Description
Among the various unique institutions of the British government, one deserving greater attention than it has hitherto received is the Royal Commission. Not only is it an institution of respectable antiquity, even among British political in strumentalities, and not only is it coming to be employed with increasing frequency as the decades roll by, but it is also particularly important as a device whereby the regular, persisting governmental organism taps the surrounding substance of impartial, informed opinion in the body politic, and gains the guidance and strength which continued attempt at self-sufficiency could never give. Investigators, especially those in the social sciences, have become familiar with many of the reports made by Royal Commissions, or at least with citations therefrom, such as the Commission on Labor in 1890-94; the series relating to British agriculture; those on Indian currency and finance of 1913 and 1925; or that on Local Government of 1923-25. And manifold have been the administrative and institutional changes in the British government that have flowed from the recommendations of these extraordinary committees.