Minister

In Governmental Law. An officer who is placed near the sovereign, and is invested with the administration of some one of the principal branches of the government. Ministers are responsible to the king or other supreme magistrate who has appointed them. 4 Conn. 134.

In Governmental Law. An officer who is placed near the sovereign, and is invested with the administration of the government. Ministers are responsible to the king or other supreme magistrate who has appointed them. Kibbe v. Antram, 4 Conn. 134. In Ecclesiastical Law. One ordained by some church to preach the gospel. All clergymen of every denomination and faith. Haggln V. Haggin, 35 Neb. 375, 53 N. W. 209. A person elected, by a Methodist society to be one of their Icrcal preachers, and ordained as a deacon of that church, is a minister of the gospel, within a statute exempting ministers from taxation. Baldwin v. Mc Clinch, 1 Greenl. (Me.) 102. So is a person ordained as a (Congregational minister and installed as such over a town. Gridley v. Clark, 2 Pick. (Mass.) 403. See L. R. 8 Q. B.69. Formerly the word was applied only to deacons, but it is now the most comprehensive ecclesiastical title. In the prayerbook it means the officiating clergyman, whether bishop, priest, or deacon. 14 P. D. 148. Ministers are authorized in the United States, generally, to solemnize marriages, and are usually liable to fines and penalties for marrying minors contrary to the local regulations. As to the rights of ministers or parsons, see S Am. Jur. 268; Shepp. Touchst. Anthon ed. 664. Weston v. Hunt, A name given to public functionaries wbo represent their country with foreign governments, including ambassadors, envoys, and residents. A custom of modem origin has introduced a new kind of ministers, without any particular determination of character; these are simply called ministera, to indicate that they are invested with the general character of a sovereign’s mandatories, without any particular assignment of rank, and without being Invested with the representative character. There are also tn Mstera itlenipotei Uiary, who, as they possess full powers; are of much greater distinction than simple ministers. These, also, are without any particular attribution of rank and character, but by custom are now placed immediately below the ambassador, or on a level with the envoy extraordinary; Vattel, liv. 4, c. 6, { 74; 1 Kent 48; Merlin, Rupert. Owing to frequent disputes between the several classes of diplomatic 'agents regarding precedence, the question was taken up by the Congress of Vienna and by the Congress of Alx-la-Chapelle, with the result that diplomatic agents are now divided into the following classes: 1. Ambassadors, and papal legates or nuncios. 2. Envoys, ministers, or others accredited to sovereigns (aupr^a dea aouveraina). 3. Ministers resident, accredited to sovereigns. 4. Charg^a d'affairea, acccredited to the minister of foreign affairs. Public ministers take rank among themselves, in each class, according to the date of the official notification of the arrival at the court to which they are accredited. Recez, du Congrda de Vienne, du 19 mara, 1815; Protocol du Congr^a d'Aix-la-Chapelle, du Novembre, 1818; Wheaton, Int. Law § 211. Consuls and other commercial agents are not, in general, considered as public ministers. See Ambassador; Consul; Recall.

In public law. One of the highest functionaries in the organization of civli government, standing next to the sovereign or executive head, acting as his immediate auxiliary, and being generally charged with the administration of one of the great bureaus or departments of the executive branch of government. Otherwlse calied a "cabinet minister," "secretary of state," or "secretary of a department" In international law. An officer appointed by the government of one nation as a mediator or arbitrator between two other nations who are engaged in a controversy, with their consent, with a view to effecting an amicable adjustment of the dispute. A general name given to the diplomatic representatives sent by one state to another, including ambassadors, envoys, and residents.

In ecclesiastical law. A person ordained according to the usages of some church or associated body of Christians for the preaching of fhe gospel and filling the pastoral office.

In practice. An officer of justice, charged with the execution of the law, and hence termed a "ministerial officer;" such as a sheriff, bailiff, coroner, sheriff's officer. Britt. c. 21. An agent; one who acts not by any inherent authority, but under another.

— Foreign minister. An ambassador, minister, or envoy from a foreign government. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet 56, 8 L. Ed. 25.

— Public minister. In international law. A general term comprehending all the higher classes of diplomatic representatives,
—as ambassadors, envoys, residents,
—but not including the commercial representatives, snch as consuls.

I. and eng. An assistant; an the order of another; an officer of cution of the law, and hence termed sheriff, bailiff, coroner, sheriff's officer sentative; a person ordained to preach

In public law. One of the highest functionaries in the organization of civil government, standing next to the sovereign or executive head, acting as his immediate auxiliary, and being generally charged with the administration of one of the departments of government. He is called a "cabinet minister," "secretary of state," or "secretary of a department."

In international law. An officer appointed by the government of one nation as a mediator or arbitrator between two other nations who are engaged in a controversy, with their consent, with a view to effecting an amicable adjustment of the dispute. A general name given to the diplomatic representatives sent by one state to another, including ambassadors, envoys, and residents.

In ecclesiastical law. A person ordained according to the usages of some church or associated body of Christians for the preaching of the gospel and filling the pastoral office.

In practice. An officer of justice, charged with the execution of the law, and hence termed a "ministerial officer;" such as a sheriff, bailiff, coroner, sheriff's officer. Britt. c. 21. An agent; one who acts not by any inherent authority, but under another.

5 1. An officer of a court charged with the execution of processes. Ministerial. Done or executed, or serving, under the authority of, or in obedience to, another person as superior: as, a ministerial— act, duty, office, officer, trust, writ. Opposed to judicial: involving the exercise of discretion. A ministerial act is one which a person performs in a given state of facts, in a prescribed manner, in obedience to the mandate of legal authority, and without regard to, or the exercise of, his own judgment upon the propriety of the act to be done.' As, the act of bringing a party into court; selecting jurors; ' delivering a patent to land after the right thereto is complete.' A ministerial duty, the performance of which may, in proper cases, be required of the head of a department of government, by judicial process, is one in re- 1 Caldwell v. Copeland, 37 Pa. 430-31 (1860); Sanderson V. City of Scranton, 105 id. 472 (18S4); 31 id. 476, 482; 1 Maule & S. 81; 2 Barn. & Aid. 654; 2 Strange, 1142; 11 M. & W. 33; L. E., 4 Eq., 19; 8 Exch. 800; 6 id. 644; 5 E. L. & E. 526; 3 Dr. & S. 393. " Erickson v. Michigan Land & Iron Co., 60 Mich. 604, 609-10 (1883), cases. s Bley's Appeal, 103 Pa. 307 (1883), cases. * Sanderson v. City of Scranton, 105 Pa. 478-73 (1884), Clark, J. On opinions as to the value of a silver or gold mine, see Southern Development Co. v. Silva, 135 U. S. 247, 253 (1888). ' L. minister, a servant. ' Flournoy v. Jeffersonville, 17 Ind, 173-74 (1861), Perkins, J.; 54 id. 377; 15 F. R. 16; Eoins v. Simpson, 50 Tex. 501 (1878). spect to which nothing is left to discretion. It is a simple, definite duty, arising under conditions admitted or proved to exist, and imposed by law. See Execution, 3, Writ of; Judge; Officer; Sheriff; 2. A person ordained to preach the gospel. See Ordain, 3. 3. In laws respecting foreign relations, a person invested with and exercising the principal diplomatic functions. 3 " The President,. shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Cosnls..."* roreign minister. In the diplomatic sense, a minister who comes from another jurisdiction or government.' The modern law of nations recognizes a class of public officers, who, while bearing various designations, chiefly significant in the relation of rank, precedence, or dignity, possess in substance the same functions, rights, and privileges, — being agents of their respective governments for the transaction of diplomatic business abroad, possessing also such powers as their respective governments may please to confer, and enjoying, as a class, established legal rights and immunities of person and property in the governments to which they are accredited as the representatives of sovereign powers. Disregarding questions of dignity, these diplomatic agents might all be denominated ambassadors, because they are immediate officers of the sovereign; or envoys, because they are persons sent; or ministers, because engaged in public service or duty; or procurators, because they are the proctors of their respective governments; or legates, because officially employed as the substitute of the superior; or nuncios, or internuncios, because they are messengers to or between governments; or deputies, because they are deputed; or commissioners, because they hold ' Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wall. 498 (1866), Chase, C. J. See also Kendall v. Stokes, 3 How. 67, 98 C1845); South V. Maryland, 18 How. 396, 403.(1855); Conner v. Long, 104 U. S. 334-44 (1881), cases; 7 Ct. CI. 293; 49 Ala. 311; 39 Ark. 85; 18 Conn. 404; 13 Ohio St. 132; 40 Wis. 175. 2 See 1 Mass. 32; 5 id. 524; 6 id. 401; 7 id. 60, 230; 14 id. 333; 3 Pick. 403; 1 Me. 103; 11 id. 487. 2 E. S. § 4130; Act 1 Feb. 1876; 19 St. L. 2. Constitution, Art. U, sec. 2, cl. 3. and discharge commissions; or chargis d'affaires, because they are charged with business; or agents, because they act for their governments. All these, and other designations of public ministers, are found in the history of modern negotiations, the name having no fixed relation to the functions or powers, or true nature of the office. In the simple indication of duties these public ministers would be divisible into three subdivisions of differences: ministers, representatives, and agents; ordi' nary, and extraordinary, that is, special; resident, and non-resident or transient; and plenipotentiary, and not plenipotentiary or with limited powers. But, in process of time, sometimes to flatter the pride of the sovereign represented, or that of the representative, or that of the government addressed; at other times to indicate shades of differences in functions, or in the place or manner of exercising them, and for other causes, arbitrary and artificial distinctions have grown up, in the use of titles, or names, which for' the most part are independent of, or absolutely contrary to, the truth and substance of the things they pretend to designate. Thus it is that ' ambassador " in origin the most equivocal of all the titles — for " ambascia " is " offlcium vel ministerium quodcunque, nobile et iguobile," and " ambisciata " at this day is any message, though borne by a household servant — lias come, notwithstanding its humble origin, to designate a diplomatic agent of the highest rank in the class, because taken to be the most direct representative of the sovereign; in this, reviving its original use of the personal client or agent of the chief or prince. Thus it is that the Papal See appoints peculiar ministers assumed to belong to the highest rank, under the name of "legate '* or " nuncio," both in nature as ordinary, and the latter as humble, as any in the whole category.. Thus it is that the ordinary " envoy," or agent of regular and ordinary fimctions, is by mere titular exaggeration turned into "envoy extraordinaiy," while another agent, who is no more a resident minister than he, and just as much an " extraordinary " envoy, is denominated merely a " minister resident." Thus it is, also, that in one of the varieties of agents, to "envoy extraordinary," which is false, is added "minister plenipotentiary," which is inexact in fact and by specialty of application; for it is not usual to give any diplomatic agent general " plenipotentiary " powers, but limited ones; and such powers, whatever they may be, as are given to envoys ordinary and extraordinary are frequently given to commissioners, ministei-s resident, or even chai'gfis d'affaires. And thus it is that " chai'g6s d'affaires," in itself quite as general as any title, and often borne by persons exercising as high functions as any other, has settled into the designation of a mere provisional officer, in dignity of the lowest rank. Thus, also, while "commissioner," which in fact is more comprehensive than the others, like " deputy," when held by a person having foreign diplomatic functions, as distinguished from functionsintemal or a diplomatic agent whose functions are undefined as respects the nature of his powers or the place of exercising them, — the term has more commonly been held to denote a minister the range of whose duties and powers is not confined to a particular court and does not depend on his presentation there. The Constitution, specifying "ambassadors" as examples of a class, empowers the President to appoint these and other " public ministers," that is, any such officers as by the law of nations are recognized as "public ministers," without making the appointment of them subject, lilie " other (non-enumerated) officers," to the exigency of an act of Congress. In a word, the power to appoint diplomatic agents, and to select any one out of the varieties of the class, according to his judgment as to the needs of the public service, is a constitutional function of the President, not derived from nor limitable by Congress, but requiring only the ultimate concurrence of the Senate; and so it was understood in the early practice of the government.' The United States has never sent an " ambassador."' The power to appoint a representative includes the power to remove him.' " In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls.. the supreme Court shall have original Jiu-isdiction." * The purpose was to keep open the highest coin-t of the nation for the determination, in the first instance, of suits involving a diplomatic or commercial representative of a foreign government. This was due to the rank and dignity of such representatives.... They may sue in any court they choose ihat is open to them. As to consuls, the commercial representatives of foreign governments, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was made concurrent with the district courts. Congress may confer jurisdiction, in cases of consuls, upon the subordinate courts of the Union.* See Ai.jEH, 1; ARkEST,2(3, 3); Asylum; Consul; Ex-

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.

eccles. law, is one the superintendence of the ofhcers ordained by some church to preach and persons employed therein, and the gospel. Ministers are authorised the general regulation and superin the United States, generally, to' vision of the business of the several marry, and are liable to fines and branches. And in the month of penalties for marrying minors con-{ January of every year he shall make trary to the local regulations. eee to the president of the United