SECTION II.

THE POWERS OF LODGES WORKING UNDER WARRANTS OF CONSTITUTION.
The ritual defines a Lodge to be " an assemblage of Masons, duly congregated, having the Holy Bible, square and compasses, and a charter or warrant of constitution authorizing them to work." Now, the latter part of this definition is a modern addition,
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for anciently no such instrument as a warrant of constitution was required ; and hence ' tlie Old Charges describe a Lodge simply as " a duly organ- ized society of Masons."* Anciently, therefore, Masons met and performed the work of Masonry, organizing temporary Lodges, which were dissolved as soon as the work for which they had been con- gregated was completed, without the necessity of a warrant to legalize their proceedings. But in 1717, an organization of the Grand Lodge of England took place, at which time there were four Lodges existing in London, who thus met by inherent right as Masons. As soon as the organization of the Grand Lodge had been satisfactorily completed, the four Lodges adopted a code of thirty-nine Regulations, which, like the Magna Charta of the English barons, was intended, in all times there- after, to secure the rights and privileges of the fraternity from any undue assumptions of power on the part of the Grand Lodge. Having accomplished this preliminary measure, they then, as the legal representatives of the craft, surrendered, for them- selves and their successors, this inherent right of meeting into the hands of the Grand Lodge ; and the eighth Regulation then went into operation, which requires any number of Masons who wish to form a Lodge, to obtain, as a preparatory step5 the Grand Master's warrant or authority. f At
* See Old Charges in Anderson, first ed., p. 51.
t See the history of these events in Preston, (Oliver's ed.) pp. 182-185. Preston says that the warrant of the Grand Master required " the consent
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the same time other prerogatives, which had always vested in the craft, were, by the same regulations, surrendered to the Grand Lodge, so that the rela- tive position. of the Grand Lodge to its subordi- nates, and of the subordinate Lodges to the Grand Lodge, has, ever since the year 1717, been very dif- ferent from that which was previously held by the General Assembly or Annual Grand Lodge to the craft.
The first and the most important deduction that we make from this statement is, that whatever powers and prerogatives a Lodge may now possess, are those which have always been inherent in it by the Ancient Landmarks of the Order. No new powers have been created in it by the Grand Lodge. The Regulations of 1721 were a concession as well as a reservation* on the part of the subordinate Lodges. The Grand Lodge was established by the
and approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication, and he quotes a regulation to that effect ; but I find no such qualification in Anderson, or any of the subsequent editions of the Constitutions. The eighth Regulation dis- tinctly says that the petitioners " must obtain the Grand Master's warrant," without any subsequent allusion to the confirmatory action of the Grand Master. But as the Grand Lodge always exercised the prerogative of strik- ing Lodges off the registry, we may suppose that it had the power of a veto on the action of the Grand Lodge. Still the language of the Regulations of 1721 lead us everywhere to believe that a Lodge was completely constituted by the warrant of the Grand Master. Such still continues to be the regula- tion in England. Thus the modern Constitutions of the Grand Lodge o! England prescribe that a dispensation may be granted by the Provincial Grand Master, until " a warrant of constitution shall be signed by the Grand Master." — Const of G-. L. of Eng., p. 123. Bat in this country, as I have already shown, warrants must emanate from the Grand Lodge.
* A concession of some rights, such as that of granting warnnts, and a reservation of others, such as that of admitting members.
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fraternity for purposes of convenience in govern- ment. Whatever powers it possesses were yielded to it freely and by way of concession by the frater- nity, not as the representatives of the Lodges, but as the Lodges themselves, in general assembly con- vened.* The rights, therefore, which were conceded by the Lodges they have not, but whatever they did not concede, they have reserved to themselves, and they claim and exercise such rights, not by grant from the Grand Lodge, but as derived from the ancient Landmarks and the old Constitutions of the Order. This axiom must be constantly borne in mind, as it will be necessary for the elucidation of many points of Masonic law, concerning the rights and powers of subordinate Lodges.
In an inquiry into the rights and powers of a Lodge, it will be found that they may be succinctly considered under fourteen different heads. A Lodge has a right—