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THE
GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND
VOLUME I
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK - BOSTON - CHICAGO
ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON - BOMBAY - CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
THE
GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND
BY
A. LAWRENCE LOWELL
PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
VOLUME I
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1908
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1908,
BY A. LAWRENCE LOWELL.
Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1908. Reprinted June, 1908.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE
Measured by the standards of duration, absence of violent commotions,
maintenance of law and order, general prosperity and contentment of the
people, and by the extent of its influence on the institutions and
political thought of other lands, the English government has been one of
the most remarkable the world has ever known. An attempt, therefore, to
study it at any salient epoch cannot be valueless; and the present is a
salient epoch, for the nation has now enjoyed something very near to
manhood suffrage in the boroughs for forty years, and throughout the
country more than twenty years, a period long enough for democracy to
produce its primary if not its ultimate effects. Moreover, England has
one of the most interesting of popular governments, because it has had a
free development, little hampered by rigid constitutional devices. It is
an organism constantly adapting itself to its environment, and hence in
full harmony with national conditions. An endeavour has been made in
these volumes to portray the present form of that organism and the
forces which maintain its equilibrium.
In preparing a study of this kind one feels the need of limiting its
scope, by reducing the denominator as Arthur Helps remarked. Hence the
work covers only the English government as it stands to-day; and
further, only those institutions, national and local, that have a
general bearing. The British Constitution is full of exceptions, of
local customs and special acts with which town clerks must be familiar.
They fill the path of these men with pitfalls, but they do not affect
seriously the general principles of the government, and no attempt is
made to describe them here. Even the institutions of Scotland and
Ireland, interesting as they are in themselves, have been referred to
only so far as they relate to the national government or throw light
upon its working.
Even so limited, the subject is not without difficulties. The forces to
be studied do not lie upon the surface, and some of them are not
described in any document or found in any treatise. They can be learned
only from men connected with the machinery of public life. A student
must, therefore, rely largely upon conversations which he can use but
cannot cite as authorities, and the soundness of his conclusions must be
measured less by his references in footnotes than by the judgment of the
small portion of the public that knows at first-hand the things whereof
he speaks. The precise effect of the various forces at work must be a
matter of opinion on which well-informed people may differ, and the
writer has drawn the picture as it appeared to him.
To undertake a study of this kind would be impossible without manifold
assistance from others; and the writer is glad of this chance to express
his sense of obligation to the many persons who have given him help and
information, men in public life belonging to different parties,
permanent officials, national and local, officers of political
associations, jurists, publicists and many others. It is pleasant for
him to recall the constant courtesy with which he was treated, not
infrequently, in the case of local officers, without any introduction or
claim of any kind. Among many men to whom he owes much he desires to
acknowledge his debt to Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Fitzmaurice,
Rt. Hon. John Morley, the late Sir William Harcourt, Lord Reay, Mr.
Frederic Harrison, Sir William James Farrer, Sir Alexander Hargreaves
Brown, Sir Frederick Pollock, Sir C. P. Lucas, Sir Horace Plunkett, Mr.
Sidney Webb, Mr. Graham Wallas, Dr. William Cunningham, Mr. Francis W.
Hirst, the late Capt. R. W. E. Middleton, Mr. A. E. Southall of the
National Union of Conservative Associations and Mr. Charles Geake of
the Liberal Publication Department.
His thanks are especially due to Professor A. V. Dicey, Sir Courtenay
Ilbert, Professor H. Morse Stephens, now of the University of
California, and Professor W. B. Munro of Harvard University, who,
besides giving him information, have kindly read a part of the
manuscript or proof sheets and made many valuable suggestions. Above all
he feels the deepest gratitude to Rt. Hon. James Bryce, now happily
British ambassador to the United States, the master and guide of all
students of modern political systems, whose unwearied assistance,
counsel and encouragement have been a constant help throughout the
preparation of this work, and who has read the whole of the proof sheets
except the chapters that deal with the Empire. These friends have made
the writing of the book possible, and saved the author from many
blunders. It is needless to say that none of them are in any way
responsible for any opinions in these pages; and in fact the writer has
tried not to express, and so far as possible not to form, opinions on
matters of current party politics.
The writer is indebted also to a number of his students at Harvard, who
have made researches in several different subjects. While some of the
more important of these contributions have been referred to in the
notes, it has been impossible to do this in all cases. Finally he
desires to acknowledge the help he has received in his investigations
from three assistants: Mr. Emerson David Fite, now of Yale University,
Mr. Robert Lee Hale, now of the Harvard Law School, and Mr. Thomas N.
Hoover of the Harvard Graduate School, the last of these having also
verified the citations and prepared the index.
APRIL, 1908.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME I
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON THE CONSTITUTION 1
PART I.--THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER I
THE CROWN 16