The principal offices which exercise jurisdiction over domestic affairs are the following. First of all there is the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom the Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue are subordinate, is mainly responsible for collecting the taxes. The Postmaster-General is responsible for an army of servants, and for the performance of many duties besides the conveyance of letters and telegrams. An extensive and varied range of mercantile subjects come within the scope of the Board of Trade. The Boards of Education and of Agriculture have undergone rapid expansion, and new functions have recently been assigned to them. The Commissioners of Woods and Forests, the Office of Works and Buildings, the Charity, the Lunacy, the Civil Service, the Ecclesiastical and the Railway Commissions, and a number of other specific departments, have their allotted duties, some of them traditional and formal, and all of them differing in degree of importance. The Judiciary comprises many branches of legal administration, from the Lord Chancellor, through successive gradations, down to County Court judges. Numerous offices similar to the above exist in Scotland and Ireland; and the persons employed therein, and in other branches of public and local administration, are, approximately, 100,000.

To take some of these departments in detail-the Home Office is a kind of general-utility actor on the public stage. It employs 200 factory inspectors, 7 inspectors of explosives, and 47 for mines, besides others. for anatomy, inebriates, aliens, reformatories, and cruelty to animals. The Home Secretary exercises control over the quasi-military police force and the prisons, appoints stipendiary magistrates, and advises on the exercise of the prerogative of mercy. He is the medium of communication between the Sovereign and the people; he is generally responsible for the maintenance of the public peace, and for the enforcement of rules made for the internal well-being of the community.

The Board of Trade and Plantations, to give it the full title, was originally a Committee of the Privy Council. Chambers of Commerce and the mercantile community are not enamoured of its procedure in respect of bankruptcy and the winding-up the winding-up of limited companies.

Employers and workpeople do not find the Labour Department by any means perfect. Nor are representatives of the shipping interest, in which so many millions of capital are embarked and which represents the larger part of the world's carrying trade, satisfied with the manner in which they are treated. Whether the heterogeneous functions of the Board of Trade are worth the half-million per annum which is the total cost of this somewhat cumbrous branch of government is open to question. The President not long since created an additional assistant secretaryship, making six in all, at salaries from 1000l. to 1500l. The only intimation appeared in the newspapers. Parliament was not consulted, nor was its sanction obtained. This appears to be the custom, judging from what has occurred recently in the Foreign and Colonial Offices and elsewhere.

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Presumably, the consent of the ubiquitous Treasury was given in the above cases; but, when My Lords of the Treasury are pleased to direct' that something be done, it means that all the needful arrangements have been made by the head of a department. A rigid control is exercised over other Government offices in appointments and in spending, and the practical effect is to uphold the authority of the Treasury. This dominating body, technically described as 'The Commissioners for executing the office of Lord Treasurer,' comprises, first and foremost, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then the First Lord of the Treasury, who may be also Prime Minister, as at present. In the latter capacity he has quite enough to occupy his time and attention with questions of general policy and with the leadership of the House. Next come the Financial Secretary and the Patronage Secretary, or Chief Whip. Finally, at an immense distance in point of authority, are the Junior Lords of the Treasury, whose duties were defined by Lord Melbourne to be, to make a House, to keep a House, and to cheer the Minister.' In modern times, their chief duty, in common with other subordinate appendages of the Ministry, appears to consist in addressing party meetings all over the country, especially during byeelections. The real power of the Treasury is exercised by the permanent staff-distinguished and capable men, of wide experience and high character, but inheriting by

tradition a kind of corporate omniscience and omnipotence. An unconstitutional practice has grown up of granting thousands of pounds for commercial, educational, or scientific objects, or for local or sectional purposes. This method, like grants-in-aid generally, and like the vast sums apportioned by the Development and Road Improvement Boards, is objectionable and needs to be checked. The Road Board receives annually from the Exchequer about 600,000l., being the net proceeds of the Motor Spirit duty; and the Development Board has a grant of half a million. These vast sums are disbursed practically without control. There are, of course, sundry Commissioners at 1000l. each, and the customary official staff, with excellent salaries.

How wide are the powers that can be exercised, nominally by Cabinet Ministers, but really by high officials, though ostensibly in the public interest, is shown by an incident that occurred in 1912. A Government Bill was quietly engineered through Parliament, by which an extensive freehold property and a choice and valuable library of 200,000 volumes, the whole worth at least 300,000l., was alienated from the London Institution, Finsbury Circus. This was done in defiance of a Royal Charter of 1807 and an Act of 1821, which created a body corporate, with perpetual succession and absolute powers over the property. The prescribed objects were 'to promote the diffusion of Literature, Science, and the Arts, by means of lectures and experiments, and by easy access to extensive collections of books, both ancient and modern, in all languages.' In the pursuit of these objects valuable public services were rendered during a lengthened period. Owing to changed conditions in City life, the Board of Managers had been occupied for some time in devising methods for enlarging the scope and increasing the usefulness of the Institution. Authority for this was given by the Proprietors, acting under the following clause of their Charter: We will, constitute, and grant that the whole property of the Institution shall be vested, and we hereby vest the same, solely and absolutely in the Proprietors; and that they shall have full power and authority to sell, alienate, charge, or otherwise dispose of the same, as they shall think proper.' Nothing could be more explicit and positive as to the

ownership and control of a valuable estate, created by the contributions of the original 900 Proprietors, and transmitted to their successors by bequest or sale of the shares.

Early in 1908, when modifications and extensions were being considered, and when architects' drawings had been prepared, the Managers were requested by Lord Haldane, Chairman of the Royal Commission on University Education in London, to postpone action for a time. This was conceded, as a matter of courtesy; but no further communication was received for more than three years, except formal acknowledgments of letters of enquiry. The Managers were persistently ignored, and no attempt was made to ascertain their wishes. They were denied even the semblance of making a bargain. Not until November, 1911, the day before an Interim Report (Cd 5967) of a Departmental Committee of the India Office-to whom the matter had been transferred-was laid before Parliament, was any information vouchsafed as to the contemplated scheme. It was then found that plans and estimates had been prepared for structural alterations and additions, and for establishing a School of Oriental Languages. A Government Bill was introduced in 1912 to give effect to the project, and in due time received the Royal Assent. Some of the Proprietors endeavoured to prevent the spoliation, but the majority, wearied and dispirited by the long delay, felt it to be hopeless to oppose a Government measure, and were forced to submit. Their only compensation, grudgingly conceded by the Treasury officials, was that they were permitted to receive 251. for each share, which absorbed about 23,000l. of their own money, out of a

35,970. invested in Consols. About 150 proprietors, designated 'continuing members,' who gave notice, have a limited use on sufferance, defraying their own expenses, but they cannot increase their number or transfer their membership, which lapses when their number is reduced to eighty.

This modern variant of the ancient story of Naboth's Vineyard is consonant with the current popular theory, which sound Liberals of a former generation would have repudiated with scorn, that property has no rights but only duties, one of which is to surrender it on demand for some alien purpose, or for the supposed benefit of

those who have none. In like manner, the few who contribute the major part of the taxes and rates are outvoted in their application by the many who pay little or nothing. It is easy to be generous with the money of other people. Under the operations of the Finance Act of 1910, and with the surveillance that is being rigidly maintained, the powers of the Inland Revenue Department, which is directly controlled by the Treasury, have vastly increased; and the annual cost has grown to a million and three quarters. Much friction and irritation are caused by the manner in which those powers are exercised. The same department has taken upon itself, with the sanction of the Treasury officials, to allow members of the House of Commons to pay income tax upon 3007. only of the 4001. which a majority of the House voted to themselves as annual salary.

The great spending departments furnish many instances of the growing tendency to officialism. According to the Budget of 1913, a sum of 28,235,000l. was required for the Army during the financial year ending April 5, 1914, and 46,309,000l. for the Navy. The Civil Service absorbs 54,988,000l. Supplementary Estimates have been submitted, as is always the case, owing to the loose and unsatisfactory manner in which the national finances are administered. Whether value is received for this gigantic outlay is an enquiry beyond the scope of the present article. The whole system of our naval and military expenditure is faulty, as placing the virtual control in the hands of a bureaucracy, in spite of the Army Council and of the Committee of Imperial Defence. There have been frequent and costly reconstructions and readjustments within living memory, but finality is a dream. Theoretically, the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Secretary of State for War are at the head of these two great departments, and are supposed to be responsible to Parliament. A semblance of control appears, but without the reality. Lord Randolph Churchill resigned his high office of Chancellor of the Exchequer because he could not accept and justify the growing expenditure. His Select Committee on the Army Estimates reported in 1888 that the accounts were examined at the War Office with such cautious minuteness and such pedantic rigidity that an enquiry as to