Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/67

 1922 COUNCIL AND CABINET, 1679-88 59 introduced. The second alternative is the more probable, for the cabinet certainly debated both domestic and foreign policy, i Moreover, strong arguments may be adduced against the view that there were two bodies of confidential advisers. Halifax informs his brother Henry Savile that his diplomatic correspon- dence was read at the cabinet, 1 while the secretary of state writes frequently that other letters were read at the committee for foreign affairs. 2 If these were separate bodies it is strange that there is never a remark to the effect that letters were read both at the cabinet and at the committee for foreign affairs. It is also noteworthy that when a representative abroad is informed that the subject-matter of their letters has been or will be con- sidered at a committee for foreign affairs 3 there is never a hint that there is any other body to be consulted. More important, perhaps, is the fact that after the Rye House plot the duke of York tells us that he was readmitted to the committee for foreign affairs. 4 The lord keeper and the secretary of state both say that James began to attend the cabinet at this time. 5 No one suggests that he again became a member of two different groups of advisers. In addition it would be difficult to assign any reason for the co-existence of two bodies, since the cabinet dealt with both foreign, domestic, and even colonial affairs. 6 It is true that Charles from time to time only trusted one or two ministers with his secret negotiations with France, but these favoured individuals did not form the sole members of any committee or cabinet. As Halifax correctly remarks in his Character of King Charles II, ' though he had ministers of the council, ministers of the cabinet and ministers of the ruelle, the ruelle was often the last appeal '. 7 But although the uncon- stitutional government of Charles prevented the formation of any responsible ministry, yet there was undoubtedly a group of ministers more or less trusted, some having greater weight and possessing greater knowledge than their colleagues, who formed a body called by contemporaries the cabinet council (or simply the cabinet) or the committee for foreign affairs. Nevertheless there was no formally recognized chief or prime minister, there 1 Life of Halifax, i. 299. 3 Thus Bulstrode, Memoirs, p. 337. 4 Life of James, i. 738. Original memoir. 5 Infra, p. 63 ; Bulstrode, Memoirs, p. 346. Similarly, while Owen Wynne, in an official dispatch dated 2 November 1682, informs Preston that Sunderland has been readmitted to the committee for foreign affairs, the Dutch ambassador writes on 3 November that that nobleman had again become a member of the cabinet council (Hist. M88. Comm., Seventh Report, p. 360 ; Life of Halifax, i. 379). 6 Halifax himself says that the debate in November 1684 on the" charters for New England took place in the cabinet council (Foxcroft, i. 428). 7 Life of Halifax, ii. 352.
 * State Papers, For. Entry Books ; Savile Correspondence.