_Of Finishing the Candidates of one Lodge in another._
It is an ancient and universal regulation, that no lodge shall interfere
with the work of another by initiating its candidates, or passing or
raising its Apprentices and Fellow Crafts. Every lodge is supposed to be
competent to manage its own business, and ought to be the best judge of
the qualifications of its own members, and hence it would be highly
improper in any lodge to confer a degree on a Brother who is not of its
household.
This regulation is derived from a provision in the Ancient Charges, which
have very properly been supposed to contain the fundamental law of
Masonry, and which prescribes the principle of the rule in the following
symbolical language:
"None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a Brother, nor supplant him
or put him out of his work, if he be capable to finish the same; for no
man can finish another's work, so much to the Lord's profit, unless he be
thoroughly acquainted with the designs and draughts of him that began it."
There is, however, a case in which one lodge may, by consent, legally
finish the work of another. Let us suppose that a candidate has been
initiated in a lodge at A----, and, before he receives his second degree,
removes to B----, and that being, by the urgency of his business, unable
either to postpone his departure from A----, until he has been passed and
raised, or to return for the purpose of his receiving his second and third
degrees, then it is competent for the lodge at A---- to grant permission
to the lodge at B---- to confer them on the candidate.
But how shall this permission be given--by a unanimous vote, or merely by
a vote of the majority of the members at A----? Here it seems to me that,
so far as regards the lodge at A----, the reasons for unanimity no longer
exist. There is here no danger that a "fractious member will be imposed on
them," as the candidate, when finished, will become a member of the lodge
at B----. The question of consent is simply in the nature of a
resolution, and may be determined by the assenting votes of a majority of
the members at A---. It is, however, to be understood, that if any Brother
believes that the candidate is unworthy, from character, of further
advancement, he may suspend the question of consent, by preferring charges
against him. If this is not done, and the consent of the lodge is
obtained, that the candidate may apply to the lodge at B---, then when his
petition is read in that lodge, it must, of course, pass through the usual
ordeal of a month's probation, and a unanimous vote; for here the old
reasons for unanimity once more prevail.
I know of no ancient written law upon this subject, but it seems to me
that the course I have described is the only one that could be suggested
by analogy and common sense.