party the two opposing parties, and to reconstitute the cabinet of Whigs, at that time the dominant party in parliament. So slowly was the suggestion carried out that a year elapsed before the new ministry thus formed upon a party basis was substantially complete; and not until the end of two years more was the last Tory removed from the council board. When that point was reached the Whigs, by the frequent assembling origin of of their supporters in the house of commons, originated that system of system of party organization which in its matured form has organizabeen adopted by all like bodies in the state.1 While the party vested with the control of the executive power was thus providing for its discipline as a whole, those members of it who formed the new ministry made it a rule to repel as, a unit all why the attacks upon any of its members, a circumstance which led to their being known as the "Juncto," a term of reproach first called a employed in the time of Charles I.2 tion; new ministry was "Juncto." nobles as ministers in the house of lords; During the year that preceded William's attempt to estab- Right of lish cabinet government in its modern form by the appointment to sit in placemen of his advisers from the party dominant in the house of com- the houses; mons, that house passed a bill, which, if it had become law, would have rendered the entire scheme abortive by preventing a fusion between the executive and legislative powers. In the days when the great ministers of state were taken almost ex- great clusively from the nobles, who as the leaders of the nation were regarded as the hereditary councillors of the crown, nothing seemed more natural than they should sit with their brethren in the upper house and join with them in their legislative and judicial functions. But when the council through the decline in the influence of the nobles was gradually transformed from an independent body that stood as a bridle upon the royal authority into a corps of trained officials subject to the king's will and direction, its active duties passed, during the reigns of when the Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, more and more into the hands of passed to such commoners as "the Cromwells, the Sadlers, the Petres, question and the Cecils, who constitute the glory of the Tudor's rule." 3 arose as to Out of the introduction thus brought about of numerous com- to sit in the moners into the council, the question arose whether the great house; 1 Macaulay, vol. ii. pp. 453-457; Todd's Parl. Government, vol. i. pp. 232, 248, 249. 2 See above, p. 368. great offices commoners, their right lower earliest complaints great officials to sit in commons Edward and Eliza "1 officers of state and other privy councillors had the right to sit in the house of commons. Perhaps the earliest complaint against the against the practice is embodied in the statement that "in practice; Henry VII.'s time, and Henry VIII.'s, ministers of state, officers of the revenue, and other courtiers found an account in creeping, through boroughs, into the house of commons; and in a debate on placemen in parliament that took place in 1680 the statement was made that a certain act to relieve Henry VIII. of certain sums he had borrowed, though much opposed, passed "because the house was mostly the king's servants." 2 While it is impossible to determine precisely when the great officers of state and other privy councillors were first permitted permitted to sit in the lower house, it is clear that the practice was tolerated during the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizain reigns of beth; and when in 1614 the matter was made the subject of VI., Mary, debate in the house, no disposition was shown to disturb such as were then in possession of seats in that body. From that time down to the Revolution of 1688 it was the custom to permit those members of the house who were appointed to the Revolution, great offices of state or to places of profit under the crown to retain their seats unless their employments required prolonged residence abroad, in which event new writs were sometimes issued to fill their places; and after the restoration of Charles II. the statement is expressly made that writs were issued to fill the places of such members of the house as were appointed to the bench. In 1614 it was resolved that "Mr. AttorneyGeneral Bacon [who had been appointed prior to his election] remain in the house for this parliament, but never any attorney-general to serve in the lower house in future," a rule of exclusion that remained in force until 1670, when it was abolished in favor of Sir H. Finch, who had been promoted from general the office of solicitor-general — the right of whose incumbent always admitted; to sit had always been admitted to that of attorney-general. beth; practice continued down to except in cases of long residence abroad; rule excluding attorneygeneral abolished; solicitor 1 Gurdon, Hist. of Parls., vol. ii. p. issued. Commons' Journals, vol. i. p. resolution to all office in commons And yet, so strong was the prejudice against the practice of permitting royal officials to sit in the house that that body in house 1680 resolved that no one of its members, without its leave, of 1680; should accept any office or place of profit from the crown, or any promise of the same, while he held a seat, under the pain of expulsion.1 After the Revolution, in order to give legal validity to the principle which that impotent 2 resolution embodied, a bill whose purpose was to deny to all office-holders of the crown the right to sit in the commons was passed by that body in 1692; and upon its rejection by the lords 3 an- bill denying other, prospective in character, was passed by the lower house holders in 1693. After the lords had accepted the measure, subject right to sit to the important proviso that all office-holders who should be passed in 1693; unseated by the act might "be afterwards chosen again to serve in the same parliament," William, who regarded the proposal even in that form an encroachment upon the prerogative, destroyed by veto; interposed the veto by formally laying aside the bill, January 25, 1694; whereupon the lower house resolved that "whoever advised the king not to give the royal assent was an enemy to their majesties and the kingdom." 5 Thus defeated in their main purpose, the house succeeded during the same year in securing a more limited exclusion through an addition made to limited exthe Bill of Supply, which provided "that no member of the corporated house of commons shall be concerned, directly or indirectly, in Supply in the farming, collecting, or managing of the duties to be col- same year; lected by this bill, or any other aid to be granted to their majesties, other than the present commissioners for managing the customs and excises." This, the first statutory prohibition first against office-holders sitting and voting as members of the statutory lower house, after being extended by other similar acts, was followed in 1700 by that clause of the Act of Settlement, exclusion which provided "that no person who has an office or place of in Act of profit under the king, or receives a pension from the crown, Settlement; shall be capable of serving as a member of the house of commons." That prohibition, designed to take effect only after 1 Parl. Hist., vol. iv. p. 1270. 2 Impotent because the house alone had not the power to exclude a member without the concurrence of the other branches of the law-making power. 3 Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 745 n. clusion in 'Bill of prohibi tion; contained act of 1707 providing for new election after appointment. William's first parliamentary ministry and its work. Committee of Privy Council known as Board of Trade; the accession of the house of Hanover, was repealed as before stated in 1705,1 when the Act of Settlement was revised; and in 1707 a new act 2 was passed, which has since afforded an effectual security against the undue influence exerted by the crown through placemen in the lower house by the provisions, first, that every member of the house shall vacate his seat by accepting an office of profit from the crown, other than a high commission in the army; second, that the member thus ousted shall be capable of reëlection, unless the office accepted has been created since October 25, 1705, or has been otherwise declared to disqualify for a seat in parliament. Such was the condition of things when William, under the advice of Sunderland, attempted to bring the lower house into harmony with the crown through an arrangement which, for the first time in English history, enabled the executive to be represented in that body by a politically united group of its members, who, as the representatives of the dominant party, constituted at the same moment the inner circle of the privy council. The Whig ministry thus formed, under the lead of Russell, Somers, Montague, Wharton, and Shrewsbury, was able to sustain the king during the trial that followed the death of the queen at the end of 1694, and to hold the parliament at his side in the prosecution of the war until the Alliance succeeded in winning in 1695 its first great triumph over France through the capture of Namur.8 In that year it was that the "Committee of Privy Council for Trade," generally known as the Board of Trade, was revived after having been for a long time abolished. Cromwell found it wise to give to trade and the colonies a stable administration was any attempt made to establish a permanent department for that purpose; and after the Restoration a committee of the privy council appointed in 1660 was charged with the duty of looking out for the general interests of trade and the plantations. That committee, which had been dissolved since 1675, William and his advisers reconstituted; and its secretary, John Locke, was not slow to make it the organ of more enlightened opinions upon commercial subjects. Todd's Parl. Government, vol. i. pp. 233-248. 1 See above, p. 425. 2 6 Anne, c. 7, ss. 25, 26; Parl. Hist., vol. vi. p. 474- For a more detailed statement of the whole subject, see Green, Hist. of the Eng. People, vol. iv. p. 63 constituted By an order in council made in 1786, the legal constitution of legally the Board of Trade was perfected, and since that time its in 1786. president has become practically the secretary of state for trade, usually with a seat in the cabinet.1 the Junto to majority in mons; time; The quickness of perception that enabled the Junto to Refusal of grasp the first principle of the new ministerial system by re- yield to a pelling as a unit all attacks upon any of its members was fully hostile equalled by their inability to comprehend the second, involving the comtheir duty to resign office when, through the elections that took place at the close of 1698, their political opponents won a majority in the house of commons. In the face of adverse votes the ministers failed to resign, thus illustrating that "to the evil of having a house of commons permanently at war with the executive government, there is absolutely no limit. This was signally proven in 1699 and 1700. Had the statesmen of that principle not the Junto, as soon as they had ascertained the temper of the understood new parliament, acted as statesmen similarly situated would at the now act, great calamities would have been averted. The chiefs of the opposition must then have been called upon to form a government. . . . But these lessons, the fruits of the experience of five generations, had never been taught to the politicians of the seventeenth century. Notions imbibed before the Revolution still kept possession of the public mind. Not not even by even 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. Thus, at the beginning of 1699, there ceased to long disbe a ministry; and years elapsed before the servants of the between crown and the representatives of the people were again joined servants of in a union as harmonious as that which had existed from the and repregeneral election of 1695 to the general election of 1698. The of the anarchy lasted, with some short intervals of composedness, till people; the general election of 1705."2 During that period of min- attempt isterial anarchy it was that the attempt was again made to Act of revest the executive power in the whole council by that clause Settlement of the Act of Settlement which provided that, after the acces- old system; 1 In addition to the president, the parliamentary secretary, and a permanent secretary, there are six assistant secretaries, each at the head of a department named as follows: the Com mercial, the Railway, the Marine, the 2 Macaulay, vol. ii. pp. 709, 710. Somers; union the crown sentatives made in to revive |