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equal force to actual ministers, and to those who have ceased to take part in the royal councils." Moreover, it is not permissible to publish any state correspondence between a sovereign and his minister during a former reign, although referring exclusively to events of a bygone generation, without the sanction of the reigning monarch."

dential

When negotiations are opened between an existing Confiministry and leading members of the Opposition, it is negotianot unusual for the crown to grant permission to the tions. Prime Minister to read portions of correspondence that has taken place between the sovereign and his advisers on pending public questions, to such individuals, in order to define more particularly the position of the government in relation thereto. Or the sovereign may himself

communicate the same to persons who may be entrusted with the formation of a new administration. But any such communications must always be accounted as strictly confidential.

In May 1832, after the resignation of the Grey ministry, consequent upon their inability to carry the Reform Bill through the House of Lords, the king invited the Duke of Wellington and Lord Lyndhurst to form a new administration. It being indispensable that these noblemen should be put into full possession of the grounds of the retirement of the outgoing ministers, the king communicated to them certain Cabinet Minutes, which showed that the Duke of Richmond, one of the ex-ministers, had differed from his colleagues upon the question at issue between them and the king. The Duke of Wellington was unable to form an administration, whereupon the ex-ministers were recalled. The tone of a debate in the House of Lords at this juncture induced Earl Grey to inform the king that it was 'evident that a very improper use had been made of the

P Mirror of Parl. 1831-2, p. 2069; ibid. 1834, p. 2645.-In 1844, the members of the existing and of the 1 preceding administrations, solicited and obtained leave from the Queen to disclose all the facts known to them respecting the opening of letters at the Post Office, under royal warrants, before a select committee of the House of Commons.-Hans. Deb.

vol. lxxvii. p. 727.

The correspondence between
George III. and Lord North, from
1768 to 1783, was published by
permission of the Queen,' in 1867.
And see Lord Grey's Correspondence
of the late Earl Grey with King
William IV. vol. i. pref. p. v.

Corresp. William IV. with Earl
Grey, vol. ii. p. 229.

Alleged breach of confidence.

Meetings of Privy Council.

papers communicated to the Duke of Wellington and Lord Lyndhurst by the king. The Duke of Richmond's dissent was openly stated, and there were other allusions to what had passed between the king and his ministers.'s In reply, the king, while expressing his regret at this unauthorised and unwarrantable disclosure of state secrets, justified his own conduct in the matter, contending that under the circumstances in which he had been placed, he was free 'to make such communication to those two peers as he might consider advisable and necessary.' His Majesty was afterwards assured by the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor Brougham that they 'considered him perfectly justified in the communication he had made to the Duke of Wellington and Lord Lyndhurst of such documents as were necessary to put them in possession of the circumstances which had produced his acceptance of the resignation [of Earl Grey and his colleagues], and his application to them.' u

Ever since the separate existence of the Cabinet Council as a governmental body, meetings of the Privy Council have ceased to be holden for purposes of deliberation. At the commencement of the reign of George III., we find this distinction between the two councils clearly recognised that the one is assembled for deliberative, and the other merely for formal and ceremonial purposes.▾ It is, in fact, an established principle, that it would be contrary to constitutional practice that the sovereign should preside at any council where deliberation or discussion takes places.'

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At meetings of the Privy Council, the sovereign occupies the chair. The President of the Council sits at the Queen's left hand; it being noticeable that this functionary does not possess the authority usually exercised by the president of a court of justice."

The ceremonial observed at a Privy Council has been thus described by a councillor, upon his first introduction to that august assembly, in 1801: We took the oath

Corresp. William IV. with Earl Hans. Deb. vol. clxxv. P 251. And Grey, vol. ii. P. 424.

Ibid. p. 430.
" Ibid. p. 441.
Grenville Papers (anno 1761),
vol. i. p. 374.

Earl Granville (Presdt.of Coun.),

see Grey, Early Years of Prince Consort, p. 363, n.; Mirror of Parl. 1835, p. 7; Campbell, Chancellors, vol. iv. pp. 317 n. 499.

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Macqueen, Privy Council, p.

of allegiance, kneeling, and then the privy councillor's oath was administered to us, standing. After which we kissed the king's hand, and shook hands with each privy councillor present; beginning with the Chancellor, at the king's right hand, then going behind the king's chair to the Lord President on his left, and round the rest of the table.' [Opposite to the king sat the Prime Minister.] After we were sworn in, the Clerks of the Council stood on each side of the king, and the Lord President rose up and read a paper of the business to be transacted-viz., proclamations, orders, &c. And upon each article the king read aloud from the margin what his pleasure was to have done, which the Clerk repeated aloud from his duplicate. After the business was finished, the king rose and spoke to all the Council individually, by going round as at the levée.'

The administrative functions which continue to be performed by the Privy Council, as a department of state, will be explained in another chapter.*

▾ Ld. Colchester, Diary and Corresp. vol. i. p. 270; Jesse, Life of

Geo. III., vol. iii. p. 276.
* See post, p. 620.

CHAPTER III.

THE CABINET COUNCIL : ITS ORIGIN, ORGANISATION,
AND FUNCTIONS.

HAVING Completed our survey of the history of the King's Councils under prerogative government, we proceed to investigate the rise, progress, and present condition of the Cabinet Council, which has become the supreme governing body in the political system of Great Britain.

With a view to the consideration of this subject in accordance with the sequence of historical events, it may be suitably divided into three heads:

I. The origin and early history of the Cabinet.

II. Its later history, and present organisation.

III. Its actual functions, as the supreme governing body, with its relations to the crown and to the executive government.

The relations of the Cabinet to Parliament, and its practical dependence upon the will of the House of Commons, though incidentally and inseparably connected with the topics upon which we are about to enter, will claim more particular attention in a subsequent chapter.

I. The origin and early history of the Cabinet.

A learned though somewhat paradoxical writer of our own day has broadly asserted that a private advising council, responsible to Parliament, has at all times been an inseparable part of the institution of the Crown of England." This statement, if true in the main, must nevertheless be taken with considerable allowance. It may

• Toulmin Smith, Parl. Remembrancer (1862), p. 3.

indeed be safely admitted that the doctrine that the sovereign is not responsible is doubtless as old as any part of our constitution, and the doctrine that his ministers are responsible is also of immemorial antiquity."

b

relation to

ment.

We have indisputable evidence, that 'at an early King's period Parliament evinced much anxiety respecting the Council in appointments of the members of the King's Council; and Parliaalthough their nomination and removal were vested in the crown, the sovereign seems to have been careful to select those who were acceptable to the Lords and Commons. The king's councillors were frequently appointed and sworn in Parliament; and the regulations by which the Council was governed were often the subject of parliamentary discussion' and enactment. And, so far back as the reign of Richard II. an instance is A.D. 1389. recorded wherein the king's councillors maintained their opinions in opposition to those of their royal master, with an amount of firmness which could scarcely have been exhibited unless they were conscious of a measure of responsibility to the national council for their behaviour in office.d

Furthermore, our constitutional annals, from the reign of Richard I., furnish occasional precedents of ministers A.D. 1189. of the crown being called to account, and condemned, in the great council of the realm, for acts of misgovernment, and of petitions being presented to the king in Parliament complaining of mismanagement on the part of his judges and ministers, to which, in the language of an old writer, the king very frequently answered, Let any man complain and he shall find remedy; and such answer of the king was a satisfaction to the subjects, for redress of the grievance soon followed."

Macaulay, Hist. of Eng. vol. iv. p. 9. And see Allen on the Royal Prerogative, pp. 7, 25.

• Nicolas, Proc. P. C. vol. i. p. ii.; Dicey, pp. 12, 17. And see ante, pp. 28, 30.

Nicolas, Proc. P. C. vol. i. p. xv.

And see Macaulay, Hist. of England,
vol. i. PP. 29-32.

e

Gurdon, History of Parliament, vol. ii. p. 287; Forster, Debates on Grand Remonstrance, pp. 10, 27, 47,

51.

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