Show THE aUf cENS CABINET sketch of a body unknown to alio law its griffin powers the responsibilities an in Council How they resign the critical position in at the present moment and the tender by the members of the cabinet of their resignations give interest to the following details of the constitution of the later important political body its relations to the sovereign and its methods taken from the brooklyn eagle after giving succinct statement of the manner in which the queens cabinet became an existing body dating back to the reign II 11 and a factor to the government supplanting the privy council the eagle proceed THE CABINET organization jt ia a remarkable circumstance that a body so august as the english cabinet should be unknown colaw its members are constitutional advisers of the sovereign and yet their appointment is not provided for by any act of parliament they speak of themselves and are ally regarded as her Maje ministers but in reality they represent the declared will of the constituencies and hold office only so along as they command the confidence of the house of commons the choice of ministers Is the prerogative of the crown but practically that to the selection of a prime minister who has already been nominated by the voice of his party aud he selects his colleagues according to the political exigencies of the time the body thus constituted comes into existence without any official proclamation cla mation of the fact such of its members as had not before been admitted into the ranks of her Maje privy councillors are forthwith summoned to the council and the fact of their being sworn is formally announced in tho london gazette but their appointment aa members of the Cabinet is known to the work there is no rule as to how many ministers shall form the cabinet or what shall be the relative pro portion of peers and commoners in 1783 cabinet consisted of himself and seven peers one cabinet consisted ot seventeen members another of eleven but the usual number is either thirteen or fifteen at one time the archbishop of canterbury ter bury the lord chief justice the master of the mint and the corn mander iu chief were entitled to in the cabinet but they have not been included in the ministries of modern times the ministers who are now generally regarded as indispensable members ot the cabinet arc the following the first lord of the treasury the lord chancellor the chancellor of the exchequer the secretary for homo affairs the secretary for foreign affairs the secretary for colonial affairs the secretary for indian affairs the secretary of war the president of the council the lord privy seal the first lord of the admiralty the heads of other departments of the government are sometimes placed in the cabinet according to the personal views of the premier as to the importance of the offices which they fill or as to the value of their individual counsel and influence in political affairs CABINET MEETINGS there are usually two parliamentary chiefs of tho principal departments of state one in each house to represent the department to which he belongs to defend its policy and to answer any questions that may arise in relation to it it was formerly the custom of the king to preside at meetings of the cabinet council william and anne were always present at the weekly meetings of the cabinet but the inability of george I 1 to con verse in english compelled hia absence from the deliberations of the ministry and since his time no member of alie royal family has ever been present pre sent at a cabinet council meetings of the cabinet arc usually called by summonses formally addressed of the premier to her confidential ad bisera vi sera but any member of the cabinet has the right to call hia colleagues together they are generally held at the borei agn office or at the prime ministers official residence but they may be held wherever ministers can be most conyon got together there is no fixed quorum nor is any president formally appointed the cabinet council has no secretary and no official record whatever is kept of its even a private record of what passed would be considered a breach of ministerial confidence fi hence no member of the cabinet not even the prime minister ia at liberty to make any revel aaion of its proceedings without having first obtained tho sovereigns permission to do so it is of course necessary for the head of the state to bo kept informed of what matters have engaged the attention of the cabinet and for this pup coee a ministerial memorandum first introduced by sir robert peel ia prepared by alia prime for alic queens uc anit after nay important cabinet council lie usually seeks of the queen and gives an oral of the decisions that baic been ar rived at collective in on to the sovereign tho cabinets Cabi netis an indivisible and absolute unity and therefore the copins ions of individual aro not reported lo 10 tho crown it ia found necessary to put any question to alie vote a decides but it id a rule of cabinet council and of all meetings of of councils alike that no man shall make publication of how the minority voted on being admitted into the privy cunail Cun pil every member ia sworn not to divulge its proceed i ing and this rule id sacredly observed fis regards all the meetings of the cabinet whatever difference of opinion may have been manifested during the discussions of lie when a vote id taken aill the minis become equally responsible for the decision arrived at and are equally bound to support and de feud it unless the decision be one in which any member cannot con coincide in which case he places his resignation in the hands of the premier and retires from the cabinet according to modern usage only one kind of document ia ever brought before the cabinet to re cieve the signature of all ita members viz an order in council which constitutes a declaration of war in minor affairs ministers have a separate discretion in their several department but in all matters involving the policy of the government the judgment of the cabinet collectively must be taken in ac cardacci cor dacci with this principle it is required that copies of all dispatches received by n secretary of slate shall be forwarded first to the prime minister then to the sovereign and afterward if they arc important to every other member of the this rule also applies to the drafts of replied proposed to be sent to such dispatches these copied and dradi replies are circulated among the members of the cabinet by means of cabinet dispatch bo xesto which every cabinet minister possesses a master key TO tick to insure due observance of the rule that the crown shall be consulted upon all important matters of state provision is made for the reg alor transmission to tho queen of every dispatch report or paper which is material for her to inspect these documents anro sent to her majesty cither through alie prime minister or direct I 1 rom the office of alie secretary of state the mode in which ministers address the sovereign in epistolary comma ia very peculiar the ess hiliette being fur alie to ue the third person when t of himself and the second when speaking of the ovum sn why mid aliu this furm was first introduced i not knoon allers to george III are in the ordinary form but twenty yean later e find fox employing the form mr fox lias he lionor of transmitting to your majesty the minute of a cabinet council etc headers of the life of the prince consort will have observed that the form adopted by ministers during the present reign is presents hw humble duty to your majesty and begs etc when a minister requires the royal sign manual to any important document he must make pei bonal application for it at a formal audience of the queen but papers of an ordinary character requiring the royal signature are allowed to be sent in a departmental dispatch box along with other official documents all papers signed by the sovereign require the counter signature of a secretary of state to give them validity it is under this important safeguard that tho patronage of the crown is administered and every official act of the crown ia performed it being a maxim of the english constitution that tho king can do no wrong the personal immunity of alio BOV ia by this means secured and a responsible adviser fur every act of the crown is provided who must he prepared to answer for aliat alie crown has done PEEKS the dual cespon nihility of ministers their responsibility to both crown and parliament requires that they should have cats an the those members of alie government who aro acera occupy the front bench on the right of the woolsack in the house of lords the lord chancellor 13 cx speaker or president of the house ot lords but though this high functionary is usually a peer it is not legally or constitutionally neo eskary that he should be a peer bc fore he enters upon the duties of hig office it is only since that a peerage has been conferred upon the lord chancellor and in 1830 the woolsack was for att least one day actually by henry brougham Bro upham while still n commoner in the house of commons the cabinet ministers arp by courtesy and long usage allowed undisputed possession of tho front seats at the right of tho speaker is commonly spoken of as bench the only oc casio uon which any other members of alie house claim to sit on that bench ia at tho opening of a now parliament when ghofour members for the city bf london assert and generally exercise ex erciso ancient to take precedence of even alie ministers of alio crown prior to alie year the resignation ofa ministry was brought about bv one of two causes cither the forfeiture of the confidence of the sovereign or the forfeiture of the confide of parliament in that year however and again in 1874 the ministry of the day resigned their appointments ag soon as the results of the general election became known the precedent thua established was afterwards followed by lord Beacons fields min astry TIIE CABINET IS DISSOLVED when ministers are about to resign their intention to do so is made known to the sovereign by the pra mier but they continue to hold office und transact the usual routine business of their until their successors are appointed As boon as the composition new cabinet is completed the sovereign fixes a day on which she will give audience to the members of the outgoing ministry to receive from them their insignia of office on the same day almost immediately after they have left tho royal presence the new premier and choson colleagues are introduced and have handed to them the seals and symbols juat left by their predecessors this is alie only occasion during their term of office on which they appear as a body in the presence of the sovereign in this way the government is carried on in almost unbroken continuity only one other form lias to be bouc through and the change of ministry i finally effected it is a customary courtesy for outgoing ministers to have personal interviews with their successors at their respective offices fur the purpose of explaining alie state of public bust nep and for handing over all public documents which have come aiuto their possession during their term of office they arc not how required to leave behind them any private letters which they may have receive d even hough these private letters relate exclusively to public affairs |