royal commissions
royal commissions. Though there was an element of investigation in each, it is scarcely helpful to suggest, as some writers do, that the Domesday survey of 1086 or the inquiry into the state of the monasteries in the 1530s should be regarded as early examples of royal commissions. In neither case were they panels of persons appointed to investigate and advise. The preferred 18th-cent. method of proceeding—apart from leaving things alone—was the select parliamentary committee. This had some disadvantages: composed of MPs it was likely to be partisan; few MPs had the time to devote to a thorough inquiry; and it was almost impossible to take the committee round the country to gather evidence. From 1800 onwards, with increasing concern for social questions, royal commissions multiplied—11 in the first decade, 46 in the fourth, 75 in the sixth. The period immediately after the Great Reform Act saw a number of extremely influential reports—on the Poor Law (1834), municipal corporations (1835), employment of children in mines (1842), and the state of the large towns (1844). The defects of royal commissions are not inconsiderable. They are expensive, slow, and there is no guarantee that action will follow. Indeed, cynics regard them as an admirable way of disposing of awkward issues until after the next general election.
J. A. Cannon
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royal commissions