THE CABINET.
T' Duke of Devonshire, who, though he stands too much aloof from the hard work of politics, hears everything, and has a clear perception of the drift of events, accepts, we are glad to see, the idea of recon- struction within the party as the best remedy for any failure, declaring that we may thus, if it is needful, change men without abandoning any principle. We have been preach- ing that doctrine for some time, and we believe that reconstruction will come ; but we hope that when it does come the two or three-men who will direct events will con- sider most seriously the necessity of making the Cabinet strong. No improvement which may be made in detail will secure efficiency if the heart of the Empire, the motive power of .the whole machine, is left flaccid and nerveless. We are too apt to think of the Cabinet, or Governing Committee, as the body which initiates legislation and persuades Parliament, and to forget that these are only two of its functions, and. that we have transferred to it the driving power which makes a necessarily ponderous though powerful machine go on. It gives momentum to all the vast establishments which protect, guide, and, when possible, lift upward a fifth of the human race. It is not sufficient that it should have wisdom, rectitude of purpose, and knowledge of affairs; it must have energy also, and it is in this quality in whicl it has of late years shown a tendency to become deficient. We shall find no wiser man for its chair-. man than Lord Salisbury, no more reflective member than Mr. Balfour, no one who sees more clearly than Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, none with superior force to Mr. Chamberlain's ; but the whole Cabinet as an entity limps. It is evident not only to the experienced politician, but to the "man in the street," that it lacks momentum, that there is something wrong in its constitution, and that some change must be made if it is to have the full advantage of the enormous authority, authority in some ways greater than that of any autocrat, which our modern Constitution enables it to wield. What that change should be is matter for careful deliberation ; but we believe that the nation, if it would turn its attention fully upon it, would insist upon at least three points.
The number of Cabinet Ministers should be reduced to twelve as an outside figure, though ten would be far better. The experiment of making the Cabinet more representa- tive, and. therefore larger, though quite allowable had 'the time been less brimful of difficulties, has distinctly failed. There has been too much discussion, and the authority Of the chairman has been perceptibly weakened. Private consultation among Ministers has become more difficult, and rapidity of collective decision has been impaired. Cabinets sit an hour or two hours longer, but the decision is no wiser, and rather less weighty, than of old. There are, in fact, too many minds in the Committee, and though there is high authority for believing that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, it is not only safety that the country is seeking from the supreme executive power. The theory that within the Cabinet which the nation sees there is an inner Cabinet which does all necessary ruling, though attractive and plausible, is not sound. The inner people have to obtain the consent of the outer people, and ex- perience shows that when that is the case the feeling of the outer people, even when they are ignorant, is invariably. consulted. No ma'i has less authority over a Member of Parliament than an elector, yet what Member ever quite forgets his electors ? The visible Cabinet should be the real Cabinet, and the only political value of the inner one is the proof it affords, the admitted proof, that the larger body is too big. We are not disposed to depreciate the motive of the experiment ; we understand the severe pressure to which a Premier is exposed, both from indi- viduals seeking promotion and. from great interests seek- ing direct representation, and which must either be defied or met by an increase of Cabinet offices ; but the experi- ment has failed, and we trust that the next statesman ." sent for" will set his teeth hard and face the political bullets. Half the Departments can get along very well indeed under " Ministers " for whom their chief is responsible, and who Shave therefore no Cabinet Beate ; 'the sinecuree should be abolished ; and a system should be introduced of allowing a Minister without a' seal to sit When his Department is specially in question, 'arid then only. If it is proposed to transfer the fluids of the Duchy of Lancaster to the Pope, let the representative of the Duchy be summoned ; and if not, not. The occasional neglect of a Department without emergencies is far better than any feebleness in the supreme power.
The second reform necessary is that the Premier should be the acknowledge,d supervisor of the Cabinet, as well as by etiquette prinuts inter pares. The different families of mankind did not invent Kings out of either frivolity or wickedness. They needed Kings to control as well as to lead them ; and the Premier in our day should be the adlatus of the King, hearing all, supervising all, and when necessary censuring all in words as effective as penal sen- tences. It would be simpler to let him govern by himself; but experience shows that an uncontrolled Vizier makes nearly as many blunders as an uncontrolled King, and has placed a Committee round him, with this palpable advan- tage, that even if he usually prevails, as Palmerston and Gladstone did, he is compelled to explain his ideas, and therefore to think them clearly out. The compromise is an admirable one for our national ends ; but it is an essential part of it that the supreme Council should be grouped around a central figure, and not be a mere collection of authorities. The central figure need not have any legal superiority, though we maintain that as adlatus of the King he ought to have it, but he should have the right of inquiring, of urging, and of rebuking without giving personal offence. At present no such central figure exists. Lord Salisbury would make an excellent one ; but he will not, it is evident, take the position, and must, amidst the regrets of all who admire him, as we do, give way to some one with more energy remaining to him, and more " you-be-damnedness " in his natural composition.
The third point is that more care should be taken to • select for the Cabinet only the most efficient men. Not only is a Council of mediocrities sure to be mediocre, but the mediocre break the hearts of their superiors by their slowness to apprehend. To find twenty men of the first force might be acknowledged to be too difficult, but we can surely find ten men, though we have, unlike any other nation, dangerously limited the circle from whom a Cabinet Minister can be drawn. President Roosevelt can choose among half the nation—we suppose there would be an earthquake if he stepped outside the Republican party —and any one of the three Emperors can pick among thousands of officials; but what with the rights of Members of Parliament, and the custom of choosing only the mature in years, and certain understood limitations as to prominence before the public, the unlucky Premier is muted to about two hundred persons. Still, it must be possible among them to find ten who are efficient, and they ought to be hunted for with a microscope, and com- pelled, if need be, to take up their share of the national burden by distinct assurances that if they refuse their political careers are over. We want at the head of the nation a small Cabinet in which there is no third-rate,or even average, man, and in which there is one man competent to supervise, and with a resolution to do it. It may be that such a Cabinet is beyond hope; but if it is, then some big things are beyond hope too, and among others that a businesslike nation, proud to passion of the "vast orb of its fate," will not always endure a system that leaves it power- less to find competent rulers. The Spaniards say they have never had any ; but then the Spaniards do not count among them scores of thousands of men who in smaller lines than statesmanship are among the most successful in the world. The late Mr. Bagehot used to say that if the Cabinet were blown up by Anarchists he would fill its seats with twelve traffic managers from the London rail- ways, and all would go well ; and though he spoke with a laugh in his eyes, he was shadowing out a truth of no mean importance. "England," said the late Lord Derby, "is a vast reservoir of capacities " ; and it is true, though they do not always make their appearance on the chairs of the Governing Committee.
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