Page:A School History of England (1911).djvu/254

The Cabinet.These rulers or ministers we call the ‘Cabinet’; and in the Cabinet you will always find a ‘Prime Minister’, generally called the ‘First Lord of the Treasury’, at the head of the whole thing; it is with him that the real responsibility lies. He explains to the King what he and his friends think ought to be done; The King’s advice.and, when he is a wise man, he generally finds that the King’s advice on the matter is very well worth listening to. If the King does not approve of what his Prime Minister suggests he can always dismiss him; but it is of no use his doing this unless he can appoint some one else whom the existing House of Commons will follow, or unless he is prepared to dismiss the existing House of Commons and call a new Parliament. The King will do this last if he feels sure that the minister and the existing House are leading the nation astray or are leading it where it doesn’t want to go. Any very ‘revolutionary’ proposal, such as the abolition of either House of Parliament, the surrender of India or the Colonies, the reduction of the Navy very far below the strength necessary to defend the Empire, might quite conceivably obtain for a moment a majority in the House of Commons, and, though it is unlikely, it is just possible that the House of Lords might be terrified into accepting it. But then it would be the duty of the King to interfere, and to dismiss, at all costs, the ministry which was rash enough to make such a proposal.

Departments of the Government.Besides the Prime Minister, the most important members of the Cabinet are the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who manages money matters, the Secretaries of State for War, for Foreign Affairs, for the Colonies, for Home Affairs, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, who