Commission

“ A commission was therefore constituted, under authority of Congress, consisting of gentlemen selected with special reference to their high character and capacity for the laborious work intrusted to them, who were instructed to visit the spot and report upon the facts. Other eminent citizens were requested to accompany the commission, in order that the people might have the benefit of their views. ”

“ The several departments being perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common commission, none of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective powers; and how are the encroachments of the stronger to be prevented, or the wrongs of the weaker to be redressed, without an appeal to the people themselves, who, as the grantors of the commissions, can alone declare its true meaning, and enforce its observance? ”

“ The King's commission to his governor, which grants the power of government, and directs the calling of a legislature, and the establishing courts, at the same time that it fixes the governor's power, according to the several powers and directions granted and appointed by the commission and instructions, adds, "and by such further powers, instructions, and authorities, as shall, at any time hereafter, be granted or appointed you, under our signet or sign manual, or by our order in our privy council." ”

“ The Congress may not delegate its purely legislative power to a commission, but, having laid down the general rules of action under which a commission shall proceed, it may require of that commission the application of such rules to particular situations and the investigation of facts, with a view to making orders in a particular matter within the rules laid down by the Congress. ”

“ The appointment is the sole act of the President; the transmission of the commission is the sole act of the officer to whom that duty is assigned, and may be accelerated or retarded by circumstances which can have no influence on the appointment. A commission is transmitted to a person already appointed, not to a person to be appointed or not, as the letter enclosing the commission should happen to get into the post office and reach him in safety, or to miscarry. ”

“ Various powers in relation to charities have also by Act of Parliament been given to Charity Commissioners, whose records are also under the charge and superintendence of the Master of the Rolls.
The idea of a Commission as old as Domesday Book. The original idea of a commission, however, is as old as the oldest of the public records. A commission was, in principle, the delegation of an authority to certain persons for the performance of some particular duty, usually within a limited time. From the idea of a temporary Commission was developed the idea of a renewable or permanent Commission. ”

“ Never before, so far as we know, has the Report of a Royal Commission being written in great part by one who has neither been appointed to the Commission nor has been present at its meetings nor heard the evidence. ”

“ By a consular decree, Aug. 12, 1800, a commission was constituted " to compare the order which had been followed in the preparation of the projects for a civil code hitherto published, to determine the plan which the commissioners should think best to adopt, and to discuss the chief principles of civil legislation." Portalis, Tronchet, Bigot de Preameneu, Maleville, and the minister of justice were the commissioners. ”

“ For the proper supervision and enforcement of its functions, the Commission shall, if it finds that any person has been appointed to or is holding any position, whether by original appointment, promotion, assignment, transfer, or reinstatement, in violation of the Civil Service Act or of the rules promulgated in accordance therewith, or in violation of any executive order or any regulations of the Commission, or that any employee subject to such Act. ”

“ The executive and Senate act on the construction, that until delivery from the executive department, a commission is in their possession, and within their rightful power; and in cases of commissions not revocable at will, where, after the Senate's approbation and the President's signing and sealing, new information of the unfitness of the person has come to hand before the delivery of the commission, new nominations have been made and approved, and new commissions have issued. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Provided that Parliament may by resolution extend (if necessary) the time for the completion of the commission's inquiry. All such reports and recommendations shall be laid by the Minister, as soon as possible after the receipt thereof, upon the Tables of both Houses of Parliament.
3. (1) The commission shall consist of not less than five persons, and if any member of the commission die or resign or, owing to absence or any other reason, is unable to act, his place shall be filled by the Governor-General. ”

“ Is the act of delivering or withholding a commission to be considered as a mere political act belonging to the Executive department alone, for the performance of which entire confidence is placed by our Constitution in the Supreme Executive, and for any misconduct respecting which the injured individual has no remedy? ”

“ Honorable Judges, if we are ever to arrive at a solution of our municipal problem, we must concentrate municipal authority; we must co-ordinate departments, eliminate useless boards and committees and fix absolutely and completely individual responsibility. This, we propose to do by establishing a commission form of government, where all governmental authority is vested in one small body of men, who individually act as the heads of administrative departments, but who collectively pass the needed legislation. ”

“ The commission consisted of seven as good men as were to be found in the country, representing the bench, the church, the army, the professions, the employers, and the employed. They acted as a unit, and the report which they unanimously signed is a masterpiece of sound common-sense and of sound doctrine on the very questions with which our people should most deeply concern themselves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This unfortunate condition has been obviated by the adoption of the commission form which is found to be a success because it awakens civic interest, secures competent officials, and provides in the best possible manner for the legislative and administrative work of the city, centering power and responsibility in one small body of men. ”

“ The general assembly, at its first session under this constitution, shall constitute a commission, to consist of three persons not members of the senate or house of representatives, whose duty it shall be to revise, reform, simplify, and abridge the rules of practice, pleading, and proceeding in the courts of record of this State, abolishing the forms of action known to the common law, and distinctions as to form between proceedings at law and in equity. ”

“ Many of the States have revised their public acts with great and manifest benefit, and I recommend that provision be made by law for the appointment of a commission to revise the public statutes of the United States, arranging them in order, supplying deficiencies, correcting incongruities, simplifying their language, and reporting them to Congress for its action. ”

“ Honorable Judges, in our second speech we proved to you, that the commission provides a small but efficient legislative body, far superior to that of an isolated council. If you want municipal home rule, establish a form of government which makes it possible.
Mr. Charles Briggs replied for the Negative:
My colleague has proved that whatever the form of government, there must be a body capable of wise legislation, in fact, that there must be a body that is primarily legislative in character no matter what its connection or relation with the other departments of government. ”

“ In this commission we represent something more than a body of men who have been selected because of special distinction in fields of their own. Each commissioner touches large circles of interest and capacity. If the opportunity comes to us to indicate to French business up-builders how to come into sympathetic working relations with the enterprise and progressive affairs of our own country, we shall achieve the high purpose of our Commission.
(Signed) W. W. NICHOLS,
Chairman of the Commission.
Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. ”

“ Every neglect of the commission with which the Cabinet is charged by the representatives, and the latter by the people, should be followed at once by the removal of the offender. But the commission must be clearly and unmistakably understood in the first place. The people must be united in their opinions on the laws and the method of administration which they have decided to be necessary for the best interests of the State, and they must require the strictest adherence to these methods and principles from their representatives. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is simply and solely a commission, an employment, in which the rulers, mere officials of the Sovereign, exercise in their own name the power of which it makes them depositaries. This power it can limit, modify or recover at pleasure ”

“ He gives an account to the Emperor of the convocations made upon the request of the commissions or of a senator, of their object, and of the results of the deliberation of the Senate. A commission of seven members, appointed by the Senate and chosen within its own body, takes cognizance, upon the communication made to it by the ministers, of the arrests effected in conformity with article 46 of the constitution, when the persons arrested have not been brought before the tribunals within ten days after their arrest. ”

“ So too the officers of the state derive their commission from the people, albeit the king, in conformity with law, decides the detail of their appoint ment, together with the other necessary arrangements of the executive government. Once establish the principle, and the consequences are easy to draw. ”

“ When it has become definitely understood that the proper functions of the commission are legislative and supervisory, and not legislative and administrative, charter framers desiring to construct upon the commission model will have a well-understood basis upon which to work, and questions which frequently perplex them at the present time will take care of themselves. ”

“ With them were associated ‘six other learned men.’ This Commission seems to have delegated the actual work to the Commission of three, who, if my interpretation be correct, spent much time in pleading with Hus to waive his claim to a hearing before the whole Council, and recognise the jurisdiction of the twelve. If so the word ‘masters’ is used contemptuously. ”

“ Macgrigor: ‘My dear sir, you must know that such agents as I are invested by our Royal Master with a particular commission, consisting of some document delivered to us by his own hand. The commission delivered to a kelpie consists in a bridle invested with all those powers of transformation, information, and observation, necessary for our calling; and wherever we lose this commission, whether voluntarily or by accident, our power is at an end, and certain annihilation within four and twenty hours is the consequence. ”

“ By the commission of oyer and terminer the commissioners (in practice the judges of assize, though other persons are named with them in the commission) are commanded to make diligent inquiry into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours whatever committed in the counties specified in the commission, and to hear and determine the same according to law. ”

“ Education, Science, and Culture Commission; Foreign Policy Commission; Health, Labor, and Social Welfare Commission; Industry, Construction, and Transportation Commission; Legal Commission; and the People's Councils and State Administration Commission. Any deputy may be elected to the standing commissions of the assembly or to temporary commissions created to perform specific functions. Reports, bills, or other legislative matters are submitted to the standing commissions by the assembly chairman for study and for recommendations on further action. ”

“ But each council has the power, when a matter seems to it susceptible of a preparatory examination, to appoint from among its members a special commission, which confines itself exclusively to the matter that led to its formation. ”