part of the reign of George III. At that time it was generally agreed that the Sovereign should appoint the Prime Minister, while the latter should select the other members of the Cabinet. This arrangement still obtains, subject to some practical restrictions to be noted later. The force of precedent and the process of evolution are well exemplified in the development of the power of the Prime Minister. According to legal theory the Premier is simply a privy councillor and has no more power than any one of a hundred others; but practically the members of the Cabinet have been raised in importance far above their fellow councillors, and the Prime Minister has gained by custom a supremacy over his colleagues in the Cabinet. This supremacy, too, is real and not nominal. The Prime Minister may insist upon the adoption of his views by his colleagues or may resign; which event, ipso facto, dissolves the Cabinet. It is a rather peculiar fact that while the Prime Minister is still unknown to the law his hand is the guiding and controlling force in governmental affairs. No other officer in England compares with him in actual ruling power. The authority of the Sovereign is a mere shadow in comparison. As long as the Premier can command the support of the people as represented in the House of Commons, there is almost no limit to his governmental power; but as soon as he forfeits this popular confidence, he is reduced to the ranks, and another rules in his stead. CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS RELATING TO REFERENCES: Bryce's American Commonwealth, i. 81-91; Todd's Parliamentary Government in England, ii. 25–51; Taswell-Langmead's English Constitutional History, 706-715. T is quite essential that the great departments of state should have members in each House au of Members between the two Houses. IT thorised to represent them. When the Apportionment head of a department sits in one House there is a parliamentary secretary or other officer in the other House to answer questions, and to defend and to explain the policy of the department. Thus while Lord Lansdowne, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, sat in the House of Lords, his under-secretary, Viscount Cranbourne, the eldest son of Lord Salisbury, had a seat in the Commons and represented the Foreign Office in that chamber. Viscount Cranbourne was thus the official spokesman for the Salisbury Government in the Commons as far as foreign affairs were concerned. might be called upon at any time to speak for the Foreign Office. A cablegram from London bearing the date August 4, 1900, brought the information that the Rt. Hon. St. John Brodrick, then under-secretary for the Foreign Office, had announced in the Commons a definite program of action in regard to the He |