ENGLAND 



ENGLAND 



The official who by a series of 

 events added to his duties and 

 powers as king of England those of 

 ruler of Ireland, Wales, and Scot- 

 land, and then of vast territories 

 in America, Asia, Africa, and 

 Australia, had before these events 

 his ministers, his parliament, and 

 his court. As his duties expanded 

 so too did theirs, although in an 

 unequal and illogical manner. His 

 chancellor became the lord chan- 

 cellor for Wales and Scotland, but 

 not for Ireland : his secretaries 

 took over certain duties in the 

 other countries, but by no means 

 all, nor on any consistent plan. 

 The result is a ministry hi origin 

 that of England alone, but com- 

 posed of ministers exercising vary- 

 ing degrees of power over the rest 

 of the United Kingdom. 



Parliament, too, has extended 

 the area of its duties. It has been 

 transformed, with very little 

 structural alteration, into one re- 

 presenting the four countries of the 

 United Kingdom, and controlling, 

 in addition, the affairs of the 

 British Empire. Here, however, 

 there are neither limitations nor 

 exceptions. Parliament has ex- 

 actly the same power over Ireland 

 and Scotland as it has over Eng- 

 land ; theoretically, at least, it has 

 equal authority over Canada, Aus- 

 tralia, and the rest of the Empire. 

 How the Democracy Works 



England, classed from the point 

 of view of government, is a demo- 

 cracy, perhaps the most complete 

 the world has ever known, and the 

 democracy exercises its power 

 through the representative system. 

 Since 1918 the vote has been 

 possessed by practically all adult 

 males and females, and by them the 

 members of the House of Commons 

 are elected. Every possible device, 

 trickery, and even deception may 

 be used to influence their choice, 

 but the fact remains that they are 

 free to send to Parliament man or 

 woman, whomsoever they will. 



The democracy, however, works 

 through certain traditional and 

 historical forms. It has secured 

 the supreme power in the state 

 without making any violent changes 

 in the constitution. The state has a 

 figure-head in the person of an 

 hereditary monarch, while, part of 

 the high court of Parliament, 

 there is a House of Lords, in which 

 again the hereditary element pre- 

 vails. The House of Commons, 

 too, employs very much the same 

 methods as it did a century or two 

 ago. Democracy hi England has 

 found less violent ways of securing 

 its omnipotence than by behead- 

 ings and bloodshed. It has made 

 the House of Commons its instru- 

 ment of action, by transforming it 



into the dominant factor in the 

 constitution. 



THE LEGISLATURE. The con- 

 stitution of England may be con- 

 sidered under three heads: the 

 legislature, the executive, and the 

 judicature, three departments with 

 entirely different functions. Of 

 these, the legislature is supreme. 

 It consists of king, lords, and com- 

 mons, or the king in Parliament, 

 and the laws are made, theoretic- 

 ally at least, by the three together. 

 This untrammelled law-making 

 power is the reason why the legis- 

 lature is supreme. Everything 

 else flows from it. All that is 

 necessary to abolish the House of 

 Lords, to sell off the navy, to make 

 the income tax 20/- in the , is a 

 law passed by Parliament. 



Legislature and the Commons 



It is hardly true, however, when 

 we come to actual facts, to speak in 

 the 20th century of legislation by 

 king, lords, and commons, while 

 it is little more than a pleasing 

 ceremonial that requires the assent 

 of the king to Acts of Parliament. 

 In practice the legislature is the 

 House of Commons. It has two 

 partners in the matter, it is true, 

 but they have no power whatever 

 to stop any measure which the 

 Commons are determined shall 

 become law. 



To the House of Commons Eng- 

 land returns a clear majority of 

 members. Of a total of 707. no 

 less than 492 are returned by Eng- 

 lish constituencies : 230 by the 

 counties, 255 by the boroughs, and 

 7 by the universities. There is 

 also a majority of Englishmen in 

 the House of Lords. 



The House of Commons is the 

 supreme organized body in the 

 state. By degrees, curbing the 

 powers of the king and of the 

 House of Lords, it has attained 

 that position, the final touch being 

 given to this process by the Par- 

 liament Act of 1911. The king's 

 veto has passed into disuse, while 

 that of the House of Lords is only 

 a suspensory one for a short period 

 of time. It is true to say that the 

 House of Commons alone possesses 

 the law-making power, and there 

 is no possible way of questioning 

 the laws it makes, save by violence ; 

 judges cannot, as they can in the 

 U.S.A., be called upon to pro- 

 nounce upon their validity ; they 

 can only interpret their meaning. 

 However absurd a measure is, 

 however unpractical, if the House 

 of Commons wishes it and is pre- 

 pared to push it through the neces- 

 sary stages, it becomes the law of 

 the land quite as much as Magna 

 Carta. The house can even, as it 

 did in 1715 and in 1915, prolong 

 its own existence. 



THE EXECUTIVE. The House of 

 Commons cannot, by its very size 

 and constitution, do more than 

 legislate and exercise a general 

 supervision over affairs of state, 

 and it is that fact which is the 

 real check on its own omnipotence. 

 It is frequently faced with the 

 dilemma of suffering a violation of 

 its wishes or parting with a minis- 

 ter who may in many wavs suit it 

 well, while its zeal is tempered by 

 the reflection that its master, the 

 electorate, might possibly, if asked, 

 endorse the action of the offender. 



At the head of the executive is 

 the prime minister, the most 

 powerful man in the state, and one 

 whose powers have increased 

 vastly since about 1900. Origin- 

 ally a minister of the king of Kng- 

 land, he is now the prime minister 

 of the whole country, and in a 

 sense of the whole empire. Acting 

 with, or rather under him, are other 

 ministers, the most important of 

 whom form the Cabinet. These 

 Cabinet ministers are bound to- 

 gether by a common set of prin- 

 ciples, this being especially so when 

 they belong to a single political 

 party, but it is also true of a 

 coalition, even if it is only the 

 common principle of forgetting 

 them. The modern tendency, how- 

 ever, is rather for the decisive bond 

 to be the common enjoyment of 

 the prime minister's confidence. 

 Powers oi the Cabinet 



The powers of the Cabinet can 

 hardly be defined, so much depends 

 upon the personality of its mem- 

 bers, but they are considerable. It 

 has a marked influence on legisla- 

 tion because, without its support, 

 a proposal for a new law has little 

 chance of success. In practice the 

 Cabinet initiates legislation. It is 

 the creature of the House of 

 Commons, and is never unmindful 

 of its creator's will if such is 

 emphatically expressed, but in the 

 dealings of the one with the other 

 the Cabinet has the inestimable 

 advantage of being a small body 

 animated by a common purpose 

 against a large one in which the 

 common purpose is rarely present. 



The ministers are in charge of the 

 various departments of state, being 

 responsible for their working in 

 Parliament. The outward sign of 

 this responsibility is their presence 

 in one or other of the Houses of 

 Parliament in order to answer 

 questions, or to defend, if need be, 

 the actions of the departments over 

 which they preside. The depart- 

 ments are manned by civil servants, 

 permanent officials who stay in 

 office and carry on its everyday 

 work, while ministers come and go. 



Apart from the executive, but 

 equally under the control of Parlia- 



