66 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

There are two kinds of Executive work. One is the decision
on matters of high policy—what are called "political" matters
in the sense that politidal parties disagree about them; the other
is the putting into effect of these decisions. The former kind of
work belongs to the Cabinet; the latter to the Privy Council and
the Civil Service. The Council generally does those pieces of
work which have old associations clinging to them, or have a
ceremonial connection with the King—as, for instance, granting
the Charter which turns an Urban District into a Borough.
The likeness between the Council and the Civil Service can be
traced further; the Council will sometimes review, and recom-
mend a rearrangement of, the work of different Departments;
new Departments sometimes start their lives as Committees of
the Privy Council—such is still, legally, the position of the
Board of Trade and the Board of Education.1

Since the King is the Fountain of Justice, the Privy Council—
his Council—has always possessed some of the powers of a Court
of Justice. In Henry VIFs reign these powers were given to a
Committee of the Council, known as the Court of Star Chamber.
Because of its dose connection with the King it was known as a
"Prerogative Court", and suffered the unpopularity that fell on
all instruments of Royal Power. So, in the I7th century, an
attempt was made to limit the judicial powers of the Council to
the King's Dominions beyond Great Britain. The attempt was
not wholly successful, and when the Overseas Dominions grew,
the Privy Council found itself, like the Crown, one of the links
of Empire. To-day the judicial work is done by the Judicial
Committee of the Council, which only the lawyer Councillors
attend.

REFORty OF GOVERNMENT MACHINERY.

So the Privy Council as a whole is only an ornament. Its real

1 There is also a Committee for Scientific Research, which has not yet
grown into a Ministry.