Minister

1.

An officer of high rank in the administration of civil government, associated with the sovereign, and having charge, as his representative, with the general administration of some one of the principal divisions of the public service; a, head of a department of government; a member of the cabinet. The more usual title of officers of this rank in the United States is secretary.

2.

An officer or functionary of high rank charged with the duty of representing his government in negotiations and business at the court or seat of government of a foreign nation. These are often termed public mindistinctively known in European usages are: 1. Ambassadors, and papal legates or nuncios.

2.

Envoys, and some other ministers.

3.

Ministers resident, accredited to sovereigns.

4.

Charges d'affaires; these are accredited to the minister of foreign affairs. The United States diplomatic service employs two classes of ministers, — ministers plenipotentiary and ministers resident.

3.

A person ordained according to the usages of some denomination of Christians for the preaching of the gospel. These persons are designated by law throughout the United States to perform some civil functions and duties, the chief of which is the solemnization of the marriage ceremony. Who is to be deemed a " minister,'' within statutes providing for the support of ministers, exempting them from taxation, &c., see Washburn v. Fourth Parish of West Springfield, 1 Mass. 32; Kendall v. Kingston, 5 Id. 524; Barnes v. First Parish in Falmouth, 6 Id. 401; Turner v. Second Precinct in Brookfield, 7 Id. 60; Lovell v. Inhabitants of Byfield, Id. 2.30; Gridley v. Clark, 2 Pich. 403; Baldwin u.

Mc Clinch, 1 Ue. 102. 4.

In old books, " minister " characterizes subordinate officers attached to courts, and charged with execution of its process and orders. The noun is no longer much used in this sense; but " ministerial," as a general designation of this class of officers and their duties, is frequently met.

Ministerial.

As applied to officers, or to their acts, powers, or duties, " ministerial ' ' indicates a function of simple obedience or service, as distinguished from one involving authority, discretion, or jurisdiction. Such officers as clerks of court, constables, sheriffs and their deputies, are termed ministerial officers; and ministerial duties are such as are to be performed by routine, or in obedience to a distinct command or definite rule. A ministerial act may be defined to be one which a person performs in a given state of facts, in a prescribed manner, in obedience to the mandate of legal authority, without regard to or the exercise of his own judgment, upon the propriety of the act's being done. Acts done out of court, in bringing parties into court, are, as a gen- Acts of the secretary of state of a state, in issuing and revoking licenses to foreign insurance companies, under tiie statute, are ministerial, and not judicial, although lie is required to ascertain the existence of the facts upon which his authority in each case is founded.

State v. Doyle, 40 Wis. 175.

A county solicitor is a ministerial officer.

Diggs V. State, 49 Ala. 311.

Ministerial powers

A phrase used in English conveyancing to denote powers given for the good, not of the donee himself exclusively, or of the donee himself necessarily at all, but for the good of several persons, including or not including the donee also. They are so called because the donee of them is as a minister or servant in his exercise of them. Brown says that the ministerial powers of a tenant for life are the following, viz.: A power of leasing; a power of borrowing money for the improvement of the estate, and charging the loan upon the inheritance; a power of selling the settled estates, and conveying the same to the purchaser for an estate in fee-simple. They are subdivided, and the exercise of them regulated, by various statutes, ■which he cites. The ministerial powers of a tenant for life, in right of his wife, and of a tenant by the curtesy or in dower, depend, as to leasing, on the leases and sales of settled estates act, 1856, and are generally subject to the same or the like provisions as those regarding a tenant for life in his own right. The ministerial powers of a tenant in tail depend partly on the Stat. 3 & 4 Wm. IV. ch. 74 (as to leasing), and partly on the leases and sales of settled estates act, 1856; but, owing to the facility with which he may at the present day bar the entail and become absolute owner, the question of his ministerial powers is comparatively insignificant.