HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
but it should also be beyond the 
reach of suspicion, and so exercised 
as to give perfect satisfaction to all 
his majesty’s subjects. The ap- 
pointment of lord Ellenborough to 
a seat in the cabinet, was not illegal 
nor unconstitutional, but it was 
unadviseable and inexpedient.” * 
_ Much stress was laid by some mem- 
bers of opposition, on a doctrine 
which they had collected from 
newspapers and pamphlets, that the 
cabinet, as such, is responsible fer 
the advice given to his majesty, and 
eonsequentiy for the measures of 
administration; and if was asked 
triumphantly, whether it was de- 
sirable that the chief justice of Kng- 
Jand should be involved in that re- 
‘sponsibility ? ‘* Why should his cha- 
racter and influence, in. short, all 
his best means of doing good be 
unnecessarily embarked in the frail 
_ and uncertain fate of any adminis- 
_ tration +.’’ 
it was answered by the ministers, 
that we were not to take our prin- 
ciples of the English constitution 
from the theories of Montesquicu 
and Blackstone (though the latter 
had been misunderstood by those 
who had appealed to his authority 
on this occasion) but to gain our 
knowledge of it from the study of 
precedents, and from the practice of 
our forefathers, It was idle,to talk 
_of the separation of the legislative, 
executive, and judiciary powers in 
England, where one of the branches 
of the legislature was the supreme 
court of law, and had usually for 
_ its speaker the first law-ollicer of 
the kingdom; where the servants 
of the crown sat in both houses of 
parliament, and where the chief 
justices were privy counsellors and 
* Lord Eldon. 
29 
sworn advisers of the crown, in all 
matters relating to the honour of 
the king and to the good of his 
people. It was contended, that 
from.the earliest periods of our his- 
tory, the judges had been employed 
and consulted by the crown, in the 
xecutive department of the state. 
Various instances were adduced 
from our history, where chief jus- 
tices had been specially named as 
constituent members of councils ap- 
pointed to advise the king, or in the 
case of his absence or minority, to 
administer the government of the 
kingdom. In the celebrated privy 
council of Charles If. which that 
monarch adopted at the suggestion 
of sir William Temple, for the ex- 
press purpose of conciliating the 
confidence of his people, the chief 
justice of the common pleas had, by 
right of his office, a seat. In the 
bills of regency passed during the 
reign of queen Anne, as well as in 
those enacted in the reigns of George 
Il. and of his present majesty, the 
eaicf justices were included ; and, 
though much debate had arisen on 
some of these bills, no person had 
objected to them on that account. 
Lord Mansfield was not the only 
chief justice, since the revolution, 
who had attended the committees 
of the privy council, called cabinet- 
councils; nor was it admitted, that 
because he attended them he had 
become unpopular as a judge. 
duord Hardwicke had held the of. 
fice of chief justice for six months, 
along with a seat in the cabinet. 
Chief-justice Parker had been one 
of the council of regency, in the 
interval between the death of 
queen Anne, and the arrival of 
George I. Chief-justices Lee, 
~ + Lord Castlereagh. 
Wedderburne, 
