The Press., 1912-10-23
BRlTAIN'S CABINET
tt Really Has No Legal Warrant
 For Its Existence.
YET IT RULES THE NATION.

This Most Powerful and Important
 Committee In the World ls Without
 a Staff, Secretary, a Seal or Min
 ute Book and Has No Fixed Home.
 Sidney Low, the English writer, calls
 attention to the fact that the British
 cabinet has really no standing in law.
 though 1t is actually the body which
 rules England. He makes several in
 teresting statements in describing. the
 situation.
 The British cabinet has long been
 one of the mysteries of that greater
 mystery, the British constitution. To
 be quite exact, indeed, 1t is not correct
 to call 1t a. part of the British. consti-
 tuition, for strictly speaking it is un- | known to the constitution. The cabinet
 today rules the country. but it has
 no legal status It was not until about
 1901 that the word cabinet appeared
 on the notice paper or other official document.
 A cabinet minister takes the same oath that every privy councillor takes.
 ''to be a true and faithful servant
 unto the kings majesty as one of his : majesty's privy council'' and ito keep secret all, matters committed. and re- vealed unto you or that shall be treated secretly in council' The entire body of the privy council is supposed to ad- wise the sovereign on affairs of state. but to be made privy councillor to- day is practically an empty honor. It is regarded as high compliment. but I if a privy councillor is not a member of the cabinet he hears no secrets and performs no official functions.
 All the, executive and political func- tons of privy councillors have passed into the hands of those of them who form the cabinet. which is really secret committee of the kings servants who. in. practice collectively rule the country so long as they remain in of 6ce.
 "But," as Sidney Low writes in an article in the London Daily Mail. mo act of parliament ever gave them these powers, which could not be asserted or defended. in any court of law. They are due to prescription. accident and custom.
 Technically the cabinet as cabi- net can do nothing. It cannot even write a letter or issue signed order. It has not indeed the means of doing so, for 1t does not keep clerk or a typewriter; it has no office, nor has 1t any money wherewith to buy sheet of note paper. The most powerful and important committee in the world iS without staff, secretary, seal. minute book or a fixed location.
 When cabinet council sits it has no agenda' before it, nor has it any record of what was done at it's last meeting. No one keeps the minutes. and it is still deemed little contrary to etiquette for any minister to take 8 note of the proceedings or indeed to write anything at the meetings at all.
 "In fact, the cabinet council Is still treated as if it were nothing more than casual private consultation be- tween a few of the privy councillors. It bears the traces of it's ancestry, for 1t was born over the dinner table.
 "It originated in the reign of Queen Anne In those famous Saturday din ners at which select group of the privy council assembled to discuss the affairs of their party without the pres ence of the queen and of colleagues whose presence was not desired. The cabinet. has, always kept to the tradi- ton! It is q secret committee of gov ernment andta secret committee of the party in parliament and where the one function begins and the other ends no one can ever say.
 "All its members are collectively re- sponsible for hte acts of one of them, but there are. no means of knowing what the decisions of the cabinet are at any moment till they are embodied ill action, or how many of the ministers may. dissentf from the opinion of the or whether indeed 1t Is the | majority or a minority that really di- | rects the policy"
 The promotion of Sir Rufus Isaacs, the attorney general. to the cabinet | was double novelty. Not only was l there no precedent for an attorney | general being member of the cabi- | net. but never before had, the official l of. the cOnferment of | cabinet rank mentioned. as 1t did in l the case of Sir, Rufus Isaacs, the | words "his majesty's cabinet" This | therefore marked a fur ther. development in the acquisition >f d, corporate existence by the cabi- York Sun.