The Order Of The Temple.

on the 10 th May , 18 95 , its death-knell was sounded . The incompetence of that moribund bod y is fully gone into in the report of the commission , one extract will suffice to give the tone of the whole . Article II . states that— "Convent General having failed in uniting the Order throughout the Empire under one Head , having failed to preserve Local

Self-Government , having failed even lo interpret ils men Statutes , your commissioners are of opinion that it should cease to exist . " As a result , the Prince of Wales dissolved Convent General and graciously accepted the title and office of Sovereign of the Order in the United Kingdom . On Christmas Day , 18 91 , there passed away a brother

distinguished in every Degree and Order in Masonry , Colonel Shadwell Henry Gierke , who for many years had held the office of Great Prior . The dense fogs of December further weakened a constitution alread y broken , and after an

MARK MASONS' HALL AS THE CI ! APT KR HOUSE OF THE ORDER OF MALTA .

illness of three days he was no more ; the baton , however , was handed to the Earl of Euston , and under his masterly control the Order has flourished indeed . A happy epoch in the history of the Order is marked by the date 11 th Mav , 18 94 . Since 188 7 , for reasons which it

is now unnecessary to discuss , all relations had been broken off between the Great Priory of England and the sister institution of Canada . Time after time attempts had been made to reconcile the differences which had arisen , but without avail , until the year 18 92 , when the Canadian Grand

Master expressed a hope "that the friendly relations formerl y existing between the Sovereign Great Priory of Canada and the Great Priory of England and Wales , ike , broken off by resolution of the Great Priory of England . . . might be renewed . " Much correspondence passed between the

respective bodies , with the result that assurances were received from the Canadian side that " there is not the least possibility of the Great Priory of Canada issuing warrants outside of the Dominion , except to Newfoundland . " On these assurances Great Priory agreed to rescind their resolution of non-intercourse , and thus the wounds which

had been open for seven long years were healed . It was in 18 93 that the Order , which had hitherto conducted its affairs in Lincoln ' s-Inn-Fields , changed its habitat , and migrated to Mark Masons' Hall , and it was in the latter end of 18 95 that we first find the valued : name of Charles

Fitzgerald Matier entered on the reports as Vice-Chancellor . To say that the entry of our King into office of supreme control of the Order gave that fillip which was necessary for the continued prosperity of the Degree would be to say too little by far . The Venerable Grand Master of the Order in

Canada , who ruled it until death claimed his own , made , in one of those eloquent allocutions he delighted to deliver to his Great Priory , the following remark : — "The inception of a correct and true understanding of the modern Templar Order must be looked for from the commencement of the

Grand Mastership of H . R . H . the Prince of Wales , " and so it must . It is unnecessary to look for the cause of this inherent success , which has followed the King into every Degree in Freemasonry he has consented to enter , the cause is ( here , and the triumphal effect follows as naturally as light

succeeds darkness . In ils home at Mark Masons' Hall , the Order is firmly established , and for those privileged to be present at that gorgeous spectacle , a meeting of Great Priory , is reserved a remembrance to be loved , valued , and desired .