Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1881 — The American and English Cabinets. [ARTICLE]

The American and English Cabinets.

In both the United States and England, the Cabinet, as a body, is unknown to the constitution, and is net officially recognized by the law. Tile name “Cabinet ” never occurs in formal documents; it has gradually come into use, from the fact that in England the King’s advisers were wont to meet and consult him in his private cabinet Each Cabinet officer, however, is officially recognized in both America and England—not as a Cabinet officer, but as the chief of one of the great departments of the executive administration. In this country, such an officer is known as “Secretary ” —the Secretary of State, of the Interior, and so on. In England, the title of Secretary is used for the five highest administrative officers, those of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, the Colonies, India, and War. The office corresponding to our Secretaryship of the Treasury, on the other hand, is in England divided between two high officials—the First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; the officer known to us as the Secretary of the Navy is called in England the First Lord of the Admiralty. In England, moreover, there are several Cabinet officers unknown to our own < Cabinet. These are, the Lcrd High Chancellor, the President of the Board of Trade, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the President of the Council, and the Lord Privy Seal. In the United States, the members of the Cabinet are nominated by the President, and are approved or confirmed by the Senate. The President con also remove any one of them at any lime. But in England, the Cabinet is really selected by the Prime Minister, subject to the approval of the Queen; and, though he can remove them, the English Cabinet usually comes in and goes out of office in a body. There are other notable differences between the two Cabinets. In the United States, no Cabinet officer can sit iu either house of Congress. In England, no man can sit in the Cabinet who is not a member of either the Commons or the Lords. With us, the Cabinet officer has two, and only two, functions—as the chief of an executive department, and as an adviser of the President on matters of general policy. With the English, the Cabinet officer adds a third function to these two; for he is a Parliamentary leader, and in the Commons or Lords defends either the policy of his own deSartment, or the general policy of the [inistry of which he is a member. While in the mother country a Cabinet always goes uut of power in a body when the House of Commons casts a vote adverse to its proceedings, in the United States the position of the Cabinet, as a. whole, is quite '(maffected by any vote of either or l>oth houses of Congress. Each English Cabinet officer has his own rank and dignity, while the American Secretaries are officially equal. The salaries of these officers, moreover, differ widely in the two countries. Our Secretaries get SB,OOO a year. The English Prime Minister receives $25,000 a year; so do the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the five Secretaries of State. The Lord High Chancellor has $50,000 a year, and a pension, when he rctjges, of SIO,OOO a year for life. The lowest salary received by an English Cabinet member is SIO,OOO, which is the sum received by the President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, the President of the Board of Trade, and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. From these differences some idea may be derived of the contrasts which appear between the institutions of the ancient monarchy of England and our own still youthful republic.