names of its then members happened to form the word “Cabal,” a word previously merely equivalent to cabinet, but ever since doomed to bear an odious connotation. The deliberations of the King with a portion only of his Council had long been a matter of some jealousy. Such a favoured body was called from the Spanish practice a junto, and from French and Italian analogies a cabinet or cabal. Lord Bacon,* after noticing the inconveniences which they are designed to cure, describes cabinet councils as a remedy worse than the disease. Metis the wife is degraded into Metis the mistress. The Councils of State to which princes are married degenerate into councils of "favoured persons recommended chiefly by flattery and affection." The Cabinet of the Stuarts was indeed equivalent to "the King's friends" of the House of Hanover. The return, therefore, to the good old ways of dealing with the Privy Council only was a favourite project of Administrative Reform. In 1679, Sir William Temple organized an elaborate but short-lived Privy Council. Its chief recommendation was its recognition of the principle that the King was in all respects to follow his Council's advice. Its principal defect was its inability to prevail upon him to do so. At length in the Act of Settlement a provision was introduced requiring that after the Hanoverian Succession all business properly cognizable in the Privy Council should be transacted there, and that all resolutions taken thereupon should be signed by the Privy Councillors who advised them. Before it came into force this clause, which merely revived an ancient practice,† was repealed. No * Bacon's Works, vi. 425. "In the reign of Henry V. every act of the Council, of which there are many still extant, was written on a separate paper and signed by all the members present, except the officers. These documents were afterwards copied into the General Register or Book of the Council.”—Proceedings of Privy Council, ii. 26. explanation of the reasons of the repeal are recorded. It may perhaps have been that, as Mr. Hallam suggests, ministers shrunk from so definite a responsibility. But we know that the Tory party, who did not venture openly to oppose the measure, used every method to discredit it; * and that they accordingly loaded the bill with clauses to which they thought that the Lords would not agree, and on the loss of which they hoped to raise disputes sufficient to procure its rejection. The Lords perceived the design, and passed the bill without amendment. At a later period, when the Whigs were in power, this clause and some others which were personally offensive to the future King were repealed. It may then be inferred that the restoration of the former mode of transacting business was felt to be inconvenient and a sort of implied sanction seems to have been given to the new method, partly by the postponement of the clauses in the Act of Settlement during the existing and the succeeding reigns, and partly by the deliberate repeal of these provisions. Soon after this repeal, in the beginning of the year 1711, we find in an address of the House of Lords to the Queen a distinct recognition of the Cabinet Council; † and on the same occasion there arose a curious discussion respecting the meaning of the terms Cabinet and Ministers. It is said that the House of Commons has never in any of its authentic acts recognized the existence of the Cabinet. But usage has now effectually settled the position of that body. It either exercises or directs the ✓ exercise of all the powers of the Privy Council. In some matters the minister of the department alone takes the * Lord Cowper's Impartial History of Parties; see Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, iv. 421. +6 Parl. Hist., 970. Per Sir G. C. Lewis, 3 Hans., clv. 79; see Todd's Parl. Govt., ii. 141. Royal pleasure. In other matters which are of a more formal nature, or which relate more directly to public affairs, the King in Council has to deal. But the chief of each department is a member of the Cabinet and acts with the sanction, express or implied, of his colleagues; and thus the proceedings of the several departments are under the direction of the Cabinet. No members of the Privy Council attend the meetings of that body unless their presence is specially requested; and it is under the advice of the Cabinet that such summonses are issued. The Privy Council of the present day is thus in effect the Cabinet, meeting in the presence of the Queen for the purpose of informing Her Majesty of the result of their previous deliberations on certain classes of public subjects, and of receiving Her Majesty's pleasure upon the advice that they thus tender. The dignity, therefore, of a Privy Councillor is now merely titular. It confers a certain rank and position, but does not necessarily bring with it any political influence. selected from Parliament § 4 Lord Macaulay* observes that the first English ministry was gradually formed, and that its precise date Cabinet must therefore be uncertain. But the period from which he is inclined to reckon the era of ary majority. ministers is the meeting of Parliament after the general election of 1695. I venture to think that this date marks a very early stage in ministerial development. Still it is in this point of view a remarkable period. William the Third had commenced his reign with the desire to retain in his service the ablest men of every shade of political opinion. Administrative ability and not political sympathies formed, in his judgment, the proper qualification *Hist. of Eng., v. 124. for office. He, himself the ablest statesman of his day, took a leading part, as his predecessors had done, in the business of administration. He commanded his own army. He conducted his own negotiations, and decided upon his own foreign policy. But in the House of Commons party spirit was still bitter; and although their opponents were a formidable minority, the Whigs were in the ascendant. One after another, successful attacks were made upon those parts of the Government which were administered by Tories. The naval administration* was censured; and the change which ensued necessitated the further change of removing Lord Nottingham, the great Tory leader, from the office of Secretary of State. Shortly afterwards the Duke of Leeds,† the Lord President, was for the second time in his eventful life impeached; and although the Commons did not continue their proceedings, and he was allowed nominally to retain his office, he virtually ceased to be a minister. Trevor, who had been first Commissioner of the Great Seal, had previously given way to the able legal champion of the Whigs, Lord Somers; and, about the time when the Duke of Leeds was impeached, was obliged, as Speaker of the House of Commons, to put to the vote and announce the adoption of the resolution. that branded himself with corruption. Lastly, although not for some time afterwards, Godolphin, the sole remaining Tory amongst the great officers of state, was induced to tender his resignation.§ The general election of 1695 had been highly favourable to the Whig party their chiefs were intimately connected with each other, and were devotedly supported by their followers. Thus the junto, as they were called, possessing the confidence both of the King and of Parliament, formed, at least so far as domestic ‡ Ib., 550. * Macaulay, iv. 469, 470. + Ib., 561. || Ib., 446. affairs were concerned, a veritable though undeveloped ministry. Thus, at the commencement of the eighteenth century two principles may be regarded as almost, if not thoroughly, established. The unwieldy machinery of the Privy Council was superseded by a smaller and more efficient executive; and this new body was composed of men whose opinions on political subjects were alike, and were also acceptable to Parliament. But the mode in which the ministry is changed in accordance with the fluctuations of opinions and feelings in the House of Commons was not then known. The statesmen of the Revolution were not conscious of the great political change which was proceeding among them. Not even Lord Somers, "the foremost man of his age in civil wisdom," thought it strange that one party should be in possession of the executive administration while the other predominated in the Legislature. Still, although the process of change, was both tedious and painful, its principle became gradually fixed. In the later years of William and the early years of Anne, both the action of Parliament and the condition of the administration were highly unsatisfactory. At length the disposition of the nation and the partialities of the Crown happened for some time to coincide. The people were gratified with the successful prosecution of the war. The Queen was anxious to promote the glory of the husband of Mrs. Freeman. But Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman quarrelled; the latter was discharged, and the Tory waiting-woman was installed in her place. About the same time came the great storm of Sacheverell, and the cry that the Church was in danger. The Whig Government failed to resist the combined influence of Court Macaulay, v. 168. |