hold its sittings in any part of the United Kingdom, or
may institute and conduct experiments for the purpose of testing the
utility of invention, &c. When the inquiry or any particular portion of
it is concluded, a report is presented to the crown through the home
department. All the commissioners, if unanimous, sign the report, but
those who are unable to agree with the majority can record their
dissent, and express their individual opinions, either in paragraphs
appended to the report or in separately signed memoranda.

Statutory commissions are created by acts of parliament, and, with the
exception that they are liable to have their proceedings questioned in
parliament, have absolute powers within the limits of their prescribed
functions and subject to the provisions of the act defining the same.
Departmental commissions or committees are appointed either by a
treasury minute or by the authority of a secretary of state, for the
purpose of instituting inquiries into matters of official concern or
examining into proposed changes in administrative arrangements. They are
generally composed of two or more permanent officials of the department
concerned in the investigation, along with a subordinate member of the
administration. Reports of such committees are usually regarded as
confidential documents.

A full account of the procedure in royal commissions will be found in
A. Todd's _Parliamentary Government in England_, vol. ii.

COMMISSIONAIRE, the designation of an attendant, messenger or
subordinate employe in hotels on the continent of Europe, whose chief
duty is to attend at railway stations, secure customers, take charge of
their luggage, carry out the necessary formalities with respect to it
and have it sent on to the hotel. They are also employed in Paris as
street messengers, light porters, &c. The Corps of Commissionaires, in
England, is an association of pensioned soldiers of trustworthy
character, founded in 1859 by Captain Sir Edward Walter, K.C.B.
(1823-1904). It was first started in a very small way, with the
intention of providing occupation for none but wounded soldiers. The
nucleus of the corps consisted of eight men, each of whom had lost a
limb. The demand, however, for neat, uniformed, trusty men, to perform
certain light duties, encouraged the founder to extend his idea, and the
corps developed into a large self-supporting organization. In 1906 there
were over 3000 members of the corps, m