350 THEORY AND ADMINISTRATION 



responsible for everything the department does or omits to do. 

 He has to explain its policy, to defend its acts, to stand the fire of 

 parliamentary criticism. He may be every day publicly questioned, 

 and he is bound to answer, unless he can say that the matter is con- 

 fidential and that the interests of the public service require him to 

 keep silence. It is to him that suggestions are made by members 

 of Parliament and others regarding needed legislation or adminis- 

 trative action. It is he who receives deputations complaining of 

 something done amiss, or asking that something should be done. 

 It is he who appoints royal commissions or departmental committees 

 to investigate and report on difficult problems. When his perman- 

 ent departmental advisers think that legislation on any topic is 

 needed, it is he and his parliamentary under-secretary, if he has 

 one, who bring in the bill and argue for it in Parliament. So through 

 him the department obtains the means of extending the scope of, 

 or improving, its own action, and thus of better serving the country. 

 Finally, as he is a member of the Cabinet, he consults his colleagues 

 on such departmental questions as involve exceptionally large in- 

 terests or have a political bearing, obtains their sanction for any new 

 departure, and thus sees that the policy of the department is in har- 

 mony with the general policy which the Cabinet is following and 

 which its supporters presumably approve. Thus the harmonious 

 working of the whole machinery is insured and the department is 

 kept in that close touch with public opinion which is essential to 

 the proper conduct of affairs under a free constitution. It is a 

 further advantage that as the parliamentary opposition almost 

 always contains some person who has been head (or under-secretary) 

 of each department, there are always men in Parliament besides 

 the men actually in office who can bring practical experience to 

 bear on departmental questions when they come up. It is now 

 our custom that a former head of a department, though he is ex- 

 pected to watch and to attack (when necessary) the action of his 

 successor in office, helps his successor to pass department bills which 

 raise no controversy over the principles on which the two parties are 

 opposed. There are almost always friendly and often confidential 

 relations between the present Minister and the ex-Minister for each 

 department, and the advantage of these relations is so evident that 

 the rank and file of the two hostile parties, though seldom backward 

 in their criticism of what are called " the two front benches," take 

 no serious objection to the custom just described. 



The English civil service impressed me, when I saw it at close 

 quarters, as being an efficient service. Twenty years ago it had not 

 quite as much first-class ability, either at home or in India, that is, 

 quite as large a proportion of the available talent of the country as 

 perhaps it ought. But with the coming up of younger men ad- 



