and declared to be the true and universally accepted obligation of the master mason.

VI. As soon as the grand masters, grand officers and members, of the two present grand lodges, shall, on the day of their re-union, have made the solemn declaration in the presence of the deputation of grand or enlightened masons, from Scotland and Ireland, to abide and act by the universally recognised obligation of master mason, the members shall forthwith proceed to the election of a grand master for the year ensuing; and to prevent delay, the brother so elected, shall forthwith be obligated, pro tempore, that the grand lodge may be formed. The said

grand master shall then nominate and appoint his deputy grand master, together with a senior and junior grand warden, grand secretary, or secretaries, grand treasurer, grand chaplain, grand sword bearer, grand pursuivant, and grand tyler, who shall be duly obligated and placed; and the grand incorporated lodge shall then be opened in ample form, under the stile and title of the United Grand LODGE OF ANCIENT FREE Masons of England.

The grand officers who held the several offices before (unless such of them as may be re-appointed) shall take their places, as past grand officers in the respective degrees which they held before; and in case either, or both of the present grand secretaries, pursuivants, and tylers, should not be re-appointed to their former situations, then annuities shall be paid to them during their respective lives out of the grand fund.

VII. The United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons of England, shall be composed, except on days of festival, in the following manner: as a just and perfect representative of the whole masonic fraternity of England; that is to say: of

The grand master, past grand masters, deputy grand masters, past deputy grand masters, grand wardens, provincial grand masters, past grand wardens, past provincial grand masters, grand chaplain, grand treasurer, joint grand secretary, or grand secretary, if there be only one, grand sword bearer, twelve grand stewards, to be delegated by the steward's lodge, from among their members existing at the union; it being understood and agreed that, from and after the union, an annual appointment shall be made of the stewards if necessary. The actual masters and wardens of all warranted lodges, past masters

of lodges, who have regularly served and passed the chair before the day of union, and who have continued without secession regular contributing members of a warranted lodge. It being understood that of all masters who, from and after the day of the said union, shall regularly pass the chair of their respective lodges, but one at a time, to be delegated by his lodge, shall have a right to sit and vote in the said grand lodge; so that after the decease of all the regular past masters of any regular lodge, who had attained that distinction at the time of the union, the representation of such lodge shall be by its actual master, wardens, and one past master only.

And all grand officers in the said respective grand lodges shall retain and hold their rank and privileges in the United Grand Lodge, as past grand officers, including the present provincial grand masters, the grand treasurers, grand secretaries, and grand chaplains, in their several degrees, according to the seniority of their respective appointments; and where such appointment shall have been contemporaneous, the seniority shall be determined by lot. In all other respects the above shall be the general order of precedence in all time to come, with this express provision, that no provincial grand master, hereafter to be appointed, shall be entitled to a seat in the grand lodge, after he shall have retired from such situation, unless he shall have discharged the duties thereof for full five years.

VIII. The representatives of the several lodges shall sit under their respective banners, according to seniority. The two first lodges under each grand lodge to draw a lot in the first place for priority; and to which of the two the lot No. 1, shall fall, the other to rank as No. 2; and all the other lodges shall fall in alternately, that is, the lodge which is No. 2, of the fraternity, whose lot it shall be to draw No. 1, shall rank as No, 3, in the United Grand Lodge, and the other No. 2, shall rank as No. 4, and so on alternately through all the numbers respectively. And this shall forever after be the order and rank of the lodges in the grand lodge, and in grand processions, for which a plan and drawing shall be prepared previous to the union. On the renewal of any of the lodges now dormant, they shall take rank after all the lodges existing at the union, notwithstanding the numbers in which they may now stand on the respective rolls.

IX. The United Grand Lodge being now constituted, the first proceeding after solemn prayer, shall be to read and

proclaim the act of union, as previously executed and sealed with the great seals of the two grand lodges; after which the same shall be solemnly accepted by the members present. A day shall then be appointed for the installation of the grand master and other grand officers with due solemnity; upon which occasion the grand master shall in open lodge, with his own hand, affix the new great seal to the said instrument, which shall be deposited in the archives of the United Grand Lodge, and be the bond of union among the masons of the grand lodge of England, and the lodges dependent thereon, until time shall be no more. The said

new great seal shall be made for the occasion, and shall be composed out of both the great seals now in use; after which the present two great seals shall be broken and defaced; and the new seal shall be alone used in all warrants, certificates and other documents to be issued thereafter.

X. The regalia of the grand officers shall be, in addition to the white gloves and apron, and the respective jewels or emblems of distinction, garter blue and gold; and these shall alone belong to the grand officers present and past.

XI. Four grand lodges, representing the craft, shall be held for quarterly communication in each year, on the first Wednesday in the months of March, June, September and December, on each of which occasions, the masters and wardens of all the warranted lodges shall deliver into the hands of the grand secretary and grand treasurer, a faithful list of all their contributing members; and the warranted lodges in, and adjacent to London, shall pay towards the grand fund one shilling per quarter for each member, over and above the sum of half a guinea for each new made member, for the registry of his name, together with the sum of one shilling to the grand secretary, as his fee for the same, and that this contribution of one shilling for each member, shall be made quarterly, and each quarter, in all time to come.

XII. It shall be in the power of the grand master, or in his absence, of the past grand masters, or in their absence, of the deputy grand master, or in his absence, of the past deputy grand masters, or in their absence, of the grand wardens, to summon and hold grand lodges of emergency, whenever the good of the craft shall, in their judgment require the same.

XIII. At the grand lodge to be held annually on the first Wednesday in September, the grand lodge shall elect a

grand master for the year ensuing (who shall nominate and appoint his own deputy grand master, grand wardens and secretary) and they shall also nominate three fit and proper persons, for each of the offices of treasurer, chaplain and sword bearer, out of which the grand master shall, on the first Wednesday in the month of December, choose and appoint one for each of the said offices; and on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, then next ensuing, or on such other day as the said grand master shall appoint, there shall be held a grand lodge for the solemn installation of all the said grand officers, according to ancient custom.

XIV. There may also be a masonic festival, annually, on the anniversary of the feast of St John the Baptist, or of St. George, or such other day as the grand master shall appoint, which shall be dedicated alone to brotherly love and refreshment, and to which all regular master masons may have access, on providing themselves with tickets from the grand stewards appointed to conduct the same.

XV. After the day of the re-union, as aforesaid, and when it shall be ascertained what are the obligations, forms, regulations, working and instruction, to be universally established, speedy and effectual steps shall be taken to obligate all the members of each lodge in all the degrees, according to the form taken and recognised by the grand master, past grand masters, grand officers, and representatives of lodges, on the day of re-union; and for this purpose the worthy and expert master masons appointed as aforesaid, shall visit and attend the several lodges within the bills of mortality, in rotation, dividing themselves into quorums of not less than three each, for the greater expedition, and they shall assist the master and wardens to promulgate and enjoin the pure and unsullied system, that perfect reconciliation, unity of obligation, law, working, language and dress, may be happily restored to the English craft.

XVI. When the master and wardens of a warranted lodge, shall report to the grand master, to his satisfaction, that the members of such lodge have taken the proper enjoined obligation, and have conformed to the uniform working, cloathing, &c. then the most worshipful grand master shall direct the new great seal to be affixed to their warrant, and the lodge shall be adjudged to be regular, and entitled to all the privileges of the craft: a certain term shall be allowed (to be fixed by the grand lodge) for establishing this uniformity; and all constitutional proceedings

of any regular lodge, which shall take place between the date of the union, and the term so appointed, shall be deemed valid, on condition, that such lodge shall conform to the regulations of the union within the time appointed; and means shall be taken to ascertain the regularity, and establish the uniformity of the provincial grand lodges, military lodges, and lodges holding of the two present grand lodges in distant parts; and it shall be in the power of the grand lodge to take the most effectual measures for the establishment of this unity of doctrine throughout the whole community of masons, and to declare the warrants to be forfeited, if the measures proposed, shall be resisted or neglected.

XVII. The property of the said two fraternities, whether freehold, leasehold, funded, real or personal, shall remain sacredly appropriate to the purposes for which it was created; it shall constitute one grand fund, by which the blessed object of masonic benevolence may be more extensively obtained. It shall either continue under the trusts in which, whether freehold, leasehold, or funded, the separate parts thereof now stand; or it shall be in the power of the said United Grand Lodge, at any time hereafter, to add other names to the said trusts; or, in case of the death of any one trustee, to nominate and appoint others for perpetuating the security of the same; and in no event, and for no purpose, shall the said united property be divert ed from its original purpose. It being understood and declared that, at any time after the union, it shall be in the power of the grand lodge, to incorporate the whole of the said property and funds, in one and the same set of trustees, who shall give bond to hold the same in the name and on the behalf of the united fraternity. And it is further agreed, that the free mason's hall shall be the place in which the United Grand Lodge shall be held, with such additions made thereto as the increased numbers of the fraternity, thus to be united, may require. And it is understood between the parties, that, as there are now in the hall several whole length portraits of past grand masters, a portrait of the most worshipful, his grace the duke of Athol, past grand master of masons, according to the old instructions, shall be placed there in the same conspicuous

manner.

XVIII. The fund appropriate to the objects of masonic benevolence, shall not be infringed on for any purpose,