taken place at the Capital, they unanimously resolved to discard the Irish Charters, and to rest their claims, as the representatives of the Knights of old, on the general belief of the country in their favour, and the well-accredited traditions handed down from their forefathers. They further determined to entreat the Duke of Kent, who was a Chevalier du Temple, as well as the chief of the Masonic Templars in England, to become the Patron Protector of the Order in North Britain, offering to submit themselves to His Royal Highness in that capacity, and to accept from him a formal Charter of Constitution, erecting them into a regular Conclave of Knights Templars, and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The Duke of Kent lost no time in complying with their request, and his Charter bears date 19th of June 1811. By a provision in it, Mr. Deuchar, who had been nominated by the Brethren, was appointed Grand Master for life. These wise and vigorous measures rescued the Order from obscurity; and in its improved condition, we find that it continued rapidly to flourish, numbering, in the course of a few years, no less than forty encampments or lodges in different parts of the British dominions holding of its Conclave. In 1828, the Order seemed to have received a fresh impulse, and assumed a novel and interesting aspect by the judicious introduction of the ancient chivalric costume and forms. Dissentions, however, unfortunately occurred, from 1830 to 1835, tending to impede the further progress of the Order; and for a while it may be said to have again almost fallen into abeyance. In the end of the latter year, a committee of ten gentlemen was appointed to settle all differences, as well as to frame proper regulations for the future government of the Order. Under their arrangement and arbitration, the present statutes were established, and a reconciliation effected between the contending parties. In January 1836, Admiral Sir David Milne, K. C. B. was unanimously elected Grand Master, and at a general election in the same month, Lord Ramsay (now Earl of Dalhousie) was appointed his Depute, the various other offices in the Order being filled by gentlemen, generally well known, and of a respectable station in society. In the course of three months after the re-union, not fewer than a hundred persons, chiefly men of fortune, officers, and members of the learned professions, had been received into the Order in the Edinburgh Canongate Kilwinning Priory or Encampment alone. Since then, other Priories have been established in the country, and the Institution has assumed an importance and dignity worthy of the highest class of gentlemen connected with the Masonic Institutions of Scotland. [Illustration] [Illustration: APPENDIX.] [Illustration] Bull of Pope Clement V.