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 was declined on the plea that to construct a cabinet on “a system of counteraction was inconsistent with the prosecution of any uniform and beneficial course of policy.” From that date it has been an established principle that all cabinets are to be formed on some basis of political union agreed upon by the members when they accept office together. It is now also distinctly understood that the members of a cabinet are jointly and severally responsible for each other’s acts, and that any attempt to distinguish between a particular minister and his colleagues in such matters is unconstitutional.

During the 19th century the power of ministers was greatly extended, and their duties became more distinctly marked out. As now interpreted, the leading principles of the British constitution are the personal irresponsibility of the sovereign, the responsibility of ministers, and the inquisitorial and controlling power of parliament. At the head of affairs is the (q.v.), whose duties are more general than departmental; and the other members of the administration, whose work is exemplified by the titles of their offices (the more important of which are treated separately), are the lord high chancellor, the lord president of the council, the lord privy seal, the first lord of the treasury, the five secretaries of state (home, foreign affairs, colonies, war, India), the chancellor of the exchequer, the secretary for Scotland, the chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the postmaster-general, the presidents of the board of trade, the local government board, the board of agriculture and the board of education (all of which were originally committees of the privy council), the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and the first lord of the admiralty. These are the more important members of the administration, and they are generally in the cabinet. The subordinate members of the administration, some of whom are occasionally invited to join the cabinet, while others are never in it, are the parliamentary and financial secretary to the admiralty, the parliamentary under-secretaries of the home, foreign, war, colonial and India offices, the board of trade, local government and board of education, the junior lords of the treasury (assistant “whips”), the financial secretary and patronage secretary to the treasury (the senior “whip”), the first commissioner of works, the paymaster-general, and the attorney-general and solicitor-general. There are in addition the lord advocate and the solicitor-general for Scotland, the lord-lieutenant and lord chancellor of Ireland (who are sometimes members of the cabinet), and the attorney-general and solicitor-general for Ireland.