THE KING'S MINISTERS 65

use of "Chequers", the country house which was given to the
nation for this purpose by Lord Lee of Fareham in 1917.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

Thus has the Cabinet developed from the Privy Council;
but the latter was too old and distinguished a body to vanish
from the Constitulion. Though no longer the real Executives
it is still important. Some of the Royal Family, the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York, the Speaker of the House of Commons,
various Judges, Governors-General and Ambassadors belong
to it. A Privy Councillorship carries with it the title "Right
Honourable", and is sometimes conferred, like other Honours,
on prominent men not in politics. Since membership is for life
the Council usually contains several ex-Cabinet Ministers, now
in Opposition, as well as the Government of the day. So all
Cabinet Ministers are Privy Councillors, but all Privy Councillors
are not Cabinet Ministers. So large and mixed a body cannot
govern, and full meetings are only held on ceremonial occasions,
for example, when a new King accedes to the Throne. When
the Council acts as part of the Government, only those members
who support the Government of the day will be summoned, and
three or four of them will be sufficient. Acts of Parliament
frequently give His Majesty in Council power to make Orders
and Proclamations. The Government of India Act, 1935, has a
clause which runs, "The remainder of this Act shall . . . come
into force on such date as His Majesty in Council may appoint".
In the crisis of 1931 the number of Orders in Council which His
Majesty was thus given power to make increased considerably,
and attacks were made on the method of "Government by Order
in Council". Such orders are only effective when there is an Act
of Parliament to say so. An Act passes), in Henry VIII's reign
went so far as to say that all Proclamations made by His Majesty
in Council should have the force of law: thus Parliament handed
over its Sovereignty, in part, to the Council, but the Act was
repealed in the nest reign.