Royal Commission

“ I equally desire to acknowledge the admirable and efficient arrangements made throughout by the Executive Secretary, and to return my thanks to the whole staff employed on the Exhibition. Their zeal and readiness at all times to promote its success demand special recognition at our hands. In all this, I feel assured I give expression to the sentiments of every member of the Royal Commission. ”

“ VIII. all the Acts appear to have been passed by Commission. The Commission, and also the Acts which received the Royal Assent thereby, were required to be enrolled in the Parliament Roll [7] . But this Commission does not appear on the Roll in Chancery, nor is the Original to be found in the Bundle of that Year at the Parliament Office. The Royal Assent appears at the Top of the Front of the Acts, some of which have also the Royal Sign Manual at the Top, but some of them are without it ”

“ In an article contributed by him to the Independent Review of June, 1904, he notes a private offer of the Government for dealing with the matter by a small Royal Commission of experts, whose recommendations should be immediately followed by legislation. This was refused by the Labour leaders, and he thought it a lost opportunity for what might have been a favourable settlement. ”

“ Accordingly in Nov. 1841 a Royal Commission (the “Fine Arts Commission”) was appointed, under the presidency of His Royal Highness, and consisting of the following members:—Lord Lyndhurst, the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl of Lincoln, Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Aberdeen, Lord John Russell, Viscount Palmerston, Viscount Melbourne, Lord Ashburton, Lord Colborne, The Right Hon. Charles Shaw Lefevre (Speaker of the House of Commons) , Sir R. Peel, Sir James Graham, Sir R. H. Inglis, B. Hawes, Esq. ”

“ Where the functions of an office are transferred from an individual to a body of persons, the body exercising these delegated functions is generally known as a commission and the members as commissioners; thus the office of lord high admiral of Great Britain is administered by a permanent board, the lords of the admiralty. Such a delegation may be also temporary, as where the authority under the great seal to give the royal assent to legislation is issued to lords commissioners. Similarly bodies of persons or single individuals may be specially charged with carrying out particular duties ”

“ Now, while a man cannot actually purchase a commission in the British army, almost any young man92 of position who has sufficient income to sustain his social rank can obtain the Royal warrant for the asking. ”

“ And, to the end that Our Royal Will and Pleasure in the premises may be executed within the greater regularity and expedition, We further by these Presents will and command, and do hereby give full power and authority to you or any Three or more of you to nominate and appoint from time to time such Person of ability, care, and diligence, as ye shall think fit, to be and act as your Clerk or Secretary, for the purpose of aiding you in the execution of these Presents ”

“ Statutory commissions are created by acts of parliament, and, with the exception that they are liable to have their proceedings questioned in parliament, have absolute powers within the limits of their prescribed functions and subject to the provisions of the act defining the same. ”

“ The necessity of a living, central, permanent authority had been rendered obvious by the disastrous working of the old system, arising partly from the absence of such control—an authority accumulating experience in itself, independent of local control, uninterested in favour of local abuse, and responsible to the Government. A Board of three Commissioners was therefore appointed under the Act, themselves appointing assistant Commissioners, capable of receiving the powers of the Commission by delegation. ”

“ VI. these Petitions or Bills are almost universally in English, as is also sometimes the Form of the Royal Assent: But the Statute continued to be inrolled in French or Latin [17] . Sometimes Latin and French are used in the same Statute, as in 8 Hen. VI.; 27 Hen. VI.; and 39 Hen. VI. The last Statute wholly in Latin on Record is 33 Hen. VI.; the last portion of any Statute in Latin is 39 Hen. VI; Chapter 2.
The Statutes of Edward IV. are entirely in French. The Statutes of Richard III. are in many Manuscripts in French, in a complete Statute Form ”

“ Unless expressly empowered by act of parliament, a commission cannot compel the production of documents or the giving of evidence, nor can it administer an oath. A commission may hold its sittings in any part of the United Kingdom, or may institute and conduct experiments for the purpose of testing the utility of invention, &c. ”

“ Instead of the contemplated sets of Commissioners in each ecclesiastical Province, there was now to be one vast general Commission for all England, consisting of about 180 Lords and Commoners named (Cromwell, Vane, and everybody else of any note among them) ; which Commissioners, or any nine of them, should be a Court for judging of non-specified offences, after and in conjunction with the Congregational Elderships, with right of reference in certain cases to Justices of the Peace, and with the reserve of a final appeal from excommunicated persons to Parliament itself. ”

“ England consented to submit this question also to the commission, and on February 27th five high commissioners from each country met at Washington. The British delegation included cabinet officers, the minister to the United States, and an Oxford professor of international law. The American commissioners were of equally high station, the Secretary of State, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and our minister to England being of their number. ”

“ If the Prime Minister does not accept a recommendation of the commission or proposes to take some action contrary to their advice, he shall state his views to the commission, who shall be at liberty to place on record the reasons in support of their recommendation or advice. ”

“ The Commission is independent and must be impartial, and must exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice in the interest of the maintenance of effective and efficient public administration and a high standard of professional ethics in the public service. The Commission must be regulated by national legislation. ”

“ That "government by commissions and instructions" is declared to be for the future "null and void." The usurper had clutched the sceptre of the king of England. That of the king of Virginia he was not allowed to touch. Accordingly no more commissions came from England. We hear no more of them until the election of Berkeley. We are then told that the government is provisional, and only to endure until a lawful commission shall appear. What commission? Whose? The protector's? The parliament's? No. ”

“ Other organs of state, through legislative and other measures, must assist and protect the Commission to ensure the independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness of the Commission. No person or organ of state may interfere with the functioning of the Commission. ”

“ The steps taken by the Palestine Government to enforce respect for law and order have proved ineffectual. The elementary duty of providing public security has not been discharged. Endeavours to control the alienation of land by Arabs to Jews have not been successful. In the hills there is no more room for further settlement by Jews ”

“ II. Of The Sources from whence the several Matters are taken.
––––– III. Of the Mode used in searching for, transcribing, collating, noting, and printing the Text of the Statutes. CHAP. IV.––––
Sect. I. Of the Original Language of the Charters and Statutes.
–––––– II. Of The Translation in this Collection of The Statutes. CHAP. V.–––––
Sect. I. Of the Collections of The Statutes of Scotland and Ireland, heretofore published by Royal Authority.
–––––– II. Of the Methods successively adopted for Promulgating The Statutes, before and since the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. ”

“ When a minister considers that some institution in his branch of the service requires to be reformed, he begins by submitting to the Emperor a formal report on the matter. If the Emperor agrees with his minister as to the necessity for reform, he orders a Commission to be appointed for the purpose of considering the subject and preparing a definite legislative project. The Commission meets and sets to work in what seems a very thorough way. ”

“ The government of the Custom House is under the care of nine Commissioners, who are entrusted with the whole management of all his Majesty’s customs in all the ports of England, the petty farms excepted, and also the oversight of all the officers belonging to them. ”

“ The French Government further engages to facilitate, by every means, the production of all Titles and Proofs serving to substantiate the Claims to which the present Article refers, and the Commissioners shall be authorised to make all search, which they shall judge necessary, to arrive at such information, and to obtain the production of such Titles and Proofs; they shall also be empowered to examine upon oath, in case of need, such Persons employed in the Public Offices, as may have it in their power to point them out, or to furnish them. ”

“ Each Commissioner shall be at liberty to unite in one Committee, all the Commissioners of the respective Governments, and to lay before them, and cause them to examine the Claims of the Subjects of his Government, or else to treat separately with the French Government.
3. The Arbitrators are to be instructed to decide definitively, and without appeal, on all Cases referred to them in conformity to the present Article, by the Commissioners of Liquidation, who may not have been able to agree thereon. ”

“ One Commissioner shall be appointed by His Britannic Majesty and one by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and the said two Commissioners so appointed shall be sworn impartially to examine and decide upon the said claims according to such evidence as shall be laid before them on the part of His Britannic Majesty and of the United States respectively. ”

“ Progressive Jewish Municipalities are unduly restricted by Government rules and regulations. We recommend the appointment of an expert to advise the Palestine Government with a view to extending the powers of the larger Municipalities. ”

“ After The Union of Great Britain and Ireland, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in the first Session of the United Parliament, to consider of the most effectual Means of Promulgating the Statutes of the United Kingdom ”

“ The Commissioner—often wrongly described as the Chief Commissioner—is appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Home Secretary, and has wide, almost autocratic powers. It is an Imperial force which has duties apart from the care of London. ”

“ They created an admirable system, a system founded on the most sensible rules of business administration, and likely to work badly only where the Commission might encounter the opposition of hostile appointing officers. ”

“ The restrictions which the Mandatory Power found it necessary to impose in the interests of rural boards or backward municipalities have been resented by the larger towns. The attempts to create a local legislature have been unsuccessful and should not be revived. ”

“ To the Scottish Commissioners hints were conveyed, as politely as possible, that Parliament would prefer having less of their valuable assistance in the governing of England. With the Westminster Assembly and the London Divines there was less ceremony. The Assembly had drawn up a Petition or Remonstrance against the Articles of the conclusive Ordinance of March 14, providing for an agency of Parliamentary Commissioners to aid and supervise the Church judicatories. ”

“ The commission soon became a great institution, recognized by all governments, receiving contributions from all parts of the earth, with its own ships in every big port, and in the eyes of the Belgians and French, who received their daily bread through its agency, a monument of what Americans could do in social organization and business efficiency, for Americans furnished the entire personnel of the commission from the beginning. ”

“ I allude to the recommendation for the appointment of a commission to settle private claims against the United States. Justice to individuals, as well as to the Government, imperatively demands that some more convenient and expeditious mode than an appeal to Congress should be adopted. ”

“ Repeal of the Commission made to the Earl of Arundel, and others. For the Forfeiture and Punishment of Traytors. , 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, & 14. Acts touching the King and conservation of the Realm. The King's general pardon. Authority given to certain Comissioners to examine and answer Petitions. Against Licences to ship Merchandises of the Staple. For carrying Lastage of stones to Calais, to repair the same. Confirmation of Statutes made for pulling down of Wears. Against them that pursue to reverse any Thing made in this Parliament. ”

“ The Commission of Inquiry having thus triumphantly vindicated our beloved and gracious Sovereign against the cruel aspersions of people in general, and having moreover drafted a plan for obviating such aspersions against any British King or Queen in future, ends its Report, and dissolves itself, with humble thankfulness to God Almighty whose grace alone has empowered it to conclude its arduous labors so speedily, and with results so incalculably beneficial. ”