Templars of Ireland . His Grace the Duke of Leinster , paid the debt of nature on the 9 th October , at the advanced age of 83 years . For upwards of half-a-century our gifted , noble , and illustrious brother

ruled the whole Masonic body in Ireland with dignity and paternal care , commanding our respect and esteem by his life-long devotion to the best interests of the Order , lately crowned in so striking a manner by his resignation as Grand Master of the

Irish Templars in favour of H . R . H . the Prince of Wales , and to serve under him as Great Prior . In recording this slight notice of respect to his memory , it does not rest with me to dilate upon his noble and excellent qualities , or the great and

numerous acts of benevolence and good will he has shown to members of the Craft , acts which gained for him such love , veneration , and respect , as but few in his high position have ever attained . It is with gratified pride I look back upon him as having been my immediate Templar

chief and fellow countryman . My family were from his own county , and their estates near his own seat of " Carton , " and I was installed into the order of the Temple under his jurisdiction in October , 1844 , in the "Boyle" Co . Roscommon Encampment

attached to Lodge 242 I . E ., now one of the most influential and flourishing of the preceptories on the Roll of the National Great Priory of Ireland , and . of which I am still a member .

I had hoped at this our Annual Assembly to have congratulated you on the formation of a National Great Prioryfbrthe Dominion solong and anxiously looked for , and regret not being able to do so ; but in reality there has been no delay in carrying out this desirable objectbeyond what the

, Statutes render necessary , as approbation can only be given at the regular meetings of the "Convent General , " which has not yet taken place for this year . The time of H . R . H . the Grand Master has been , and necessarily must always be , so much taken

up that he has not had an opportunity of assembling this Grand Council of the Order ; but I am assured by his Lordship the Earl of Limerick , Great Prior of England , that he will personally support the claims of the Canadian Templars , and I therefore look upon our National Priory as an established fact . The delay of a

month [ or two cannot make much difference , and it appears to me if matters could be decided and carried on hastily in England , important decisions mig ht be arrived at , of which the distant branches of the Order

might be quite ignorant until the matters were settled . Any expressions of regret on my part at being unable to announce the establishment of our National Priory is , like your own , constrained by loyalty to H . R . H . the Grand Master , while we wait his leisure .

One point , I am happy to say , has been decided , viz . : the extent of jurisdiction of this Grand Priory . By the terms of my patent as Grand Prior the whole of British North America is included , but as the late Hon , Alex . Keithof Halifax held a

, warrant from the former Grand Conclave of England as Provincial Grand Commander for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick it was not considered desirable during his lifetime to merge those Provinces into that of the Grand Priory . The death of this

distinguished Brother and Knight on the 17 th December last removed the difficulty , and I at once wrote to the authorities in England claiming those territories , and in reply from the Grand Vice-Chancellor and acting Reg istrar was informed that the Council of the Great Priory had at once decided that

from the date of Provincial Prior Keith ' s death the territory over which he had presided came under my jurisdiction . By this three additional preceptories have been added to our roll , and I trust that on the formation of our National Priory the Scottish preceptory at St . JohnNew

, Brunswick , and the Irish one at L'Orignal , Ont ., will be induced to join us—it being most desirable that there should be no conflicting jurisdiction in the Dominion . I have found it necessary to divide the

Province of Ontario into three districts to enable the Provincial Priors to superintend the preceptories more easily—the Eastern Division , comprising Kingston and all preceptories east of the Eiver Trent ; the Central Division , comprising Toronto and

all preceptories west of the River Trent ; the Western Division , comprising Hamilton and all preceptories west of the Credit River . These , with a separate District for Quebec , and another for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia , make a present partition of Canada into five Districts to be increased