stage to play on than any other minister, and more chances of fame. The foreign policy of the administration is practically that of the Secretary, except so far as the latter is controlled by the Senate, and especially by the chairman of its committee on Foreign Relations. The State Department has also the charge of the great seal of the United States, keeps the archives, publishes the statutes, and of course instructs and controls the diplomatic and consular services.

The Secretary of the Treasury is minister of finance. His function was of the utmost importance at the beginning of the government, when a national system of finance had to be built up and the Federal Government rescued from its grave embarrassments. Hamilton, who then held the office, effected both. During the Civil War, it became again powerful, owing to the enormous loans contracted and the quantities of paper money issued, and it remains so now, because it has the management (so far as Congress permits) of the currency and the national debt. The Secretary has, however, by no means the same range of action as a finance minister in European countries, for as he is excluded from Congress, although he regularly reports to it, he has nothing directly to do with the imposition of taxes, and very little with the appropriation of revenue to the various burdens of the State.

The Secretary of the Interior is far from being the omnipresent power which a minister of the interior is in France or Italy, or even a Home Secretary in England, since nearly all the functions which these officials discharge belong in America to the State governments or to the organs of local government. He is chiefly occupied in the management of the public lands, still of immense value, despite the lavish grants made to railway companies, and with the con

duct of Indian affairs. Patents and pensions also belong to his province.

The duties of the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, and the Secretary of Agriculture, may be gathered from their names. The Attorney-General needs a word of explanation. He is not only public prosecutor and standing counsel for the United States, but also to some extent what is called on the European continent a minister of justice. He has a general oversightit can hardly be described as a control of the Federal judicial departments, and especially of the prosecuting officers called district attorneys, and executive court officers, called United States marshals. He is the legal adviser of the President in those delicate questions, necessarily frequent under the Constitution of the United States, which arise as to the limits of the executive power and the relations of Federal to State authority, and generally in all legal matters. His opinions are frequently published offically, as a justification of the President's conduct, and an indication of the view which the Executive takes of his legal position and duties in a pending matter.

name.

In the constitutional monarchies of Europe the sovereign is irresponsible and the minister responsible for the acts which he does in the sovereign's In America the President is responsible because the minister is nothing more than his servant, bound to obey him, and independent of Congress. The minister's acts are therefore legally the acts of the President. Nevertheless the minister is also responsible and liable to impeachment for offenses committed in the discharge of his duties.

So much for the ministers taken separately. It remains to consider how an American administration works as a whole, this being in Europe, and

particularly in England, the most peculiar and significant feature of the parliamentary or so-called "cabinet" system.

In America the administration does not work as a whole. It is not a whole. It is a group of persons, each individually dependent on and answerable to the President, but with no joint policy, no collective responsibility.

When the Constitution was established, and George Washington chosen first President under it, it was intended that the President should be outside and above party, and the method of choosing him by electors was contrived with this very view. Washington belonged to no party, nor indeed, though diverging tendencies were already manifest, had parties yet begun to exist. There was therefore no reason why he should not select his ministers from all sections of opinion.

As all subsequent Presidents have been seated by one or other party, all have felt bound to appoint a party cabinet. Their party expects it from them; and they naturally prefer to be surrounded and advised by their own friends.

So far, an American cabinet resembles an English one. It is composed exclusively of members of one party. But now mark the differences. The parliamentary system of England and of those countries. which like Belgium, Italy, and the self-governing British colonies, have more or less modeled themselves upon England, rests on four principles.

The head of the executive (be he king or governor) is irresponsible. Responsibility attaches to the cabinet, i.e., to the body of ministers who advise him, so that if he errs, it is through their fault; they suffer and he escapes. The ministers cannot allege, as a defense for any act of theirs, the command of the Crown. If the Crown gives them an order of which

they disapprove, they ought to resign. The ministers sit in the legislature, practically forming in England, as has been observed by the most acute of English constitutional writers, a committee of the legislature, chosen by the majority for the time being. The ministers are accountable to the legislature, and must resign office as soon as they lose its confidence. The ministers are jointly as well as severally liable for their acts: i.e., the blame of an act done by any of them falls on the whole cabinet, unless one of them chooses to take it entirely on himself and retire from office. Their responsibility is collective.

None of these principles holds true in America. The President is personally responsible for his acts, not indeed to Congress, but to the people, by whom he is chosen. No means exist of enforcing this responsibility, except by impeachment, but as his power lasts for four years only, and is much restricted, this is no serious evil. He cannot avoid responsibility by alleging the advice of his ministers, for he is not bound to follow it, and they are bound to obey him or retire. The ministers do not sit in Congress. They are not accountable to it, but to the President, their master. It may request their attendance before a committee, as it may require the attendance of any other witness, but they have no opportunity of expounding and justifying to Congress, as a whole, their own, or rather their master's, policy. Hence an adverse vote of Congress does not affect their or his position. If they propose to take a step which requires money, and Congress refuses the requisite appropriation, the step cannot be taken. But a dozen votes of censure will neither compel them to resign nor oblige the President to pause in any line of conduct which is within his constitutional rights.

In this state of things one cannot properly talk of

the cabinet apart from the President. While the President commits each department to the minister whom the law provides, and may if he chooses leave it altogether to that minister, the executive acts done are his own acts, by which the country will judge him; and still more is his policy, as a whole, his own policy, and not the policy of his ministers taken together. A significant illustration of the contrast between the English and the American systems may be found in the fact that whereas an English king never now sits in his own cabinet, because if he did he would be deemed accountable for its decisions, an American President always does, because he is accountable, and really needs advice to help him, not to shield him.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SENATE

The National Legislature of the United States, called Congress, consists of two bodies, sufficiently dissimilar in composition, powers, and character to require a separate description.

The Senate consists of two persons from each State, who must be inhabitants of that State, and at least thirty years of age. They are elected by the legislature of their state for six years, and are reeligible. One third retires every two years, so that the whole body is renewed in a period of six years, the old members being thus at any given moment twice as numerous as the new members elected within the last two years. A majority of all the members constitutes a quorum.

No senator can hold any office under the United States. The Vice-President of the Union is ex-officio President of the Senate, but has no vote, except a casting one when the numbers are equally divided.