With regard to the power of the Queen to declare war, it may be said that such a power is a barren one in her hands, for not only is it impossible to carry on a war without a vote of money and supplies by Parliament, but the number of men to be employed in the army and navy is annually fixed by Parliament; and it is a direct violation of the constitution for the crown to raise more men for the land and sea forces than Parliament has voted. It will thus be seen how limited the power of the Queen is, and how dependent she is in all her acts on the approval of a Parliament representing the feelings, opinions, and will of the people. She can appoint her ministers to administer the government, but whenever the Ministry is defeated in the House of Commons on important measures it goes out of office, and another Ministry is appointed whose policy is more in accord with public opinion as represented by the Commons. The Ministry, however, when defeated, may advise the crown to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the people, who by a new election may either return a majority favorable or opposed to their measures. Thus it will be seen that, after all, England is governed by the people through the Commons, and not by the crown.

by Parliament for any purpose whatever | isters, judges, and others, is also charged except at the demand of the crown. No to the Consolidated Fund, and the remainpetition even for any sum of money re- der is paid into the exchequer to defray lating to the public service can be re- the expenses of the army, navy, and civil ceived by Parliament unless recommend- service. ed by the crown. On the other hand, no person can lend money to the crown, or to any department of state, without the sanction of Parliament, and all money transactions between the Bank of England and the Treasury are expressly forbidden. The Commons, of course, have the power of withholding supplies, but only once (in 1784) since the Revolution of 1688 has this power been exercised. There have been instances of expenditure of money with out the knowledge of Parliament, but these have been rare, and only when a public exigency existed. At the beginning of the French Revolution Mr. Pitt advanced £1,200,000 to Germany, and in 1859-60 there was an excess of expenditure of more than £1,000,000. To meet these unforeseen disbursements provision is made by means of the Treasury Chest and the Civil Contingencies Fund. The Treasury Chest is a fund maintained to supply specie required by the Treasury Chests of colonies, and to make the necessary advances for carrying on the public service at the various military and naval stations, and is limited to £1,300,000. The Civil Contingencies Fund is limited to £120,000, and is for the purpose of defraying unforeseen expenditures for civil service at home. The revenue, or annual income of the country, derived from taxes imposed by Parliament, and from the income of certain estates which are called crown lands, is collected into a fund called the Consolidated Fund. The first charge on this fund is the interest on the national debt, called the funds, and on the unfunded debt. The next charge is the civil list—an allowance to the Queen for the support of her household and the dignity of the crown. This is fixed by statute at £385,000, to be paid annually, for the following purposes: her Majesty's privy purse, £60,000; salaries of her household and retired allowances, £131,000; expense of the household, £172,500; royal bounty and special services, £13,200; and the remainder for pensions and miscellaneous expenses. On the Consolidated Fund are also charged various salaries allowed to members of the royal family. The sum for carrying on the civil government, including the salaries of the min

That part of the government which is called the Ministry is more complicated in its structure, and more difficult to understand and define, than any other in that wonderful piece of intricate machinery. What is commonly called the Ministry has never been recognized by law, but grew out of the custom of a few of the Privy or King's Council meeting in the royal cabinet and assuming the power of advising the crown on important measures of government. The real name of what we call the Ministry is the Cabinet, or Cabinet Council, as the history of its origin implies. The only council required by law is the Privy Council, and when official announcement is made of the members of the cabinet they are announced simply as members of that council appointed to fill certain offices. The Privy Council of England is coeval with its monarchy, but as the custom of confiding advice and counsel to the cabinet

has grown, its powers have largely dimin- | the cabinet, constitute the chief members ished, and the whole council has not been of the administration. The practice of convened since 1839. The Privy Council- consulting a few members of the Privy lors are appointed, without limit to their Council had existed, as has been said, for number, by the sovereign, and they may a long period, but the first allusion to the be dismissed, or the council may be dis- cabinet council occurs in the reign of solved, at the royal pleasure. No qualifica- Charles I. It was extremely unpopular tion is necessary except that they shall be at first, and it was not till 1783 that it was native-born subjects of Great Britain, and regulated by those rules which it now ena disability in this respect may be removed forces. Formerly the King met with the by an act of Parliament, as it was in the Ministry; but at the accession of George cases of Prince Albert and the King of the I., the first Hanoverian prince on the Belgians. The Privy Council consists of throne of England, the practice was disthe members of the royal family, the Arch- continued, merely because he was unable bishops of York and Canterbury, the Bish- to speak or understand the English lanop of London, the cabinet ministers ex guage. The free and unrestrained disofficio, the Lord Chancellor, the chief offi- cussion of measures in his absence proved cers of the royal household, the Judges of so beneficial that the old practice has nevthe Courts of Equity, the Chief Justices of er been revived. Before that time the the Courts of Common Law, the Ecclesi- cabinet was not necessarily composed of astical and Admiralty Judges, the Judge men of similar judgment and principles, Advocate, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and at times there were at the same board the Speaker of the House of Commons, Whigs and Tories, and High-Churchmen the Ambassadors and the chief Minis- and Dissenters, and it was no uncommon ters Plenipotentiary, the Governors of thing for colleagues to take opposite sides the chief colonies, the Commander-in- in Parliament. But since 1812 it has been chief, the Vice-President of the Commit- an established principle that all cabinets tee of Council for Education, and such are to be constructed on some basis of poothers as the crown may appoint. A litical union agreed upon by the members Privy Councillor is styled Right Honor- when they accept office. It is also disable, and takes precedence of all baronets, tinctly understood that members are jointknights, and younger sons of viscounts ly and personally responsible for each and barons. It was in the reign of Hen- other's acts, and that on the resignation ry VI. that the King's Council first as- of the Prime Minister his colleagues shall sumed the name of Privy Council, and it resign also. It is, of course, well known was also during the minority of that King that the crown in organizing a cabinet that a select council gradually emerged only appoints the Premier, and that the from the larger body, which ultimately other members are selected by him, and resulted in the modern cabinet. In ear- always, except in rare cases, without diclier times it was wholly subservient to tation from the crown. The first instance the will of the monarch, and was often of the resignation of a Prime Minister rethe instrument of unconstitutional and sulting from an adverse vote of the Comarbitrary proceedings. Since the Revolu- mons was in the case of Sir Robert Waltion it has lost much of its dignity, and pole; and the resignation of the Ministry now the only relic of its authority in of Lord North, under George III., was the criminal matters is its power of taking first instance of a simultaneous change of examinations and issuing commitments the whole administration in deference to for treason. It still, however, continues the opinion of the Commons. From that to exercise an original jurisdiction in ad- time, however, a change of Ministry has vising the crown concerning the grants been simultaneous and complete. The of charters, and it has assumed exclusive number of those constituting the cabinet appellate jurisdiction over the colonies and is indefinite. The members who ex officio dependencies of the crown. Theoretically constitute the cabinet are the Prime Minthe Privy Council retains its ancient su- ister (or First Lord of the Treasury), the premacy, and in a constitutional point of Lord High Chancellor, the Lord Presiview is presumed to be the only legal and dent of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, responsible council of the crown. The the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the SecMinistry proper, or rather those members retary of State for Foreign Affairs, tho of the Privy Council who are members of Secretary of State for Home Department,

the Secretary of State for Colonies, the Secretary of State for War, the Secretary of State for India, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the President of the Board of Trade, and sometimes the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the First Commissioner of Works, the President of the Local Government Board, the Postmas-er, are decided in the cabinet by a vote. ter-General, and the Chief Secretary for Ireland.

responsible for the disposal of the entire patronage of the crown, selects all his colleagues, and can insist upon a decision of the cabinet upon any measure in accordance with his own views, inasmuch as he has the power of dissolving it by his own resignation. Ordinary questions, howev

The present cabinet is composed of the following members:

First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer Right Hon. William E. Gladstone.

Lord Chancellor-Lord Selborne.

The Lord Chancellor, the next in order in the cabinet, is, with the exception of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest officer in the realm. The name Chancellor is derived from the word cancellarius—a notary or scribe, as the Chancellor once was-because he sat behind a lattice (called in Latin cancellus), to avoid being crowd

Lord President of the Council-Earl Spencer.
Lord Privy Seal-Duke of Argyll.
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs-Earl Gran-ed by the people. He is ex officio a mem-

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the Treasury as to contemplated alterations in the customs and excise laws.

principal officer of the Court of Excheq-mercial relations with the colonies, and uer, but he now has little connection with it, only taking his seat with the Barons at the annual nomination of sheriffs. At the court, which is held once in six years, "for the trial of the pyx," for determining the weight and fineness of the gold and silver coins issued from the Mint, in the absence of the Lord Chancellor he presides, and delivers a charge to the pyx jury.

Next to the Chancellor of the Exchequer come the Secretaries of State, whose duties are plainly indicated by their titles. They are the Home Secretary, who controls all matters relating to the internal affairs of Great Britain and Ireland, the internal peace of the United Kingdom, the security of the laws, and the general superintendence of the administration of criminal justice; the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who is the official organ of the crown in all communications between Great Britain and foreign powers; the Secretary for the Colonies, who superintends the government of the various colonial possessions, appoints their Governors, and makes such recommendations and suggestions as may be expedient to assist the deliberations of the colonial councils, and to promote the welfare of colonial subjects; the Secretary for War, in whose hands the supreme and responsible authority over the whole military business of the country is placed; and the Secretary for India, who possesses all the powers once exercised by the East India Company and the Board of Control. Next comes the First Lord of the Admiralty. The Admiralty consists of the First Lord and four Junior Lords, who are called the Lords of the Admiralty. They conduct the administration of the entire naval force of the empire, both at home and abroad, command the royal marines, control the royal dock-yards, and have an exclusive jurisdiction over harbors and inlets throughout the kingdom. After the First Lord of the Admiralty comes the President of the Board of Trade, whose duty it is to take cognizance of all matters relating to trade and commerce, and to protect the mercantile interests of the kingdom; to advise the Foreign Office in commercial matters arising out of treaties or negotiations with foreign powers, the Home Office with respect to the grant and provisions of letters patent, the Colonial Office upon questions affecting com

This, then, is the cabinet of ministers, to whom the executive powers of the crown are intrusted. They must sit in Parliament, where the support or defeat of their policy will either prolong their term of office or compel them to resign. If Parliament declares by an adverse vote that it can no longer follow the ministers, a change must take place. Thus it will be seen that the people, through the Commons, are the rulers, and not the Ministry.

The Queen appoints the Prime Minister; he appoints his colleagues, and the success of their policy must depend on the Lords and Commons. The ultimate verdict on every exercise of political power must be sought in the House of Commons, and the House of Commons means the people. The elasticity of such a government must be apparent. The Queen has no policy; her impersonality is absolute; she is Whig or Tory as her Ministry represents either of these political parties, and the complexion of the Ministry is shaped and toned by the voice of the people. There can be no continued antagonism between the administration and Parliament, clogging the wheels and disturbing the whole machinery of legislation, for the Ministry must either yield to the wishes of Parliament or resign and give place to a cabinet representing its views and policy.

The House of Lords is composed of the lords spiritual and temporal. In the reign of Henry III. 123 prelates and only 23 temporal lords composed the House. At the time of Henry VIII. the spiritual and temporal lords were about equal in number. At the present time the spiritual lords are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 24 bishops of the Church of England. They are lords of Parliament only, and not peers. The lords temporal are dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, whose titles are all hereditary. The title of duke was first conferred on Edward the Black Prince, whom Edward III. created Duke of Cornwall. Marquises were originally lords of the marches, or borders, and derived their title from the offices held by them. The first who was created a marquis was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in 1198. Earls were in existence before the Conquest, under the title of ealdormen, and to these lords the administration of the shires was committed. After

sit on the right, the opposition on the left, and the neutrals on cross benches between the two. A quorum of the Lords is three, and important measures are often passed with less than twenty members present. Though the House of Lords has no power to originate money bills, it has a perfect right to initiate other measures-a right so rarely exercised, however, that it is now generally understood that the province of the Peers is chiefly to control and amend projects of legislation which emanate from the Commons. The most distinguishing feature of the Lords is their judicature, which relates to the trial of peers, claims of peerage and offices of honor, and contested elections of peers of Scotland and Ireland. They constitute the supreme court of judicature, the tribunal of appeal in the last resort, and the court for trial of cases of impeachment. Though apparently a branch of the government representing the aristocracy, so far from being an element from which danger may arise to the liberties of the people, the House of Lords serves only as a wholesome regulator to the legislation of the Commons.

the Conquest they were called counts, and | itual lords and the administrative party hence the shires were called counties. Viscounts were first created in the reign of Henry VI., and the title of baron was in existence long before the Norman Conquest. The number of the House of Lords is not limited. In the reign of Henry VII. the temporal peers were only 29; at the death of Elizabeth they were increased to 60; the Stuarts raised the number to 150, which William III. and Queen Anne still further increased to 168. On the union of Scotland in 1707, 16 peers of Scotland were added; and on the union of Ireland in 1800, 28 peers of Ireland. Since that time numerous additions have been made, so that at the present time, in addition to 26 lords spiritual, there are sitting in the House of Lords | 5 peers of the blood royal, 21 dukes, 19 marquises, 113 earls, 24 viscounts, 250 barons, 14 Scottish representative peers elected for each Parliament, and 28 Irish elected for life-making a total in the House of 500 lords spiritual and temporal. Though the titles of the lords are hereditary, the peerage is constantly undergoing changes, resulting from extinctions and additions. Of the sixty peerages in existence at the death of Elizabeth, forty are So much space has been devoted to a now extinct. The blood of the people is review of the powers of the Queen, Minisconstantly finding its way into the chan- try, and House of Lords, that but little is nels of the peerage, and new and fresh left for the House of Commons. Though elements are taking the place of those its members have always been elected, yet which have died out and disappeared. from 1688 to 1832 its control was really in Drapers, tailors, apothecaries, wool-deal- the hands of the great governing families. ers, silk-workers, merchants, jewellers, The Reform Bill of 1832 and the Housegoldsmiths, tradesmen, barbers, coal-deal-hold Suffrage Act of 1867 transferred it to ers, money - lenders, and manufacturers the middle classes. From the Restoration were ancestors of many who now boast of their noble blood. The most striking instances are those of Lord Tenterden, the grandson of a barber; Lord Gifford, the son of a grocer; Lord Beaconsfield, the son of an author; Lord Truro, the son of a tradesman, who married the cousin of the Queen; Lord Eldon, the son of a coal agent; Lord Clyde, the son of a cabinetmaker; Lord Ellenborough, the son of a country clergyman; Lord Ashburton, a merchant; and Lord Lyndhurst, the son of a portrait painter, the American Copley. In the House of Lords is the throne occupied by the Queen at the opening of Parliament, and in front of the throne is the woolsack occupied by the Lord Chancellor a sort of ottoman with a sack of wool for a seat, an emblem of the source of England's national wealth. The spir

to George III. the condition of the representative system, as connected with elections for the Commons, was demoralized and corrupt. Corporations usurped the franchises of their boroughs, so that a large number became what are called close, or rotten boroughs, or boroughs in the hands of limited and self-appointed bodies. Then there was another large class of boroughs, called nomination boroughs, which were the absolute property of individuals, who disposed of the representation at pleasure. It has been stated that at one time 84 persons sent 154 members to Parliament. The Reform Bill of 1832 took away 143 seats from 56 disfranchised and 32 partly disfranchised boroughs. Of these seats 64 were given to 42 new boroughs, and 65 to fresh divisions of the counties. The remainder were distributed between Scot