"In December of the same year, 1840, he was without any solicitation or expectancy on his part, appointed to the important and responsible office of C.S. of the North London District, which he still holds, with credit to himself and the unanimous satisfaction of the Lodges. His first step was consistent. He reduced his own financial precepts to practice, and with such success, that though for many quarters the Auditors appointed were persons theoretically opposed to him, and consequently lynx-eyed for the detection of mistake, the accounts have in every instance been pronounced without error. A wide-spread confidence in the affairs of the District sprung up. On C.S. Roe's appointment, the District numbered but 10 Lodges and 500 Members-since which time 100 new Lodges have been added, and now the District boasts of 7,000 Members. Of course others have taken part in producing this flattering augmentation, but how honourable a share C.S. Roe had in it, the District itself testified in 1843, by presenting him with a valuable gold watch, as a mark of appreciation of his services. And it is not easy to estimate too high the value of the arithmetical reform which he instituted. Money is not more the sinew of war than is accuracy in accounts the sinew of confidence, wherever pounds shillings and pence are concerned. A safe Actuary is the soul of a Provident and Benevolent Society.

"These qualities achieved for Mr. Roe distinction in a wider sphere. He has been elected to represent the North London District at the A. M. C's. held at the Isle of Man, Wigan, Bradford, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Bristol, and is now appointed to attend the ensuing one at Oxford. Three A. M. C's. have appointed him a Director of the Order, and during three successive years he has been one of the Trustees of the Unity. These duties have ever been discharged with honour to himself. His practical good sense secures him the respect of his Fellow Directors and the attention of the Annual Meetings.

"No man has juster notions than James Roe of the vast powers of combination, whether for good or evil, possessed by the Manchester Unity, and no one is more honestly resolved to direct them wisely. He is one of the acknowledged opponents of ignoble content with partial good and evident imperfection, and ranks with the foremost friends of temperate and judicious progression, and he has creditably identified himself with the great measures of equalized representation and sound financial reform.

"That useful principle enunciated in one of the Ethical "Lectures" recently adopted by the Order-that moral worth lies in the continuity of a man's proper duties well fulfilled-is strikingly illustrated in the character of James Roe. No man knows better what it is expected that as an officer he should know. With the laws and usages of the Order he is well acquainted. Such is his familiarity with them that by some of his friends he is pleasantly styled the "Follett of the District"-the late Sir William Follett seeming not to be more at home in the jurisprudence of the British Empire, than C. S. Roe in the Manchester Unity. He is frequently made an umpire in disputed cases, and the confidence placed in his decisions reflects credit on his judgment and intellectual habits. It is known that he will thoroughly examine both sides of the question. From his verdict there has seldom if ever been an appeal; and in declaring his opinion he so happily combines the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re that justice and fraternity are both maintained.

"An attractive characteristic of James Roe in his evident honesty. You feel at once that there is no reserve about him. His friendly offices are all frank. He never stoops to finesse. When he rises to speak, you perceive that he is going to speak what he thinks. He may be in the wrong, but he has no double meanings. He never means but one thing, and that the right one. And if an error in his conceptions is pointed out to him, he has the courage and manliness to own and correct it at once. With him "Friendship, Love, and Truth" are not so many words learned by rote to be given with "quick fire"-or

to round periods with at annual dinners-but words of sincere import, breathing their influence over thought and conduct. These are the men who give freshness to society, and we turn from the din of "cheers" and blaze of eulogy, too often won by clap-trap and hollow profession, as from an unhealthy excitement, and seek the wholesome company and converse of the less glittering, but the more estimable-the unassuming, the frank, and the true."

To complete this biography we may add, that the steady course of James Roe in the order continued to the close of his useful life. At the subsequent A.M.C.'s held at Oxford, Southampton, Blackburn, Halifax, and Dublin, he was continued in the office of Director. At Carlisle, in 1852, he was elected D.G.M. of the order, and the following year at Preston, succeeded to the proudest position that can be attained by an Odd-Fellow-he became Grand Muster of the Manchester Unity.

In 1854, he remained a Member of the Executive as Past Grand Master. At the A.M.C. held at Durham in the following year, he was again elected a Member of the Board of Directors; and, at the banquet, as some acknowledgment of his great services to the Unity, as one of the principal movers in obtaining the passing of the act which has enabled the order to become a legalized Institution of the country, he was presented with a purse containing one hundred guineas. He continued a Director to the close of his life, not unfrequently being elected at the head of the poll. The deceased for many years also held the honourable position of Trustee to the order, which office becomes vacant by his death. We believe there is but one other instance of a member of the Board of Directors, whilst in office, having been removed by the hand of death-the late Mr. Edward Powell, of the Potteries and the Newcastle District, having died on the 31st May, 1848, whilst holding the office D.G.M. of the order. It would be unjust to the memory of the deceased to pass over the services rendered by James Roe, as Parliameutary Agent to the order; for years he watched the course of Parliament in reference to Friendly Societies. Ever watchful that no absurd or mischievous Bill should become law-his constant attendance at the House when any measure for regulating these societies was under discussion, the information he afforded to many members of both Houses of Parliament with regard to the probable effects of the proposed measure, we feel persuaded, prevented the passing of obnoxious clauses, which would have proved most vexatious to Friendly Societies. It remains for us to say that the mortal remains of James Roe were interred on Sunday, December 1st, in the Great Northern Cemetery, Colney Hatch. Upwards of 2,000 members being present with the sorrowing relatives of the deceased.

James Roe has left a widow and two Children, a son and daughter to mourn their irreparable loss. We are not sufficiently informed to speak with certainty; but it may be that the Unity may have an opportunity of testifying their appre ciation of the worth of the departed. The last moments of James Roe were, perhaps, cheered with the consciousness that his widow and fatherless children, if in need, would not be forgotten by that Unity he had served so well. The writer of this humble but sincere tribute to his memory can testify how the deceased, with warm heart and open hand, was ever ready to relieve and cheer the sorrowing ones who had claims upon the sympathy of the members of our great Unity.

A brother and kind friend is lost to us for ever. May the memory of his useful and blameless life he cherished throughout the order, and serve as an incentive to those who may succeed him to walk in the path which he trod with unswerving truth and unbending integrity and honour.