SECTION IV.

SUSPENSION.
We have now arrived, in the course of our in- vestigations, at a class of punishments which affect the standing in the Order of the persons upon whom they are inflicted. Of these the least, and therefore the first to be considered, is suspension.
Suspension may be defined to be a temporary privation of the rights and privileges of Masonry. This privation may be for a fixed or an indetermi- nate period, whence results the division of this class of punishments into two kinds — definite and indefi- nite. The effect of the penalty is, for the time that it lasts, the same in both kinds ; but as there are some differences in the mode in which restoration to rights is to be effected in each, a separate con- sideration will be required.
Definite Suspension. — By definite suspension, is meant a deprivation of the rights and privileges of Masonry for a fixed period of time, which period is always named in the sentence. By the operation of this penalty, a Mason is for the time prohibited from the exercise of all his Masonic privileges. His rights are placed in abeyance, and he can neither visit Lodges, hold Masonic communication,
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nor receive fraternal relief, during the period for which he has been suspended.
But he is still a Mason. By suspension, as by the " relegatio" of the Roman law, Masonic citizenship is not lost, although the exercise of its rights, and duties is temporarily interdicted. And therefore, as soon as the period^ limited by the sentence has expired, the Mason at once resumes his former posi- tion in the Order, and is reinvested with all his. Ma- sonic rights, whether those rights be of a private or of an official nature.
Thus, if an officer of a Lodge has been suspended for three months from all the rights and privileges of Masonry, a suspension of his official functions also takes place. But a suspension from the dis- charge of the functions of an office is not a depriva- tion of the office ; and therefore, as soon as the three months to which the suspension had been limited have expired, the brother resumes all his rights in the Order and the Lodge, and with them, of course, the office which he had held at the time that the sentence of suspension had been inflicted.
No sentence of suspension can be imposed upon any Mason, except after the most solemn forms of trial, ami then only by the concurring vote of two- thirds of the members present.
It is impossible to define, in a work on the gene- ral principles of law, what is the nature and degree of the offences for which suspension would be con- sidered as an appropriate punishment. The Grand Lodge of New York has declared that it is only to 23
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be inflicted " where the offence is against some police or temporary regulation of the fraternity.7'*
If any rule is to be prescribed on the subject, this is perhaps the best ; but in fact, the apportionment of the punishment to the crime, in all violations of the Masonic law, is to be left to the sound discre- tion of the Lodge which has tried the case ; and in every trial there will, of necessity, appear many qualifying circumstances peculiar to each transac- tion, which must control and direct the court in its infliction of punishment.
Restoration from definite suspension may take place in two ways. First, by a vote of the Lodge, abridging the period of suspension and restoring the party before the term of suspension has expired. This may be considered in the light of a pardon ; and this clemency it is the prerogative of the Lodge to exercise, under the necessary restrictions that the restoration is made at a regular communication of the Lodge, and by a vote of two-thirds of those present ; for, as it required that number to impose the sentence, it will not be competent for a less number to reverse it. But due notice, at least one month previously, should be given of the intention to move for a restoration, because the reversal of a sentence is an unusual action, and the members will, by such notice, be enabled to be present and to ex- press their views, while a sudden motion, without due notice, would take the Lodge by surprise, and surprises are as contrary to the spirit of Masonic as they are of Municipal law.
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In the next place, and this is the most usual mode, restoration from definite suspension results from the natural expiration of the period fixed by the sen- tence. Thus, if on the 1st day of January, a mem- ber be suspended for three months, that is to say, until the 1st day of April, then on the 1st of April, he at once, and by the mere operation of the law, becomes a restored Mason. No vote of the Xodge is necessary ; for its previous action, which had de- clared him to be suspended until the 1st of April, included the fact that he was not to be suspended any longer 5* and therefore, on the 2d of April, he is, by the expiration of his sentence, in good stand- ing. No vote of the Lodge is therefore necessary to restore one, who has been definitely suspended, at the expiration of his sentence ; but he at once, by the very terms of that sentence, takes his place as a Mason restored to all his rights.
In former works, I had very elaborately con- sidered the question, but it is scarcely necessary to repeat, in this place, anything more than the gene- ral conclusion ; and besides, I confess that there is some difficulty in adducing arguments to prove that suspension for three months means suspension for three months, and no more. It is difficult to prove all truisms. The ingenious logician may find it a pleasant task to establish some doubtful thesis, but an irksome one to prove that " white is white and
* E.tpressio unius est exclusio alterius — the express mention of one thing implies the exclusion of another. A sentence of suspension for three months excludes the idea of a suspension for even a day longer.
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black is black." The learned mathematician will delight in demonstrating some abstruse proposition, but will scarcely know how to establish the fact that " things which are equal to the same thing, are equal to each other." So is it equally tedious and unsatisfactory to show, by special arguments, that when the sentence of a Lodge is, that " A B shall be suspended for three months,77 it means anything more than that, at the expiration of the three months, the suspension shall determine and cease.
Indefinite Suspension. — Indefinite suspension, as the qualifying word imports, is a suspension for a period not determined and fixed by the sentence, but to continue during the pleasure of the Lodge. In this respect only does it differ from the preced- ing punishment. The position of a Mason, under definite or indefinite suspension, is precisely the same as to the exercise of all his rights and privi- leges, which in both cases remain in abeyance, and restoration in each brings with it a resumption of all the rights and functions, the exercise of which had been interrupted by the sentence of suspension.
There is, however, a shade of difference between the two punishments — indefinite suspension being inflicted for offences of a more aggravated nature than those for which the penalty of definite sus- pension is prescribed. It must, of course, be the result of conviction, after due charges and trial, and can only be inflicted by a vote of two-thirds of the members present.
Restoration of an indefinitely suspended member
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is always by a resolution of the Lodge, and by a vote of two-thirds. This seems to be an un question able principle of law ; for when a member has been indefinitely suspended, the very word " indefinitely" implies that he may, at any time thereafter, whether it be one month or one year, be restored. No time for his restoration is specified in the terms of the sentence. He is indefinitely suspended — suspended for an uncertain period — that is, during the pleasure of the Lodge. And therefore I hold, that at any regular communication, it is competent for a mem- ber to move for a restoration, which motion may be adopted by a concurring vote of two-thirds of the members present.
In this case no previous notice of the intention to move for a restoration is necessary, because no member has a right to plead, that by such a motion he is taken by surprise. The very terms of the sen- tence of indefinite suspension include the fact that the sentence may, at any time, be terminated by the action of the Lodge. Due notice of a regular com- munication is supposed to be given to every mem- ber ; and the fact that it is a regular communication is in itself a notice by the by-laws. The restoration of a Mason, suspended for a definite period, before the expiration of his term of sentence, is something that no member has a right to expect ; and there- fore, as I have already said, a motion for such resto- ration might act as a surprise. But a member indefinitely suspended is suspended during the plea- sure of the Lodge, and it is competent for the Lodge,
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at any time, to declare that such suspension shall terminate. While, however, such is the legal prin- ciple, it is not to be denied that Masonic comity should induce any member about to propose a mo- tion for restoration, to give timely notice of his in- tention to his brethren, and. the restoration itself will be of a much more honorable character when thus made, after due notice, mature consideration, and in a full Lodge, than when suddenly granted, upon a moment's notice, and perhaps at a thinly attended meeting.
Do the annual dues of a member under suspension continue to accrue during his suspension ? I should say, clearly not. Dues are paid by members to their Lodges for the enjoyment and exercise of certain rights which pertain to membership. If the exer- cise of these rights is prohibited, it seems but an equitable conclusion that payment for the exercise of the rights should be suspended with the suspen- sion of the rights themselves. No man should be made to pay for that which he docs not receive.
This view is practically adopted everywhere in the case of indefinite suspension ; for the Secretary invariably abstains from continuing his account with an indefinitely suspended member, and I see no reason why a different rule should be adopted in reference to members under definite suspension. The two penalties differ only in respect to the ex- tent of time for which they are inflicted, and in the forms to be pursued in acquiring restoration. In all other respects they are precisely alike, and are to be governed by the same principles.
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