The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1898-05-13

Nowhere else in the world is there
any position at once so powerful and so
anomalous. So long as he remains
prime minister the premier of the Unit
ed Kingdom is possessed of more real
power than any single individual, un-
less it be the czar or the president of
the United States.
Yet, great as is the power of prime
minister, the office has no foundation on
law. The prime minister is quite as un-
known to the law as is the cabinet. If
a legal pedant, blind to all facts not in
the statutes or the k3xtbooks of the
common law, were asked to define the
Office of prime minister and to describe
the cabinet, he would be utterly at
loss.
In theory the prime minister is only
privy councillor at the head of a de-
partment of state who is specially in
the sovereign S confidence and who usu-
ally presides at an informal gathering
of certain of the privy councillors who
happen to hold offices of state-a gath
ering which is called the cabinet. That
is the furthest which the legal pedant Of
our thought would dare to go. Yet, Of
course, the prime minister is, in fact,
far more than the mere chairman of the
cabinet.
The cabinet, no doubt, has a great
deal of power, but even if it were true
once it is certainly not true now that
England is governed by a committee Of
10 or 16 persons.
mi nj
his cabinet. He is commissioned by the
queen to form cabinet, because he is
the man whom she considers to possess
the confidence of majority of the house
of commons. He forms his cabinet by
asking certain members of the two
houses to hold the great offices of state
He might do this in one day and with
out consulting any one.
As a matter of fact, what usually
happens is this: As soon as the commits
sion to form a government has been re-
ceived, the prime minister takes into
his confidence the two or three who will
hold the chief offices, and they talk
together over the other names. When a
man is decided upon, he, as a rule,
joins the conclave and helps to consult
as TO men and places, and so the cabinet
gradually evolves itself. No doubt as
generally happens in this world the
prime minister's choice is never really
free.
Certain men must be in the cabinet,
whatever happens, and hence they may
be said not to be chosen by the premier,
but TO be ministers in their own right.
N CroIt Of 10 hot
they are asked to serve by the premier
makes them feel his superiority. When
the cabinet is made, the theory of the
unwritten constitution is that the cabi-
net governs. In reality it seldom does
anything of the kind.
Each cabinet minister has very great
power In his own department, but the
cabinet as cabinet can do little. Since,
however, it knows everything that is
going on it can exercise Ii great deal Of
indirect power. The previous knowl-
edge that the majority of the cabinet
would like or dislike particular pol
icy has a great influence, but still the
cabinet does not rule. The prime minis
ter summons, presides over and largely
controls the cabinet meetings. If va
cancy occurs, he fills it up, and so can
promote from the lower to the higher
offices.
Then he can and does confer with his
colleagues in regard to the business Of
their departments and so has a hold
upon the whole machine of government.
Sir Robert Peel saw every member of
his cabinet separately every day. Again,
If there be a difference between two
other members Of the government, the
premier decides. If there be an irrecon-
Cilable difference between himself and
q minister, it is the minister and not
the premier who resigns
Lastly, the prime minister can, by re-
signing himself, dissolve the whole min
istry. These things, small in them
selves, taken together, make the prime
minister's position what it is. He
makes and can unmake cabinet. He
presides over it, and he has the right
TO advise in regard to every department,
though this right is of course seldom
exercised, and he has secured to him
beforehand the support of the rank and
file or of any cabinet if it comes 60 a
struggle between him and a colleague,
because the rank and file know that if
the premier is beaten he has it in his
power TO upset the whole machine of
government.
Hence the voices of those who want
to keep in office are always found ON
the side of the premier. r.-Pearson's
Weekly.
REPORTER AND CHlNAMAN.