2 held of the Anne's revenues of appeared, however, as the idea gained ground that the king of the whole nation was the lord of the whole people, and as such was possessed of their land as terra regis. With the full development of feudalism after the conquest, the artificial con- feudal theory that ception gained ground that all land was originally held of the all land was crown by feudal tenures; and the revenue thus flowing from originally the national domain, considered as the private patrimony of crown ; the king, was swelled by the feudal incidents into great proportions.1 Not until the accession of Queen Anne was the in Queen process through which the land revenues of the crown had reign waste been wasted for centuries by improvident alienations checked of land by an act of parliament, in which the confession was made that the crown checked by such revenues had already been so reduced that they "could statute; then afford very little towards the support of her government." By that act all absolute alienations were positively prohibited, and stringent limitations imposed upon the making limitations of all future leases, which were to be granted for a term not imposed longer than thirty-one years, or three lives. As a final settle- on royal ment of the whole matter, parliament, in the arrangement complete made with George III. for the support of his household and surrender of the royal dignity, stipulated that the crown should surrender made by George III.; to the nation all that remained of its land revenues in exchange for the civil list then secured to him. Thus were the royal demesnes "handed over to be dealt with like the other revenues of the state, to be disposed of by parliament for the public service. That is to say, the people have won back their own; . . . the terra regis of the Norman has once more be- terra regis come the folkland of our earliest freedom."5 And in accord- into folkance with the precedents of those early times, the sovereign sovereign was again endowed by law with the right to acquire and dis- now empowered to pose of private property like any other individual.6 As an deal with exception to the arrangement thus made, the crown has been permitted to retain the revenues of the duchies of Lancaster other 1 Vol. i. pp. 178, 182, 233, 236, 383. 2 I Anne, c. 7, s. 5. 8 And even in that event a reasonable rent was to be reserved. 4 See above, p. 551. 5 Freeman, Growth of the Eng. Const., p. 140. 6 Cf. 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 88; 4 Geo. IV. c. 18; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 37. "As our present sovereign in so many other respects holds the place of Æl- then grants; finally converted land; any like any individual. Origin of cabinet their distri bution; and Cornwall, the former the property of the reigning sovereign, the latter the independent inheritance of the prince of Wales, as duke of Cornwall. Before attempting to explain the delicate relations that bind officers and the cabinet to the legislature, it may be well to indicate briefly method of the origin of the offices usually allotted to its members, and the manner in which such offices are distributed by the crown through the prime minister as its immediate representative. in theory, The theory is that the sovereign personally chooses the prime personally minister, and that he selects his colleagues subject to the crown's approval. The fact is that the crown can choose only one of the few great leaders of the two historic parties as prime minister, and he in turn is limited in his choice to the under chiefs in his own ranks who stand next to him in the sovereign chooses premier, and he his colleagues; in fact, sovereign's right to mier very limited; number of cabinet settled by premier; choose pre- public confidence. "Between the compulsory list, whom he must take, and the impossible list, whom he cannot take, a prime minister's independent choice in the formation of the cabinet is not very large; it extends rather to the division of the cabinet offices than to the choice of cabinet ministers." 1 The number of the cabinet, which is variable, is determined by the prime minister himself with the consent of the sovereign.2 The first of George III. consisted of fourteen members, of whom only one was a commoner; and in 1785 that number was reduced by Mr. Pitt to seven, all of whom had seats in the house of lords except himself. After his time it became customary for the cabinet to consist of from ten to sixteen members, a number "as large as it ought to be, and it seems officers of to be generally adopted as such by both parties.' The officers of state who according to modern usage generally comthe cabinet are the lord chancellor, the president of the council, the privy seal, the first lord of the treasury, the chancellor of the exchequer, the five principal secretaries of state for the home, foreign, colonial, war, and Indian departments, the first lord of the admiralty, the president of the state who usually compose the cabinet; "5 5 Lord Granville, Rep. Com. on Education, Com. Pap., 1865, vol. vi.; Evid. 1883; Todd, Parl. Government, vol. i. p. 283. The number is, however, increasing. The present cabinet of Lord Salisbury consists of twenty members. See the list in Whitaker's Almanack for 1897, p. 150. offices very offices with Board of Trade, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and the president of the Local Government Board.1 It is hardly necessary to add that some of these offices are very ancient, some of the while others are of quite modern creation. The attempt has ancient; heretofore been made to show how it was that the council, through the decline in the influence of the nobles as leaders of the nation, was gradually transformed from an independent body that stood as a bridle upon the will of the king into a mere corps of trained officials subject to his direction. While the nobles still retained the hereditary offices with ever dimin- hereditary ishing duties, the council was continually reinforced by com- diminishing moners, who during the days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth duties; began to assume the more active duties of administration.2 In the course of the transition from that state of things to the modern ministerial system a few of the ancient great offices a few have have been retained; others have been dissolved and their while others duties distributed; while in order to meet the requirements of have been new conditions, others have been very recently created. Four four officers officers of state of the first class who usually form a part of enter into all modern cabinets are the lord chancellor, whose duties are all cabinets. political as well as judicial; the president of the council, who serves without a portfolio in order to perpetuate an honorary political station whose importance has dwindled with that of the council as a whole: the lord privy seal, who seals warrants for the great seal and as such is at the head of a ministerial as distinguished from an administrative department; and the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.3 survived, dissolved; who usually finances managed by ment that dissolution The vast income and expenditure of the British Empire, an British estimate of which is annually laid before the house of commons in a balance sheet called "The Budget," is managed by a a departdepartment of finance which has grown out of the dissolution arose out of of the ancient office of lord treasurer, who in the seventeenth century frequently appears as the leading minister of state. During that century the administration of the office was carried on at intervals by a commissioner; and since the reign. 1 The lord lieutenant and the lord chancellor of Ireland are sometimes members. 2 See above, p. 177. 8 The lord chamberlain is an hereditary officer without administration. The lord high constable, whose office 1679. As in 1612, 1635, 1641, 1658, and of the office of lord treasurer; 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 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. The actual guardian of the national revenue is the Bank of England, into which it is paid to the "account of Her Majesty's ExEngland chequer "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 "ordinary" 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 fifths of it 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 derived 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 to Public 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 according 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 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." 3 Committee; balances to ex taries of Henry secretaries Cecil first 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 of state; 1601 Robert Cecil was endowed for the first time with the Robert formal title of "our principal secretary of state," while his to receive 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 secretary 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), S. 3. 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. second Revolu office as a finally |