stitution, and tend to impair its
usefulness. A Mason who is a bad man, is to the fraternity what a
mortified limb is to the body, and should be treated with the same mode of
cure--he should be cut off, lest his example spread, and disease be
propagated through the constitution.

The punishment of expulsion can only be inflicted after a due course of
trial, and upon the votes of at least two-thirds of the members present,
and should always be submitted for approval and confirmation to the Grand
Lodge.

One question here arises, in respect not only to expulsion but to the
other masonic punishments, of which I have treated in the preceding
sections:--Does suspension or expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons, an Encampment of Knights Templar, or any other of what are called
the higher degrees of Masonry, affect the relations of the expelled party
to Symbolic or Ancient Craft Masonry? I answer, unhesitatingly, that it
does not, and for reasons which, years ago, I advanced, in the following
language, and which appear to have met with the approval of the most of my
contemporaries:--

"A chapter of Royal Arch Masons, for instance, is not, and cannot be,
recognized as a masonic body, by a lodge of Master Masons. 'They hear them
so to be, but they do not know them so to be,' by any of the modes of
recognition known to Masonry. The acts, therefore, of a Chapter cannot be
recognized by a Master Masons' lodge, any more than the acts of a literary
or charitable society wholly unconnected with the Order. Again: By the
present organization of Freemasonry, Grand Lodges are the supreme masonic
tribunals. If, therefore, expulsion from a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons
involved expulsion from a Blue Lodge, the right of the Grand Lodge to hear
and determine causes, and to regulate the internal concerns of the
institution, would be interfered with by another body beyond its control.
But the converse of this proposition does not hold good. Expulsion from a
Blue Lodge involves expulsion from all the higher degrees; because, as
they are composed of Blue Masons, the members could not of right sit and
hold communications on masonic subjects with one who was an expelled
Mason."[100]

Chapter III.

Of Masonic Trials.

Having thus discussed the penalties which are affixed to masonic offenses,
we are next to inquire into the process of trial by which a lodge
determines on the guilt or innocence of the accused. This subject will