But, if the Grand Master has the power thus to enable others to confer the degrees and make Masons by his individual authority out of his presence, are we not permitted to argue a fortiori that he has also the right of congregating seven Brethren and causing a Mason, to be made in his sight?  Can he delegate a power to others which he does not himself possess?  And is his calling together “an occasional lodge,” and making, with the assistance of the Brethren thus assembled, a Mason “at sight,” that is to say, in his presence, anything more or less than the exercise of his dispensing power, for the establishment of a lodge under dispensation, for a temporary period, and for a special purpose.  The purpose having been effected, and the Mason having been made, he revokes his dispensation, and the lodge is dismissed.  If we assumed any other ground than this, we should be compelled to say, that though the Grand Master might authorise others to make Masons, when he was absent, as in the usual case of lodges under dispensation yet the instant that he attempted to convey the same powers to be exercised in his presence, and under his personal supervision, his authority would cease.  This course of reasoning would necessarily lead to a contradiction in terms, if not to an actual absurdity.

It is proper to state, in conclusion, that the views here set forth are not entertained by the very able Committee of Foreign Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Florida, who only admit the power of the Grand Master to make Masons in the Grand Lodge.  On the other hand, the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, at its last communication, adopted a report, asserting “that the Grand Master has the right to make Masons at sight, in cases which he may deem proper”—­and the Committee of Correspondence of New York declares, that “since the time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, Grand Masters have enjoyed the privilege of making Masons at sight, without any preliminaries, and at any suitable time or place.”

The opinions of the two last quoted Grand Lodges embody the general sentiment of the Craft on this subject.[25] But although the prerogative is thus almost universally ceded to Grand Masters, there are many very reasonable doubts as to the expediency of its exercise, except under extraordinary circumstances of emergency.

In England, the practice has generally been confined to the making of Princes of the Royal Family, who, for reasons of state, were unwilling to reduce themselves to the level of ordinary candidates and receive their initiation publicly in a subordinate lodge.