FOOTNOTES: 

[34] Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his Life of Wellington, vouches for the genuineness of the Duke’s letters to “Miss J.”  She was Miss A.M.  Jenkins.

XXXIII.

OFFICIALDOM.

The announcements relating to the first Cabinet of the winter set me thinking whether my readers might be interested in seeing what I have “collected” as to the daily life and labours of her Majesty’s Ministers.  I decided that I would try the experiment, and, acting on the principle which I have professed before—­that when once one has deliberately chosen certain words to express one’s meaning one cannot, as a rule, alter them with advantage—­I shall borrow from some former writings of my own.

The Cabinet is the Board of Directors of the British Empire.  All its members are theoretically equal; but, as at other Boards, the effective power really resides in three or four.  At the present moment[35] Manchester is represented by one of these potent few.  Saturday is the usual day for the meeting of the Cabinet, though it may be convened at any moment as special occasion arises.  Describing the potato-disease which led to the repeal of the Corn Laws, Lord Beaconsfield wrote:  “This mysterious but universal sickness of a single root changed the history of the world.  ‘There is no gambling like politics,’ said Lord Roehampton, as he glanced at the Times:  ’four Cabinets in one week!  The Government must be more sick than the potatoes!’”

Twelve is the usual hour for the meeting of the Cabinet, and the business is generally over by two.  At the Cabinets held during November the legislative programme for next session is settled, and the preparation of each measure is assigned to a sub-committee of Ministers specially conversant with the subject-matter.  Lord Salisbury holds his Cabinets at the Foreign Office; but the old place of meeting was the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury at 10 Downing Street, in a pillared room looking over the Horse Guards Parade, and hung with portraits of departed First Lords.

In theory, of course, the proceedings of the Cabinet are absolutely secret.  The Privy Councillor’s oath prohibits all disclosures.  No record is kept of the business done.  The door is guarded by vigilant attendants against possible eavesdroppers.  The dispatch-boxes which constantly circulate between Cabinet Ministers, carrying confidential matters, are carefully locked with special keys, said to date from the administration of Mr. Pitt; and the possession of these keys constitutes admission into what Lord Beaconsfield called “the circles of high initiation.”  Yet in reality more leaks out than is supposed.  In the Cabinet of 1880-5 the leakage to the press was systematic and continuous.  Even Mr. Gladstone, the stiffest of sticklers for official reticence, held that a Cabinet Minister might impart his secrets to