Consistory

“ 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. ”

“ The systems of government in vogue among the fraternities are almost as numerous as the societies themselves. With some, the authority is given entirely into the hands of the parent chapter or some chapter appointed in its stead; with others, the government is carried out by an executive council, chosen by election or in some other way; and with others still, the government is conducted by a grand lodge or by a system of State lodges. ”

“ Others laboured to have the supreme authority to consist of an Assembly chosen by the People, and a Council of State to be chosen by that Assembly, to be vested with executive power, and accountable to that which should next succeed, at which time the power of the said Council should determine. ”

“ XII, sect. 8 to be the involving or including the wills of many in the will of one man, or in the will of the greatest part of any one number of men, that is to say, in the will of one man, or of one COUNCIL; for a council is nothing else but an assembly of men deliberating concerning something common to them all. ”

“ Strong centralized control not being required, such government as exists is exercised by a council informally approved—a rude representative government; class distinctions do not exist, or are but faintly indicated—the relation of status is absent; whatever transactions take place between individuals are by agreement, and the function which the ruling body has to perform is substantially limited to protecting private life by settling such disputes as arise and inflicting mild punishments for the small offenses which occur. ”

“ The professed scruples of the Council, cannot be admitted to have any weight. Usage, and the plainest rules of propriety, will dictate, that it never could have wounded the dignity, or delicacy, of the executive of any State, to have given to a committee of Congress, appointed to confer on a subject of moment, a written answer to a request in writing after previous explanations. ”

“ In choice of committees for ripening business for the counsel, it is better to choose indifferent [7] persons, than to make an indifferency by putting in those that are strong on both sides. I commend also standing commissions; as for trade, for treasure, for war, for suits, for some provinces; for where there be divers particular counsels and but one counsel of estate (as it is in Spain) , they are, in effect, no more than standing commissions: save that they have greater authority. ”

“ On Friday we held a committee; and on Monday was read before the council the following resolution from the committee book:—'Resolved, 325that it is the opinion of this committee, that the covenants be executed immediately by the rest of the council, and all the Company's servants.' After many idle and evasive arguments, and being given to understand they must either sign or be suspended the service, they executed the covenants upon the spot. From this you will see what I had the honour to inform you of, that I am determined upon an absolute reformation ”

“ An organic law lays down the organization and methods of working of the Constitutional Council, the procedures to be followed in referring matters to it and in particular the time-limits within which disputes may be laid before it. ”

“ In England any man who knows the least of our laws and constitution, may perceive that every act of the legislature, every enacting measure that binds either the whole, or a part of the public, and every decision upon the life or the liberty of a subject must pass through an assembly of the people, either in their representative, incorporate, or collective capacity. ”

“ Though the commons are summoned sometimes to the Council, their function there is merely a passive one; they are called to hear what has been determined, and to approve of it, if they so desire, but in no case have they any alternative to accepting it, even should they disapprove. ”

“ It is the place where the practical reform of the civil service is most conspicuously on trial. The selection you make for the collectorship will therefore be looked upon as a test of the general tendency of your Administration in that respect. The character of the appointment should, therefore, in my humble opinion, be such as to convince every one at first sight, that the customhouse is not to be in any sense a machine in politics. It is quite evident that the selection of any one “representing” any of the factions would produce just the contrary effect. ”

“ The executive authority of the government was lodged in the hands of commissioners, to be appointed at first by the proprietors or a majority of them; but after the further settlement of the Province they were to be chosen by the resident proprietors and inhabitants, on the 25th of March of each year. The first election for commissioners occurred in 1680. ... One of the most remarkable features in this instrument is the fact that no authority is retained by the proprietary body. 'We put the power in the people,' was the language of the fundamental law. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If there were no rules or established customs to guide an assembly of persons, and if each could talk on any subject as long and as many times as he pleased, and if all could talk at the same time, it would be impracticable in most cases to ascertain their deliberate judgment on any particular matter. Experience has shown the necessity for rules, for a presiding officer to enforce them and to preserve order, and for a recording secretary to keep a record of the business transacted by the assembly. ”

“ Having given a general idea of the lords, and their share of the legislature, it will now be proper to descend, and see the several classes of the lower rank, called Commons, and to examine what share or influence they had formerly, or now enjoy, in the government. The commoners may, in general, then, be divided into the lesser nobility, or gentry, and the others, whom, for distinction sake, I shall call the lower commons. ”

“ Today an extra session of the council is being held, to settle a dispute that does not admit of delay, between a proprietor and a young man who has undertaken to do a man's service on the journey for bed and board. ”

“ The direction, ceasing to fulfil its theory as a {53} council formed of members who possess equal powers, falls under the control of some one member of superior cunning, will, or wealth, to whom the majority become so subordinate, that the decision on every question depends on the course he takes. ”

“ If, however, the assembly or society be a branch of a superior body, or parent organization, it cannot make a rule which conflicts with the constitution, by-laws, or rules of the parent organization, since the constitution, by-laws, etc., form the organic law of the organization, and cannot be suspended by the subordinate body. ”

“ It is not of so much importance whose or what set of rules is adopted, as that the assembly recognize and govern itself by some rule or system in conducting its business so that there may be uniformity of proceeding, decorum and regularity, and that the dignity of the body be preserved. ”

“ And as to their affairs, some are ordained for government; as first, the government of a province may be committed to an assembly of men, wherein all resolutions shall depend on the votes of the major part; and then this assembly is a body politic, and their power limited by commission. This word province signifies a charge, or care of business, which he whose business it is, committeth to another man, to be administered for, and under him ”

“ Lastly, to the total assemblage of the persons by whom the several political operations above mentioned come to be performed, we set out with applying the collective appellation of the government. Among these persons there commonly is some one person, or body of persons whose office it is to assign and distribute to the rest their several departments, to determine the conduct to be pursued by each in the performance of the particular set of operations that belongs to him, and even upon occasion to exercise his function in his stead. ”

“ The people, or an assembly cleverly made up and manipulated to represent the people, were induced to vote all the powers of government into the hands of a council of Four Hundred, of which council the citizens appointed only five members. ”

“ The placing of the Great Council upon a footing to transact business has required me to cause to be printed not only the records of the first Great Council, but also the laws, blanks for dispensations, reports, credentials, stationery, etc., that will not have to be done again for many great suns. ”

“ Provided always that the lords on their part and the Commons on theirs, make no report to our said lord the King of any grant granted by the Commons and assented to by the lords, nor of the communications concerning the said grant, before the said lords and Commons shall be of one assent and of one accord in this matter, and then in the manner and form that is customary, that is to say by the mouth of the Speaker of the said Commons for the time being, so that the said lords and Commons should have the agreement of our said lord the King. ”

“ An assembly in which at first every freeman had a right to appear has, by the force of circumstances, step by step, without any one moment of sudden change, shrunk up into an Assembly wholly hereditary and official, an Assembly to which the Crown may summon any man, but to which, it is now strangely held, the Crown cannot refuse to summon the representatives of any man whom it has once summoned. ”

“ To insist upon a unanimous decision of the Council exposes the State attacked to the loss of those definite guarantees to which it is entitled, if one single Member of the Council—be it in good faith or otherwise—insists on adhering to an interpretation of the facts different from that of all his colleagues. ”

“ The Commons, who are the people, when ordered to the bar of the Lords, humbly present themselves bareheaded before the peers, who remain covered. The Commons send up their bills by forty members, who present the bill with three low bows. The Lords send their bills to the Commons by a mere clerk. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the various councils, committees, corporations, and officers, established for the public, or any particular service in subordinancy to the sovereign, are considered as checks to, or making a part of it, there is no such government in the world as pure monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, for there are councils, committees, &c. ”

“ In the performance of purely administrative duties, all the members of the council might without difficulty agree, and their coöperation in their proper work might be perfect, notwithstanding possible differences of opinion about matters of legislation. ”

“ So too, when a state or local body alters its internal operating procedures, for example by modifying its subcommittee assignment system, it "implicate [s] an elected official's decisionmaking authority." ”

“ The Council was composed of men capable, on the one hand, of judging of the expediency of the general policy involved, and willing, on the other hand, to trust for details to the official in charge of the measure, without any desire for captious interference with details. ”

“ A session of the Council of Four might take an important report clause by clause, with explanations from the committee and suggestions from members of the Council, but without fundamental modifications. ”

“ We, reposing trust and confidence in your care and faithfulness, have constituted, ordained, and appointed, and by these presents do constitute, ordain, and appoint you our commissioners, giving and granting unto you, or any two or more of you, full power and authority in pursuance of the said Acts and ordinances to put in execution all and every the instructions hereunto annexed, for the exact and perfect survey and admeasurement of all and every the honors, baronies, castles, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, forfeited by force or vertue of all or any of the said Acts ”

“ Now that the follies of Courts had obliged Government to saddle us with new taxes, and the opposition of our magistrates did present itself as an obstacle to the ministers, they have thought proper to call an Assembly of Notables, chosen by the king, but taken among the first people in each order, and to begin with granting them what is more wished for by the nation, an Assembly in each Province. ”

“ Throughout political organizations the like tendency, though less dominant, is very strong. The gradual establishment of law, by the consolidation of custom, is the formation of something fixed in the midst of things that are changing; and, regarded under its most general aspect as the agency which maintains a permanent order, it is in the very nature of a State-organization to be relatively rigid. ”