Master for the
time being, granted to certain persons by petition, with the consent and
approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication. Ever since that time, no
lodge has been considered as legally established, unless it has been
constituted by the authority of the Grand Master. In the English
Constitutions, the instrument thus empowering a lodge to meet, is called,
when granted by the Grand Master, a Warrant of Constitution. It is granted
by the Grand Master and not by the Grand Lodge. It appears to be a final
instrument, notwithstanding the provision enacted in 1717, requiring the
consent and approbation of the Grand Lodge; for in the Constitution of the
United Grand Lodge of England, there is no allusion whatever to this
consent and approbation.

But in this country, the process is somewhat different, and the Grand
Master is deprived of a portion of his prerogative. Here, the instrument
granted by the Grand Master is called a Dispensation. The lodge receiving
it is not admitted into the register of lodges, nor is it considered as
possessing any of the rights and privileges of a lodge, except that of
making Masons, until a Warrant of Constitution is granted by the Grand
Lodge. The ancient prerogative of the Grand Master is, however, preserved
in the fact, that after a lodge has been thus warranted by the Grand
Lodge, the ceremony of constituting it, which embraces its consecration
and the installation of its officers, can only be performed by the Grand
Master in person, or by his special Deputy appointed for that purpose.[17]

III. The third prerogative of the Grand Master is that of visitation. He
has a right to visit any lodge within his jurisdiction at such times as he
pleases, and when there to preside; and it is the duty of the Master to
offer him the chair and his gavel, which the Grand Master may decline or
accept at his pleasure. This prerogative admits of no question, as it is
distinctly declared in the first of the Thirty-nine Regulations, adopted
in 1721, in the following words:--

"The Grand Master or Deputy has full authority and right, not only to be
present, but to preside in every lodge, with the Master of the lodge on
his left hand, and to order his Grand Wardens to attend him, who are not
to act as Wardens of particular lodges, but in his presence and at his
command; for the Grand Master, while in a particular lodge, may command
the Wardens of that lodge, or any other Master Masons, to act as his