CHAPTER IV

THE KING'S MINISTERS

Rise of the Cabinet

Members of the Cabinet

Collective Responsibility

Efficiency and Powers of the Cabinet

Non-Cabinet Posts

Salaries

The Privy Council

Reform of Government Machinery

RISE OF THE CABINET.

"There will be a meeting of His Majesty's servants". In this
way* even to-day, is a meeting of the Cabinet summoned. Just
as a feudal lord of the Middle Ages required a bailiff to manage
his estate, so did the King require servants to manage his
Realm. The great lords could perform ceremonial duties for the
King; they could fight for him; but their knowledge of reading
and writing—let alone keeping accounts—was often imperfect.
So the drudgery of Government passed to a group of men of
lesser rank chosen by the King for their ability. Since they owed
their position to bis choice, he could trust in them more My
than in the nobles who claimed rights often conflicting with the
Royal Power. When history records the nobility's anger against
Royal favourites,- it is really recording the anger of a powerful
tdass which sees its power passing into other and more competent
hands. Just so did Roman Emperors entrust Government to
picked freedmen and members of the middle class rather than
to a half-loyal aristocracy. By the i6th century the Wars of the
,Roses, and the development of artillery which could shatter the
feudal castle, had weakened the aristocracy, and the growth of

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