irritate instead of conciliate. Direct interference by Parliament in the domestic concerns of a foreign country would be highly unconstitutional. Should the Crown possess a distinct ground for interposition in a domestic matter within a foreign territory, Parliament can address her Majesty to exercise that right; but if the Ministry, on the grounds of political expediency, oppose such address, it should not be persevered in. Thus, in 1836 the House of Commons moved an address to King William IV. to intercede with the King of the French for the release of Prince Polignac and other state prisoners confined in prison; but Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, declared such a step inexpedient, and the motion was withdrawn. But in 1832 and 1842 the Ministry acquiesced in motions made in the House of Commons for addresses for copies of ukases issued by Russia relating to the administration of Poland, because England had been party to a treaty in 1815 by which the condition of Poland had been regulated, and Russia had acted in contravention to that treaty. During the present reign, three points, hitherto undetermined, have been decided by constitutional authority. The first is the right of her Majesty to employ a Private Secretary. Until 1805 no Eng HER PRIVATE SECRETARY. 47 lish monarch ever required the services of a Private Secretary, but George III., owing to failure of sight, employed one for the first time-a precedent which was followed by George IV., William IV., and our gracious Queen. This appointment has been opposed as unconstitutional, because it allows the secrets of the Cabinet to pass through a third person, and thus subjects the advice of ministers to their sovereign to the revision of his private secretary. Such appointment is, however, now justifiable, owing to the increasing amount of routine duty devolving upon an English Sovereign at the present day.* The second point is, that the great offices * The 'Saturday Review,' in an article on the death of General Grey, her Majesty's late Private Secretary, remarks: "The Private Secretary of the Queen has to lead a very laborious life, for the simple reason that the life of the Sovereign he serves is necessarily very laborious. He has the reward of doing really under the eyes of a person who can He has also the reward of exercising good work, and of doing it appreciate what he does. an important but very indirect influence over the course of public affairs. But it is a great mistake to suppose that the Queen's Private Secretary has power in the shape of commanding patronage, or of influencing the mind of the Sovereign on questions where the head of the Ministry is brought into direct contact with the Queen. What amount of influence he has will depend upon, not only on the man himself, but on the accidental circumstances in which he may find himself. The Queen has an enormous amount of daily business to go through. Every of the Court, and situations in the Household held by members of Parliament, should be included in the political arrangements made on a change of the Administration. The offices of Mistress of the Robes and Ladies of the Bed-Chamber, when held by ladies connected with the outgoing ministers, are resigned on a change of Ministry. And the third point is, that for the first time the constitutional position of a Prince-Consort has been defined as "the confidential adviser and assistant of a female sovereign." And now, Gentlemen, I here conclude. Within the brief limits of a lecture I do not pretend to have exhausted my subject, but I have endeavoured to pass under review the duties and principal prerogatives of her Majesty, and the proper functions of Parliament in relation to them. I have endeavoured to show you that the supreme executive thing that is done in every department is made known to her, and her pleasure taken upon it. Much of the departmental business is, of course, mere routine, and the Queen has not really to keep a watch over it. But every important question arising in every department has to be brought before her, and in some departments the Sovereign has always taken an especial interest. Everything connected with the troops and with the fleet is watched with the utmost vigilance by the Sovereign, and it is a part of the traditions of English Royalty not to relax this vigilance." HOLDS NO NOMINAL OFFICE. 49 authority of the State in all matters, civil and military, together with jurisdiction and supremacy over all causes and persons ecclesiastical in the realm, belongs to her Majesty by virtue of her queenly office. I have said that she is the fountain of all State authority, dignity, and honour, and the source of all political jurisdiction; that she is the head of the Imperial Legislature, which derives its existence from the Crown; and that it is her Majesty's especial prerogative to declare war and make peace, and also to contract alliances with foreign nations. But still I have left much unsaid, for volumes might be written upon the subject; but if in my lecture to-night I have proved to you that the Queen of these realms holds a real and not a nominal office-that she is a substantive power in our mixed constitution, and not a State puppet in the hands of her ministers-my object in coming among you has been attained. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! D LECTURE II. THE MINISTRY. "A patriot both the king and country serves, Of each our laws the certain limit show, May neither overflow, for then they drown the land." -DRYDEN. "The patriot aims at his private good in the public: the knave makes the public subservient to his private interest. The former considers himself as part of a whole, the latter considers himself as the whole." "A man who hath no sense of God or conscience, would you make such a one guardian to your child? If not, why guardian to the State?" "When the heart is right there is true patriotism."-BISHOP BERKELEY, Maxims concerning Patriotism. GENTLEMEN,-As in my last lecture to you I stated. that much of the power which formerly belonged to English sovereigns had, owing to the development of the system of parliamentary government, been |