The system of payment of lodge-dues does not by any means belong to the ancient usages of the fraternity.  It is a modern custom, established for purposes of convenience, and arising out of other modifications, in the organization of the Order.  It is not an obligation on the part of a Mason, to the institution at large, but is in reality a special contract, in which the only parties are a particular lodge and its members, of which the fraternity, as a mass, are to know nothing.  It is not presented by any general masonic law, nor any universal masonic precept.  No Grand Lodge has ever yet attempted to control or regulate it, and it is thus tacitly admitted to form no part of the general regulations of the Order.  Even in that Old Charge in which a lodge is described, and the necessity of membership in is enforced, not a word is said of the payment of arrears to it, or of the duty of contributing to its support.  Hence the non-payment of arrears is a violation of a special and voluntary contract with a lodge, and not of any general duty to the craft at large.  The corollary from all this is, evidently, that the punishment inflicted in such a case should be one affecting the relations of the delinquent with the particular lodge whose bye-laws he has infringed, and not a general one, affecting his relations with the whole Order.  After a consideration of all these circumstances, I am constrained to think that suspension from alodge, for non-payment of arrears, should only suspend the rights of the member as to his own lodge, but should not affect his right of visiting other lodges, nor any of the other privileges inherent in him as a Mason.  Such is not, I confess, the general opinion, or usage of the craft in this country, but yet I cannot but believe that it is the doctrine most consonant with the true spirit of the institution.  It is the practice pursued by the Grand Lodge of England, from which most of our Grand Lodges derive, directly or indirectly, their existence.  It is also the regulation of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.  The Grand Lodge of South Carolina expressly forbids suspension from the rights and benefits of Masonry for non-payment of dues, and the Grand Lodge of New York has a similar provision in its Constitution.

Of the two modes of exclusion from a lodge for non-payment of dues, namely, suspension and erasure, the effects are very different.  Suspension does not abrogate the connection between the member and his lodge, and places his rights in abeyance only.  Upon the payment of the debt, he is at once restored without other action of the lodge.  But erasure from the roll terminates all connection between the delinquent and the lodge, and he ceases to be a member of it.  Payment of the dues, simply, will not restore him; for it is necessary that he should again be elected by the Brethren, upon formal application.

The word exclusion has a meaning in England differing from that in which it has been used in the present section.  There the prerogative of expulsion is, as I think very rightly, exercised only by the Grand Lodge.  The term “expelled” is therefore used only when a Brother is removed from the craft, by the Grand Lodge.  The removal by a District Grand Lodge, or a subordinate lodge, is called “exclusion.”  The effect, however, of the punishment of exclusion, is similar to that which has been here advocated.