e usages are founded, draw no
distinction between the act of making a Mason and admitting a member. The
two processes are disjunctively connected in the language of both
regulations. "No man can be made, _or admitted a member_ * * * * without
previous notice one month before;" are the words of the Fifth Regulation.
And in a similar spirit the Sixth adds: "But no man can be entered a
Brother in any particular lodge, _or admitted to be a member_ thereof,
without the unanimous consent of all the members of that lodge."

None but Master Masons are permitted to apply for affiliation; and every
Brother so applying must bring to the lodge to which he applies a
certificate of his regular dismission from the lodge of which he was last
a member. This document is now usually styled a "demit," and should
specify the good standing of the bearer at the time of his resignation or
demission.

Under the regulations of the various Grand Lodges of this country, a
profane cannot, as has been already observed, apply for initiation in any
other lodge than the one nearest to his residence. No such regulation,
however, exists in relation to the application of a Mason for
affiliation. Having once been admitted into the Order, he has a right to
select the lodge with which he may desire to unite himself. He is not even
bound to affiliate with the lodge in which he was initiated, but after
being raised, may leave it, without signing the bye-laws, and attach
himself to another.

A profane, having been rejected by a lodge, can never apply to any other
for initiation. But a Mason, having been rejected, on his application for
affiliation, by a lodge, is not thereby debarred from subsequently making
a similar application to any other.

In some few jurisdictions a local regulation has of late years been
enacted, that no Mason shall belong to more than one lodge. It is, I
presume, competent for a Grand Lodge to enact such a regulation; but where
such enactment has not taken place, we must be governed by the ancient and
general principle.

The General Regulations, adopted in 1721, contain no reference to this
case; but in a new regulation, adopted on the 19th February, 1723, it was
declared that "no Brother shall belong to more than one lodge within the
bills of mortality." This rule was, therefore, confined to the lodges in
the city of London, and did not affect the country lodges. Still,
restricted as it was in its operation, Anderson remarks, "thi