Consecration Of The Devonian Lodge, No. 2834.

Saxon , the Norman , the Flemish , and others are all constituent elements of the force to which we all belong . Whenever Englishmen carry the national flag , for peace or war , outside the two comparatively small islands which we call the British Isles , they take under it men all united in loyalty and devotion to the Crown , but all different in character and fueling . Centuries of neighbourship and intermarriage have not effaced the individuality of our

countries . Many associations of a great historic past and a great present keep the Devonian , the Cornishman , the Welshman , and , indeed , the inhabitants of every country true to his home . In this great city of London —in the various Dependencies and Colonies of the British Crown—the attractive force of home keeps men together for good . When a territorial regiment , defending the honour of the Crown , does some gallant deed ,

the whole country takes credit and rejoices . This is , I think , specially so with the distinguished county which will contribute the members of this lodge . Wherever Englishmen have gone in enterprise , in commerce , or in war , Devonshire has been to the front . Queen Elizabeth , who was a shrewd observer of character , said , so Fuller tells us , that a " Devon gentlemen was a born wonder with a becoming confidence . " She experienced the becoming

confidence with which men like Drake , Hawkins , and Humphreys were able to go everywhere and do anything which the good of the English Crown demanded ; men whom no difficulties kept back , no disparity of numbers affrighted ; and I venture to think that our Gracious Lady the Queen will not be unwilling to endorse the opinion of her ancestress when she considers the services of the gallant and distinguished Devonian who will be with us

again in a few days , and the becoming confidence with which at Ladysmith and elsewhere he refused to know when he was beaten , and went on until he got what his duty required . And so , brethren , I can give you no better evidence—wish you no happier lot than that , being in your new Iodge , a rallying place for Devonian Masons , you should begin and continue your work with a becoming confidence . You can , if you use right means , be

what you ought to be . Our ancient Fraternity accomplished what they did not because they had confidence , but a becoming confidence—confidence not in self , but in God and their cause—Dieu _ et mon droit—and you , too , the Devonian Lodge , can help your new Iodge in the place which it will attain by the old Devonian spirit which , without ostentation or parade , recognises a lofty ideal , and with becoming confidence attain it .

The ceremony of consecration was then performed , and at its conclusion the Earl of Halsbury was installed by the Grand Secretary . The other officers of the year were as follows : Bros , the Right Hon . Lord Churston , P . M .. P . P . S . G . W . Devon , I . P . M . ; Walter Wellsman , P . A . G . D . C , S . W . ; the Rev . William Whittley , P . G . D ., P . P . S . G . W .

Devon , J . W . ; William Bradford , P . M ., Treas . ; John Cockham Taylor , P . M ., Sec ; George Lambert , M . P ., S . D . ; P . H . Pridham Wippell , J . D . ; C . Luxmoore Drew , I . G . ; the Rev . Harry Arthur Hebb , P . G . D ., P . P . G . Chap . Devon , Chap . ; William H . Cummings , P . G . Org ., Org . ; John H . Liie , D . of C ; F . W . Brodie , Stwd . ; and W . T . Winsor , P . M ., Tyler .

The Consecrating Officers were then elected honorary members of the lodge , and a vote of thanks was unanimously passed to them for the performance of the ceremony . A long list of names of intending initiates and joining members was read by Bro . J . Cockram Taylor , Sec , and a telegram from Ipswich was read from Bro . Mr . Justice Bruce , regretting his inability to attend .

Lodge was then closed , and the brethren adjourned to banquet , and honoured the customary toasts . The LORD CHANCELLOR , in proposing the toast of " The M . W . Pro Grand Master , the Earl Amherst ; the R . W . Dep . Grand Master , the Earl of Warwick ; and the rest of the Grand Officers , Present and Past , " said

the Earl of Warwick had expressed to their Secretary his great regret that he could not be there that night . They were sorry he was not with them . With reference to the other Grand Officers , he could not exactly say who was entitled to respond to the toast , but as they all knew the precedence he should call on the senior Grand Officer to respond .

Bro . Sit J B . MONCKTON said there was a certain amount of sadness attaching to seniority in many conditions of things , especially in the seniority of years . He was afraid there was no mistake about the fact that by his seniority he had to respond to the toast , and he need hardly say it was not for the first time . There was nothing new under the sun , and there

was nothing new to be said of the toast of the Grand Officers . He spoke with conviction , however , when he said he yielded to no man in his opinion of the Grand Officers , although he was one of them . They thanked the brethren very heartily indeed for the toast which had . been so feelingly proposed by the Worshipful Master .

The next toast was that of " V . W . Bro . Edward Letchworth , Grand Secretary , and the other Consecrating Officers . " The LORD CHANCELLOR said it was the toast of the evening . They were assembled after a consecration which he thought he might say from the mode in which it had been conducted—the admirable mode in which it had been conducted from first to last—must have made a deep impression on those who had been fortunate

enough to witness it . With reference to the occasion itself it was unnecessary among Devonshire men to say how much they must all feel that they had new ties , inasmuch as they were associated together in the Devonian Lodge . He did not think there was any part of the United Kingdomindeed , he might say the world—in which the feeling of affectionate relationship existed in a greater degree than among Devonians . They liked

each other because they were Devonshire men . He was very proud indeed of those from whom he had descended in Devonshire . That was a feeling which was not only a most natural one , and a feeling which was predominant in their breasts that night , but he thought it was a most useful and proper filling . They might say , like the Greeks of old , " Do not let us be worse than our fathers . " He must say a word about the mode in which the consecration had been conducted . There were words of wisdom , words of

eloquence , and words of thought which fell from the Consecrating Officers which would continue in the minds of many long after the banquet had passed away . They could not but feel grateful to their principal Consecrating Officer and to the other officers for their assistance in having done the thing so perfectly as ^ they had done that night . He personally felt giateful to Bro . Letchworth for the great assistance he had been to him , and very heartily he proposed the toast .

Bro . LETCHWORTH , in responding , said thebrethren had been compelled to listen to his voice for a very considerable time that evening elsewhere , and he would not inflict a long speech on them . But he wished , in words as sincere as they could be privileged , to return on behalf of those who had been associated with him in the consecration of the lodge their warmest thanks to the W . M . for the kind and generous terms with which he had

Consecration Of The Devonian Lodge, No. 2834.

proposed the toast , and to the brethren for the reception they had given it He had often on these occasions observed that among the many dutie ' Grand Officers were called upon to discharge there was none more agreeable to them than in assisting in inaugurating a new Iod ge . He was sure they all most heartily wished the Devonian Lodge every possible successa success worthy of the name it bore , and worthy of the distinguished brother who had done the Iodge the honour of presiding over it for the first timp .

The next toast was that of " The Worshipful Master , " and Mr . Justice KENNEDY said it was certainly not second in influence or importance to anv toast they had honoured that evening . In two ways , perhaps , he regretted his own inability to discharge the duty of proposing the toast worthil y . in the first place there was the want of eloquence which anyone would be

required justly and without over-praise to do what ought to be done in proposing the toast , and the other reason was one which he was afraid no amount of education or training could set him right upon , viz ., that he had the misfortune not to be a Devonshire man . Being by birth one of those who rejoiced in the name of Cockney , he claimed for Cockneys that they had a respect for those qualities for which their W . M . mi ght justly and

truly be praised . They respected loyalty alike to one ' s brethren in the world as to one ' s Queen and one's country . They respected the kindness which met a brother whatever his position was ; a true friend and true brother alike in times of adversity and in success . They respected a man who had to perform public functions if he performed them with dignity . Those

qualities , both as a judge and as a Mason , they found conspicuously in the man who presided over the Devonian Lodge . In those two capacities he could truly say , as a member ofthe Northern Bar Lodge and as a Judge , they knew the W . M . would not be wanting in the decision which a Master always ought to have , in the ability to discharge the exalted functions which

FOt'NnKR S JEWEL . Designed and Manufactured by Bros . George Kenning and Son , Loudon , he had to discharge elsewhere as well as the important functions as a Master of Masons . They knew in kindness and loyalty they had no cause to regret , but every cause to be thankful , that they had in their first ruler a man whose

heart was right and whose conduct was just . For those reasons he thought , without being eloquent and without being a Devonshire man , he might sav with truth that he might commend the toast to them in a way they would approve and in a way facts would justify during his term of office all that could be said and all that the toast implied . The toast was received with the greatest enthusiasm .

The LORD CHANCELLOR , in reply , said among the many qualities which distinguished Devonshire men one had not been mentioned by the learned judge who had just spoken—he meant that of modesty . ( Laughter . ) He had every right to exhibit that quality because , being a Devon man , and because of his profession which he had practised for 50 years , he was bound to be modest . What was he to say in answer to such a speechand at the

, same time to exhibit that quality for which he claimed constant possession ? Well , he would say this , in the positions to which the learned judge had referred he believed none of them could live under himself . He believed that which made them harmonise , and enabled them to go on , was a feeling that they were mutually dependent on each other . The Masonic spirit , if it could be extended to all society and to all mankind , he believed would , in

a great measure , remove all difficulties which stood in the way of a higher and a better civilisation . One of the things which rendered Masonic intercourse so delightful was this , that it cultivated a spirit independent of all those questions on which men were divided . An infinite variety of feelings , thoughts , and imaginations which naturally belonged to different degrees divided men politically , theologically , and in many other ways , but the Masonic spirit enabled them to meet together in social intercourse , and in a

manner which , for the time at all events , obliterated and stamped out the feeling of those differences which on other occasions necessarily kept them at arm ' s length . Therefore it was that the Masonic spirit which united them together , whatever might be their walks in life , was a gain for civilisation , a gain for that kindly spirit which tended to bring men together , and not to separate them . The toast in its terms was complimentary to him , He thought it was relevant to the toast , which , of course , was the