The Master must be installed by a Past Master,[39] but after his own installation he has the power to install the rest of the officers.  The ceremony of installation is not a mere vain and idle one, but is productive of important results.  Until the Master and Wardens of a lodge are installed, they cannot represent the lodge in the Grand Lodge, nor, if it be a new lodge, can it be recorded and recognized on the register of the Grand Lodge.  No officer can permanently take possession of the office to which he has been elected, until he has been duly installed.[40] The rule of the craft is, that the old officer holds on until his successor is installed, and this rule is of universal application to officers of every grade, from the Tiler of a subordinate lodge, to the Grand Master of Masons.

Every lodge that has been duly constituted, and its officers installed, is entitled to be represented in the Grand Lodge, and to form, indeed, a constituent part of that body.[41] The representatives of a lodge are its Master and two Wardens.[42] This character of representation was established in 1718, when the four old lodges, which organized the Grand Lodge of England, agreed “to extend their patronage to every lodge which should hereafter be constituted by the Grand Lodge, according to the new regulations of the society; and while such lodges acted in conformity to the ancient constitutions of the Order, to admit their Masters and Wardens to share with them all the privileges of the Grand Lodge, excepting precedence of rank."[43] Formerly all Master Masons were permitted to sit in the Grand Lodge, or, as it was then called, the General Assembly, and represent their lodge; and therefore this restricting the representation to the three superior officers was, in fact, a concession of the craft.  This regulation is still generally observed; but I regret to see a few Grand Lodges in this country innovating on the usage, and still further confining the representation to the Masters alone.

The Master and Wardens are not merely in name the representatives of the lodge, but are bound, on all questions that come before the Grand Lodge, truly to represent their lodge, and vote according to its instructions.  This doctrine is expressly laid down in the General Regulations, in the following words:  “The majority of every particular lodge, when congregated, not else, shall have the privilege of giving instructions to their Master and Wardens, before the meeting of the Grand Chapter, or Quarterly Communication; because the said officers are their representatives, and are supposed to speak the sentiments of their Brethren at the said Grand Lodge."[44]

Every lodge has the power to frame bye-laws for its own government, provided they are not contrary to, nor inconsistent with, the general regulations of the Grand Lodge; nor the landmarks of the order.[45] But these bye-laws will not be valid, until they are submitted to and approved by the Grand Lodge.  And this is the case, also, with every subsequent alteration of them, which must in like manner be submitted to the Grand Lodge for its approval.