356
WORSHIPFUL KASTER.
a L&dge under dispensation, who, as the special proxy of the Grand M.aster, and deriving all his powers immediately from that high officer, as well &s exercising them only for a specific purpose, is exonerated from the operation of the rule.Nol is it requisite that the degree should be a second time conferred on a Master who has been reelected, and who at his previous installation had received it, although a number of years may have elapsed. When once conferred, its effects are for life. Now, as it is the duty of every Mason to oppose the exercise by any person of the functions and prerogatives of an office until he bas been legally in.. stalled, the question here suggests itself, how shall a Master Mason, not being himself in possession of the degree, know when it has not Qeen conferred upon a Master elect? To this the reply is, that if the elected路 Master attempts to assume tile chair, without having undergone any semblance of an installation, the greater part of which, it will be recollected, is performed before the members of the Lodge, it must follow that. lIe cannot have received the Past Master's degree, which constitutes a part ')f the ceremony of installation. But;, if he has been installed, no matter how carelessly or incorrectly, it is to be presumed that the degree has been confer" red and the installation completed, unless positive ~vidence be furnished that it has not, because in Masonry as in law, the maxim .hoids good that U all things shall be presumed to have ~een OOlA8