EXECUTIVE

As distinguished from the legislative and judicial departments of government, the executive department is that which is charged with the detail of carrying the laws into effect and securing their due observance. The word “executive” is also used as an impersonal designation of the chief executive officer of a state or nation. Comm. .v. Hall, 9 Gray (Mass.) 267, 69 Am: Dec. 285; In re Railroad Com’rs, 15 Neb. 079, 50 N. W. 276; In re Davies, 168 N. Y. 89, 61 N. E. 118, 56 L. R. A. 855; State v, Denny, 118 Ind. 382, 21 N. E. 252, 4 L. R. A. 79. Executive administration, or ministry. A political term in England, applicable to the higher and responsible class of public officials by whom the chief departments of the government of the kingdom are administered. The number of these amounts to fifty or sixty persons. Their tenure of office depends on the confidence of a majority of the house of commons, and they are supposed to be agreed on all matters of general policy except such as are specifically left open questions. Cab. Lawy. Executive officer. An officer of the executive department of government; one in whom resides the power to execute the laws; one whose duties are to cause the laws to be executed and obeyed. Thome v. San Francisco, 4 Cal. 146; People v. Salsbury, 134 Mich. 537, 96 N. W. 939; Petterson v. State (Tex. Cr. App.) 58 S. W. 100.