effect to them; with the Treasury on the alterations made or contemplated in the laws of the Customs, or cases of hardship in the operation of those laws, and on other points connected with them. The preparation also of Bills and Orders in Council for carrying out the intentions of Government on these subjects, frequently falls to the care of this Board. All applications made to the Queen in Council by companies or private persons for charters of incorporation, are referred to the Board of Trade; and besides this practice, the Board has certain statutory powers with respect to particular classes of incorporated companies which will be mentioned presently. All Acts of colonial legislatures are transmitted to the Secretary of State to be laid before the Queen. These Acts are forwarded by the Secretary of State to the Clerk of the Privy Council, and are thus submitted to the Queen, who thereupon orders a reference to be made to the Board of Trade. As to part of the Acts so referred, the advice of the Colonial Secretary of State is adopted in the manner just mentioned, but all colonial Acts which fall within the peculiar province of the Board of Trade, receive the formal assent of the Board before being assented to by the Crown. The ordinances of the "Crown Colonies" do not necessarily come before the Board, but such of them as relate to trade are usually referred to it (a). By standing orders of Parliament, printed copies of Bills relating to railways, canals, docks, harbours, and other public works, and of "every Bill for incorporating or giving powers to any company," are deposited with the Board of Trade before being brought into Parliament; and plans and sections of various works intended to be authorized by such Bills, are similarly deposited. The Board, or its officers, make reports on Railway Bills, and these reports are referred to the several Committees on those Bills (b). (a) Thomas, Hist. of Public Departments, 81. (b) Standing Orders of H. of Commons, Nos. 32, 38, 127, 128. The statistical department of the Board of Trade, collects from public and private sources, information respecting the extent of the commerce, manufactures, and produce of the kingdom; and the accounts of revenue and trade collected by the Board from other departments, are annually pre sented to Parliament. Besides its consultative functions, the Board of Trade has several executive powers conferred by modern statutes. Thus, by various Acts relating to merchant shipping(a), the Board has administrative powers with respect to the mercantile marine, and the laws of the British merchant service, including the regulation of examinations of masters and mates of foreign-going vessels, the registration of seamen in the merchant service, and the like. The Board has also certain summary powers of adjudicating on claims for wages. The naval department of the Board discharges also various statutory duties, which include the appointment of surveyors, who report on the sufficiency of river steamvessels before they are entitled to ply for passengers. By a recent statute, certain powers and duties relative to harbours and navigation under local Acts have been transferred from the Admiralty to the Board of Trade, and the sanction of the Board is required with respect to applications to Parliament for such Acts(b). Another department of the Board-the railway department-exercises a supervision over the construction and working of railways, and appoints inspectors, who report on the sufficiency of the works and stock of railways before. they are opened, and upon the causes of accidents occurring upon them (c). Another branch of the statutory powers of the Board, is that relating to joint-stock companies. By several Acts of (a) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 129; 17 & 18 Vict. r. 164, part 1. (b) The Harbours Transfer Act, 1862, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 69. (e) The administrative control of railways, originally assigned to the Board of Trade by the statute 3 & 4 Vict. c. 97, was transferred to a separate Board of Commissioners by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 105, but in 1851, was restored to the Board of Trade by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 64. Parliament, various trading companies are enabled to become bodies corporate upon registration. The affairs of a registered trading company are, upon the requisition of a certain proportion of the shareholders, liable to examination by inspectors appointed by the Board of Trade (a). The statutes relating to copyright of designs empower the Board of Trade to regulate the duties of the Registrar of Designs, and to extend the duration of such copyright (b). Among others of the multifarious duties of the Board, is the superintendence of the Government Schools of Design, and of several museums and offices maintained at the public expense, for purposes connected with the arts and sciences. (a) The Companies Act, 1862, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 89, s. 56. 660 CHAPTER VI. THE SECRETARIAL DEPARTMENTS. It has been stated in a former chapter that the King's principal secretary does not appear to have been included among the great officers of State until the time of Henry VIII. A principal or chief secretary existed, indeed, much earlier, but with functions far less important than those which devolved upon the secretary when he became "Secretary of State." There is mention of the office of King's Secretary as early as the reign of Henry III., when one Maunsell, “Secretarius noster," was employed as an envoy to negotiate an alliance with Spain, and other affairs of importance. He was a member of the Council. So late as the middle of the fifteenth century, though the Secretary was often a member of the Privy Council, he was only an inferior officer of the Royal household, and it was not until the reign of Henry VI. that this officer was constantly a member of the Council (a). We have seen that in the early history of the Constitution the Chancellor discharged the duties of a Secretary of State. It is reasonable to conjecture that the great increase of his duties after the Conquest, when he had become the chief judicial officer in the kingdom, rendered it impracticable to employ him as the King's private secretary. He however continued until long afterwards to discharge duties (a) Sir Harris Nicolas, Preface to the sixth volume of the Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, xcvii et seq. which now devolve upon the Secretary of State. Thus, we find Cardinal Wolsey, Chancellor in the reign of Henry VIII., discharged functions similar to those of the modern Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, such as communicating with envoys from foreign courts, and conducting diplomatic correspondence with English ministers abroad. It is however to be added, that for carrying on this correspondence without the authority of the Privy Council, he was charged with usurping the regular functions of that body (a). The first approach towards rendering the King's Secretary a responsible functionary is considered by Sir Harris Nicolas to have been made by the regulations of the Privy Council in the reign of Henry VI. (apparently 22 Hen. VI., A.D. 1443-4), by which the King's grants upon petition were to be carried out by letters prepared by the Secretary, and sealed by the King's Seal. These letters were an authority to the Keeper of the Privy Seal for passing the grants under the Privy Seal, and to the Lord Chancellor for passing them under the Great Seal (b). The statutes of the reign of Henry VIII. contain references to the King's Secretary. The statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 11, determines the form of proceeding in his office with respect to royal grants, which were required to be passed under the Signet, Privy Seal, and Great Seal successively. In the statute 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10, which regulates precedence among persons holding various "great offices of the realm," the "King's Chief Secretary" is included, but ranked last. Sir Harris Nicolas considers the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII. to be the period when the King's Secretary became an officer of great consideration, and that previously his duties resembled more closely those of a private secretary than those of the Secretaries of State of the present day (c). The earliest notice yet found of the designation of the Secretary by a title similar to that which he has at pre (a) See Articles against Wolsey, 1 State Trials, 374. (b) 6 Proceedings of Privy Council, xciv. (c) Ibid. cxxxiv. |