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
Wardens, _pro tempore_."

But in a subsequent regulation it was provided, that as the Grand Master
cannot deprive the Grand Wardens of that office without the consent of the
Grand Lodge, he should appoint no other persons to act as Wardens in his
visitation to a private lodge, unless the Grand Wardens were absent. This
whole regulation is still in existence.

The question has been lately mooted, whether, if the Grand Master declines
to preside, he does not thereby place himself in the position of a
private Brother, and become subject, as all the others present, to the
control of the Worshipful Master. I answer, that of course he becomes
subject to and must of necessity respect those rules of order and decorum
which are obligatory on all good men and Masons; but that he cannot, by