The same committee report, that the amendment of the Constitution, admitting Grand Encampments to a representation in the Grand Lodge of the United States, requiring an alteration in the Constitution of this Grand Lodge, they have made the alteration rendered necessary thereby, and offer the following resolution.

Resolved, That the Constitution as amended, be adopted.

HOWELL HOPKINS,

THOMAS WILDEY,

THADDEUS DAVIDS.

On motion of Rep. Bayley, of Missouri, the Grand Lodge adjourned until nine o'clock, to-morrow morning.

THURSDAY, September 23d, 9 o'clock, A. M.

The Grand Lodge assembled pursuant to adjournment: Present, the Officers and a due representation.

Prayer by the Grand Chaplain.

P. G. Sire Perkins presented the report of Wildey Encampment, of Virginia, which was referred to the Committee on Returns.

Rep. Bayley, of Missouri, offered the following resolution, which was read and referred to the select committee already raised on the Work of the Order.

Resolved, That the Funeral Obsequies reported in the printed proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, April Communication, 1839, (pages 148, 9, 50 and 51,) be adopted by this Grand Lodge, to accompany the installation charges just adopted. Rep. Neilson, of Indiana, moved that the said committee be instructed to report at the present session, upon this particular subject.

Pending this question, P. G. Williamson, of New York, Grand Chaplain, pro tem., addressed the Grand Lodge on the subject under consideration, when the right of a Grand Officer to participate in discussion in Grand Lodge, was objected to by Rep. Hopkins, of Pennsylvania.

The Grand Sire decided that none but a Representative, or Past Grand Sire under the Constitution, had a voice in the Grand Lodge, and remarked that he had permitted the brother to go on through mere courtesy.

Rep. Hopkins, of Pennsylvania, moved, as the sense of the Grand Lodge, that no member of the Grand Lodge, but a Representative or Past Grand Sire can address the Grand Lodge, except upon leave first asked and obtained.

Rep. Bayley, of Missouri, moved to amend the motion, by adding the words and "elected officers, who have a right to a voice," which was decided in the negative: the yeas and nays being required, appeared as follows:

YEAS-Rep's Cook, Ridgely, Bayley and P. G. Sire Perkins-4. NAYS-Rep's Marley, Davids, Hopkins, Leidy, Kennedy, McKeldon, Taylor, Hull, Neilson, Wildey, Vn Sickell and Bradley-12.

T'he motion submitted by Rep. Hopkins, of Pennsylvania, was then adopted.

Rep. Neilson asked and obtained leave to withdraw the resolution to

instruct the committee.

Rep. Marley, of Maryland, from the Committee on Returns, submitted the following report, with accompanying documents, being forms recommended by the committee, to be observed in future, in all returns required to be made by subordinates to this jurisdiction, which was accepted.

To the R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States:

The Committee on Reports and Returns from the Grand and Subordinate Lodges and Encampments, beg leave respectfully to report: That they have examined the documents referred to them, and give the following result:

Grand Lodges of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and the subordinates, Iowa Lodge, No. 1, and South Carolina Lodge, No. 1,—

correct.

Grand Lodge of Maryland, gives no returns on rejections, admitted and withdrawn by card, names of suspended members, deaths, and amount of specific relief.

Grand Lodge of District of Columbia, deficient as above.

Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, no returns on rejections, admitted and withdrawn by card, names of suspended and expelled members, and deaths.

Grand Lodge of Ohio, incorrect in nothing but the tabular arrangement. Grand Lodge of Virginia, no returns on rejections, admitted, or withdrawn by card, names of suspended and expelled members, and the causes thereof, amount expended in relief of brothers, widows, and orphans.

Grand Lodge of Delaware, no returns on initiations, rejections, admitted, and withdrawn by card, names of suspended members, amount expended in relief of brothers, widows, and orphans, and amount expended for education of orphans.

Grand Lodge of Indiana, no returns on rejections, admitted, and withdrawn by card, deaths, and amount of relief to brothers, widows, and orphans, and education of orphans.

Grand Lodge of Missouri, deficient, as in Indiana.

Lodges of Tennessee, no returns on amount expended for relief and education.

Merrimack Lodge, No. 7, no returns on amount expended in relief and education.

Mobile Lodge, No. 2, and Galveston Lodge, No. 3, deficient, as in Merrimack, No. 7.

Encampments.-Marley Encampment, No. 2, D. C., and Wildey Encampment, No. 3, of Virginia, correct.

Grand Encampment of Ohio, no returns on rejections, suspensions, and expulsions, deaths, and amount of special relief; also, irregular in the tabular arrangement.

Jerusalem Encampment, No. 4, of Virginia, no returns on relief. uuu Columbia Encampment, No. 1, of D. C. deficient, as above.

Vicksburg Encampment, No. 2, informal, having no seal, and incomplete returns.

Trenton Encampment, No. 2, informal, and incomplete returns, as above.

Wildey Encampment, No. 1, of Mississippi, incomplete returns.

Widows' Friend Encampment, No. 5, Virginia, imperfect in having no returns on relief.

Your committee have experienced some difficulty, on account of the very irregular manner and form of the reports. The blanks passed upon at the last communication have been wholly unattended to. Your committee would respectfully call the attention of the Grand Lodge to this subject once more, and ask the adoption of the following resolution.

Resolved, That the forms herewith presented, be adopted and printed in the appendix to the proceedings, and copies forwarded to each Grand Lodge and Encampment and subordinate lodge and Encampment under this jurisdiction.

All which is respectfully submitted.

RICHARD MARLEY,
CHARLES W. BRADLEY,
WILLIAM BAYLEY.

On motion of Rep. Neilson, of Indiana, the Grand Lodge proceeded to consider the documents accompanying the report of the committee.

Document, No. 1, being the form recommended by the committee, hereafter to be observed by state Grand Lodges in making their annual returns, was considered and adopted.

Document, No. 2, accompanying the report of the committee, being a form recommended to the state Grand Lodges, to be observed by their subordinates, in their returns of relief afforded, was considered and adopted.

Document, No. 3, accompanying the report of the committee, being the form which subordinate lodges, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of the United States, shall hereafter pursue in making their annual returns, was read and adopted.

Document, No. 4, being the form prescribed for the annual returns of Grand Encampments, was considered and adopted.

Rep. Kennedy, of Delaware, from the select committee, to whom was referred so much of the Corresponding Secretary's report as related to the "Covenant," submitted the following report and resolutions, which were read, and on his motion, laid on the table, and made the special order of the day, for four o'clock, this afternoon.

To the R. W. Grand Lodge of the United States:

The committee, to whom was referred so much of the Grand Corresponding Secretary's report as relates to "the Covenant," respectfully report: That after mature and deliberate examination of the propriety, policy and expediency of establishing an Official Magazine, under the auspices, and for the benefit of the Grand Lodge of the United States, your committee are convinced that the period in our successful operation has arrived, when it has devolved on the Grand Lodge of the United States to undertake the enterprize, without further delay.

In the very large and continually increasing numbers of the Order within the jurisdiction, the appetite for knowledge of an authentic character in relation to the history, principles and practices of the institution is correspondingly great and increasing. To gratify in a degree the desire of the brotherhood for the diffusion of intelligence, several attempts have been made by unauthorized brothers, to establish periodicals, some of which have maintained existence for longer or shorter time; but few, indeed,

have been enabled to extend it beyond a single volume, from the want of official character in their mode of publication. It therefore seems to have become incumbent on the constituted authority, to adopt such measures for securing to the Order the advantages of a periodical, which would have united in itself all other requisities for success, in addition to that being authorized and official.

Our brethren in Great Britain have maintained for a series of years, a well conducted official magazine, which has contributed much to the advantage of the brethren, and of the Order; to the brethren by the dissemination of authentic information relative to the affairs of the institution; and to the Order, by yielding an income in profits to the funds thereof, and thereby lessening direct exactions.

The success attendant on their exertions admonishes us of the probable result of a similar undertaking by the Grand Lodge of the United States. Your committee are also enabled to announce that the proprietor of "The Covenant," (who has a subscription list amply sufficient to warrant the success of the undertaking,) is prepared to surrender up to the Grand Lodge his entire prospective property and interest therein, on terms of at least equal advantage to the Grand Lodge as to himself; and which, with the necessary consequent improvements, would, without extraordinary expense, prove in every respect what the Order desires.

In preparing a system of operation for the Magazine, your committee. have been influenced solely by a desire to present such a plan as would secure the most perfect success, and such they humbly hope the one presented in the accompanying resolutions will prove. Respectfully submitted.

JOHN A. KENNEDY,
HOWELL HOPKINS,
CHARLES W. BRADLEY.

Resolved, That ten R. P. Degree Past Grands in regular compliance, not more than two of whom shall be residents of the same state, district, or territory, shall be selected from the body of the Order, by the Grand Lodge, to constitute a Board of Supervision. That, at the first election of said Board, one half the number shall be first chosen to serve for one year, and the remaining portion shall be then chosen to serve for two years; so that one moiety may be chosen annually thereafter, to serve for two years.

Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the Board of Supervision to act in the recess of the Grand Lodge, in carrying into effect the wishes of this Grand Lodge, in conducting an official magazine, devoted to the cause of Odd Fellowship, in the name and on the behalf of the Grand Lodge of the United States. And shall have power to advise with the Editor and Agent under whose manangement such magazine and the business thereof may be placed, on all matters entrusted to them by the Grand Lodge. And in case of vacancy in either of the above offices, of Editor or Agent, by death, inability, or resignation, a majority of the said Board are empowered to fill the same, ad interem, until the next session of the Grand Lodge.

Resolved, That, at the time of the election of the Grand Officers, there shall be chosen, to serve for two years, one person who shall be a R. P. D. Past Grand in compliance, as Editor, and the same or another person of similar qualifications, as Agent.

Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the Editor to have exclusive charge of the editorial department of the official magazine, which shall be styled " The Covenant— the Official Magazine of the Grand Lodge of the United States, I. O. O. F.," and to select, arrange, and direct the publication of such original and other matter as it may be advisable to insert in it. And to engage such assistance in his department as may be deemed necessary.

Resolved, That it shall be the duty of the Agent to have charge of the business department of the Covenant, and in such capacity he shall hold in trust, for the Grand Lodge of the United States, the proprietorship of said magazine. He shall receive all moneys which may become due to the department, and pay the same over to the Grand Treasurer, monthly; he shall make all disbursements by drafts on the Grand Treasurer, countersigned by any member of the Board of Supervision. He shall keep regular accounts of the receipts and expenditures of his office; and render, annually, a report thereof to the Grand Lodge. He shall have power to appoint and change, at pleasure, all general and sub-agencies throughout the United States, and to employ such assistance in the publication office as may be required. And he shall give bond and security, in such form and amount as the Grand Sire may approve, conditioned for the faithful application of all property, funds, and effects of all kinds, that may pass into his possession by virtue of his said office, and for handing over whatever of the same may remain in his possession, to his successor in office.

Resolved, That the Agent is specially authorized and empowered to effect and conclude an arrangement with the proprietor of the publication known as "The Covenant," by which the prospective interest thereof, and all property therein, as a publication shall be obtained by said Agent, in trust for the Grand Lodge of the United States, on the terms and conditions following, viz: That, in consideration of the full and entire conveyance of all the prospective property and interest in the publication known as "The Covenant," to the Agent, in trust for the Grand Lodge of the United States, from the proprietor thereof, and on said proprietor binding himself, under the penalty of forfeiture of all advantages thereby accruing to him, in case he shall fail to perform the printing agreed upon, in such manner as shall be specifically provided, said Agent is hereby empowered to obligate the Grand Lodge of the United States to prefer the said proprietor as printer of all letter press printing, in the form of books, pamphlets, &c., and proceedings, in the English language, or character of letter; whenever the same may be done, without subjecting the Grand Lodge to inconvenience, (and to mail so much thereof as may be ordered by the Agent,) at the usual rate of prices for such description of work, for the term of three years. Provided, that the printing of the Annual Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the United States shall not be deferred for a longer period than thirty days after the adjournment of each session; and provided also, that the Grand Lodge at any time during the term of the contract authorized to be made by the Agent aforesaid, upon surrendering the said work to the said proprietor, shall be released thenceforth from the further compliance with the said contract, and shall be free to originate, if it should be deemed proper, any other Periodical or Magazine as its proper official organ.

Resolved, That "The Covenant" be published monthly, and be issued punctually on the first day of each month, and as simultaneously as possible throughout the United States. That it be printed with the best quality of type, on fine paper of the medium octavo form, and each number to contain forty eight pages of matter; and, so soon as sufficient ability is afforded from the proceeds, that it be embellished with such designs as may be approved of by the Grand Lodge of the United States, or the Board of Supervision. That the subscription price be fixed at two dollars per annum, if paid in advance; two dollars and fifty cents, if within six months; and three dollars, if not paid before the end of the year.

Resolved, That the Editor be authorized to employ an assistant Editor, whose joint salary shall not exceed $1000, and who shall defray all the expenses incident to edi ting the same other than postage.

Resolved, That a compensation of 25 per cent. upon the gross receipts from subscription be allowed to the General Agent, he paying all expenses attending the obtaining subscriptions, travelling expenses of himself and his sub-agents, also the compensation to such sub-agents. He being answerable for all the copies of the Covenant delivered to him or his agents, or on his order for subscribers, all of which are to be accounted for by him, either in money or by a return of the copies. All the expenses, such as postage, office rent, &c., to be paid by the receipts of the paper. Resolved, That the Grand Treasurer be and he is hereby directed to keep separate, the accounts of the moneys he may receive and disburse on account of the Cove

nant.

Rep. Leidy, of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on the State of the Order, made the following report, with the accompanying resolutions, which was accepted, and the resolutions were adopted.