IV.  Another prerogative of the Grand Master is that of appointment; which, however, in this country, has been much diminished.  According to the old regulations, and the custom is still continued in the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Master has the right of appointing his Deputy and Wardens.  In the United States, the office has been shorn of this high prerogative, and these Officers are elected by the Grand Lodge.  The Deputy, however, is still appointed by the Grand Master, in some of the States, as Massachusetts, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas.  The appointment of the principal subordinate officers, is also given to the Grand Master by the American Grand Lodges.

V. The last and most extraordinary power of the Grand Master, is that of making Masons at sight.

The power to “make Masons at sight” is a technical term, which may be defined to be the power to initiate, pass, and raise candidates by the Grand Master, in a lodge of emergency, or as it is called in the Book of Constitutions, “an occasional lodge,” especially convened by him, and consisting of such Master Masons as he may call together for that purpose only—­the lodge ceasing to exist as soon as the initiation, passing, or raising, has been accomplished and the Brethren have been dismissed by the Grand Master.

Whether such a power is vested in the Grand Master, is a question that, within the last few years, has been agitated with much warmth, by some of the Grand Lodges of this country; but I am not aware that, until very lately, the prerogative was ever disputed.[18]

In the Book of Constitutions, however, several instances are furnished of the exercise of this right by various Grand Masters.

In 1731, Lord Lovel being Grand Master, he “formed an occasional lodge at Houghton Hall, Sir Robert Walpole’s House in Norfolk,” and there made the Duke of Lorraine, afterwards Emperor of Germany, and the Duke of Newcastle, Master Masons.[19]

I do not quote the case of the initiation, passing, and raising of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1737, which was done in “an occasional lodge,” over which Dr. Desaguliers presided,[20] because as Desaguliers was not the Grand Master, nor even, as has been incorrectly stated by the New York Committee of Correspondence, Deputy Grand Master, but only a Past Grand Master, it cannot be called a making at sight.  He most probably acted under the dispensation of the Grand Master, who at that time was the Earl of Darnley.

But in 1766, Lord Blaney, who was then Grand Master, convened “an occasional lodge” and initiated, passed, and raised the Duke of Gloucester.[21]

Again in 1767, John Salter, the Deputy, then acting as Grand Master, convened “an occasional lodge,” and conferred the three degrees on the Duke of Cumberland.[22]

In 1787, the Prince of Wales was made a Mason “at an occasional lodge, convened,” says Preston, “for the purpose, at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, over which the Duke of Cumberland, (Grand Master) presided in person."[23]