since the accession of its duties have been vested in a board consisting of a first and junior lords, and chancellor of the exchequer ; Bank of England the depository; sources of the annual income known as "consolidated fund;" of George I. its powers and duties have been vested in a board George I., consisting of a first lord commissioner, who has a general control of the department without any special connection with the details of finance; of three or four junior lords selected from parliament to aid in administrative work; and of the chancellor of the exchequer, who as the maker of budgets is the real head of the treasury and the moulder of its policy.1 The actual guardian of the national revenue is the Bank of England, into which it is paid to the "account of Her Majesty's Exchequer "2 mainly through the Inland Revenue Office, a place where the bulk of the taxes are collected in the first instance. The total annual income known as the "consolidated fund," amounting now to about £100,000,000, which thus finds its way into the bank is the product (1) of the hereditary or "ordi nary" revenue, surrendered absolutely to the state by William IV. in exchange for a definite civil list as heretofore explained, and (2) of the "extraordinary" revenue, levied by acts of parnearly four liament either temporary or permanent. And here the fact derived should be emphasized that nearly four fifths of the entire annual revenue is derived from the proceeds of such taxes as the land tax, the excise, the stamp duties, and the like, which are levied by permanent acts that would remain in force though parliament should not be convened for years. Only the refrom annual maining one fifth, composed in the main of the income tax and the tea duties, is derived from taxes imposed by annual acts.3 Not a penny of the vast sums thus collected under the authority of statute law can be expended except under the authority of some act of parliament, either annual or permanent. In order to secure the faithful enforcement of such acts regulating the disbursement of the public revenue, the Exchequer and Audit Department has been created, at whose head stands the troller and comptroller and auditor-general, who is a non-partisan, independent officer, whose tenure is good behavior, and who can fifths of it from per manent acts; only one fifth derived acts; comp auditor general; 1 Upon the recommendation of a commission of inquiry into the public accounts in 1831 (Com. Pap., 1857, sess. 2, vol. ix. p. 569) was passed 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 15, s. 2, whereby the ancient office of the exchequer was reformed and its functions more clearly defined. Several subordinate offices were abolished, and all prescriptive powers and duties transferred to the comptrollergeneral. 2 Exchequer and Audit Dept. Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 39), s. 10. 8 "The receipts of these taxes for the year 1887-88 amounted, in round numbers, to about £18,000,000.” — Dicey, The Law of the Constitution, p. 293, note 1. revenue is according not be a member of either house of parliament.1 Leaving out of view his duties as comptroller of the issue of public money, his duty to it is his duty as auditor of the public accounts to see that the see that entire revenue for the year deposited in the Bank of England paid out is paid out according to law. It is his business to submit the to law; result of his work at the beginning of every session of parliament to the Public Accounts Committee of the house of com- his report to Public mons, whose habit it is to subject every apparently irregular Accounts item to a searching scrutiny. According to the regulations, "All unexpended balances of the grants of a year are surren- all unexdered to the exchequer, as also are all extra receipts and the pended amount of appropriations-in-aid received in excess of the sum surrendered estimated to be taken in aid of the vote;" while "any excess chequer. of expenditure over the amount voted by parliament for any service must receive legislative sanction." 8 Committee; balances to ex taries of Henry secretaries of state; We know already that in the reign of Henry VIII. the in- Two secrecreasing pressure of business made necessary the appointment appointed of two secretaries, to both of whom, as mere clerks, was given in reign a signet for the sealing of all warrants and cabinet letters. VIII.; When by the Statute of Precedence passed before the close of that reign they were made members of the council ex officio, it required but one more step for them to pass from mere sec- pass into retaries into secretaries of state, and that was taken when in 1601 Robert Cecil was endowed for the first time with the Robert formal title of "our principal secretary of state," while his Cecil first coadjutor, John Herbert, was described as one of "our secre- the title; taries of state." Soon after the Revolution the office was a first and divided between a first and second secretary, and after the second union with Scotland a third was appointed for the affairs of after the that kingdom, whose office was finally abolished in January, tion: 1746.5 The office of a third secretary of state, created in 1768 for the American or colonial department, was likewise abol- in 1782 ished in 1782.6 In March of that year it was that the two whole chief secretaries concurred in the important resolve to super- divided 1 See The Exchequer and Audit Dept. Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 39), 3. S. 2 May, Parl. Practice, p. 563. 8 Control and Audit of Public Receipts and Expenditures, 1885, pp. 24, 25. 4 See above, p. 178. 5 The office was first abolished in 1725, when the duke of Roxburghe was removed. It was then restored in 1731 and continued until 1746, the marquis of Tweeddale being the last incumbent. Smith's Secretary for Scotland, p. 10. 6 22 Geo. III. c. 82. to receive secretary Revolu office as a finally and foreign depart ment. sede the then existing system, — under which the business had been for a time apportioned between a northern and southern district, by a definite and final division of the secretaryinto a home ship of state as a whole into a home department and a foreign department, to the last of which was assigned the direction of all diplomatic and consular business, while the affairs of Ireland and the colonies remained to the older or home secretary. In 1794, pending hostilities with France, a third principal secretary of state for war was appointed,2 and in March, 1801, the business of the colonies was transferred to that secretary from the home department. In June, 1854, a fourth principal secretary of state for war was appointed, and in that way the third principal secretary was left in charge of colonial affairs only. In September, 1858, upon the abolition of the charter of the East India Company, a fifth principal secretary of state was appointed for the affairs of India. Out of the office of lord high grown the court of admiralty ment for government Out of the office of lord high admiral has grown the court of admiralty, to which his judicial functions were assigned, admiral has and the admiralty department for the government of the navy, whose control is vested in seven lords represented in the and depart- cabinet by their chief, who is known as the First Lord of the Admiralty. As the origin of the office of president of of the navy; the Board of Trade has already been given, reference need president only be made to the president of the Local Government Board, whose office was created in 1871.7 Such then is the origin and character of the offices usually assigned by a prime minister to those who together with himself constitute the inner circle of the privy council known as the cabinet. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that every member of the cabinet councillor; should be a privy councillor; and if he is not such already, he of the Local Govern ment Board; every member of the cabinet must be a privy 1 "The northern department, or province, included the Low Countries, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia, etc.; and the southern department, or province, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, etc. See The Foreign Office List, 1897, pp. 1 and 2, in which a list is given of the officials assigned to the two departments from 1761 to 1782. 2 Sir Thomas Erskine May (Const. Hist., vol. iii. p. 360) therefore errs in stating that the secretaryship of state for the colonies was revived in 1794. and not synony mous; of cabinet between minister is made so immediately after his appointment.1 And here the fact should be emphasized that the terms "cabinet " and "min- "cabinet" istry" are not synonymous. The last and broader term pro- ministry" perly includes all the ministers, while the former comprises only that smaller circle ranging from thirteen to nineteen, who undertake to carry on the government, and who are required, certainly by the spirit of the constitution, to have seats in one or other of the houses of parliament. For the distribution of distribution cabinet ministers between the two houses the prime minister ministers is responsible; and the proportion to be assigned to each must the houses; of course vary with circumstances. As the office of prime prime minister, like the cabinet itself, over which he presides, is must take utterly unknown to the law, it is necessary for its incumbent, some post recognized who may be either a peer or a commoner, to acquire a legal by law; status by taking to himself some post that the law does recognize. From the fall of Lord Bute in 1762 down to the forma- usually that tion of Lord Salisbury's first administration, it was the settled of the custom for the prime minister to hold the office of first lord of treasury; the treasury, either alone or in connection with the chancellorship of the exchequer. The elder Pitt was, however, for four sometimes years (1757 to 1761) secretary of state; so was Lord Bute secretary during his short administration; and so has been Lord Salis- of state. bury during his three administrations.4 of first lord that of of the legislature; The cabinet in its relations with the legislature may be Relations defined to be a corporate entity, with a definite policy and an cabinet acknowledged chief, which, certainly since the reform bill of with the 1832, has been charged (1) with the duty of initiating and its cardinal carrying through parliament all great and important acts of duties; national legislation; (2) with the control of measures of general interest introduced by private members; and (3) with such a direction of the entire mass of business submitted to the two houses as will best secure and maintain the privileges 1 When a cabinet has been formed, "the London Gazette announces that the queen has been pleased to appoint certain privy councillors to fill certain high offices of state.". Todd, Parl. Government, vol. ii. p. 3. 2 For the best practical illustration of the relation of the terms to each other, see the list of the present ministry of Lord Salisbury in Whitaker's Almanack, 1897. Those who form the cabinet are specially distinguished from 3 It is well settled, however, that a 4 Ibid., p. 280. necessity for unity an "open ber bound by every act or of both. An indispensable condition to success in such a difficult and complex undertaking is unity and coöperation among members; the ministers themselves in the execution of the policy agreed excepting upon by all, and for which all are equally responsible. Except question," in the case of an admitted "open question," the cabinet as a every mem- whole is presumed to have assented to every act or declaration made by any member speaking in its behalf; and it is, theredeclaration fore, expected that the cabinet collectively and individually will colleagues; support every government measure, whether proposed as such in their joint names or by any member in favor of his particular department.1 The programme or policy thus undertaken by cabinet ministers in the name of the crown is first outlined speech from in the speech from the throne for which they are responsible, the throne and which as their production is subject to all the liberties to liberties and licenses of debate.2 Until a very recent period it was of his as the production of the cabinet, the is subject of debate; since the Revolution there has been but one address from the throne. Demand of aid and always the custom for the sovereign himself to be present at the opening of his great council in order to address to them personally words of congratulation or advice, in addition to the more formal "opening of the cause of the summons," which was assigned to one of the principal ministers, generally the lord chancellor. Since the Revolution, however, there has been but one address from the throne at the opening of parliament, which is uttered by the king himself when present, or by the lord chancellor by his express command, or in his absence by commissioners appointed by royal authority. No matter by whom uttered, it is now the settled practice to consider such speech as a declaration for which the then existing cabinet is responsible. Generally the most important matter contained in the speech supply for from the throne is the demand presented to the commons by fiscal year; the crown for grants of aid and supply for the service of the 1 For Mr. Gladstone's views, quoted and indorsed by Lord Grey, see Hans. Deb., 3d ser. vol. cxvii. p. 2057. See also Ibid., vol. clxviii. pp. 176, 276, 280, for further views of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Grey, and Todd, Parl. Government, vol. ii. p. 78. 2 Massey, Reign of George III., vol. i. p. 156; Parl. Hist., vol. xxiii. p. 266. The same freedom is also allowed in the debate upon the address. Todd, Parl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 54, and note 5. 8 May's Parl. Practice, pp. 41, 168, 170. As George I. could not speak English, he directed the lord chancellor to read the speech, when he opened parliament in person. Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 600. On every occasion since 1866, when the present queen has met parliament in person, she has directed the lord chancellor to read the speech for her. |