The subordinate lodge is the instrument which the Grand Lodge employs in
considering the investigation. It may or it may not make use of the
instrument, as it pleases.



Section IV.

_Of the Executive Power of a Grand Lodge._


The English Constitutions conclude, in the passage that has formed the
basis of our previous remarks, by asserting that "in the Grand Lodge,
alone, resides the power of erasing lodges and expelling Brethren from the
craft, a power which it ought not to delegate to any subordinate
authority." The power of the Grand Lodge to erase lodges is accompanied
with a coincident power of constituting new lodges. This power it
originally shared with the Grand Master, and still does in England; but in
this country the power of the Grand Lodge is paramount to that of the
Grand Master. The latter can only constitute lodges temporarily, by
dispensation, and his act must be confirmed, or may be annulled by the
Grand Lodge. It is not until a lodge has received its Warrant of
Constitution from the Grand Lodge, that it can assume the rank and
exercise the prerogatives of a regular and legal lodge.

The expelling power is one that is very properly intrusted to the Grand
Lodge, which is the only tribunal that should impose a penalty affecting
the relations of the punished party with the whole fraternity. Some of the
lodges in this country have claimed the right to expel independently of
the action of the Grand Lodge. But the claim is founded on an erroneous