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meeting, which report was adopted. We also find that some three weeks after the adjournment of the Grand Commandery, the Grand Commander issued his General Order No. 2, ordering that the place of meeting be changed to Covington. Is this not a little dangerous to ignore the solemn action of the Grand Body? It appears so to us, and it would take the best of reasons to satisfy us that the exercise of the one-man power was justifiable. We hope that "Sir Cro." will rise and explain.

Your Committee must be permitted to congratulate Grand Recorder Croninger upon the highly creditable make-up of his Proceedings. Both as regards style and print, they are indeed elegant and attractive.

The report on Foreign Correspondence is from -- well, whom do you think? Why, Sir Woodruff, of course; Kentucky's gifted writer-a regular old-timer at the reviewing business. He offers us his best endeavors in his review of twenty-nine sister Grand Commanderies, the Grand Encampment and the Great Priory of England and Wales.

Sir Charles congratulates himself in being able to present so full a review, showing as he does so few, if any absentees. We must be pardoned in giving his conclusion in full:

In the report of Grand Master William B. Hubbard, to the Thirteenth Annual Conclave, September 9, 1856, he insists upon the promulgation of correct Templar law, and a never ceasing supervisory care on the part of the proper officers, that the laws, and the rules and usages of our Order are faithfully observed, and adds:

"By this means a great moral and Christian power, acting and being acted upon with military precision and promptness from the center to the circumferance, becomes stronger and more efficient for good, and more certainly and effectually executes the high mission for which the Order was designed."

This is probably the earliest official acknowledgment of the necessity of thorough military discipline in the ranks of our Order, and from this hint has resulted a magnificent army of admirably drilled and soldierly Sir Knights, unexcelled in their bearing and movements by any organization whatever embracing as large a number of members. The importance of this feature in our Order is now so obvious that each Templar considers it a matter of course that he shall acquire more

or less perfection in the drill, and finds in the enjoyment of a military arder full recompense for his study and his labor, and while realizing physical benefit from the exercise, he strengthens his moral nature in the constant practice of the virtue of obedience. We are much inclined to the opinion that if the restrictions thrown around public parades were made less rigorous the Order would be generally benefitted, and the efficiency of the drill greatly perfected and firmly established. It is not meant by any means that our Commanderies should make themselves common by too frequent appearance in public, but that proper occasion for public display should rather be sought for than discouraged.

After a careful examination of the volume containing the proceedings of the late Triennial Conclave at Chicago, we are constrained to acknowledge a great disappointment at the neglect the Grand Recorder has shown in making any deserving notice of the " pomp, feast and pageantry" with which that memorable occasion was so signally celebrated. We furthermore cannot conceive "what motive has induced him" to studiously avoid any allusion whatever to the Competitive Drill-a splendid display of soldierly skill and gracefulness, in which a vast number of ladies and gentlemen throughout the entire country entertained a direct and enthusiastic interest.

For instance, the brilliant success of our gallant Kentucky Commandery' "DeMolay, Number Twelve," of Louisville, in securing the costly and elegant prize at Chicago, awarded to the second best drilled Commandery, filled their Kentucky Fraters with pardonable pride, and drew upon the Commandery and its Drill Corps unstinted and universal praise; upon their return home they were accorded a reception and escort to the Asylum by their fellow Sir Knights, and were entertained at an elegant banquet by their fellow citizens.

It had been our intention to review the Chicago Triennial arrangements at some length, giving the views expressed on both sides of the question, but it is now rendered unnecessary from the fact that the praise and indorsement of the Triennial Committee of Arrangements greatly preponderate over the criticism of its actions,

While we did not enjoy the felicity of participating in the Chicago festivities, etc., we trust that every one who was there retains the most agreeable remembrance of the most notable and brilliant event in the history of American Templary.

We have seldom before been able to present a full roll of the Grand Commandery proceedings as we now have the pleasure of doing in making this our eighth consecutive annual report on correspondence; and during our term of reportorial office, the Order has not at any time presented a better showing in any respect than at present, or given more substantial tokens of increasing power and useful

ness.

We cannot but again express our warmest thanks for the many courtesies so freely extended to this Committee, and to again invoke for our co-laborers in every department of Templary the choicest of blessings at the present and in the future.

And we congratulate ourselves that Sir Charles will appear again next year as chairman, boss and all hands of the Committee, and we hope for as full a report then as we now have.

Sir James E. Cantrill of Georgetown, was elected R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Lorenzo Dow Croninger of Covington, was re-elected E. Grand Recorder.

LOUISIANA.

The Nineteenth Annual Conclave was held in the city of New Orleans, commencing on Friday, February 17, A.D. 1882, A,O. 764.

Sir George Soule, R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Richard Lambert, P.G.C., E. Grand Recorder.

Three subordinate Commanderies were represented. Nine Past Grand Commanders were present.

The question was raised as to the right of permanent members of the Grand Commandery to dual and proxy representation, and was decided in the affirmative. Sir A. Hero, Jr., signified his intention to appeal to the Grand Encampment, and ask a reversal of the Grand Commandery's action. It does appear to your Committee that no member ex-officio ought to be represented by proxy.

The Grand Commander alludes in feeling terms to the death of several Sir Knights within his jurisdiction; and also to the death of Sir James A. Garfield, of whom he says:

He was one of nature's noblemen; one of the world's great men; one of America's wisest and purest statesmen; and one of our most illustrious Sir Knights.

He possessed a great mind, which, by close reading, extended observation, and profound thinking, had been highly cultivated and capacitated for noble service in the most responsible positions of governmental affairs, and upon the highest planes of thought, where the welfare and happiness of mankind, both here and hereafter, are considered.

By his unexcelled industry and study, by his merits and virtues, he raised himself from one of the humblest stations in life to the highest position that is to-day attainable on earth-the Presidency of fifty millions of people.

He enjoyed the full confidence of Americans and the respect and esteem of the civilized world.

A Charter was granted for a new Commandery at Baton Rouge.

On the question of Templar Tactics, the Grand Commander says:

Within the past three months our subordinate Commanderies have been, in compliance with General Orders No. 3, from the Grand Master, gratuitously supplied with a copy of Myers' System of Tactics and Templar Manual. The Myers system differs materially from both the other systems in the language of the commands, in the evolutions of the line, and in the manual of the sword. I am free to say that, in my judgment, Grant's Revised and Enlarged Tactics and Templar Manual, the proof sheets of which are before me, is far superior to any other that I have yet seen.

He takes leave of his Grand Commandery as follows :

And now, respected Sir Knights, the hour has arrived for me to return to you the high authority with which you invested and honored me one year ago. Whether or not I have exercised due discretion in the performance of my official duties, under that authority, is not for me to say. "To err is human. To forgive is divine." I trust, however, that no act of omission or commission on my part has brought reproach upon our noble Order. While discharging the responsible duties of Grand Commander, it has been my earnest desire and effort to advance the sublime principles and extend the benign influence of Templar Masonry. Our renowned institution to-day challenges the admiration of the civilized world, and is accorded the approbation of all reasoning minds. No where on the pages of history do we find mention of an institution possessing more laudable objects. It is the grandest and proudest institution of morality, benevolence and Christian charity that exists among men. That, by the virtue, the wisdom, and the efforts of man and the favor of Heaven, it may long survive the vicissitudes of time and the evolutions of mind, is my ardent prayer.

No business other than that of a local character came before the Grand Body.

No report on Foreign Correspondence.

Sir William H. Chaffe of New Orleans, was elected R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Richard Lambert, P.G.C., of New Orleans, was reelected E. Grand Recorder.

MAINE.

The Thirtieth Annual Conclave was held in the city of Portland, commencing on Wednesday, May 4, A.D. 1881, A.O. 763.

Sir John Bird, R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Ira Berry, E. Grand Recorder.

Thirteen subordinate Commanderies were represented. Six Past Grand Commanders were present, two being represented by proxy.

Sir Drummond, where do you get the law that entitles members of your Grand Body ex-officio to seats in the Grand Commandery, through or by proxy? Write another book.

The Grand Commander, in opening his address, says:

How proper is it, on such an occasion as this, to cast a retrospective eye over the past, and inquire whether we have kept our banners ever loftly upborne and our glittering swords untarnished by the vices of this world, as becomes true and tried Soldiers of the Cross. What is the good we have accomplished during the past year, either as an order or as individual Sir Knights? Have we always been ready and willing to greet the weary pilgrim traveling from afar, to administer to his wants and send him rejoicing on his way? Or have we been Templars only in name and not in deeds?

Speaking on the subject of decisions, the Grand Commander says:

I have no decisions to report. Our Eminent Commanders are all well posted in the law, and none of them have had occasion to appeal to me for my opinion of the law.

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