A few Grand Lodges have denied the right of a Mason permanently to demit from the Order.  Texas, for instance, has declared that “it does not recognize the right of a Mason to demit or separate himself from the lodge in which he was made, or may afterwards be admitted, except for the purpose of joining another lodge, or when he may be about to remove without the jurisdiction of the lodge of which he may be a member."[93] A few other Grand Lodges have adopted a similar regulation; but the prevailing opinion of the authorities appears to be, that it is competent to interfere with the right to demit, certain rights and prerogatives being, however, lost by such demission.

Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, and one or two other Grand Lodges, while not positively denying the right of demission, have at various times levied a tax or contribution on the demitted or unaffiliated Masons within their respective jurisdictions.  This principle, however, has also failed to obtain the general concurrence of other Grand Lodges, and some of them, as Maryland, have openly denounced it.  After a careful examination of the authorities, I cannot deny to any man the right of withdrawing, whensoever he pleases, from a voluntary association—­the laws of the land would not sustain us in the enforcement of such a regulation; and our own self-respect should prevent us from attempting it.  If, then, he has a right to withdraw, it clearly follows that we have no right to tax him, which is only one mode of inflicting a fine or penalty for an act, the right to do which we have acceded.  In the strong language of the Committee of Correspondence of Maryland:[94] “The object of Masonry never was to extort, nolens volens, money from its votaries.  Such are not its principles or teaching.  The advocating such doctrines cannot advance the interest or reputation of the institution; but will, as your committee fear, do much to destroy its usefulness.  Compulsive membership deprives it of the title, Free and Accepted.”

But as it is an undoubted precept of the Order that every Mason should belong to a lodge, and contribute, so far as his means will allow, to the support of the institution, and as, by his demission, for other than temporary purposes, he violates the principles and disobeys the precepts of the Order, it naturally follows that his withdrawal must place him in a different position from that which he would occupy as an affiliated Mason.  It is now time for us to inquire what that new position is.

We may say, then, that, whenever a Mason permanently withdraws his membership, he at once, and while he continues unaffiliated, dissevers all connection between himself and the Lodge organization of the Order.  He, by this act, divests himself of all the rights and privileges which belong to him as a member of that organization.  Among these rights and privileges are those of visitation, of pecuniary aid, and of masonic burial.  Whenever he approaches the door of a