THE PRIVY COUNCIL

Hokitika Guardian, 7 February 1929, Page 7

THE PRIVY COUNCIL

(By DERMOT MORRAH, late Fellow of All Souls Col,lege, Oxford.) if the Crown is the root of the constitutional tree, then the Privy Council is the trunk, from which all the branches Parliament, Convocation, the Law Courts, the Cabinet, the Government Departments—have sprung. Some of those branches are now stouter than the parent stem, which nevertheless remains full of vigour. The Norman Kings, like other (feudal numarchs,. had to rule with the assistance and advice of their Great Council of bishops, barons, and other tenants-in-chief. It acted in all capacities, administrative, judicial, and legislative. Henry IL. began to detach a few expert councillors to act as judges; Edward I. made a practice of reinforcing his Council for a lew weeks in the year by. a larger body, including representatives of the towns and counties. Thus Parliament began as a kind of expanded Council: it was originally called: “'The King in bis Council in bis -‘Parliaments.” In the fifteenth century there was a well-marked inner Council, now for the first time called the Privy Council, which did much of the main work of government.; there was a struggle to control it. which broadened into the Wars of the Roses. Half tho secret of Tudor governmeni was to do everything of importance through the Privy Council, and to use Parliament mainly as a convenient instrument for ratifying the Council’s decrees. The famous Court of Star Chamber began as a branch of the Council. Under the Stewarts the power of the purse exalted Parliament at the expense of the Council, which became nil workable in its old form, partly owing to its unwieldly size, partly to the growth of the party system. At 1 D end of the seventeenth century an inner ring of councillors belonging to the parliamentary party in the ascendant began to grasp tho powers of the whole Council. 'That inner ring became the Cabinet. But the Council continued to put off shoots like the Board of Trade, which is still technically one of its commit tees. To-day the Council remains the theoretical basis of the administrative system. Every Cabinet .Minister must belong to it; it is his oath as councillor that hinds him to the special service of the Crown and prevents his divulging secrets of State. Membership is also conferred as a high honour on eminent persons in all walks of life and conveys the title Right Honourable. Women are eligible, but none lias yet been appointed. Tho Council, acting through its judicial committee, is still the supreme court of appeal lor cases originating either in the ecclesiastical courts or tn those of the Dominions. A great number of executive acts are carried out my “The King in Council.” Such are issue of regulations under many Acts of Parliament, proclamations of emergency, like that issued on the occasion of the general strike, appointments of certain high officers of State, and the setting up of temporary commissions, like the present, to act for the King. Even in legislation the Council still possesses powers; it is the King In Council who makes the laws for Crown Colonies and Protectorates, though, of course, on the advice of the Colonial Office. In short, the Privy Council remains the indispensable organ of the more formal business of State.