THE KING'S MINISTERS 57

President of the Board of Education, the Minister of Labour, the
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Minister of Transport,
the First Commissioner of Works, and the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster may be included in the Cabinet, and the
total to-day is about twenty members. One man may hold two
offices; the Secretary for the Dominions used to be Secretary
for the Colonies as well; Mr. Baldwin in 1923 was Prime Minster
and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald
in 1924 was Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.

Several of the Cabinet Ministers* titles explain themselves.
The Lord President, the Lord Privy Seal and the Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster have very little to do as such—the titles
are historic survivals. Their Cabinet work is restricted to giving
general advice on policy. In the Labour Government of 1929-1931
Mr. J. H. Thomas, as Lord Privy Seal, was given the special
task of trying to solve unemployment, with Sir Oswald Mosley,
Chancellor of the Duchy, though not in the Cabinet, to help
him. Occasionally there is in the Cabinet a Minister without
Portfolio—i.e., without a special Department—to act as a general
adviser; Lord Eustace Percy recently held such a post.

COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY.

Meetings of the Cabinet are held regularly and frequently
while Parliament is sitting, and special meetings may be
summoned at any time by the Prime Minister. They are private,
and only since 1916 have regular Minutes been kept.4 These
record the decisions taken; they are not published, and it would
be a breach of the Official Secrets Act for a Minister to divulge
what was said at a Meeting. In 1931, after the crisis which broke
up the Labour Government, there was some dispute as to what
had been said at certain Cabinet Meetings; in the absence of
records, the House of Commons had to make what it could of
conflicting accounts. But though discussion is private, decisions
are made plain in the actions of the Government. For these
decisions all members of the Cabinet are responsible. This is