A warrant or authority or letters patent , issuing from the government, or one of its departments, or a court, empowering a person or persons named to do certain acts, or to exercise jurisdiction , or to perform the duties and exercise the authority of an office, (as in the case of an officer in the army or navy.) Bledsoe v. Colgan, 138 Cal. 34, 70 Pac. 924; U. S. v. Planter, 27 Fed. Cas. 544; Dew v. Judges, 3 Hen. & M. (Va.) 1, 3 Am. Dec. 639; Scofield v. Lounsbury, 8 Conn. 109. Also, in private affairs, it signifies the authority’ or instructions under which one person transacts business or negotiates for another. In a derivative sense, a body of persons to whom a commission is directed. A board or committee officially appointed and empowered to perform certain acts or exercise certain jurisdiction of a public nature or relation; as a “commission of assise.” In the civil law . A species of bailment, being an undertaking , without reward, to do something in respect to an article bailed; equivalent to “mandate.”
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
