SECTION III.-THE MINISTERS OF THE CROWN AND

PARLIAMENT,

Ministers as Members of Parliament.

The Ministry

as personating the Crown in the exercise of the Prerogative:

as the agent of Parliament.

Parliamentary checks on the independence of the Ministry :— 1. Mutual dependence of Parliament and the Ministry. Party Organisation.-The Opposition,

Questioning of Ministers.

Modes of securing a change of Government.
Control of policy through refusal of supplies.

Doctrine of the dependence of Parliament on the Crown. 2. Duty of Ministers with regard to communications to Parliament. Powers of the Crown apart from Parliament.

Possible surrender of Parliamentary rights by an inert majority.
Topics requiring special vigilance of Parliament :-
(1.) Foreign affairs.

Modern practice and doctrine of non-intervention.
The revival of the Eastern Question.

Hazards as to the authorship of foreign policy.
Details of recent foreign policy:-

Purchase of the Suez Canal Shares.

Addition to the Royal Title in India.

Vote of Credit for six millions.

Despatch of the Fleet to the Dardanelles :

(Resignation of Lords Carnarvon and Derby.)

Calling out of the Reserve Forces.

Movement of Indian troops to Malta.

The Berlin Congress.

The Cyprus Convention,

The Afghan Mission,

Restriction of the Indian Vernacular Press.

Review of the policy.

Province of Parliament in respect of Treaties and Declarations of War.

(4). Colonial affairs.

Gradual assumption of Parliamentary control over De

pendencies:

i. Legislation for India:

The Indian Councils Act.

The Act for the Better Government of India.

Working of the Acts:

Vernacular Press restriction.

Afghan policy.

Cotton Duties Repeal.

Financial Statement required by Parliament. Communication required as to commencement of war in India.

Extensions of the Prerogative in India. ii. Settlement or annexation of

British Columbia.

The Fiji Islands.

The Transvaal.

Policy of annexation.

'Imperialism.'

Right of the Crown to alienate territory without
concurrence of Parliament.

iii. Functions of Crown Representatives in the Colonies.
Duties of the Colonial Secretary.

Case of Sir Bryan O'Loghlen.

Case in dispute between Lord Lorne and the
Canadian Parliament.

Memorial of the Colonists of Natal against con-
federation without consent of the Legislature.

CHAPTER IV.

LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT.

Liberty of the Subject an inherent principle of the English Constitution.

Its protection from encroachments of the Executive by Courts of

Law.

Difficulty of securing it against legislative encroachment.

Despotic tendencies of democratic Legislatures.

1. Liberty of the Subject as connected with the administration of

Justice :

(a.) of Criminal Justice:

(1.)

Appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates.

Multiplication of offences classed as crimes.
Summary jurisdiction of Magistrates.

(2.) Reorganisation of Criminal Courts.

Systematic practice of appeal to the Home Secretary.

(3.) Criminal Punishments:

Flogging.

(4.) Reconstruction of Criminal Law.

Treason and Treason-Felony.

Murder.

Conspiracy.

(5.) Responsibility of officers of justice to Civil and Criminal Courts.

Organization and multiplication of Police.
Jury trial, and unanimity of juries.

2. Liberty of the Subject unconnected with judicial administration:—

Vaccination.

Compulsory Education.

Factory Acts.

Lunacy Laws.

Public Health Acts.

Army and Navy discipline.

Supreme personal rights not violable on behalf of public interests. Public interest in the maintenance of these rights.

CHAPTER V.

CONCLUSION.

Importance of recognising dynamical as well as statical elements in

the Constitution.

Recent history as an exponent of Constitutional Law.

Directions of recent Constitutional change :

i. Division of labour between the People and the House of Com

mons.

Political susceptibility of the public.

Forces outside Parliament.

Necessity of diffused education with diffused political rights.

ii. Mechanism of Government.

Necessity of new methods of controlling new machinery.

iii. Relations between the Executive Government and Parlia

ment.

Modern Constitutional conditions and requirements.

FIFTY YEARS OF THE

CONSTITUTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS MOVEMENTS.

WHAT is familiarly known as the English Constitution possesses so many unstable as well as stable elements that a purely historical method of inquiry has naturally commended itself as the most hopeful mode of studying that Constitution and of predicting its probable movements in the immediate future. Mr. Hallam and Professor Stubbs have had the advantage of extending their historical researches over a very considerable period, reaching, in Mr. Hallam's case, to the end of the reign of George II. Sir T. Erskine May has purported to bring Mr. Hallam's work down to the present day; and Mr. Walter Bagehot has drawn a vivid and severely exact portraiture of the working of the Constitution at the time his treatise appeared. Most of these works treat of times very ancient or very recent, and for this reason scarcely suffice to determine the true directions in which the English Constitution may be said to be moving at the present moment, and therefore 3

B