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why no residences have been provided for the Home Secretary and other responsible chiefs of important administrative departments, is not one of principle, but that convenient houses could not be found for more than a certain number of ministers."

It has been questioned whether an official residence is of much pecuniary benefit to its possessor. Doubtless, on other grounds, it is of the greatest possible service to the head of a heavily worked department to have a residence at his place of business. It affords facilities for transacting official work at times when it could not otherwise be done at all, which is of great public advantage. But there are heavy expenses attending an official residence. Nothing is provided but the walls and fixtures. Fuel and lights are not allowed, except in the rooms used for official business. The furniture is purchased by the incoming minister of his predecessor, whether he intends to occupy the house or not, and is in turn disposed of by him to his successor, although this, to a certain extent, is optional. Only repairs to the solid part of the building are done at the cost of the public; everything else by the tenant. Ministers are charged with income tax and all other imposts; they also defray part of the taxes on the official residences, in respect of their beneficial occupation of a portion of the building. All these matters being taken into account, it is not surprising that neither Lord Melbourne nor Lord John Russell availed themselves of their official residences during their tenure of office as Prime Minister."

In France (at least since the reign of Louis Philippe) Usage in a more liberal policy has prevailed in regard to the chief France. ministers of State. In addition to their salary, they are provided, on accepting office, with a house completely furnished, and supplied with everything, including plate,

75.

Rep. on Off. Salaries, 1850, Evid.

Ibid. 23, 69, 71. The First Lord of the Admiralty has a suite of reception rooms, which are furnished by

the public; but this is an exceptional
case. Ibid. 1228.

Ibid. 71, 77-80, 269.
h Ibid. 69.

Pensions

to

linen, furniture, attendance, fuel, and lights. The expenses of the table are the only items not defrayed by the public. All repairs, &c., are executed at the public expense. When a change of ministry occurs, the new incumbents immediately take possession of these advantages, just as they have been enjoyed by their predecessors.

On retiring from office, provision is made by the Act 4 Ministers. & 5 Will. IV. c. 24, for the grant of pensions to members of the Administration, varying in amount from 1,000l. to 2,000l. per annum, according to the importance of the particular office. But to entitle an individual to receive one of these pensions it is necessary that he should have been in the public service for a certain number of years, and that he should declare that his private income is inadequate to maintain his station in life. Moreover, a limited number only of these pensions may exist at any one time. The term of service to entitle to a pension need not be continuous, but may be made up at different periods during the public career of the applicant.

Meetings of Cabinet.

4

III. The actual functions of the Cabinet Council: with its relations to the Crown and to the Executive Government.

A meeting of the Cabinet Council is ordinarily held once a week for the purpose of deliberating upon State affairs; but when occasion requires, they assemble much oftener. It forms no part of the duty of Government to hold meetings of the Cabinet at any stated times, but only according to the necessities of the public service. Any minister may summon a Cabinet whenever he pleases and for any object, either connected with his own department or for anything else. But instead of sending at once, and ordering a messenger to assemble the Cabinet, it has been usual to apply to the First Minister, who then

i Rep. on Off. Sal. 1850, Evid. 412-416. Lambert, Organisation Administrative, p. 64.

Rep. on Off. Sal. 1850, Evid. 104, 105. Murray's Handbook, p. 229.

naturally orders the summons to be issued. During a session of Parliament, it is customary for the Cabinet to be summoned every Saturday, to discuss the progress of legislation and the current business of the week; but should the public service require, it is also assembled on other days." Upon the prorogation of Parliament, it has been usual to intermit the meetings of the Cabinet until some time in October, so as to enable ministers to absent themselves from town, to recruit their strength after the labours of the session.'

During the Crimean war, in 1854, the Cabinet ministers separated, as usual, at the close of the parliamentary session, about the middle of August, and did not reassemble in council until the middle of October. This circumstance was noticed by the Sebastopol Committee with regret,' although both the Premier (Lord Aberdeen) and the Secretary-at-War assured the committee that nothing had occurred meanwhile of a nature to require a meeting of the Cabinet, or it would have been summoned immediately. The late Sir George Lewis, a most excellent authority on such a subject, has pithily remarked: People who know how things are managed, know that the oftener cabinets meet the better. Ignorant persons fancy that when cabinets meet often there is something wrong;, but that is a mistake. It is in the long vacation and in the country that some ministers do something brilliant and extraordinary that is much objected to. When ministers get together, they can agree on something plain and satisfactory.'n

Meetings of the Cabinet are usually held at the Foreign Office; but this is merely for convenience: they may be assembled at the private residence of the Premier," or at any other place where they can be got together.

It is not necessary that any definite number of members

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of Prime

Minister to the

Relations should be present to constitute a formal meeting of the Cabinet Council, as there is no fixed quorum." The unavoidable absence of the Prime Minister himself is no hindrance, provided he is willing to allow the Cabinet to confer together without him."

Cabinet.

Ordinarily the Prime Minister would direct a summons to attend meetings of the Cabinet to be sent to every individual having a seat therein; but this rule is not inflexible. It is notorious to all persons who are familiar with our constitutional history, that it has frequently happened that men have been retained in office, with nominally a seat in the Cabinet, on account of special administrative or departmental ability, who nevertheless have ceased to carry political weight, or to be regularly consulted by their colleagues on questions affecting the general government of the country. Besides the instances to this effect, anterior to the reign of George III., which have been already noted in this chapter," we may refer to the case of Lord Chancellor Eldon, who after the accession of George IV. was very little consulted by his brother councillors in political matters, and was left almost exclusively to the discharge of his official duties. It has even been alleged that Mr. Huskisson was for the first time introduced into the Cabinet by the Premier, Lord Liverpool, not only without previous consultation with Lord Eldon, but without his knowledge; and that the Chancellor was first informed of the fact by seeing it mentioned in a newspaper.*

Moreover, it is not unusual, in the working of a Cabinet, which must include some individuals whose time is fuily engrossed with administrative duties, that matters are matured and considered in the first instance by a small number of members, and that many, especially of those

P Commons' Papers, 1854-5, vol. ix.
pt. 2, p. 209.

Corresp. Will. IV. with Earl
Grey, vol. i. p. 352. Hans. Deb. vol.

clxxxvi. pp. 1590-1598.

S

See ante, p. 116, also p. 32. Campbell's Chancellors, vol. vii. pp. 381, 383.

who hold offices with heavy departmental work,—such, for example, as that of the Secretary of State for India,— are not in the first instance consulted as to measures which are about to be proposed to the Cabinet.' When the particular question has been suitably matured, a full Cabinet Council is convened to decide upon it.*

In any case of emergency, requiring immediate action, the Prime Minister would not scruple to assume the responsibility of exercising the supreme authority which belongs to his office, availing himself merely of such advice or assistance as might be within reach.

An instance of this kind occurred in 1845, during the premiership of Sir Robert Peel, the particulars of which are narrated in his posthumous Memoirs.' The sudden failure of the Irish potato crop, and the threatened scarcity of food which became alarmingly apparent from information that reached him after the separation of the Cabinet on November 6 in that year, induced the Premier (acting in concert with two of his colleagues) to take the unusual step of authorising the purchase of one hundred thousand pounds worth of Indian corn in the United States, on account of the Government. It was necessary to keep this transaction secret for obvious reasons. It was

conducted with great discretion by the house of Baring, acting on behalf of the Treasury, which department undertook the whole pecuniary risk. The corn was intrusted to Irish commissariat officers, in the spring of 1846, to sell from various depôts at a moderate price, wherever a deficiency of food existed. This prompt and energetic measure afforded a most timely relief, though it failed to avert altogether the horrors of famine in that terrible crisis."

The topics to be discussed in council on any particular occasion are seldom known beforehand. Ministers are

Lord Cranbourne, Secretary for India. Hans. Deb. vol. clxxxv. p. 1348. Earl Russell, ibid. p. 1638.

"Peel's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 173. Knight's Hist. of Eng. vol. viii. p. 548.

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