

CONSTITUTION AND RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



The executive is nominally vested in the crown, 

 really in the sovereign and responsible ministers 

 of state, who form the Cabinet, and who are placed 

 at the head of the great departments of the public 

 service. The sovereign's share in the legislature 

 consists in dissolving, proroguing, or summoning 

 parliament, or giving assent to bills, and, as head 

 of the executive, with managing the revenue. The 

 sovereign's prerogative includes sending or receiv- 

 ing ambassadors, declaring war or peace, and 

 entering into treaties with foreign powers. The 

 crown is hereditary in the House of Brunswick ; 

 but should the sovereign become a papist, or join 

 the Roman Catholic Church, the people are 

 absolved by the 'Act of Settlement' from all alle- 

 giance. The sovereign is the fountain of honour, 

 justice, and mercy. In legal parlance, he never 

 dies. He is head of the Established Church, 

 and generalissimo of the army and navy ; but 

 he cannot raise an army without consent of 

 parliament, nor can it be maintained unless that 

 consent be renewed, as it is from year to year. A 

 maxim of the constitution is, that the king can do 

 no wrong. The ministers forming the Cabinet are 

 responsible for the actions and policy of the exec- 

 utive, and are intrusted with the duty of watch- 

 ing over the interests of the crown in the Houses 

 of Parliament, and answering for and defending 

 the acts of the government there. The chief of 

 the ministry or Cabinet is the First Lord of the 

 Treasury ; it is at his recommendation the other 

 great ministers of state are appointed ; indeed, all 

 the crown patronage is dispensed in accordance 

 with his advice. His nominal duty is receiving 

 and issuing public moneys. Next comes the Lord 

 Chancellor, who presides in the highest law-courts 

 in the country, and is Speaker of the House of 

 Lords ; then the Secretary of State for Home 

 Affairs ; the Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, 

 Colonies, and War ; the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, or finance minister ; First Lord of the 

 Admiralty; Secretary for India; Lord President of 

 the Privy Council; and Lord Privy Seal, are almost 

 always in the cabinet. Some three or four of the 

 following may have seats in the cabinet also, viz. : 

 the Chief Commissioner of Works, Chancellor of 

 the Duchy of Lancaster, President of the Board 

 of Trade, President of the Local Government 

 Board, Vice-president of the Privy-council, Post- 

 master-general, Chief Secretary for Ireland. 

 Sometimes a statesman may have a seat in the 

 Cabinet without undertaking any office. The 

 Cabinet exists only as long as it can command the 

 confidence of parliament, or work harmoniously 

 with the crown. It is not recognised by the law 

 no record is kept of its proceedings the names of 

 those who compose it are never officially an- 

 nounced. Besides this, there is the Privy-council, 

 consisting of men of proved eminence as politi- 

 cians, or men of high rank and character. Indeed 

 the Cabinet is an outgrowth of the Privy-council, 

 and may be regarded as having been origi- 

 nally a select executive committee of that body, 

 chosen as being more workable because less un- 

 wieldy. Gradually it became wedged into the par- 

 liamentary system, and moulded into its present 

 form, the great distinction between Cabinet and 

 Privy-council being that it is not necessary for 

 members of the latter body, as it is for mem- 

 bers of the former, to have seats in parliament. 

 The Privy-council take no share in the govern- 



ment, save when summoned by the sovereign to 

 give advice, in which case they are responsible for 

 the consequences of it it being a maxim of the 

 constitution, that the king can never act alone 

 without advice ; which leads to the other maxim, 

 the king can do no wrong. 



JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION. 

 The superior courts of common law, for the 

 trial of civil cases, are the Court of King's (or, as 

 at present, Queen's) Bench ; the Court of Common 

 Pleas ; the Court of Exchequer, designed at first 

 only to decide in cases concerning the revenue ; 

 and the Court of Chancery, presided over by the 

 Lord Chancellor, which administers the law of 

 equity. Courts under these designations sit both 

 in Westminster and in Dublin. By the Supreme 

 Court Judicature Act of August 5, 1873, modified 

 or extended by additional acts in 1875, 1876, 1877, 

 and 1879, the distinctions between common law 

 and equity were abolished, and these superior 

 courts, along with the High Court of Admiralty, 

 Probate, and Divorce, and London Court of 

 Bankruptcy, united in ' The Supreme Court 

 of Judicature of England,' consisting of two 

 divisions : (i) Her Majesty's High Court of 

 Justice is to have original jurisdiction in all causes 

 of action as regards common law and equity, and 

 appellate jurisdiction from certain inferior courts. 



Since 1881 there are but 

 Chancery ; Queen's Bench ; 



three divisions- 

 Probate, Divorce, 



and Admiralty. Those of Common Pleas and of 

 Exchequer have ceased to be separate divisions ; 

 and the titles of Lord Chief-justice of Common 

 Pleas and Lord Chief-baron of Exchequer are 

 abolished. (2) Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, 

 which has appellate jurisdiction only in all causes 

 from all quarters, and to which the old appellate 

 jurisdiction of the House of Lords (except as 

 regards Scotch causes) is transferred. In the 

 former the title is 'Judge of Her Majesty's High 

 Court of Justice ;' but the titles, Lord Chief-justice 

 of England, Master of the Rolls, are continued. 

 The Court of Appeal consists of four ex ojficio 

 judges, and as many others as the crown appoints, 

 not exceeding nine. The ex officio judges are 

 the Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief-justice of Eng- 

 land, Master of the Rolls, and the President of 

 the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division. 

 ' Additional judges," unsalaried, may be appointed 

 from the supreme courts of India and Scotland, 

 or from the superior courts of Westminster their 

 titles being Lords-justices of Appeal. 



The superior criminal courts are the House 

 of Lords in the cases of impeachment, and of 

 the trial of peers for certain crimes and the 

 Court of Queen's Bench. The Central Criminal 

 Court is devoted almost exclusively to the trial 

 of crimes committed in the metropolis and sur- 

 rounding districts. There are also courts of 

 assize, which, in England, perform six pro- 

 vincial circuits, in some instances once, and 

 in others twice a year. These courts exercise 

 criminal jurisdiction, and at the same time try 

 issues of fact in civil causes. Minor cases, crim- 

 inal as well as civil, are judged by bodies of pro- 

 vincial magistracy, termed Justices of the Peace, 

 who meet in session in every county once every 

 quarter of a year. But in certain cases, individual 

 justices act as judges, although not sitting in 



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