MINISTER

From Agepedia

MINISTER; properly a chief servant; in political language, one to whom a sovereign intrusts the direction of affairs of state. In modern governments, the heads of the several departments or branches of government are ministers of the chief magistrate. It is also used for the representative of a sovereign at a foreign court. (See Ministers, Foreign.) In England, the words ministry and ministers are used as collective names for the heads of departments, but the individual members are nor so designated. In the U. States, the head* of the departments are called secretaries^ but are not termed ministers. In mos* large countries we find a minister for for eign affairs (whose duties are included h\ tjbose of the secretary of state in the U States), a minister of the interior (in Eng land, secretary for the home department * in the U. States there is no such depart ment, and the secretary of state has charge of the affairs which would fall to such minister). The minister of the interior has ihe management of all domestic affairs, foads, canals, &c., levying taxes (in many sases); in short, every thing which does 4ot belong to the other departments; and it may easily be imagined ho w the importanceof this department varies, as the government is more or less absolute, and disposed to exercise a more or less minute control over its subjects. In Prussia, where the government interferes in all the concerns of life, the minister of the interior is a most important person. On the continent of Europe, where the judiciary is considered a branch of the executive administration, there is always a minister of justice, whose office is incompatible with the independence of the judiciary and with the whole idea of the administration of justice entertained in England and the U. States (though in the former country the highest judge, the lord high chancellor, is a member of the ministry). There is, further, a minister of finance (in England, the chancellor of the exchequer, in the U. States, the secretary of the treasury). In some states there is, besides the minister of finance, a minister of the treasury. There is also a minister or secretary of War, and in maritime states, a minister or secretary of the navy, and sometimes a minister for the colonies. There is often a separate minister of commerce (in England, the president of the board of trade); a minister of the police (first established by the directory in France}. In many countries on the European continent, where the idea of a well regulated government is unhappily confounded with a concentration of all powers in a few individuals, there is, also, a minister of public worship, who has the direction of all ecclesiastical affairs. This department though it also exists in Catholic countries, as in France, yet has received the greatest developement in Protestant countries, in which the monarchs have declared themselves the heads of the church, and the officers of religion are considered, to a certain degree, servants of the government. We often find a minister of instruction, generally the same with the minister for ecclesiastical affairs. A minister of the household often directs the private affairs of the monarch. Though the name of the ministers in most countries correspond, yet their power is very different in a hureaucracy (q. v.), where it extends in minute ramifications through the whole organization of society, and, in a country like England or the U. States, where the concerns of the particular corporations are independent of their control. In the former class of governments, each minister is a sort of viceroy in his department One of these ministers is, in many countries, primeminister, or premier, who, in constitutional monarchies, is consideredas the chief person in the administration. Sometimes he has no particular department. In France, he is called minister president. In England, the primeminister is the one who receives the king's order to form a ministry, and therefore to appoint men of his own sentiments. He is generally the first lord of the treasury. In some countries, there is, also, a president of the ministry. In the U. States, there is no such post as that of premier, because every thing is done in the name of the president, who, in many points, corresponds to the premier of a constitutional monarchy. The British king's cabinet ministers vary somewhat: under the duke of Wellington, they were the following : 1. First lord of the treasury; 2. lord high chancellor ; 3* chancellor of the exchequer; 4. secretary of state for foreign affairs ; 5. secretary of state for the colonial department; 6. secretary of. state for the home department ; 7. president of the council; 8. president of the board of trade and treasurer of the navy ; 9. lord privy seal and president of the board of control (Indian affairs); 10. secretary at war; 11. chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; 12. master of the mint. The French ministry consists of, 1. the minister of the interior; 2. minister of finance; 3. keeper of the seals and minister of justice; 4. minister of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs; 5. minister of commerce and public works; 6. minister of the marine and colonies; 7. minister of war ; 8. minister of foreign affairs. The American cabinet consists of the secretaries of state (foreign and home affairs), of the treasury, of war, and of the navy. The attorneygeneral and sometimes also the postmastergeneral are members of the cabinet. The chiefjustice of th" supreme court of the U. States is never a member of the cabinet. He is merely a judicial officer, and not removable, except by impeachment. The lord high chancellor is the only judge in England who belongs to the ministry. In France and England, the members are appointed solely by the king; in the U. States, the concurrence of the senate is necessary for the appointment of the secretaries, and all other officers nominated by the president. No case, however, has yet existed in which the senate has refused to concur in the appointment of the secretaries, because it has been thought unfair to deny the president the choice of his own cabinet, as all the responsibility rests upon him. The modem idea of constitutional monarchies, in which two most heterogeneous principles, the inviolability of the law, and that of the monarch, who thus stands above the law, were to be reconciled, produced a skilful contrivancethe responsibility of ministersriD order to leave the inviolability of the monarch uninfringed, and yet to put a check upon the arbitrary use of his power. Europe owes this developement of constitutional law, as most of the improvements in her political institutions, to England. One or more ministers in France and England (and many other countries) countersign the royal orders, and by thus doing become responsible for the contents. Every reader recollects the late case in France, in which the ministers were called to account for the royal ordinances. (See France, and Polignac.) This responsibility is always a delicate thing, because it is impossible to define with exactness what constitutes unconstitutionality and a violation of the public interest; and, hard as it may appear in the abstract, the question must be left to the houses of legislature to decide, in case of an impeachment of the ministers. In general, however, there is little danger of the ministers being impeached, except for very flagrant violations of law, or in times of very violent party spirit. Peculation also forms a ground of impeachment. In the U. States, no such responsibility rests on the secretaries, nor is their countersign requisite, for the simple reason that the president himself is answerable for every thing) which he does, and may be impeached. (See Impeachment) Though the constitutional monarch has the full right to appoint and discharge his ministers according to pleasure, he is, nevertheless, obliged to appoint such as will satisfy public opinion, or the legislature will not grant supplies, and, in fact, will not cooperate with the administration. This denial to grant supplies, which is the great support of the people against the government, was called, some time ago, in France, an outrageous interference with the king's prerogatives. In England, the command of a majority in the houses has become indispensable for the ministers, so that the loss of a bill brought in by them is regularly followed by the resignation of the premier. This applies, however, only to what are denominated cabinet questions, in respect to which it is considered necessary that the ministry should be united. Where a difference of opinion is openly professed by the ministers themselves, the question is not a cabinet question, and the failure of a bill proposed by a minister respect ing it is not considered fatal to the administration. Thus the Catholic emancipation was for a long time not a cabinet question ; and when Canning lost his bill, in 1827, he, nevertheless, did not give in his resignation. The situation of the constitutional monarch in France and England, and many other reasons in the organization of the governments of those countries, render it necessary for the ministers to be present at the parliamentary debates, and to support their measures: in fact, one member of the cabinet, the lord high chancellor, is, ex officio, president of the house of lords. In England, those of the ministry who are peers sit in the house of lords ; the others sit in the house of commons, in virtue of being elected members; but it is considered indispensable that they should be there. They could not be admitted into the house except as members. The primeminister, if a peer, sits in the lords : Pitt and Canning, who were commoners, sat in the commons. In France, the ministers are also generally members of one or the other house, but they need not be members, because the constitution gives them the right of being heard in either house, by virtue of their office. The ministers have their bench in France. In the U. States, no secretary can sit in either house, as the constitution prohibits any officer of government from being chosen a representative or senator. In Russia, the cabinet is different from the ministry. The former has the management of the emperor's private affairs and of foreign politics, and its members are called cabinet ministers ; the members of the ministry, so called, are termed state ministers. Some governments have also conference ministers, who have no real departments. The love of titles has produced a great mixture of these designations in different countries. In France, it was formerly customary to appoint an exminister minister of state, with a pension. Those who were ministers of state before the revolution of 1830, nave remained so; but the exministers, since 1830, have returned to their private stations. In England, the privy council is to be distinguished from the ministry. The former contains a very large number of members.