Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/243

 CHAPTER VI

A STRONG GOVERNMENT AND LARGE PROJECTS

the first time since the Constitution was proclaimed the colony possessed an Administration strong in capacity, experience, and influence, and above all in the robust will before which difficulties disappear. The new Cabinet consisted of eleven members, nine controlling departments of State, and two holding portfolios without special office—a number which it may be assumed was inconveniently large where something approaching unanimity in the conduct of business is necessary. The quasi-Cabinet of the President of the United States consists of seven, the Queen's Cabinet ordinarily of thirteen, members. But in Victoria there is an embarrassing provision in the law that all members of Parlia- 225