that concep existing all question by the contemporary works of Blackstone, De Lolme, Paley, and others, who, without even referring to the existence of the cabinet,1 formulated a doctrine of "checks and balances" absolutely incompatible with it; that it did not then exist in fact is equally certain because at that time the king himself and not the prime minister was the real executive.2 It was, therefore, held by the doctrinaires at that mo- the concepment that the supreme sovereignty was vested in a balanced tion of sov ereignty union of three elements, democratic, aristocratic, and mon- that then prevailed; archical; that without the concurrence on equal terms of king, lords, and commons, sovereignty could not be properly exercised. The cornerstones of the theory as thus expounded were, first, that the king had the exclusive right to exercise the entire executive authority through ministers appointed by himself and responsible to him alone; second, that the legislative authority was divided between king, lords, and commons as coördinate powers. Only by contrasting that con- only by ception of the constitution with that which exists to-day can contrasting we estimate the immense change that has actually taken place tion with during the intervening period. The modern ministerial sys- conditions tem was so completely in eclipse a century ago that it could perceive not be perceived even by the most acute observers; to-day actually it is the central figure in the picture, the great driving-wheel taken place; that moves the entire constitutional machinery. The indirect source of its power is the electorate; the direct, the house of commons, which is no longer looked upon as a coördinate department, but as a corporate entity in which the supreme sovereignty is vested. Upon the one hand stands the crown, with all its prerogatives vested in a committee of its members; on the other, the house of lords as a mere revising chamber to counsel against the making of rash and ill-advised decrees, to which it must always bow in the last instance. Thus the old old literary literary theory of "checks and balances," based upon the idea coördinaof a coordination between separate and coequal powers, has tion has completely broken down in the presence of the incontestable the fact that fact that the English constitution now embodies "the close and legisla union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legis- tive powers lative powers. No doubt, by the traditional theory as it exists blended; in all the books, the goodness of our constitution consists in 1 See above, p. 503, 504. 2 Vol. i. p. 69, note 3. can we what has theory of yielded to executive are now the entire separation of the legislative and executive authority, but in truth its merit consists in their singular approximation. The connecting link is the cabinet. By that new word we mean a committee of the legislative body selected to be the executive body." 1 As that committee draws its authority from an electorate so broad as to be removed only by a single step from manhood suffrage, it may now be safely assumed that the cycle has come round; that the gradual and silent process of change has been fully worked out through which formed into the medieval monarchy has been finally transformed into the hereditary republic, in which, under the ancient and still useful forms of the throne and the regalia, the English people is king. mediæval monarchy trans an heredi tary re public. 1 Bagehot, pp. 10, 11. INDEX. ABBOT, Archbishop, becomes leader of the Abbots, feudal aspect of, i. 355; lose their Achaian League, a great example of Federal Acts, of Appeals, ii. 160; Army, 421; Ballot, Adams, J. H., on the introduction of convey- Adjournment, king's right to force adjourn- Admiral, office of, i. 547, 549; ii. 558. Admonition to Parliament, ii. 171. Alfred the Great, his wars with the Danes, Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, his supre- Ethelburh, daughter of Ethelberht, mar- Ethelred the Second, deposed, i. 190, 504; Aidan, his see at Lindisfarne, 1. 158. Alchred, his deposition, i. 190. Alienation. See Land. Aliens, recent legislation on, ii. 229. Almon, case of, ii. 489, 490. Ælfhere, Abbot, bearer of the king's writ, Alod, use of the word, i. 126, 134, 135, 136, i. 257. 139; disappears in Bookland, 140, 411. |