The question here arises, whether the dues of a suspended member to his lodge continue to accrue during his suspension?  I think they do not.  Dues or arrears are payments made to a lodge for certain rights and benefits—­the exercise and enjoyment of which are guaranteed to the member, in consideration of the dues thus paid.  But as by suspension, whether definite or indefinite, he is for the time deprived of these rights and benefits, it would seem unjust to require from him a payment for that which he does not enjoy.  I hold, therefore, that suspension from the rights and benefits of Masonry, includes also a suspension from the payment of arrears.

No one can be indefinitely suspended, unless after a due form of trial, and upon the vote of at least two-thirds of the members present.

Section VI.

Of Expulsion.[98]

Expulsion is the very highest penalty that can be inflicted upon a delinquent Mason.  It deprives the party expelled of all the masonic rights and privileges that he ever enjoyed, not only as a member of the lodge from which he has been ejected, but also of all those which were inherent in him as a member of the fraternity at large.  He is at once as completely divested of his masonic character as though he had never been admitted into the institution.  He can no longer demand the aid of his Brethren, nor require from them the performance of any of the duties to which he was formerly entitled, nor visit any lodge, nor unite in any of the public or private ceremonies of the Order.  No conversation on masonic subjects can be held with him, and he is to be considered as being completely without the pale of the institution, and to be looked upon in the same light as a profane, in relation to the communication of any masonic information.

It is a custom too generally adopted in this country, for subordinate lodges to inflict this punishment, and hence it is supposed by many, that the power of inflicting it is vested in the subordinate lodges.  But the fact is, that the only proper tribunal to impose this heavy penalty is a Grand Lodge.  A subordinate may, indeed, try its delinquent member, and if guilty declare him expelled.  But the sentence is of no force until the Grand Lodge, under whose jurisdiction it is working, has confirmed it.  And it is optional with the Grand Lodge to do so, or, as is frequently done, to reverse the decision and reinstate the Brother.  Some of the lodges in this country claim the right to expel independently of the action of the Grand Lodge, but the claim is not valid.  The very fact that an expulsion is a penalty, affecting the general relations of the punished party with the whole fraternity, proves that its exercise never could, with propriety, be intrusted to a body so circumscribed in its authority as a subordinate lodge.  Besides, the general practice of the fraternity is against it.  The English Constitutions vest the power to expel exclusively in the Grand Lodge.[99]