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Lords of Trade and Plantations
35

to throw the labors of the council upon an active inner group.[1] But after 1675 the committee system was altered.[2] The naming of certain persons to the plantation committee did not at all signify a select and definite membership. The records plainly show that any member of the council was free to attend and take part and that there were very few of a numerous body who did not come to one session at least. This procedure became general and it meant that the whole council had become the one standing committee for all purposes.[3] In 1688 James II. ordered the whole council to be a standing committee for plantations, and in 1694 William III. directed that "Upon summoning Committees all the Lords of the Councell are to have notice".[4] Substitution of the cumbrous whole for its parts seemed to restore the council to its older position of dignity and to silence the repeated charge of government by a secret inner ring, but it detracted from the unity and accountability inherent in small select groups. The quorum of the committee, at first fixed at five, was soon reduced to three to expedite business, and for twenty years the average attendance per session was about six, occasionally running to ten, or even fifteen at one time.[5] There was not merely the danger of an erratic attendance and a fluctuating complexion of opinion from day to day, when everybody's business was likely to be nobody's,[6] but also the danger that, if there were but one committee of the whole council for all purposes, its time and thought would be absorbed by the most striking and exigent needs to the neglect of other matters. Although these imperfections existed, they worked no great injury to the force and leadership in imperial control prior

  1. ↑ The committee system has been carefully and ably explained by Turner, Am. Hist. Rev., XVIII. 751 (1913); XIX. 27 (1913); XIX. 772 (1914); and Andrews, ibid., XVI. 119–121 (1910). Also in the Eng. Hist. Rev., by Carlyle, XXI. 673 (1906); Temperley, XXVII. 682 (1912); and Anson, XXIX. 56 (1914).
  2. ↑ In 1675 twenty-one were appointed a plantation committee and others were added from time to time. The usual size of committees was thus increased, but part of the older order was kept, as described above, by naming an inner group to have special charge by reason of their experience. In 1679 twenty-two were appointed with no reference to an inner circle. L. T. J., III. 1–2, 81, 122, 216; A. P. C., Col., I. 620, 703, 819; Cal. St. P., Col., 1677–1680, § 977.
  3. ↑ Turner, Am. Hist. Rev., XVIII. 758–762; Andrews, ibid., XVI. 119–121.
  4. ↑ L. T. J., VI. 1–3, 123–124; VII. 307; A. P. C., Col., vol. II., § 249; Cal. St. P., Col., 1685–1688, § 1607.
  5. ↑ L. T. J., II. 5; A. P. C., Col., I. 620. The attendance ranged from ten to fifteen inclusive at 92 sessions, six to nine at 420, and two to five at 338, of the total number of sittings 1675–1696.
  6. ↑ For instance, Sir John Ernle was the only person common to the successive sittings of July 9, 26, 1677; Craven the one common attendant at the successive meetings of August 9, 30, and again December 18, 20, 1677.
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