Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/359

 1922 THE COUNCIL UNDER THE TUDORS 351 clerkship of the privy council been selected on 12 April 1539 to act as secretary of the newly established council in the west ; but it is significant that Paget was paid the same sum of 30 a year when he was appointed clerk of the privy council in 1540. 1 In the west Derby was also to be keeper of the signet, and either to be sworn a master of chancery or to have a dedimus potestatem, and to give continual attendance on that council. 2 His clerkship of the signet was given on 1 September to John Huttoft, 3 but nothing is known of the clerkship of the privy council. We might assume that Paget, who was appointed clerk of the privy council when it was first definitely organized on 10 August 1540, discharged the functions earlier, but in the autumn of 1539 4 he was away on a mission to Ireland, in the spring of 1540 he was in attendance on Anne of Cleves, and in July he became secretary to the new queen, Catherine Howard. The history of the clerkship of the council indicates a gradual differentiation of the council into various bodies growing more distinct ; and we have before 1540 clerks of the council in the star chamber, of a privy council, of the councils in the north, in Wales and its marches, in the west, and at Calais. There were also in 1536. a clerk of the council for the duchy of Lancaster, arid one for the council of the court of augmentations who was paid 10 a year. 5 But we have not yet obtained much informa- tion about the size, personnel, or differentiation of functions between the council in the star chamber and the council which was to become the privy council ; and we naturally turn for light to the development of an official who already in Henry VII's reign is appearing as lord president of the council. The fourteenth- century difficulty of determining whether clericus de consilio means a clerk of the council or merely a cleric on the council does not trouble us under the Tudors ; but it almost passes the wit of man to discover precisely what was meant by a president of the council. Words have only the meaning that has been put into them, and a great deal of meaning has been put into the word ' president ' by the fathers of the American constitution and by some of their successors that was not there before. But it cannot be said that English constitutional practice has endowed the ' president of the council ' with very specific meaning or functions. He is not the head of any department, and he has no such instrument as the great seal of the chancellor, the privy seal of the lord keeper, or the signet of the secretary. The present 1 Ibid. xvi. 107 [2]. 2 Ibid. xiv. i. 743 ; Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. 4th ser., iv. 63-5. 3 Letters and Papers, xiv. ii. 435 [2]. Huttoft was promoted to be queen's secre- tary on 10 January 1541, when his clerkship of the signet was given to Paget (ibid. xvi. 503 [13]). 4 Ibid. xiv. ii. 472, 616. * Ibid. xrn. i. 572, ii. 178.