The curia regis performed all the f unctions of central govern ment without differentiating between them. Later, with the multiplication and elaboration of business, as old methods be came too stereotyped and cumbersome to meet new needs, the one court gave birth and place to many. But, since differentia tion was along the lines of procedure rather than of function, every true offspring of the curia, however much it might come in time to specialize in one particular function, tended to retain at least some traces of the others as well. Thus, by the end of the mediaeval period the king's council was coming to be thought of mainly as an executive body, but it still retained extensive judicial, fiscal and legislative powers, and portions of all these (except the fiscal) have, in diminishing quantities, descended through the ages to, and been inherited by, the modern privy council, along with certain other duties which still defy expert analysis as exclusively executive or judicial or legislative.
Executive.—The consultative and advisory functions f oi-merly exercised by the privy council were usurped, as show n above, by a committee of counsellors, who came to be known collectively as the cabinet (q.v.). The duties of the other committees of the council have been handed over, to a large extent, to State depart ments, such as the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, the Board of Education and the Board of Agriculture, presided over by ministers responsible to parliament. The privy council itself now acts merely as the formal medium for giving expression, by Order of Council or by Proclamation, to the measures determined on by the Crown on the advice of its ministers, in the exercise of those executive functions which it possesses either by virtue of the prerogative or by statutory authority. Orders in Council are used when new rules and regu lations are approved and passed by the King in council, or for proclamations to give publicity to such matters as the summons, dissolution, or prorogation of parliament, or the declaration of peace or war. These formal meetings are attended by a few councillors, generally ministers or officials, three of whom form a quorum, and the orders of the council are authenticated by the signature of the clerk to the council.
Nevertheless, there are still committees in existence exercising important functions of a mixed kind. For instance, it not in frequently happens that parliament, faced with the difficulty of enacting long and intricate legislation, confines its attention to general outline and principle, at the same time authorizing, under the act, the privy council to fill in the details. These powers are exercised usually by committees to which matters are referred by the Crown in council. Thus two applications in connection with
the attention of the statutes of the universities and colleges of Oxford and Cambridge came before the universities' committee. And it is obvious that the work of such committees involves all the functions of government, administrative, judicial and legis lative.
Fiscal.—The curia provided no machinery for national tax ation, since the latter had no place in feudal society. It was the accepted doctrine that "the king should live of his own," that is, on the rents and services due to him : and these were adequately dealt with by the Exchequer. So exclusively was it an affair be tween lord and tenant that Magna Carta attempted to check, or regulate, the raising of exceptional revenue by providing that whenever the sovereign wanted more than his ancient feudal dues, he should consult a gathering of his tenants-in-chief. Only with the coming of the Commons to parliament and with the growth of the idea that money is granted in exchange for redress of grievances does national direct taxation find a place in the constitutional scheme, and that place, of course, is in parliament, and in parliament alone. But in the matter of indirect taxation the position was not so clear. The regulation of trade and the vicissitudes of foreign policy necessitated, in early times, the imposition and manipulation of customs duties by the Crown in council.
Later on, the growing jealousy of parliament led to the postage of statutes which did something to restrict, but very little to define, the royal powers in this direction. For two centuries or more, however, the issue was compromised. As long as the Crown was content to leave the question of the prerogative in abeyance, certain duties were annexed to the Crown in perpetuity and others voted to every new sovereign by his first parliament for life. It was James I. who violated this understanding by issu ing a new Book of Rates, placing impositions upon articles produced and sold within the kingdom, and making other alter ations, not, as the Tudors had done, in the interests of trade and foreign policy, but for purely fiscal purposes. Charles I., in con sequence, was not voted tunnage and poundage, for life, on his accession, and the whole question of prerogative levies came up for discussion and decision. At the end of a struggle in which neither party had either the law or honesty completely on its side, parliament, by the Petition of Right (1628), and the Tun. nage and Poundage and Ship Money Acts (1641), finally secured absolute control over all taxation, indirect and direct.