COMMISSARIATE. The whole body of officers who act in the department of the commissary, are called the, commissariate.

COMMISSARY. An officer whose principal duties are to supply the army witli provisions.

2. The Act of April 14, 1818, s. 6, requires that the president, by and with the consent of the senate, shall appoint a commissary general with the rank, pay, and emoluments¹ of colonel of ordnance², and as many assistants, to be taken from the sub-alterns of the line, as the service may require. The commissary general and his assistants shall perform such duties, in the purchasing and issuing of rations³ to the armies of the United States, as the president may direct. The duties of these officers are further detailed⁴ in the subsequent sections of this act,, and in the Act of March 2, 1821.

COMMISSION, contracts, civ. law. When one undertakes, without reward, to do something for another in respect to a thing bailed⁵. This term is frequently used synonymously with mandate⁶. (q. v.) Ruth. Inst. 105; Halifax, Analysis of the Civil Law, 70. If the service the party undertakes to perform for another is the custody⁷ of his goods, this particular sort of, commission is called a charge.

2. In a commission, the obligation on his part who undertakes it, is to transact⁸ the business without wages, or any other reward, and to use the same care and diligence in it, as if it were his own.

3. By commission is also understood an act performed, opposed to omission⁹, which is the want of performance of such an act; is, when a nuisance is created by an act of commission, it may be abated¹⁰ without notice; but when it arises from omission, notice to remove it must be given before it is abated. 1 Chit. Pr. 711. Vide dbatement of Nuisances; Branches; Trees.

COMMISSION, office. Persons authorized¹² to act in a certain matter; as, such a matter was submitted, to the commission; there were several meetings before the commission. 4 B. & Cr. 850; 10 E. C. L. R. 459.

COMMISSION, crim. law. The act of perpetrating an offence. There are crimes of commission and crimes of omission.

COMMISSION, government. Letters-patent granted by the government, under the public seal, to a person appointed to an office, giving him authority to perform the duties of his office. The commission is not the appointment, but only evidence of it; and as soon as it is signed and sealed, vests the office in the appointee. 1 Cranch, 137; 2 N. & M. 357; 1 M'Cord, 233, 238. See Pet. C. C. R. 194; 2 Summ. 299; 8 Conn. 109; 1 Penn. 297; 2 Const. Rep. 696; 2 Tyler, 235.

COMMISSION, practice. An instrument issued by a court of, justice, or other competent tribunal, to authorize¹¹ a person to take depositions¹³, or do any other act by authority of such court, or tribunal, is called a commission. For a form of a commission to take.depositions, see Gresley, Eq. Ev. 72.

COMMISSION OF LUNACY, A writ¹⁴ issued out of chancery, or such court as may have jurisdiction¹⁵ of the case directed to a proper officer, to inquire whether a person named therein is a lunatic or not. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 382, et seq.

COMMISSION MERCHANT. One employed to sell goods for another on commission; a factor. He is sometimes called. a consignee¹⁶, (q. v.) and the goods he receives are a consignment¹⁷. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1013.