It Shaped Itself, I Imagine, Into Its
Present Form, And Even Into Its Present Joint Responsibility, During
The Reign Of George III.
It must be remembered that even with us
there is no such thing as a constitutional Prime Minister, and that
our Prime Minister is not placed above the other ministers in any
manner that is palpable to the senses.
He is paid no more than the
others; he has no superior title; he does not take the highest rank
among them; he never talks of his subordinates, but always of his
colleagues; he has a title of his own, that of First Lord of the
Treasury, but it implies no headship in the cabinet. That he is the
head of all political power in the nation, the Atlas who has to bear
the globe, the god in whose hands rest the thunderbolts and the
showers, all men do know. No man's position is more assured to him.
But the bounds of that position are written in no book, are defined
by no law, have settled themselves not in accordance with the
recorded wisdom of any great men, but as expediency and the fitness
of political things in Great Britain have seemed from time to time
to require. This drifting of great matters into their proper places
is not as closely in accordance with the idiosyncrasies of the
American people as it is with our own. They would prefer to define
by words, as the French do, what shall be the exact position of
every public servant connected with their government; or rather of
every public servant with whom the people shall be held as having
any concern.
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