de corps," and only after long service do they attain to the higher posts, without reference to any more patronage. By law every official appointment determines on demise of the sovereign, the appointment is, however, always renewed. The dismissal of an official is almost unheard of; letter carriers and sorters, who are only appointed at a weekly salary, are equally protected by this observance. On one occasion, in consequence of the dismissal of a letter carrier, 2160 folio pages of evidence were laid before parliament.* The census of 1851 gave 64,224+ salaried civil functionaries, a goodly crowd of officials assuredly, considering the vast number of town and municipal offices, purely honorary, and the total absence of government railway functionaries, etc., with which the Continent swarms. * Gneist, i. 299. + Ibid. i. 581. CHAPTER II. THE PRIVY COUNCIL. Coke respecting the Privy Council.-The Five Ministers since the Accession of the House of Lancaster.-Authority of Privy Council.-"Star Chamber."-"The King in Council."-Nomination of Privy Councillors.-Duties of Privy Council.Members thereof.-Their Oath.-Juntos.- Cabal Cabinet.-Lord Somers against "Cabinets."-Prohibition against Cabinet Government by the "Act of Settlement."-Cabinet and Privy Council on the Death of Queen Anne.-The "Cabinet" unknown to the Law of England.-Sir G. Cornewall Lewis and Macaulay respecting the same.-Unimportance of the Privy Council.—The Right to cause Persons to be Arrested in case of High Treason.-Judicial functions.— Standing Committees.-Judicial Committee.-Committee of Privy Council for Education.-Functions of the Board of Health. "THIS is a most noble, honourable, and reverend assembly of the king and his privy council in the king's court or palace; with this council the king himself doth sit at pleasure. These councillors, like good sentinels and watchmen, consult of and for the public good, and the honour, defence, safety, and profit of the realm."* Thus does Coke introduce his description of the first governing authority of the realm, which has really fallen into disuse, but which continues withal intact. Out of the "Magnum Concilium" there was, at an early period, formed a more select body, especially during the minority of Richard II., which gave advice touching the requirements of the realm. It numbered in its ranks the judges of the Exchequer and the King's Bench; was called the king's "continual," or "permanent" council, in contradistinction to the "great councils," which met only in consequence of special writ of summons.† the fourteenth century, the following generally belonged to it, the five ministers, two archbishops, and five other peers or distin guished personages. Since the abolition, under Henry II., of * Coke, Inst. iv. c. 2. +Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, commencing 10 Rich. II. to 33 Hen. VIII. In f the office of " Justiciarius totius Angliæ," and since the office of Lord High Steward, "Senescalcus totius Angliæ," ceased to be a permanent office with the accession of the house of Lancaster, in which family it had, since the time of Henry III., been hereditary, the five ministers were : 1. The Lord High Chamberlain, at the same time administrator of certain offices. 2. The Lord High Constable (Constabularius totius Anglia). This hereditary office first appears under Stephen, the kings having till then always commanded in person. Subsequently it became merely an honorary office, from the moment when the command in the feudal army, and the functions of the office of treasurer began to be administered by a "commission." 3. Keeper of the privy seal. 4. Chancellor (Cancellarius), generally an ecclesiastic. 5. The Lord Treasurer: in former times frequently an ecclesiastic, but since Henry II. a "baron" of the Exchequer.* In the year 1406, there belonged to the council the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Durham, the steward, lord treasurer, the keeper of the seal, and other notables.* At an early period, the parliament evinced much solicitude respecting the appointment of the members of the council; and though both 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 regulations by which the council was governed were often the subject of parliamentary discussion. The members of the "continual council," in the reign of Richard II., and apparently in that of Henry II., were appointed for one year only, at the expiration of which they were again usually chosen, unless any charges of abuse of office were brought against them, or their request to be allowed to retire had been complied with. This privy council sat ordinarily in the presence of the king, and generally between the hours of eight and nine in the morning. It deliberated, first of all, upon the affairs of the king, and then upon legal matters. In the latter, the council had concurrent jurisdiction with the " King's Bench" and the "Chancery." Even *Nicolas, Proceedings, &c. i. 295. "Les seigneurs du consail se taillant estre au consail parentre oyt et noef de la clokke au plustard."-Minutes of Council, 8th March. 13 Ric. III., 1390; 19. Palgrave, The King's Council, 18, so early as 25 Edw. III., however, many complaints were raised by the parliament against the transgressions of the privy council in regard to the administration of justice.* At all events, the privy council was then decidedly an instrument of the royal despotism for the purpose of encroaching on the ordinary jurisdiction. It was in consequence of the antagonism to the See of Rome that the king's council first acquired its legal jurisdiction by statute.† A contest which Richard II. had with his great council (parliament) has been preserved in the minutes of the year 1389. They afford evidence that the king's council acted with the consciousness of being responsible to the parliament for their conduct;‡ the privy council promising in no way to disturb the common law for the oppression of the people.§ Notwithstanding this, we find the complaints of the commons touching the extraordinary jurisdiction of the council repeated under the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V.|| The council gave final decision in penal cases of a lower nature: thus, on 19th February, 1407, several persons who had used unlawful nets and kydels in fishing, at the suit of the mayor and aldermen of London, were condemned by the privy council.¶ The suits which that body took upon itself to determine were of a very various nature. The council which decided the gravest matters of state, fixed likewise the wages of the king's clockmaker.** Special ecclesiastical cases were settled in this court. A monk, who, with the Pope's dispensation, passed from a lenient order to one more severe, craves the king's pardon for not having asked his license beforehand.†† The nuns of Rowney begged the king's permission to admit as confessor to their nunnery an old, holy monk, they being unable to pay a very dear confessor, and being very loth to take a young one‡‡ Whether the notorious "Star Chamber" was a special committee of the privy council or a separate department, has been much controverted. The latter opinion would seem to have the greater number of upholders. So early as the reign of Edward III. a select body from the Privy Council sat in the "Chambres des Etoiles," so called from the stars painted on the ceiling. §§ * Palgrave, The King's Council, 36, 37. + Palgrave, Ibid., 39, 40. Proceedings, &c., i. 11, Preface. § Palgrave, King's Council, 43. Ibid., 44. ¶ Proceedings, &c., i. 298. ++ Ibid., vi. 66, 67. §§ Crabbe, 427; Palgrave, 38 The star chambers were, probably called into existence by the transfer of the extended jurisdiction of this court to another court of law, comprised in great measure of the members of the privy council.* The fact of the privy council, as such, having been confounded with the Star Chamber, has arisen from this: the entire privy council formerly held its sittings in the Star Chamber itself.† In the times of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., the privy council sat at Whitehall and Greenwich. Its criminal jurisdiction was shared with the new court of the "Star Chamber." Before the latter degenerated into a mere engine of state, it was not devoid of utility. Against noble offenders recourse to the Common Law was of no avail, for there was no jury in the country bold enough tto to pass sentence upon them. Hence, the power of the Star Chamber in the time of Henry VII. had become indispensable for the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people. In the year 1536, the insurgents of York complained that the privy council was then formed of too many people of humble birth.§ The privy council of Henry VIII. had in no wise the weight it had in the reign of Henry VI. Henry VIII. very often in matters of foreign affairs dispensed with his privy council. *Hallam, Const. Hist. i. There belonged to the Star Chamber, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord High Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, a bishop, a lord of the Privy Council, and the Chief Justices of the King's Bench and the Common Pleas. This new court of jurisdiction, organised by Henry VII., in 1487, owes its origin to the decrees of this king, directed against the armed combinations and giving of liveries. The act in question is entitled "An Act giving the Court of Star Chamber, authority to punish divers misdemeanours." Bacon praises the court as being composed out of good elements. This may have been the case. at the commencement (Pauli, vol. v., 543), gradually, however, the jurisdiction of this court took extension. It ceased from merely serving "to bridle stout noblemen and gentlemen ;" and was taken advantage of to deprive the burgesses of the privilege of being tried by their peers. Efforts were made on the part of the Star Chamber to influence juries. If they entered a favourable verdict in cases of political trials, The jurisdiction of this privy they were summoned before the Star Chamber or the Privy Council. The judges themselves acted as tyrannically in the second year of Queen Mary; causing a jury, who had returned a favourable verdict, to be incarcerated incontinently, without troubling the Star Chamber to interfere. The proceedings of the Star Chamber, conducted inquisitorially, without a jury, and with the employment of torture, were perfectly arbitrary. The judges, appointed at the king's good pleasure, pronounced sentences of fines, imprisonment, and death (Hallam). At the time of the gunpowder plot two Catholic lords were fined by this court, because, by their absence from the Upper House, they had given occasion to suspect that they were partizans of the conspiracy. The Long Parliament, finally, put an end to the monstrous existence of this court. + Hallam, Palgrave, The King's Council, 99. § Ibid., 101-105. Proceedings, vii., Pref. iii. |