dingly, the Prince of Wales, with the Duke of Connaught and Prince
Albert Victor, and a vast company of officers and members of the Order,
representatives chosen by lodges in different parts of the empire,
assembled in the Royal Albert Hall on the 13th of June, 1887. The number
present was about 7000. No such scene has been witnessed since that day,
twelve years before, when the Prince was installed as Grand Master of
English Freemasons. The procession which received the Grand Master and
conducted him to the throne was a magnificent affair. The assemblage, we
are told, although "tyled," was not held as a lodge. The business of the
meeting being opened, his Royal Highness the Grand Master said:--

"Brethren,--This is, I think, one of the greatest gatherings of
Freemasons I have ever seen, with the exception of the occasion
when, after election by the craft, I received the honour of
installation as your Grand Master. It is most gratifying to me,
as I feel sure it will be to the Queen, that so large a
gathering has assembled here to-day to do her honour on the
fiftieth anniversary of her reign--the Jubilee of her accession.
This gathering will be a proof to her, as it is also to me, of
the great devotion and loyalty of the craft to the Throne--a
devotion and loyalty which have ever animated the Free and
Accepted Masons of England. We are here, brethren, as you are
aware, for the purpose of moving an address to the Queen,
congratulating her upon having attained the fiftieth anniversary
of her reign. You are well aware that my ancestors--some of them
former Sovereigns of this nation--did much in support of
Freemasonry, and, though they well knew it to be a secret
society, they were well assured that it was in no wise a
dangerous one. Among our tenets of motives 'loyalty' and
'philanthropy' stand out prominently, and we are proud of the
fact. I assure you, brethren, that it is most gratifying to me
to receive so large, important, and influential a gathering as
this to-day, and I am rejoiced that in the many events which are
to be the signs of the people's rejoicing at the Jubilee of the
Queen, this meeting, at the Royal Albert Hall, of the Free and
Accepted Masons of England will be first on the list. I will now
call upon Grand Secretary, Colonel Shadwell E. Clerke, to read
the proposed address, and then our worshipful