ously rejected by another Chapter, without receiving the consent of that Chapter?

No. Our own laws are silent upon the question, but Section 43 of the Constitution of the General Grand Chapter prohibits it. Having given our allegiance to the General Grand Chapter, and assisted through our Grand Chapter officers in making its laws, we are bound by them.

Companion Woodbury, as chairman of the Committee on Arrangements for the General Grand Chapter, submitted a report on that subject, which was adopted.

Companion Edward H. Collins, for Committee on Foreign Correspondence, reviews the transactions of thirty-six sister Grand Jurisdictions, Michigan for 1882 being among the favored.

Without following the committee through their report, we will at once give in full the opening and closing of the report, hoping our good companions will read it carefully:

OPENING.

In reviewing these volumes we have endeavored to extract whatever might be of interest to the Companions in Colorado, and to exhibit, as fairly as we may be able, the condition of the Royal Craft. Peace and harmony undoubtedly prevail everywhere, with insignificant exceptions. The prosperity of Royal Arch Masonry, however, differs greatly in different jurisdictions. Some are flourishing to an unparalleled degree; in others a deadly lethargy seems to have taken possession, which, unless dispelled, bids fair to extinguish the fires on our sacred altars. Yet, even there, a few devoted companions are striving earnestly to keep alive the vital spark, and to these we extend words of cheer and encouragement. We are sure that their labors will not be in vain, for we observe that the inertia which we lament exists only in places which, in the recent past, have suffered, or are still suffering, from a general financial or business depression. And we believe that, with the return of general prosperity, so again will prosperity re-visit our Craft in those localities.

There are some subjects which are exercising the companions and brethren in almost every jurisdiction, such as the proper mode of dealing with those who are delinquent in the payment of their dues, the status of non-affiliated Masons, and the union of the Cryptic with the Capitular degrees. If we should notice what is said on these subjects in reviewing the proceedings of each particular Grand Chapter we should not only find ourselves involved in much repetition, but should

swell our report to an inordinate size. We have therefore chosen to reserve our remarks thereon until the close of our separate reviews, and will then endeavor to give a summary of what has been said and done on these important matters.

We may summarize the general condition of Royal Arch Masonry as fairly prosperous, not indeed as manifested by any marked increase in numbers, but by the loyal and fraternal spirit universally displayed among the companions, and the desire everywhere exhibited to keep our institutions firmly anchored within the old landmarks; and with these prefatory observations we address ourselves to our task.

CLOSING.

THE CRYPTIC DEGREES.-The question of the merger of these degrees with Capitular Masonry has been extensively discussed in nearly all the jurisdictions; and sometimes with a warmth of feeling which could be well spared. The situation is a peculiar one. The General Grand Council is now a fixed fact, and in some States, twenty-four in number we believe, Grand Councils exist subordinate to that body, while it regards as unoccupied territory all those States where such Grand Councils do not exist. The action or want of action, whichever it may be termed, of the General Grand Chapter on this subject has also been variously understood, some jurisdictions considering that it leaves them at liberty to act as they please in regard to the Cryptic degrees, while other jurisdictions understand it as tantamount to saying that they should have nothing to do with them. The difficulty in the matter on the one hand is, that so long as the General Grand Council with its subordinate Grand Councils exists, all who take these degrees in councils appendant to Chapters and outside of the regular Grand Council jurisdiction, will be regarded by many as irregularly and clandestinely made. On the other hand, in many places it will be impossible to maintain any satisfactory amount of interest in this branch of Masonry, if conducted in separate bodies, so that it may be difficult, if not out of the question, to preserve separate councils in anything like healthy exercise. The idea of the merger sprang from a strong sense of this latter difficulty, and a belief that the councils would live and flourish if united in the Chapters, which they could not do standing alone. It is not for us to discuss the reasons why indifference to those degrees prevails. We desire to look at the matter from the standpoint of Royal Arch Masons exclusively, and simply present a statement of the situation. The subject has given rise to a great difference of opinion. Some Grand Chapters which had assumed jurisdiction of the Cryptic degrees have surrendered them back to the Grand Councils, in others the matter is still under advisement, but the opinion seems most widely to prevail that irrespective of the question of abstract au

thority, it is unwise to go on conferring degrees which will not entitle their possessors to travel and receive the wages of fellowship and universal brotherhood.

STRIKING FROM ROLLS FOR N. P. D.-Nearly every report on correspondence which we have had occasion to examine, has had a good deal to say on this subject. It seems a great bone of contention among the reporters. As to how it may be done, three different views prevail. Some contend that it being in the nature of a punishment for a Masonic offense, it can only be inflicted after regular summons and due trial, and these writers generally fortify their position by maintaining that the effect of such striking from the roll is to put the brother or companion in bad standing, and therefore to deprive him of every Masonic privilege whatever. Others assert that it is a sufficient compliance with the principle that requires a brother should have opportunity to be heard before he is condemned, if he is notified of his delinquency and informed that unless he pays by a given time or shows an excuse for non-payment, he will be stricken from the rolls. These argue that the substantial rights of the brother are fully preserved by this course, and that to go through the formalities of a regular trial in each case upon charges prepared, would entail a great and needless waste of time and trouble upon the Lodge or Chapter. The third class of repor ters (and the practice in some jurisdictions) goes still further and claims that the fact of delinquency must be known to the brother-and as it is shown by the Lodge or Chapter records, there is a prima facie case against him within the cognizance of the Masonic body of which he is a member, and that it is his duty of his own motion and without notification to come up and pay or ask to be excused, and if he fails to do this he can be stricken from the rolls without further ceremony. This doctrine is usually, if not always, based on a by-law of the particular Masonic body, authorizing, or perhaps requiring that all who are delinquent for a certain number of years shall be thus stricken off, and the advocates of this theory say that the brother, by assenting to that by-law, has given jurisdiction to the Masonic body to proceed against him in that way. The contest among these various principles is carried on hotly all along the lines, and it is perhaps the questio vexatissima in the fraternity to-day.

Closely connected with this matter is the question of the effect on the brother's Masonic standing of such striking from the rolls. On the one hand it is contended that non-payment of dues, where the party is able to pay them, is in the fullest sense a Masonic offense, and that this striking from the rolls is to all intents and purposes a suspension, which carries with it all the usual effects of a suspension in any case, indeed in many jurisdictions it is called suspension, pure and simple. Others argue that in many cases such delinquency may have proceeded from

mere inadvertence, perhaps negligence, and sometimes from real inability to pay, but coupled with a sense of shame in the brother as to letting his real position be known; and althongh this may be called a false modesty by some, yet nevertheless it is a genuine sentiment which affects sensitive persons, and especially those who have formerly been in good financial situation, very strongly, and that it is absurd to place such delinquency on the same footing and visit it with the same penalty, as immoral conduct or other recognized Masonic offense which implies moral turpitude. These writers urge that a striking from the rolls for non-payment of dues should only involve deprivation of Lodge or Chapter membership, and leave the brother in the simple status of an unaffiliated Mason, but without other stain upon his Masonic character. But this at once opens up another question.

STATUS OF UNAFILIATED MASONS.-It seems to be conceded that in early times there was no absolute duty resting on a Mason to be a member of some particular Lodge; and in those days, also, there were no dues exacted from the members. Perhaps the expenses from the Masonic bodies were not as heavy then as those which we now incur. But in more modern times dues have been found a necessity, and more recently the doctrine has sprung up that a Mason, to preserve his standing, must imperatively be an actual member of some Lodge, or if a R. A. Mason, of both Lodge and Chapter; and if he becomes unaffiliated, he at once becomes in bad standing, and is thereby deprived of all the rights and benefits of Masonry, and shut out from the privilege of Masonic intercourse. This doctrine seems to be gaining ground in the fraternity. In many jurisdictions--perhaps most of them-Chapters may not confer their degrees on any unaffiliated Master Mason, and some ge so far as to hold, that if a R. A. Mason, for any cause whatever, loses his affiliation as a Master Mason in his Lodge, that ipso facto deprives him of his affiliation in the Chapter, and takes from him all right of fellowship with his companions. We have not space at our disposal to give all the arguments by which all these conflicting positions are supported or attacked. We content ourselves with briefly stating the questions upon which there is such a wide divergence of opinion. It seems at present as if it were impossible for the fraternity in the United States to come to an agreement upon them, and thus it often happens that a Mason may be held in good standing in one jurisdiction while he will not be in another. But on this point it seems conceded that his Masonic status ought to be determined everywhere by the rule adopted in the jurisdiction from which he hails. And this leads again to the anomaly that, of two unaffiliated Masonsone from a jurisdiction in which he is regarded in good standing, and the other from one in which he is not-both offering to visit a Lodge in a third jurisdiction where unaffiliated Masons are allowed to visit, one

would have to be received and the other excluded. We state these matters to show what is the nature of the contest now raging among the reporters on correspondence and in the Grand Bodies. The reports are full of it, and we earnestly hope that some common ground of agreement may be found upon which we may all harmoniously rest.

With these remarks we must conclude. Our task has been a pleasant one, although involving no small labor. It is delightful to find the Royal Craft everywhere pursuing their labors in peace and brotherly love; and even those matters where differences of opinion have arisen are discussed without acrimonious dissension and in that fraternal spirit which should ever characterize Masons. So mote it ever be !

M. E. Roger W. Woodbury, Denver, re-elected Grand High Priest.

R. E. Ed. C. Parmelee, Georgetown, re-elected Grand Secretary.

CONNECTICUT.

The Eighty-fifth Annual Convocation was held in the city of New Haven, commencing May 8, A.D. 1883, A.I. 2413.

M. E. James H. Welch, Grand High Priest.

R. E. Joseph K. Wheeler, Grand Secretary.

Thirty-six subordinate Chapters represented. Six Past Grand High Priests present.

Companion Grand Secretary Wheeler for quick work is entitled to the palm-meeting in May, proceedings mailed, distributed, and in the hands of everybody by the middle of June. Even "the old ant" is not more industrious. gratulations are in order, Companion Wheeler.

Con

The Grand High Priest welcomes the companions of the Grand Chapter as follows:

And now, my companions, I extend to you all a cordial and hearty welcome to the Eighty-fifth Annual Convocation of the Grand Chapter In the year on which we have now entered let us earnestly endeavor to advance the interest of our beloved Order, and heeding the admonitions of past experience, guard with watchful care the entrance to our portals, and admit none but good and true men to participate in our labors and privileges; and I here wish to impress upon the minds of the companions, especially those who may be appointed on committees