During Charles II’s reign and that of his immediate successors the King continued to choose this special council from those whom he believed to be friendly to his measures, often without much regard to party lines, and he was aways present at their meetings.  With the accession of George I, however, a great change took place.  His want of acquaintance with prominent men made it difficult for him to select a Cabinet himself, and his ignorance of English rendered his presence at its meetings wholly useless.  For these reasons the new King adopted the expedient of appointing a chief adviser, or Prime Minister, who personally chose his own Cabinet from men of the political party to which he belonged.

Sir Robert Walpole, who held this office of chief adviser for more than twenty years (1721-1742), is commonly considered to have been the first actual Prime Minister, and the founder of that system of Cabinet Government which prevails in England to-day.  He was a master hand at managing his fellow ministers in the Cabinet, and when one of them, named Townshend, aspired to share the leadership, Walpole said to him, “The firm must be Walpole and Townshend, not Townshend and Walpole.”  But later (1741) a minority in the Lords protested “that a sole or even First Minister is an officer unknown to the law of Britain, inconsistent withthe Constitution of this country, and destructive of liberty in any government whatsoever.”  Then Walpole thought it expedient to disclaim the title; but many years later the younger Pitt declared (1803) that there ought to be “an avowed minister possessing the chief weight in the Council” or Cabinet, and that view eventually prevailed.[1] The Cabinet, or “Government,” as it is usually called,[2] generally consists of twelve or fifteen persons chosen by the Prime Minister, or Premier,[3] from the leading members of both houses of Parliament, but whose political views agree in the main with the majority of the House of Commons.[4]

But this system, as it now stands, was gradually developed.  It had advanced to such a point under the dictatorial rule of Sir Robert Walpole that George II, chafing under the restriction of his power, said bitterly, “In England the ministers are King.”  George III, however, succeeded, for a time, in making himself practically supreme, but Cabinet Government soon came to the front again, and, under William IV, the Prime Minister, with his Cabinet, ceased to look to the sovereign for guidance and support, and became responsible to the House of Commons (provided that body reflects the public opinion of the nation).

[1] Feilden’s “Constitutional History of England,” Taswell-Langmead’s “English Constitutional History,” and A.L.  Lowell’s “The Government of England,” 2 vols. [2] “The Cabinet, the body to which, in common use, we have latterly come to give the name of Government.”  Encyclopaedia Britannica (10th edition, VIII, 297). [3] “Premier”:  from the French premier,