MINISTER

In Politics, a servant of the sovereign executive power in a state: generally speaking, the head of a department or branch of government. Usage, in different countries, fixes very dilferently the limits of that higher cla of servants to which the term is applied. In the British empire, none but the heads of administrative departments are termed ministers: part of whom belong to the cabinet, and part are not included in it. The cabinet ministers have varied under different administrations; and as our government is of mixed organization, partly to serve the actual nece ities of state, and partly retaining ancient distinctions of office founded on usage only, some of the ministers hold merely sinecure appointments. In France, where the forms of government are established more on the principle of utility, there are eight ministers so called: 1. of the interior; 2. of finance; 3. of justice; 4. of public instruction and ecclesiastical affixirs; 5. of commerce and public works; 6. of the marine and colonies; 7. of war; 8. of foreign affairs. In England, ministers sit and vote in either house of parliament,— by hereditary right, if peers; as representatives only, if commoners. In France, the same regulation prevails; but ministers have also, by virtue of their office, a right to sit and take part in the debates in cither chamber. In the United States, no minister (or secretary, in the langQage of that government) can be chosen either representative or senator. In some European countries (as Ru ia), a distinction is established between the private affairs of the sovereign and foreign affiiirs, on the one hand, which form the combined duties of the cabinet ministers; and the affairs of the interior, which are entrusted to ministers of state. There are also in some governments honorary or conference ministers, without any real department of duty. The representatives of minor sovereigns at foreign courts are usually styled jninisters, instead of amba adors. The terra minister is also frequently used in a sense synonymous with clergyman. [s. 766]