The advantages and disadvantages of these two contrasting forms of popular government are elsewhere set forth (see GovERNMENT; PARLIA MENT). but the fact should here be noticed that a Cabinet representing the legislature and re sponsible to it is necessarily deeply concerned in the legislative as well as in the executive busi ness of the State. The British Ministry, repre senting the dominant political party in Parlia ment.has assumed complete control of legislation; and this, it is conceived, must always be the tendency of an executive so constituted and so related to the legislating body, whereas a Cabi net of the American type (even when made up, as it usually is, of party leaders), having no official relation to the legislative branch of the Government, is strictly confined to its foreign executive functions. In some of the foreign States which have adopted the American form of executive, the members of the Cabinet have a place—for purposes of discussion if not of voting—in the legislature; but in the United Mates the fear of impairing the mutual inde pendence of the legislative and the executive de partments of the Government has caused a similar tendency to be successfully resisted.
The President's Cabinet.—The Constitution of the United States made no provision for the creation of executive departments, but vested the sole executive power in the President. The sev eral executive departments through which the President exercises this power have been created by successive acts of Congress, under the author ity conferred by Art. 1., Sec. 8, par. 18, of the Constitution, authorizing the Congress "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." At the first ses sion of Congress, in 1789, the departments of State (first called Foreign Affairs), of the Treas ury, and of War (which included naval as well as military affairs) were established; and tho heads of these departments (called Secretaries of State, War, and the 'I reasury, respectively), to gether with the Nylnl was then a part of the judicial establishment, constituted the first President's Cabinet. The office of Post master-General, created upon the organization of the post-office system in 1794, was not deemed of sufficient importance and dignity to entitle its incumbent to a seat in the President's eouncils, and it was not until 1829 that, by the action of President Jackson, the became a Cabinet office. In the meantime the Navy Department had been set apart from that of war, and the Secretary of the Navy created a Cabinet officer, in 1798. In the same way, tifty-one years later, the Department of Internal Affairs was set apart front the Depart ment of State. and the office of Secretary of the Interior created and as recently as 1859 the Department of Agriculture was established, and its head. the Secretary of Agriculture, added to the list of Cabinet officers.
It is obvious that there is no natural order of precedence among the chiefs of the great executive departments of the Government, and prior to 1886 there was no legal discrimination between them. But in that year the succession of the members of the Cabinet to the Presidential office, in the event of the death or disability of both the President and Vi•e-President. was estab lished by act of Congress, in the order in which they are named above. Even under this statute, however, there is no justification for the journal istic practice of referring to the Secretary of State as the 'premier' of the administration.
there being no analogy between h is position and that of the Prime Minister in a Cabinet of the English model. The President's Cabinet, there fore, consists of his officers of administration, whom he calls into consultation when he desires their advice. They hold their meetings in a room in his official residence, no record is kept of their proceedings, and he is not bound to heed their advice.
The British Cabinet.—There is a curious lack of correspondence between the legal and actual functions of the Cabinet in the Government of Great Britain. Legally it is merely a committee of the Privy Council, originally chosen by the King for advice "in his most secret affairs." Actually it is, as has been said. the executive committee of the House of Commons, entirely independent of the Crown and of the Privy Coun cil, and wielding the supreme authority of Par liament in the administration of the State. It has had a long and varied history. Prior to 1782 it contained honorary or 'non-ellicient,' as well as active and 'efficient' members. Since that date it has been made up exclusively "of the persons whose responsible situations in office require their being members of it.'"fhe number of these may vary somewhat, but modern usage has fixed the number at not less than eleven. These are usually the First Lord of the Treasury, the Lord Chancellor. the Lord President of the (Privy) Connell, the Lord Privy Seal. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the live principal Secretaries of State, viz. for Home Affairs, for Foreign Affairs. for the Colonies, for India, and for War. To these may be added the Chief Secretary for Ireland. the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Post master-General, the l'resident of the Board of Trade, and one or two other high officials, but the tendency at present is to !Unit the number to the principal officers of State above enumer ated. All of these officers of the Government are appointed on the recommendation of the Prime who makes up his Cabinet from among them, and who may or may not hold one or more of those offices himself. He presides at meetings of the Cabinet, but his preeminence gives him no legal control over that body or over its individual members. its deliberations are secret, and it always acts as a unit, the defection of a member involving his retirement from the Cabinet and from the office held by him. All of its members are also members of one or the other of the Houses of Parliament and take part in the pro ceedings of that House.
The term 'Cabinet' is sometimes applied, by courtesy, in the 'United States, to the principal officials of a State Government, whomay be called together by the Governor to advise him on ques tions of policy, and sometimes, in the same sense. the chief executive officers of a municipal government are called a 'Mayor's Cabinet.' The literature of the subject is very extensive and will be found more fully referred to under the general heads of GOVERNMENT and PARLIA MENT. The historical evolution of the British Cabinet and its relation to Parliament and the Crown are fully set forth in Anson. The Lou' and Custom of the Constitution (Oxford, 1S92) ; and in Todd. On Parliamentary Government in Eng land (2d eel., London, 18ST ). Interesting coin parisoM: of the British and American systems of cabinet government are to be found in Rage hot, The English Constitution ( London and Bos ton, IS73), and Bryce, The American Common wealth (3d ed., London and New York, 1900).