Hampshire, presided over the deliberations, and welcomed his associates by an affectionate and fraternal address. The illustrious Sir James Herring, of New York, recorded the proceedings; while the venerable prelate, Rev. Sir Paul Dean, of Massachusetts, implored the blessing of Heaven upon the brave Knights and their doings. Of these fourteen good men, and true, two were from New Hampshire, five from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and one from Connecticut, two from New York, one from Maryland, and three from the District of Columbia.

The General Grand Chapter met at the same time in Baltimore ; that distinguished man and Mason, Edward Livingston, of Louisiana, being its presiding officer. He was reëlected to the high office which he had so honorably filled for the preceeding three years.

No Session of the National Grand Bodies, held before or since that time, has so attracted public attention as did this of 1832. John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the United States, did not consider this meeting of a mere handful of men in Baltimore beneath his notice, or unworthy the abuse of his caustic pen; and page after page of his letters, then published in the newspapers of the day, since collected into a volume, attest the interest which that meeting occasioned.

The period was indeed a peculiar one. For six years the excitement and frenzy of anti-Masonry had been gathering strength and fury, until at last, in a National Convention of anti-Masons, held here in Baltimore, candidates were nominated for the two highest offices of the Republic. The election took place in 1832, and William Wirt, of Maryland, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, the nominees of the anti-Masonic political party for President and Vice-President, received the seven electoral votes of Vermont, and no more. The power of anti-Masonry culminated in 1832; and when the General Grand Encampment assembled here in the waning days of autumn, and found the fires around which the National Council of anti-Masons had been held, and read by their uncertain and unsteady light the strength and weakness of anti-Masonry in the Union, they knew that the battle had been fought, and that the night of agony was over. The hate and bitterness and fiendish hostility they knew would still remain-powerful in localities of infinite harm-but the nation had repudiated antiMasonry, and had elected as President Andrew Jackson, an acknowledged, out-spoken, well-known Freemason; so well known that on the 23d of May, 1833, John Quincy Adams, in a published letter to Edward Livingston, then Secretary of State, paid a merited compliment to the Past Grand Master of Tennessee, in words intended to be severe and censurable.

"The President of the United States," said Adams, "is a brother of the Craft, bound by its oaths, obligations, and penalties, to the exclusive favors, be they more or less, of which they give the mutual pledge. That in the troubles and difficulties which, within the last seven years, have befallen the Craft, they have availed themselves of his name, and authority, and influence, to sustain their drooping fortunes, as far as it has been in their power, has been matter of public notoriety. A sense of justice has restrained him from joining in their processions, as he has been importunately urged by their invitations to do, but he has not withheld from them his support."

Almost forty years have passed away since the National Grand Bodies have assembled in Triennial Session, in the city of Baltimore. Behold the change! Those fourteen brave Knights have gone to their reward—not one of them now lives to rejoice at this triumphant return to Baltimore. They sleep peacefully and serenely the last great sleep; peace to their ashes; honor to their names. The railroad and telegraph now traverse populous States, then scarcely known. The union stretches from ocean to ocean, and holds in its fast embrace great States, whose territory was then unexplored.

From all parts of this wide, extended country-from the Atlantic and Pacific-from the great rivers, with their fertile valleys-from the mountain ranges, with their verdant slopes-from the rugged North and sunny South-from the great West, whither the star of empire is taking its course, and from the sea-girt populous East-come up here to Baltimore, to this Eighteenth Triennial Session of the Grand Encampment of the United States, in companies, in battalions, in regiments, thousands of true Knights, bearing the banners of the Cross, living witnesses of the truth of the resolutions passed by the General Grand Encampment, in 1832, that "political parties, in assailing the orders of Knighthood, aim a blow at all the free institutions of the country."

The institution which, in 1832, was abused and maligned, its members insulted and degraded, and which could then gather in its National Convention but fourteen tried souls, has survived the abuse, the malignity, the insults, the degradation, and stands before you today in its wisdom, strength, and beauty.

In 1832, those fourteen Knights did not disturb the usual tranquility of Baltimore, and their presence here was unrecognized. Quiet in demeanor, unobtrusive in manner, they came with a firm determination to fully perform their devoirs to Temple Masonry.

In 1871, the authorities of Baltimore, with a liberality of sentiment and a heartiness of greeting which will be gratefully appreciated

by every Templar of the United States, welcome us as guests of their municipality. The Templar Knights throng the city-its houses, streets, squares-and are received by brethren and citizens with a warmth of fraternal, generous hospitality unbounded and catholic as the principles of Freemasonry.

Knights Companions: To all the pleasures of this reunion-to this General Assembly called to a festival of rejoicing, where the hearts of thousands beat in unison; to this universal jubilee of Templars, and to the labors of our Triennial Session, I give you most hearty greeting. I welcome you to the responsibilities and duties of this meeting.

God has, indeed, dealt kindly with us hitherto, and brought us out of the net which our enemies had spread for us. It is meet and becoming, as well as it is our unfeigned pleasure and delight, to acknowledge the goodness of God toward us. His outstretched arm has protected and preserved us. Founded upon the Christian religion-a religion which dates its origin back to Bethlehem stable, when the heavenly chant, "Glory to God and peace to man," first burst upon the ears of mortals-and founded also upon the practice of the Christian virtues, this Order of Knighthood is especially ennobled. Let this religion be to us, and to each of us, the morning star of hope, the evening star of peace, imparting celestial influences, and lighting every countenance with gladness.

Among the "Lays of the Crusades" is one bearing the name "Song of the Restored," and which was sung by the Ancient Templars in the year of Grace 1244. Of its beautiful verses the following are

not inappropriate, as we come back to the city of Baltimore after an absence of nearly forty years:

lars.

All hail! O, Holy Temple!

Once more thy cross of gold
Gleams glorious to the Eastern sun,
As it was wont of old.

Sound now thy loudest trumpet,
Herman de Perrigord,
Thy banner of the Beauseans
Floats proudly as before.

O, scene of joy and triumph,
Sing it with solemn voice;

Let Harp and Tabor swell the strain,
Let all the world rejoice.

Thursday was devoted to the long-expected parade of the TempWe copy the following general description from the Baltimore Evening Journal :

The sun arose like a large ball of fire, and bathed the city in a bright halo of glory; and the streets presented a scene of great animation. Every expectation of a beautiful day by the people appeared to have been gratified, and they were present upon the streets, selecting every Knight that went by on his way to headquarters as a slight gratification of the enormous degree of curiosity, mingled with excitement, that they possessed. The additions to the display of bunting have been very large, and the house-tops and fronts of many houses in the city, along the line of parade, are clothed in the gayest colors.

As the morning grew on, the streets were alive with humanity, apparently in pursuit of no particular object, as they stood idly about in a listless mood, but merely to gratify a restless spirit and undefined sense of excitement. Soon the Knights, in all the glittering paraphernalia of their Order, made their appearance among the throng, and greatly intensified its interest. The sound of music swelled upon the air, and the greatest state of fermentation prevailed. The people rushed wildly to the place from which it proceeded, tumbling over each other, and offering a confusion beyond depiction. Riders galloped to and fro, and people ran in every direction, seeking some new sight.

The different Commanderies, headed by their fine music, took up their march to the place of forming on Broadway, and were followed by throngs of people. Here the greatest scenes of excitement enacted during the day were offered. The whole length of the street was black with a dense mass of humanity; from the house-tops, and suspended in the middle of the street, with the hospitable inscriptron, "Welcome, Visitors," nearly touched the heads of the crowd. Windows, porticos, and housetops were thronged with people, and as they rent the air with admiration, and the waving of thousands of handkerchiefs, dotted the space like to the fluttering of so many butterflies, the scene was almost wild. The Knights, dressed in their gay colors, and marching with an admirable elacticity of step and fine regularity, were constantly arriving, and bringing with them fresh additions to the crowd. The sun shone with a soft, mellow light, and the temperature of the weather was refreshing. The day offered an unequalled Masonic success, and the grand pageant was but another evidence of the power of the Order in America, its magnitude and glorious beneficence.

By the time the parade was formed the greatest eagerness was felt along the line of march, and every eye was turned to the eastward to catch the first sight at the coming banners of the Knights. When they came in view, a burst of admiration and even enthusiastic applause greeted them. They looked neither to the right nor left. Like

veterans, they marched straight on with steady and regular tramp in line as straight as that of the Fifth Regiment, and with their plumes waving, their bright equipments flashing in the sunlight, their swords glittering, and the whole presenting as brilliant a pageant as that which rode forth many a bright morning ago to the Field of Cloth of Gold. It was a sore temptation to Sir Knights, no doubt, the knowledge that to the right and left of them were numerous beautiful faces, smiling with pleasure upon them and saluting them with the waving of handkerchiefs and with the applause of their white and beautiful hands. But not one look, but onward in beautiful and regular phalanx, marched the well trained Knights behind their beautiful, silken and golden banners bearing the device, "In hoc signo vincis.”

This motto has a strange birth in the traditions of the past. When Constantine rode forth at the head of his dispirited army, anxious as to the result of the campaign which was to enroll his name among the great, suddenly he saw a great light in the heavens, and a cross of immortal brightness gleamed before his startled vision. He adopted the cross as his standard, just as the great Napoleon adopted the eagle; and he inscribed upon his standard the motto that is inscribed upon the banners of the gallant gentlemen who have, in this far distant century, gathered in the streets of fair Baltimore.

Their banners to-day are unfurled in the cause of peace. They wave not over ruined cities, devastated castles, or smoking mounts, but over bright hearts banded together in the great cause of religion and morality. They are the charity, glowing, to be sure, with the recollections of a thousand gallant deeds, with the memory of many a just cause-upheld, but more beautiful as they are the emblems of "Peace on earth, good will to man."

After the line was formed it was reviewed by Sir W. Sewell Gardner, Most Eminent Grand Master, and others of the Grand Encampment. The review was conducted according to the Templar's drill, which differs much from Hardee and Upton-in fact is a distinct drill of its own, promising many attractive features. The ranks were open, and officers were to the front, the music and colors saluting the high officials as they passed.

The following are the officers elected: Josiah H. Drummond, Maine, G. G. H. P.; E. H. English, Ark., D. G. G. H. P.; Chas. H. Ohr, Md., G. G. K.; Charles Marsh, Cal., G. G. S.; John McLellan, Boston, G. G. Treas.; C. G. Fox, New York, G. G. Sec'y; Joseph Yeates, Ill., G. G. C. of H.; Dewitt C. Dawkins, Fla., G. G. R. A. C.

LEGISLATION.

The legislation of the National Bodies recently in the City of Baltimore has been the subject of much prophecy, not a few of the