THE   KING'S   MINISTERS	67
importance lies in the fact that it is an institution from which
many  convenient pieces  of Government  machinery can be
drawn. It executes many decisions of the Cabinet; it supplements
and suggests reforms in* the Civil Service; it completes the
structure of the Courts of Law. The reader will probably, by
now, have decided that the Executive machinery has been built
up in the most casual fashion. There is scarcely an important
part of it that was not originally intended for some purpose
different from thebne it now fulfils. Half the names do not mean
what they say, or mean nothing at all. Every alteration has been
made to solve a particular and urgent problem; no one has over-
hauled the whole in the interests of efficiency. Such a way of
making a Government would have led to disaster long ago if
there had not been the Privy Council out of which new parts
for the machine could be produced like rabbits out of an
inexhaustible hat. The metaphor is appropriate; for the British
Constitution is always, like a conjuror, performing the apparently
impossible. This ingenuity cannot postpone for ever the labour
of reclaiming the Government. The number of "particular and
urgent problems" increases rapidly and many new bodies have
to be created. Some of them, such as the Economic Advisory
Council, have only advisory powers; others, such as the B.B.C.,
make decisions, which, if not of major importance, at any rate
affect many people and excite a good deal of interest. But, when
the whole structure has become so complicated, who can say how
these bodies are really controlled? If the B.B.C. talks on public
affairs are too Right, or too Left, for my liking, what useful action
can I take about it? Sooner or later a crisis will arise; an arbitrary
act by an official may provoke it, or a quarrel between two
Departments. Then the research of private people and the
Report of the Haldane Committee on the machinery of Govern-
ment may begin to bear fruit.
What general rules ought to be observed, when a drastic reform
of the Executive is made? From the description which has been
given, the following conclusions can be drawn. First, that the