NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 349 



ing this freedom to the head of a department. It might be allowed 

 to the best Ministers and the best permanent heads of departments; 

 they, of course, have more to do with all promotions, save those to 

 the highest places, than the Minister has, for they know the staff 

 much more intimately. But it would be abused by all but the most 

 conscientious. 



Three other topics need a passing mention. One is the general 

 control which the Treasury exercises over all the departments, 

 through its power of fixing salaries, through the fact that it has to 

 approve and present to Parliament and defend in the House of 

 Commons the estimates for the expenses the departments incur in 

 the public service, and through the fact that in some cases statutes 

 make its consent necessary to certain acts of the other departments. 

 The Treasury is really the keystone of the British official system, 

 holding the various departments together; and I remember how 

 frequently it used to happen that when some change in organization 

 was desired, or when some new kind of work was to be undertaken, 

 one had to say to the permanent head, " We must now see the 

 Treasurer about this. He can meet the objections they will prob- 

 ably raise." 



A second point has already been adverted to. It is the supervision 

 of local authorities all over the country by some of the central de- 

 partments, and to some extent by the Home Office, to a still larger 

 extent by the Board of Education and the Local Government Board. 

 This last in particular has received by various acts important func- 

 tions in watching, and if need be, arresting or controlling the action 

 of county and district councils and of city and borough councils. 

 This control, however, is not arbitrary and hardly even discretionary, 

 for it chiefly consists in requiring them to observe strictly the pro- 

 visions of the statute law. Nor dare the local government board 

 act in an arbitrary way. The county councils are powerful bodies, 

 powerful socially as well as legally, for they contain many men of 

 high position and great influence. The borough councils are also 

 strong, and have great strength in the House of Commons through 

 their parliamentary representatives. There is, therefore, little risk 

 of encroachment by the central government on the powers of these 

 local bodies. 



A third topic has been already mentioned in passing, viz., the 

 relation between the civil service of the country and the political 

 organs of government, the Cabinet and Parliament. In Britain 

 this relation is secured by the plan which places a leading parlia- 

 mentary politician, who is necessarily also prominent in one of 

 the two great parties, at the head of each of the great de- 

 partments, about twelve in number. He, sitting in Parliament; 

 speaks for the department to Parliament and to the nation. He is 



