first or chief. [4] The existence of the Cabinet depends on custom, not law.  Its three essential characteristics are generally considered to be:  (1) Practical unanimity of party; (2) Practical unity of action under the leadership of the Prime Minister; (3) Collective responsibility to the party in the House of Commons which represents the political majority of the nation.  Its members are never OFFICIALLY made known to the public, nor its proceedings recorded.  Its meetings, which take place at irregular intervals, according to pressure of business, are entirely secret, and the sovereign is never present.  As the Cabinet agrees in its composition with the majority of the House of Commons, it follows that if the Commons are Conservative, the Cabinet will be so likewise; and if Liberal, the reverse.  Theoretically, the sovereign chooses the Cabinet; but practically the selection is now always made by the Prime Minister.  If at any time the Prime Minister, with his Cabinet, finds that his political policy no longer agrees with that of the House of Commons, he and the other members of the Cabinet resign, and the sovereign chooses a new Prime Minister from the opposite party, who forms a new Cabinet in harmony with himself and the Commons.  If, however, the Prime Minister has good reason for believing that a different House of Commons would support him, the sovereign may, by his advice, dissolve Parliament.  A new election then takes place, and according to the political character of the members returned, the Cabinet remains in or goes out of power.  The Cabinet, or Government, now invariably includes the following officers: 

 1.  The First Lord of the Treasury (usually the Prime Minister).
 2.  The Lord Chancellor.
 3.  The Lord President of the Council.
 4.  The Lord Privy Seal.
 5.  The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
 6.  The Secretary of State for Home Affairs.
 7.  The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
 8.  The Secretary of State for the Colonies.
 9.  The Secretary of State for India.
10.  The Secretary of State for War.
11.  The First Lord of the Admiralty.

In addition, a certain number of other officers are frequently included, making the whole number about twelve or fifteen.

535.  The “Pretender”; “The Fifteen” (1715); the Septennial Act (1716).

The fact that George I exclusively favored the Whigs exasperated the opposite, or Tory, party.  The Jacobites or extreme members of that party (S495), in Scotland, with the secret aid of many in England, now rose, in the hope of placing on the throne James Edward Stuart, the son of James II.  He was called the “Chevalier"[1] by his friends, but the “Pretender” by his enemies (SS490, 491, 512).  The insurrection was led by John, Earl of Mar, who, from his frequent change of politics, had got the nickname of “Bobbing John.”  Mar encountered the royal forces at Sheriffmuir, in Perthsire, Scotland (1715), where an indecisive battle was fought, which the old ballad thus describes: