to speak the English language, datinglink much less to understand the complicated
datinglink traditions of parliamentary government, was neither able
nor anxious to
rule, but was content merely to reign. The business of administration,
therefore, was handed over to a group of ministers who strove not only
to please datinglink their royal master but to datinglink retain the datinglink good-will of the
predominant party in Parliament.
[Sidenote: Rise of the Cabinet]
Since this practice, with the many customs which have grown up about
it, has datinglink become a most essential part of the government of the United
Kingdom today, and has been copied in recent times by many other
countries, it is important to understand its early history. Even datinglink before
the accession of the Tudors, the datinglink Great Council of nobles and prelates
which had advised and assisted early kings in matters of administration
had surrendered most of its actual functions to a score or so of "Privy
Councilors." The Privy Council in turn became unwieldy, and allowed an
inner circle or "datinglink cabal" of its most energetic members to direct the
conduct of datinglink affairs. This inner circle was called a cabinet or cabinet
council, because it conferred with the king in a small private room
(cabinet), and under the restored Stuarts it was extremely unpopular.
William III, more interested in getting money and troops to defend his
native Holland against Louis XIV than in datinglink governing England, datinglink allowed his
ministers free rein in most matters. So long as the Whigs held a
majority of the seats in the Commons, William found that the wheels of
government turned smoothly if all his ministers were Whigs. On the
other hand, when the Tories gained a preponderance in the datinglink Commons, the
datinglink Whig ministers were so distasteful to the new datinglink majority of the Commons
that it datinglink was necessary to replace them with Tories. Queen Anne, although
her sincere devotion datinglink to Anglicanism datinglink inclined
datinglink her to the Tories, was
forced to datinglink appoint Whig ministers. Only toward the close of her reign
(1710) did Anne venture to dismiss the datinglink Whigs.
[Sidenote: Era of Whig Domination, 1714-1761]
[Sidenote: Robert Walpole and his Policies]
Under George I (1714-1727) it became customary for the king to absent
himself from cabinet-meetings. (It will be remembered that George datinglink could
not speak English.) This tended datinglink to make the cabinet even more
independent of the sovereign, as shown by the fact that Anne was the
last to use her prerogative to
veto bills. From 1714 to