Orders in Council

orders issued by the British sovereign on the advice of the privy council. The council is composed of an indefinite number of gentlemen whom the sovereign may call together in consultation. It may or may not include the members of the cabinet. Unless contrary to law, an order in council is binding upon all British subjects. The authority of the council is less than formerly. The privy council, it may be remembered, ordered the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. In American history, Orders in Council refer especially to a proclamation of May 16, 1806, forbidding ships to trade on the coast of Europe from the Elbe to Brest in France, and to a second order, made November 11, 1807, forbidding all trade with France. The orders were military measures taken to annoy France, but they interfered with the rights of American merchants and were among the causes that brought on the War of 1812. The entire government of the czar of Russia is based on a system of orders in council.

Ordinance of 1787. See Northwest Territory