It has
often been said that the name "cabinet" is unknown to the law, and that
what we call the cabinet is, in fact, only a committee of the Privy
Council. As a statement of law the assertion may be correct, but it is
certain that for more than a century and a half the constitution has
adopted the principle that the cabinet consists of the holders of a
certain, to some extent a fluctuating, number of the principal state
officers; and, recognizing the responsibility of all for the actions of
each member of it, does by that recognition sanction an expectation that
on all questions, or at all events on all but those of the most trivial
character, they will speak and act with that unanimity which is
indispensable, not only to the strength of the government itself, but to
its being held in respect by the people; such respect being, indeed,
among the most essential elements of its strength.
The incidents of the war itself do not belong to a work such as this;
but, tantalizing as it must be to an historian of any class to pass over
the brilliant series of achievements which gave Britain the glory of
being twice[175] the principal agent in the deliverance of Continental
Europe, the glories of Salamanca, Victoria, Orthes, and Waterloo must be
left to other writers, who, it is not unpatriotic to hope, may never
again have similar cause for exulting descriptions.
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