to come to such conclusion as they may think
just and fit; for to say that they, after all their deliberations, are, to
vote only in one way, would be too absurd to require any consideration.
They may, therefore, decide that A.B., having undergone the sentence of
the lodge, shall be restored, and then of course all would be well, and no
more is to be said. But suppose that they decide otherwise, and say that
A.B., having undergone the sentence of suspension of three months, _shall
not_ be restored, but must remain suspended until further orders. Here,
then, a party would have been punished a second time for the same offense,
and that, too, after having suffered what, at the time of his conviction,
was supposed to be a competent punishment--and without a trial, and
without the necessary opportunities of defense, again found guilty, and
his comparatively light punishment of suspension for three months changed
into a severer one, and of an indefinite period. The annals of the most
arbitrary government in the world--the history of the most despotic tyrant
that ever lived--could not show an instance of more unprincipled violation
of law and justice than this. And yet it may naturally be the result of
the doctrine, that in a sentence of definite suspension, the party can be
restored only by a vote of the lodge at the expiration of his term of
suspension. If the lodge can restore him, it can as well refuse to restore
him, and to refuse to restore him would be to inflict a new punishment
upon him for an old and atoned-for offense.

On the 1st of January, for instance, A.B., having been put upon his trial,
witnesses having been examined, his defense having been heard, was found
guilty by his lodge of some offense, the enormity of which, whatever it
might be, seemed to require a suspension from Masonry for just three
months, neither more nor less. If the lodge had thought the crime still
greater, it would, of course, we presume, have decreed a suspension of
six, nine, or twelve months. But considering, after a fair, impartial, and
competent investigation of the merits of the case (for all this is to be
presumed), that the offended law would be satisfied with a suspension of
three months, that punishment is decreed. The court is adjourned _sine
die_; for it has done all that is required--the prisoner undergoes his
sentence with becoming contrition, and the time having expired, the bond
having been paid, and the debt satisfied, he i