r 



COMMISSION. 



COMMITTEE. 



souls might be saved in the day of the Lord, and that th*r, being 

 admonuhed by their example, might be the more afraid to offend. 

 Instead whereof (until the Mid discipline may be restored again, which 

 U much to be wjihed) it U thought good that at this time (Ash Wed- 

 nesday) ahould be md the general sentences of God's curaing against 

 impenitent moan." The fonu of the commiuation aeema to be 

 derived from Deuteronomy xi. 26-30 and xzriL 1-26, which WM 

 afterward* strictly obeyed, a* related in Joehua riii. 83-34, in the 

 damn reheanal of a series of twelre cunea from Mount KL.il by the 

 Lsvites, with a response to each by the people. It may be observed 

 that in thU commutation, the church doea not pray that the Rinner 

 may be cuned, nor do the people affirm the curse by replying omen. 

 The act* are stated which are cursed by the law, and MM i>. >]'! 

 acknowledge iti truth. The blessing with which the service conclude* 

 wan not added until the last revisal of the Prayer Book. 



COMMISSARY, an officer who U delegated by a bishop to act in a 

 particular part of the diocese, to exercise jurisdiction similar in kiml 

 to that exercised by the chancellor of the diocese in the consistory 

 court of the diocese. A comissary has, generally speaking, the autho- 

 rity of official principal and vicar-general within his limits. An appeal 

 lies from hit decisions to the metropolitan. In some dioceses there is 

 a commissary court for each archdeaconry. The commisaariol courts 

 were established for the convenience of the people in parts of the diocese 

 remote from the consistory court. A commissary must be learned in 

 the civil and ecclesiastical law, a master of arts or bachelor of law, not 

 under the age of twenty-six, and he must subscribe the Thirty-nine 

 articles (Canon 127). 



In Scotland the same classes of questions which in other parts of 

 Europe were arrogated to the ecclesiastical judicatories came under the 

 authority of the bishops' courts while the episcopal polity continued, 

 and subsequently devolved on special judges, who were called com- 

 missaries. The four commissaries of Edinburgh constituted the 

 Supreme Commissary Court, which had jurisdiction in questions of 

 divorce, and of declarators of the existence or non-existence of mar- 

 riage. The district commissaries had the administrative authority of 

 confirming executors to persons deceased, a function resembling the 

 granting of letters of administration in England. By 4 Oeo. IV. c. 97, 

 the functions of the provincial commissaries were vested in the sheriffs 

 of the respective counties, who, before the passing of that Act, were 

 usually appointed the commissaries of their districts. By 11 Goo. IV. 

 and 1 Win. IV. c. 69, the jurisdiction of the commissaries of Edin- 

 burgh was vested in the Court of Session. 



COMMISSION, in military affairs, is the document by which an 

 officer is authorised to perform duty for the service of the state- 

 Anciently, in this country, the regular mode of asembling the 

 national army, either to resist an invading enemy, or to accompany 

 the king on a foreign expedition, was by sending a royal command to 

 the chief barons and the spiritual lords, that they should meet at a 

 given time and place with their due proportion of men, horses, Ac. 

 properly equipped, according to the tenure by which they held their 

 estates; and these tenant* in capite appear to have appointed by their 

 own authority all their subordinate officers. But commissions were 

 also granted by our kings to individuals, authorising them to raise men 

 for particular services; thus, in 1442, Henry VI. gave one to the 

 governor of Mantes, by which the latter was appointed to maintain 50 

 horsemen, 20 men-at-arms on foot, and 210 archers, for the defence of 

 that city. According to Pore Daniel, the commission was written on 

 parchment, and, that it might not be counterfeited, the piece was 

 divided by cutting it irregularly, into two portions, of which, doubt- 

 less, each party retained one. 



Commissions of array, as they were called, were also issued by the 

 crown, probably from the time of Alfred, for the purpose of mustering 

 and training the inhabitants of the counties in military discipline ; and 

 in the reign of Edward III. the parliament enacted that no person 

 trained under these commissions should be compelled to serve out of 

 his own county except in the event of the kingdom being invaded. Of 

 the same nature as these commissions of array was that which, in 1572, 

 when the country was threatened with the Spanish invasion, Queen 

 Elizabeth issued to the justices of the peace in the different counties, 

 authorising them to muster and train persons to serve during the war. 

 Those magistrates were directed to make choice of officers to command 

 bodiekof 100 men and upwards; and such officers, with the consent of 

 the magistrates, were to apjioint th.-ir own lieutenant*. This privilege 

 of granting commissions to the officers of the national militia continued 

 to be exercised by the lords-lieutenants of counties, the king baring the 

 power of confirming or annulling the appointments ; and it was made 

 law in the reign of Charles II. It appears, however, that before the 

 Revolution, the lieutenants and ensigns were recommended for com- 

 missions by captains of the companies. 



In the French service, between the reigns of Francis I. and Louis 

 XIV., we find that the sovereigns reserved to themselves the nomina- 

 tion of the principal commanders only of the legions or regiments, and 

 that the Utter were permitted to grant commissions under their own 

 signature and seal to the subordinate officers, who were charged with 

 the duty of raising the troops and instructing them in the lue of anus. 



In the British regular army, as well as in the navy, all the com- 

 missions of officers are signed by the sovereign. In the nary, in the 

 regiment of artillery, aud in the corps of engineers and marines, the 



commissions are conferred without purchase ; as also a large proportion 

 of the commission* granted to officers of the line. Those cadet* who 

 have completed a course of military education in the Royal College at 

 Sandhurst and pan successfully, are gazetted without purchase. Such 

 is the case also with those who pasa their examination before the 

 Military Commissioners very well, and with the sons of officers who 

 have fallen in the service, or in any case which the cominander-in-chief 

 may consider merit* it. In other cases, gentlemen obtain leave to 

 . -liter the army by the purchase of an enaigncy, the prices of which, in 

 the different flames of troops, are regulated by authority ; and they 

 proceed to the higher grades on paying the difference between the price 

 of the grade which they quit and of that which they enter. 



The commissioned officers of a battalion of infantry are as follow . 

 Field officers -colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major. Reginu-iiUil 

 officers captains, lieutenant*, and ensigns. Staff-officers -chaplain, 

 adjutant, quarter-master, and surgeon. 



For a statement of the prices of commissions, see ' The Queen's 

 Regulations and Orders for the Army.' 

 COMMISSION. [AOKST; BROKKR ; FACTOR.] 

 COMMISSIONERS, LORDS. [ASSENT. H..V.U.; ADMIRALTY.] 

 COMMISSIONERS OF BANKRUPTS. [BASKRI-IT.] 

 COMM ITTKK, of either house of parliament, may be either of the 

 whole House or of a certain number of the members selected from 

 the rest. When the House resolves itself into a committee of the 

 whole House, the Speaker in the Commons, or the Lord Chancellor or 

 whoever else is the ordinary Speaker in the Lords, leaves the chair, 

 and the Chairman of Committees, a salaried officer, being one of the 

 members, who is appointed by the House at the commencement of 

 of every parliament, takes his place. In the Commons the mace, which 

 usually lies on the table, is at the same time placed under it. In a 

 committee members ore not restricted to a single speech on the question 

 under consideration, but each may speak as often as he pleases. 

 Another distinction in the Commons was, that the committee divided 

 by the Ayes merely going to the one side of the room and the Noes to the 

 other, instead of one of the two parties going out into the lobby, as in 

 divisions of the House. But the modern practice of publishing the 

 names having become general, there is now no practical difference 

 between the two modes. By the standing orders or established 

 practice of both Houses, there are certain subjects that can only be 

 brought forward in a committee of the whole House. For instance, 

 all measures relating to the Church must be so introduced ; and in the 

 Commons all propositions for the grant of money for the public 

 sen-ice must be first made in such a committee, called a Committee of 

 Supply; and all propositions for raising the money so granted, by 

 taxes or loans, or otherwise, in another committee of the whole House, 

 called a Committee of Ways and Means. No committee can consider 

 of any matter except that referred to it by the House ; nor can a com- 

 mittee adjourn ; therefore, when the business lasts more than a day, a 

 motion is made and agreed to that " the chairman do report progress, 

 and ask leave to sit again ; " and when the business is concluded, the 

 chairman is directed to report the resolutions, or he may be directed to 

 bring in a bill. No vote of a committee is of any force until it has 

 been reported to the House, and the report received. The Committees 

 of Supply, and of Ways and Means, always meet for the first time 

 immediately after the commencement of the session, and are commonly 

 continued very nearly to its close by leave to sit again being repeatedly 

 granted by the House. Instructions directing, or otherwise to a 

 certain extent controlling, their proceedings, are frequently issued to 

 committees by the House, to which, of course, they are bound to 

 attend. All public bills in both Houses are also considered in com- 

 mittees of the whole House, after the second, and before the third 

 reading. Private bills cannot be introduced into either House, until 

 the petitions of the parties interested for leave to bring them in have 

 been referred to select committees; and every such bill is again 

 referred to another select committee after the second reading. The 

 members of select committees are commonly appointed by the open 

 nomination of each, that is, in effect, by the vote of the House ; but 

 those of committees for trying contested elections in the House of 

 Commons are appointed by secret ballot. The investigation of any 

 subject whatever that is brought before irli,iment may be referred to 

 a Select <'ommittec, and the proceedings of such committees are 

 usually conducted in public ; but sometimes a Committee of Secrecy, 

 which takes evidence and deliberates with closed doors, is appointed, 

 when the public safety or other reasons are considered to make that 

 precaution expedient. A committee is generally empowered to 

 summon witnesses, and to coll for papers ; but no committee of eitlur 

 House can administer an oath. A witness can only be examined on 

 oath at the bar of the House of Lords. 



There are some instances in former times of all the members of both 

 Houses meeting together, at the request of one of the Houses, and 

 such a meeting is described as a Committee of the Lords and Commons. 

 \\'li it is called a Joint Committee of the two Houses, composed of a 

 i-crfciin numlxT of members selected from each, was formerly not 

 unusual. The time and place of meeting were always appointed by the 

 Lords; and the practice was for that House to appoint only half the 

 number of members appointed by the Commons. A joint committee 

 had the power of examining witnesses on oath ; a privilege possessed 

 by the Peers, but not by the Commons. It had, however, no power to 



