LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND.

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The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

The Chief Secretary for Ireland.

The Judge-Advocate General.

The Vice-President of the Council for Education; and

The Chief Officers of the Royal Household. The government of Ireland is formally intrusted to the Queen's Viceroy, usually called the Lord-Lieutenant, but whose official designation is the LordLieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland. This high officer represents the person of her Majesty in Ireland. He is commissioned to keep the peace, the laws and customs of Ireland, to govern the Irish people, to chasten and correct offenders, and to encourage such as do well. He is placed in supreme authority, and has power to pardon criminals or to commute their sentences. The police is subject to his entire control, and he can issue such orders as he thinks necessary to the officers commanding the troops in Ireland. He has almost the entire disposal of all Crown patronage in Ireland, and the right of filling up numerous subordinate posts. No complaint concerning Ireland can be made to her Majesty, unless it has first been brought before the Lord-Lieutenant. In fact, no other subject of the Queen is vested with so ex

tensive regal powers, except perhaps the Viceroy of India. Notwithstanding his power, however, he has to act under the Ministry for the time being, and the Cabinet minister who is ordinarily responsible for advising the Lord-Lieutenant is the Home Secretary, but in matters of moment the Prime Minister interposes his authority. In carrying on the executive government of Ireland, the Lord-Lieutenant is assisted by an Irish Privy Council, consisting of about sixty members, whose sanction is necessary to give validity to many of his official acts. His great officers of state are the Chief Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney and Solicitor Generals, and the permanent Under-Secretary, who all (of course, excepting the permanent Under-Secretary) vacate their offices on a change of administration. The Chief Secretary is the Prime Minister of the Lord-Lieutenant, whose duty it is to see that the commands of the Lord-Lieutenant in keeping the peace and the laws of Ireland are fulfilled. He is generally a member of the House of Commons, and sometimes a Cabinet minister.* The duties of

* In the present Gladstone Ministry the Chief Secretary for Ireland is a Cabinet minister, though, in the opinion of Sir Robert Peel, grave objections exist to this dignity being conferred on such an official, "as it not only disturbs the relations of a chief

JUDGE-ADVOCATE GENERAL.

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the other officers resemble those of the similar appointments in England.

The Judge-Advocate General presides over the judicial department of the army, and is the sole representative of the Government in all military proceedings before general courts-martial. He prosecutes either in person or by deputy in the Queen's name, and all matters arising out of the adminstration of martial law come under his supervision. He has no absolute judicial authority, nor any voice in the sentence of the court; but after the trial the case is transmitted to the Horse Guards, and thence to the Judge-Advocate General, who then examines into the sentence, and advises her Majesty as to its confirmation or rejection. This done, the proceedings are returned to the Commander-in-Chief. The Judge-Advocate has usually a seat in the House of Commons, where he acts as the legal adviser of the Government on military questions. The permanent and working officer of his department is the Deputy Judge-Advocate.

to his subordinate (the Lord-Lieutenant never being included among the Cabinet councillors), but directly inverts those relations, and encourages the Chief Secretary still more to assume for himself the exercise of independent powers."

It is intended to amalgamate the office of the Paymaster-General with that of the Judge-Advocate.

The Vice-President of the Education Committee (which is a Committee of the Privy Council, composed usually of Cabinet ministers, with authority to provide for the general management and superintendence of education, regulated by various Minutes of Council) transacts the current business of the Education Department. The authorising of building grants, and the general distribution of the Educational grant as at present settled by Parliament, is exclusively managed by this officer. The Vice-President is not a responsible official, but has to act in obedience to the Lord President of the Privy Council and the Committee. He is sworn a Privy Councillor in order to attend the meetings of the Education Committee. Until 1867 there was a Vice-President of the Board of Trade, who was a Privy Councillor and a member of the Administration, but this office is now abolished.

The chief officers of the Royal Household are the Lord Steward of the Household, the Lord and Vice Chamberlains, the Master of the Horse, the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Household, the Captain of the corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, the Master of the Buck

* The present Vice-President has been made a Cabinet minister, but it is a most unusual proceeding.

THE CABINET COUNCIL.

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hounds, the Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal, and the Lords-in-waiting. These offices are for the most part usually held by peers or members of the House of Commons who are the political adherents of the existing Ministry. To describe the duties of these officers would extend my lecture beyond its proposed limits.

I now come to my second heading the ministers belonging to the Cabinet Council, and who constitute the chief members of an Administration. I was obliged to defer describing their duties till now, because without saying something of the Privy Council I could not have mentioned the Cabinet, as the Cabinet is an unrecognised select committee of the Privy Council. The practice of consulting a few confidential advisers instead of the whole Privy Council has been resorted to by English Sovereigns from a very early period; but the first mention of the term Cabinet Council, in contradistinction to Privy Council, occurs in the reign of Charles I., when the burden of state affairs was intrusted to the Committee of State, which Clarendon says was enviously called the "Cabinet Council." This form of government was at first extremely unpopular, and it was not till 1783 that the Cabinet Council was regulated by those rules which it now enforces, and

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