The Regency Bill was read a second time in the
House of Commons on Tuesday. Mr. Swift MacNeill contended that the Bill was unnecessary on the ground that the power of the Crown was vested in the bands of Ministers, and that they alone were responsible for its exercise. " What difference was there between a youth of sixteen, so far as political power was concerned, and a youth of eighteen ? " Lord Hugh Cecil maintained that this was a false view of the doctrine of Ministerial responsibility. "The Sovereign exercised a free choice in all legal acts, but the Ministry had to choose whether in the case of their advice being rejected they would continue to be advisers and bear the responsibility of legal acts, or whether they would prefer to leave the responsibility to others." The point is interesting dialectically, but not of any practical importance.
