order a reconsideration.

except by a new petition.

The result cannot be affected

Neither the Grand Master nor the Grand Lodge has the power, under any circumstances whatever, to order a reconsideration of a ballot. Everything concerning the admission or rejection of candidates is placed exclusively in the Lodge. This is "an inherent privilege, not subject to dispensation."

CHAPTER IV.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTION.

WHEN a candidate for initiation into the mysteries of Freemasonry has been rejected in the manner described in last chapter, he is necessarily and consequently placed in a position towards the fraternity which he had not before occupied, and which position requires some examination.

1. In the first place there can be no reconsideration of his application on a mere vote of reconsideration by the Lodge.

2. In the next place he cannot apply to any other Lodge for initiation. Having been once rejected by a certain Lodge, he is for ever debarred the privilege of applying to any other for admission. This law is implicitly derived from the Regulations, which forbid Lodges to interfere with each other's work. The candidate, as has been already observed, is to be viewed as "material brought up for the building of the temple." To investigate the fitness or unfitness of that material is a part of Masonic labour, and when a Lodge has commenced that labour, it is considered discourteous for any other to interfere with it. This sentiment of courtesy, which is in the true spirit of Masonry, is frequently inculcated in the ancient Masonic codes. Thus in the Gothic Constitutions, it is laid down that "a Brother shall not supplant his Fellow in the work;" the "ancient Charges at makings," adopted in the time of James II., also direct that "no Masters or Fellows supplant others of their work;" and the Charges approved in 1722 are still more explicit in directing that none shall attempt to finish the work begun by his Brother.

There is another and more practical reason why petitions

shall not, after rejection, be transferred to another Lodge. If such a course were admissible, it is evident that nothing would be easier than for a candidate to apply from Lodge to Lodge, until at last he might find one, less careful than others of the purity of the household, through whose too willing doors he could find admission into that Order, from which the justly scrupulous care of more stringent Lodges had previously debarred him. The laws of Masonry have therefore wisely declared that a candidate, having once been rejected, can apply to no other Lodge for admission, except the one which has rejected him.

3. A candidate who has been rejected may, however, again apply to the Lodge which has rejected him. The ancient laws of the Order are entirely silent as to the time when this new application is to be made. Where there is no specified local Regulation on the subject, it is competent for the candidate to re-apply at any subsequent regular communication. In such a case, however, he must apply by an entirely new petition, which must again be vouched for and recommended as in the original application, by the same or other brethren; must be again referred to a committee of inquiry on character; must lie over for one month, and then be balloted for precisely as it was before. The treatment of this new petition must be, in all respects, as if no former petition existed. The necessary notice will in this way be given to all the brethren, and if there are the same objections to receiving the candidate as existed in the former trial, there will be ample opportunity for expressing them in the usual way by the black ball. It may be objected that in this way a Lodge may be harassed by the repeated petitions of an importunate candidate. This, it is true, may sometimes be the case; but this "argumentum ab inconveniente" can be of no weight, since it may be met by another argument of equal or greater force, that if it were not for this provision of a second petition, many good men who had perhaps been unjustly refused admission, and for whose rejection the Lodge might naturally feel regret, would be without redress. Circumstances may occur in which a

rejected candidate may, on a renewal of his petition, be found worthy of admission. He may have since reformed and abandoned the vices which had originally caused his rejection, or it may be that the Lodge has since found that it was in error, and in his rejection had committed an act of injustice. It is wisely provided, therefore, that, to meet such cases, the candidate is permitted to present a renewed petition, and to pass through a second or even a third and fourth ordeal. If it prove favourable in its results, the injustice to him is compensated for; but if it again prove unfavourable, no evil has been done to the Lodge, and the candidate is just where he was before his renewed application.

All that has been here said refers exclusively to the petitions of profanes for initiation. The law which relates to the applications of Master Masons for admission into a Lodge as members, will be considered when we come to treat of the rights and duties of Master Masons.

The subject of balloting, on application for each of the degrees, or the advancement of candidates from a lower to a higher degree, will also be more appropriately referred to in the succeeding Part, which will be devoted to the consideration of the Initiation, and more especially to that part of it which treats of the rights of Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts.

PART III.

LAWS RELATING TO INITIATION.

CHAPTER I.

INITIATION.

1. Preparation of the Candidate.-The ballot having proved favourable, the candidate, who is usually in attendance, may then be prepared for initiation. But as there are frequently more candidates than one in the anteroom, and the initiations ought to be conducted singly, it is very desirable, although there is no direct prohibition on the subject, that one candidate should not be allowed to witness the preparation of another. There are cases in which it might excite some unpleasantness of feeling, that would deteriorate the effects of his own initiation; and as all the ceremonies of Freemasonry are, or ought to be, conducted with the utmost solemnity and decorum, being founded on the preliminary avowal of a belief in the being of a God. and in a future state, no laxity of discipline or levity of conduct which may have the most indirect tendency to embarrass the candidate or alienate his thoughts into an improper channel, should be mixed up with the complicated and serious rites that attend his introduction into the consecrated Lodge.

2. The Making.-No person can be legally initiated into Masonry except in a chartered Lodge, at a duly summoned meeting of the brethren, whether regular or emergent,