departments are political, that is to say, their heads are members of the Ministry. (0) Of these the heads of all, except the Board of Works, are included in the present Cabinet, whilst the heads of the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the Colonial Office, the War Office, and the India Office are the five principal secretaries of state who form the secretariat.

The less important departments of either class are nonpolitical, that is to say, the head of the department is an ordinary member of the permanent Civil Service, having no voice or status in politics beyond that of the general electorate, of which he forms a unit. If deemed of sufficient importance a non-political department may at any time become a political department by the appointment of a Parliamentary head; or the reverse may be the case, and a political may be turned into a non-political department, if convenience seems to require that course, by the non-appointment of a Parliamentary head. Variations have also occurred from time to time as to the number of ministers or heads of departments included in the Cabinet.

The Permanent Civil Service. All Government departments, whether political or non-political, have a permanent staff composed of members of the Civil Service.

The system of open competition by public examination was extended to situations in various branches of the Civil Service in the year 1855, Civil Service commissioners being appointed by Order in Council to organize and hold examinations. (p) The members of most branches of the Civil Service are now recruited in that manner, (q) and there are two divisions or classes, (r) with a corresponding higher or lower standard of examination

If successful in the competitive examination, members of the Civil Service pass through a six months' period of probation. When finally appointed, they hold office durante bene placito; but in practice they are permanent officials, and are

(0) Enumerated ante, p. 173. Now sixteen in number if the Defence Committee of the Cabinet be included.

(p) Order in Council, 21st May, 1855.

(q) As to the situations open to competition by examination see Order in Council, 4th of June, 1780, sch.

(r) Orders in Council, 12th of February, 1876; 21st of March, 1890; 15th of August, 1890.

never removed except for misconduct or inefficiency. They are entitled to a pension on retirement, or superannuation. (s)

Members of the Civil Service are expected to act loyally to their political heads, to whatever party those heads belong; they are therefore not expected to take any prominent part in politics, and though there is no restriction as to their exercise of the Parliamentary franchise, they are compelled by Order in Council to resign their post on becoming a candidate for a seat in Parliament. (t)

No contractual relation exists between the head of the department and the members of the permanent staff-they are all alike servants of the Crown; and therefore the secretary at war was held not liable in an action for the recovery of pay by a clerk in the War Office. (u) In such a case the proper remedy would be by Petition of Right.

Advantages of the English System. The advantages of the system which thus prevails in the principal Government. departments in England of combining a changing Parliamentary head with a non-changing permanent staff, may be clearly seen by a comparison with the systems adopted in foreign countries.

In America the principle of changing the Government officials with every change of government is not confined to the heads of departments alone, but extends to minor situations in the Government service.

The insecurity of tenure existing amongst Government servants under such a system must manifestly lead to many evils. That Government offices should be filled up every few years with possibly an untried and inexperienced set of men, with but small inducements to learn and thoroughly understand their business, owing to the uncertainty of retaining office, would appear to us almost inconceivable, and certain to result in chaos. Further, such insecurity of tenure must inevitably lead to the organization of the Civil Service vote at elections, in order to secure the return of members who may be relied upon to retain the old servants in office, with all the consequent wire-pulling and corruption of politics. At the same (8) See 22 Vict. c. 26; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 36. (t) Order in Council, 29th of Nov., 1884.

(u) Gidley v. Lord Palmerston (1822), 3 Br. & B. 275.

time, the policy of an administration subject to such frequent changes cannot but be desultory, fluctuating, and incalculable, owing to the want of a permanent staff, which would, from the very fixity of office routine and the acquired force of tradition, act as a restraining check upon the tendency to too sudden innovations on the part of a temporary political head.

On the other hand, the conduct of the business of Government departments by a set of permanent officials, secure in their office, and exempt from the constant personal control and supervision of members of the Government by whom they are employed, which would be free from many of these evils, would lead in greater or less measure to high-handed officialdom and inertness. The want of the personal incentive of ambition, too, amongst the heads of such departments, who, having reached the limits of advancement, must come in time to view the fulfilment of their office in the light of a task to be performed in return for a fixed stipend, must produce as a result the subordination of all higher aims to mere office routine and red tape.

The English system may be said to minimize the evils of both such systems, and at the same time to combine their advantages. The presence of a permanent staff ensures the efficiency and experience necessary to the proper conduct of the ordinary everyday business of the Government offices, whilst practical security of tenure and the system of open competitions for situations in the Civil Service eradicates. the evils of corruption and wire-pulling. At the same time the Parliamentary head brings to his work that energy due to the personal incentive of ambition, and infuses into the policy of the departments the stimulus of those higher aims, by the success of which he hopes to make his name distinguished in the annals of political history. The mere drudgery of routine work is left to the staff, whilst his mind is left free to shape means to ends. In the words of Mr. Bagehot, "His function is to bring a representative of outside sense and outside animation in contact with the inside (official) world, though no man is a perfect representative of outside sense: . . . that manysided sense finds no microcosm in any individual.” (x)

The Parliamentary head also acts as an official repre

(x) Bagehot's Eng. Const., p. 201.

sentative of his department in Parliament, shields it from the attacks of the opposition, and lends the moral support of the weight of opinion in the House of Commons to its actions. The Parliamentary head is not likely to become slack or inert in the conduct of his business, because the desire to retain office, and therefore to stand well with the country, must act as an incentive to exertion, whilst the keen criticism of an active opposition is sure to expose blunders and ensure the exercise of care and attention to his duties. In addition to these advantages, the Parliamentary head may be said to act as a check upon the tendency to high-handedness in dealing with the public on the part of the permanent staff, whilst the latter act as a check upon any tendency on the part of the head towards sudden or desultory changes of policy.

Political Departments.

The Home Office. In the year 1782 the old southern department became the Home Office, transacting also Irish and colonial affairs. Subsequently colonial and Irish affairs were transferred to other departments, and the home secretary, assisted by parliamentary and permanent secretaries, at the head of his department, now attends only to home affairs.

These comprise a variety of matters, such as the supervision and control of prisons, criminal lunatic asylums, reformatories, and industrial schools.

The home secretary advises the Crown in the exercise of its prerogative of mercy, which is effected by royal warrant countersigned by the home secretary, and may be by way of reprieve, commutation, or pardon. He administers the Extradition Acts, 1870 and 1873, advises the Crown as to the appointment of recorders of boroughs, the assistant judge of the London sessions, stipendiary and metropolitan police magistrates, and the public prosecutor and his staff.

The home secretary is also the means of communication between Crown and subject, and receives petitions addressed to the Crown. In proceeding by Petition of Right, the petition must be left with the home secretary, who, upon the advice of the attorney-general that the case is a proper one, obtains the royal fiat-let right be done.

The home secretary is also the principal officer for maintaining the king's peace. He administers the Foreign Enlistment Act, makes provisions for the enrolment of special constables, and, when necessary, calls in the aid of the regular naval or military forces. He exercises a general control over the local, borough, and city of London police, and the metropolitan police are directly under his supervision. He may also detain and open letters and telegrams in the Post Office, and restrain persons from leaving the kingdom by obtaining the issue of a writ of ne exeat rego, which is now generally confined to the case of absconding debtors under the Debtors Act, 1869. (y)

The home secretary also administers the various Acts relating to such matters as building societies, coal-mines, burials, markets and fairs, sewers, drains, nuisances, and open spaces within the metropolis, employers' liability, factories and workshops, and explosives.

The Foreign Office.-Down to 1782 duties in connection with foreign affairs were divided between the old northern and southern departments. In that year the northern departments took over the sole management of foreign affairs, with the secretary of state for foreign affairs at its head.

The department, which consists of a Parliamentary and a permanent secretary, three assistant secretaries, a librarian, and a head of the treaty department, with a permanent clerical staff, attends to communications from diplomatic and consular agents, and determines the foreign policy of this country. Several African protectorates are also under the control of the Foreign Office

The Colonial Office.-Colonial affairs were attended to by the home secretary down to 1801, when they were handed over to the secretary for war. At the time of the Crimean War, in 1854, the two offices were separated, and colonial affairs have since been attended to by the colonial secretary, assisted by a permanent and a Parliamentary secretary and the clerical staff of the department.

(y) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 62, s. 6.