POWER IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM. 237 



time did the responsibility of the Cabinet to Parliament become 

 established.^" Even during the 19th and 20th centuries, the pre- 

 rogative in foreign relations has been exercised by the Crown in 

 Council quite independently both of party politics and of parlia- 

 mentary responsibility.-* The distinction has continued to exist 

 between the foreign relations power exercised rather independently 

 by the Crown in Council and the executive power exercised by the 

 Crown under powers delegated by Parliament and through ministers 

 responsible to that body. 



The executive power as known to the constitutional fathers in 

 the colonial governor was similar to that of the British Crown in 

 the i8th century with the very important exception of the foreign 

 relations power. The colonial governor exercised merely such 

 powers as summoning and dissolving the legislature and appointing 

 and removing officers. 



" Administrative matters," says Goodnow, " outside of those directly con- 

 nected with the military powers of the governor had not been attended to by 

 the central colonial government but, in accordance with English principles of 

 local government, by various officers in the local districts of the state who 

 were regarded as local in character and who often at the same time discharged 

 judicial functions." 29 



This was also true of the succeeding state governors. Since all 

 powers of the national government under the Continental Congress 

 and Articles of Confederation were vested in Congress no concep- 

 tion of the scope of executive or legislative power could be gained 

 from this experience, though the need of a more efficient control of 

 foreign relations was strongly felt and was one leading motive 

 toward the formation of the Constitution. ^° 



ings, 185 1 ; Committee on Education, later a Board of Education, in 1856; 

 Local Government Board, 1871 ; Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1889. 

 (Medley, op. cit., p. 112 et seq.) 



2' " The first definite recognition of this corporate responsibility (of the 

 cabinet) may be said to date from 1782." (Medley, op. cit., p. 109.) 



28 See Low, The Governance of England, N. Y., 1915, p. 301 ; Ponsonby, 

 Democracy and Diplomacy, London, 191 5, p. 45 et seq. 



29 Goodnow, op. cit., p. 71. 



30 Farrand, op. cit., i : 426, 513. 



