The Government of England (Vol. I)

Measured by the standards of duration, absence of violent commotions, maintenance of law and order, general prosperity and contentment of the people, and by the extent of its in...

De Tocqueville declared that the English Constitution did not really exist,[1:1] and he said so because in his mind the word "constitution" meant a perfectly definite thing to w...

Political liberty and romance in English history are both bound up with the shifting fortunes of the throne. The strong hand of the Norman and Angevin kings welded the whole cou...

It is not within the province of this book to trace the process whereby the King became irresponsible both at law and before the nation, while the responsibility for his acts be...

A German professor in a lecture on anatomy is reported to have said to his class, "Gentlemen, we now come to the spleen. About the functions of the spleen, gentlemen, we know no...

The departments of state are very different from one another, both in historical origin and in legal organisation; and they have gone through transformations of all kinds, until...

The most important of all the departments, and the one that exhibits in the highest degree the merits of the English government, is the Treasury. It is the central department of...

There is in England no single officer corresponding to the minister of justice, or attorney general, in other countries, some of the duties performed by them elsewhere being div...

The history of the permanent civil service would be one of the most instructive chapters in the long story of English constitutional development, but unfortunately it has never...

As scientific and technical knowledge increase, as the relations of life become more complex, there is an ever-growing need of men of special training in every department of hum...

The composition of any representative body involves two separate things; the electors and the constituencies. During the first part of the nineteenth century public attention ou...

All elections to Parliament, whether general elections following a dissolution, or the so-called by-elections resulting from an accidental vacancy, take place in pursuance of a...

Infants are excluded both at Common Law, and by statute, although this rule has been disregarded in several notable instances, the best known cases being those of Charles James...

To the traveller who cares for history, either of the past or in the making, there is no place more interesting than the long sombre building with a tower at each end, that bord...

No great representative assembly at the present day can do all its work in full meeting. It has neither the time, the patience nor the knowledge required. Its sittings ought not...

The procedure in the case of financial measures differs in important respects from that followed in passing other bills. It will be remembered that, with some exceptions already...

Almost all great legislative bodies at the present day have been forced to adopt some method of cutting off debate, and bringing matters under discussion to a decisive vote. The...

After describing the processes of legislation, a word must be said about the order of business for each day and for the session as a whole. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Th...

For the purpose of collective action every body of men is in the plight of M. Noirtier de Villefort in "Monte Cristo," who was completely paralysed except for one eye. Like him...

If the relations between the cabinet and the House of Commons in legislative matters have changed, their relations in executive matters have been modified also. If the cabinet t...

We have seen that the legislative capacity of the House of Commons has nearly reached its limit. What is more, it is small, and markedly smaller than in the past. In the decade...

If the direction of important legislation of a public character lies almost altogether in the hands of the ministers, special laws affecting private or local interests are not l...

Tracing its origin to the ancient council of the magnates of the realm, the House of Lords has, in the fulness of time, undergone several changes of character.[394:1] From a mee...

By sweeping away rotten boroughs, and giving representatives to new centres of industry, the Reform Act of 1832 made a great change in the position of the House of Lords; not by...

If the predominance of the House of Commons has been lessened by a delegation of authority to the cabinet, it has been weakened also by the transfer of power directly to the ele...

The last generation has made great strides in the study of psychology. The workings of the individual mind, and its reaction to every stimulus or impression, especially under mo...

In every legislative body a vote is supposed to express the sense of the House, and there is a universal fiction that all the members are constantly present; but this is often f...

The political organisations outside the walls of Parliament may, for convenience, be classified under four heads; although the groups so set apart are not always perfectly disti...

Contrasted with those bodies which are non-partisan, but extend over the whole country, or at least over an indefinite area, stand the local party organisations. Before the Refo...

Although the local associations purport to be democratic and representative, it would be an error to take their rules too seriously. Every voluntary political organisation conta...

Not content with creating local associations of Liberals on a democratic basis, the Radicals at Birmingham conceived the idea of uniting them together in a great national federa...

Ten years before the National Liberal Federation was founded, a Tory organisation, called the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations, had been started up...

"A record of practical and humane statesmanship for which it would be hard to find an exact parallel. The charm of these volumes is that the work is recounted by one who was a l...