J14
OF UNAFFILIATED MASONS.
for affiliation or non-affiliation has no relation to these duties. But it has been said that non-affiliation is a }'Iasonic offence, and that he who is guilty of it is an unworthy Mason, and as such divested of all his rights. It is admitted, most ,freely, that non-affiliation is a violation of positive Masonic law; but ,it does not follow that, in the technical sense in which alone the word has any Masonic legal meaning, an unaffiliated MaBon is an unworthy Mason. He can only be made 80: by the declaration, in 'his particular case, of a legally constituted Lodge, after due trial and conviction. But this question is so well argued by the Committee on Jurisprudence of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, that I do not hesitate to cite their Ian¡ guage. "All who have spoken or written upon the Bubject, proclaim him [the unaffiliated Mason] an unworthy Mason; bnt they, and ten times their number, do not make him so, in their individual relation, for the obvious reason that he can~ not," individually, absolve himself from such duties as he owes to the institution; so' the fraternity, acting in thoir individual capacity, cannQt absolve themselves from their duties to him.;, and as it is only by a just and legal Lodge, acting in its chartered capacity, and under the injunctiolls of the Constitutions., of Masonry and By-Laws of Grand Lodges, that he can be' invested with the rights and benefits fIl Masonry, and pronounced worthy; so it is only by the same power, acting in the same charaeter,and under the &aIne restrictions, ,that he can be disfJ:anchise<1 of :these ri:~~ta and benefits, and pronounced untDor]4:Y...;"*., . â&#x20AC;˘ Bep6rt, ~ lL