428 



l'i;i\ >> . (.INCH. 



crown, unless sooner determine)) by the successor 

 of the deceased sovereign ( cf. Stephen. <'"iiiin<iit. 

 vol. ii. p. 401). It i- now understood that no 

 memlieis attend the deliberation- of council except 

 those who are s|iecially summoned. In ordinary 

 cases only the ministers, the great otlicer- of the 

 Household, anil tin- Archbishop of Canteilmry are 

 summoned ; lint mi winie extraordinary occasions 

 summonses are sent to the whole council. (Thus, 

 on Niivemlier 23, 1839, the whole of tin- Privy, 

 counril were summoned to Buckingham I'alace to 

 receive the Queen's announcement of her intended 

 marriage with Prince Albert.) Meeting of council 

 are usually hrhl at intervals of three or four weeks 

 at the sovereign's residence ; ami six privy-council- 

 lors at least, with one of the clerks of council, 

 constitute a meeting of council. 



A privy-councillor must be a natural-horn sub- 

 ject of Great Britain. His duties are defined by 

 the oath of otlico as follows : ( 1 ) to advise the kin;; 

 to the best of his cunning and discretion; (2) to 

 advise for the kind's honour and good of the public, 

 without partiality through affection, love, need, 

 doubt, or dread ; ( 3 ) to keep the king's counsel 

 secret; (4) to avoid corruption; (f>) to help and 

 strengthen the execution of what shall lie resolved; 

 (6) to withstand all persons who would attempt 

 the contrary ; ami ( 7 ) to observe, keep, and do all 

 that a good and true counsellor ought to do to his 

 sovereign lord. The personal security of a member 

 of thf Privy -council was formerly safeguarded by 

 several statutes repealed by 9 Geo. IV. chap. 31. 

 Immediately on the decease of the sovereign the 

 Privv council assembles and proclaims his successor, 

 the l.oi.l Chancellor atlixing the Great Seal to the 

 proclamation. The memliers of the Privy-council 

 are then re-sworn as council of the new sovereign, 

 after which a privy -council is held, and the sovereign 

 makes declaration of Ins designs for the good govern- 

 ment of the realm, and subscribes the oaths. 



The functions of the Privy-council in modern 

 times depend on a great variety of statutes, and 

 it is only ]issible here to give a brief and very 

 general survey of the whole field. The subject is 

 one full of confusion, partly because of the vast 

 mass of detail which it involves, and partly l)ecause 

 the long historical development which the Privy- 

 council has undergone has borne ita natural cr<ip 

 of legal fictions, anomalies, and technicalities. It 

 will be convenient to divide our observations under 

 four heads : 



( 1 ) The Privy-council as synonymous irith the 

 Executive Government. It is a commonplace of 

 constitutional law that the cabinet, which is the 

 organ of the executive government, is quite un- 

 known to the law. In theory the cabinet is only 

 a committee or inner circle of the Privy-council, 

 and the Privy-council i still the only instrument 

 through which the sovereign can exercise his 

 prerogative. But the theory no longer corresponds 

 with the facts ; the power is exercised by the 

 cabinet alone, and the Privy-council is never con- 

 sulted. This is the sense which must be attached 

 to the statements that the 'sovereign in council ' haa 

 wide authority in the colonies, can make and 

 enforce laws in such colonies as have no repre- 

 sentative assemblies, and can allow or disallow the 

 legislative acts of such as do possess them. The 

 case is the same with orders in council relating to 

 blockades, reprisals, or embargoes. And, in harmony 

 with these expressions, it is the regular course in 

 acts of parliament conferring specific powers on the 

 executive government to confer them in terms on 

 the 'sovereign in council.' In such cases the 

 mention of the council is purely formal, and if 

 the power is exercised it will lie by the ordinary 

 government (cf. also 13 and 14 Viet. chap. 59, sect. 

 30). It may be added that, as the executive power 



is thus dependent on the authority of the legisla- 

 ture, so no executive act can lie done, and no order 

 in council can lie made, which an act of parliament 

 cannot override. 



This j, niiw a recognised mode in which the 

 legislature delegates defined legislative functions 

 to the executive; and it is on this principle that 

 the Itoard of Trade, for example, can make regula- 

 tions for carrying out the provisions of an act of 



parliament, ti gh the act may simply state, ' It 



shall IM> lawful for Her Majesty by order in council ' 

 from time to time to make such regulations. 



(2) The I'riri/ miniril as a separate Dr/.nrtiii* af 

 uf Sltite.Aa the aula regis was the mother of 

 parliament and of the various courts of law, so the 

 Privy council has given lieing, in quite recent 

 times, to several administrative bodies (such, for 

 instance, as the I loan! of Trade ami the Local 

 <;ov eminent Hoard), to which many of its own 

 administrative powers have been transferred. The 

 different stages or methods in this process of differ- 

 entiation are curious. The Itoard of Trade, estab- 

 lished on its present basis in ITS'2. was at first, ami 

 still is in name, a committee of the Privy-council ; 

 it is defined in the Interpretation Act. 1889, sect. 

 12, as ' the Lords of the Committee for the time 

 lieing of the Privy -council, appointed for the con- 

 sideration of matters relating to trade and foreign 

 plantations.' But for all practical purposes it is 

 a distinct department of state, controlled by a 

 president, who is a member of the government. 

 The Board of Health, created 1848, was ten years 

 later superseded partly by the Home Office, partly 

 by the Privy-council. In 1871 the Local Govern- 

 ment Board was created, in succession to the 

 Poor-law Board, and to it were transferred many 

 duties formerly exercised by the Privy -council 

 in relation to the public health, such, for ex- 

 amide, as the appointment and control of public 

 medical officers and the carrying out of the Vac- 

 cination Acts. In 1889 a new Board of Agri- 

 culture was established, and took over the imwers 

 of the Privy-council in connection with the De- 

 structive Insects Act and the Contagious Diseases 

 (Animals) Acts. Neither the Local Government 

 Board, nor the Poor-law Itoard (which, created in 

 1847, ceased to exist, as we have already mentioned, 

 in 1871), nor the Board of Agriculture was ever 

 formally a committee of the Privy-council, but in 

 each case a [Hirtion of the administrative functions 

 of the council was transferred to the new depart- 

 ment, and the historical connection is illustrated 

 by the fact that in all these cases the Lord President 

 ot the council is named first in the list of ex oflifio 

 memliers. The Committee of Council on Eiluca- 

 tion, established in 1839, remains in a different, 

 position. It has not been completely detached 

 from the Privy-council and erected into a distinct, 

 department of the administration ; and the member 

 of the government who presides over it is still known 

 as the Vice-president of the Council on Education. 

 I !u t it is commonly called the Education Department, 

 and its complete detachment would rerjiiiie little 

 more than a change in the designation of its chief, 

 and a clear delimitation of the iiovvei and responsi- 

 bility of the Lord President and the Vice president 

 of the Council. The Vice president of the Council 

 is already virtually minister for Education. 



In 1HH5 the Secretary for Scotland Act further 

 transferred to the new secretary the powers and 

 duties of the Privy -council in connection with the 

 Hoard of Manufactures and the Public Health Acts 

 so far as Scotland is concerned. The Secretary 

 for Scotland was also entrusted with control over 

 Scottish education, under the title of Vice-president 

 of the Scotch Education Department, which is 

 still nominally a standing committee of the Privy- 

 council. 



