IN January,1903, a speech was delivered by the Earl of
Rosebery at Plymouth, which contained a passage of some
interest in connection with the relations of the Crown and the
Cabinet. It was urged that in the difficulties created by the re-
construction of the Army after the South African Campaign, it
would have been wise to appoint Lord Kitchener Secretary of
State for War, with "large and almost dictatorial powers," so
that he might have a "free hand" to deal with army adminis-
tration. It might, no doubt, be objected that if Lord Kitchener
had become Secretary of State he would be a member of the
Cabinet, and as such responsible for the acts of the Cabinet.
"But," said Lord Rosebery, "is there a necessity for that?
As Secretary of State he might only be summoned to the meet-
ings of the Cabinet which had to do with his department; and
he might be definitely cut off from the collective responsibility
of the Cabinet. It is in the Power of the Sovereign to summon
any Privy Councillor to any Cabinet for any particular pur-
pose; and there is no reason why he should not have adopted
that course in the case of Lord Kitchener." The words italicised
seem worthy of attention. We are to assume that Lord Rose-
bery would have seen nothing objectionable in the appointment
of a Secretary of State, responsible, not to the Premier and the
general body of his colleagues, or to the majority of the House
of Commons, but directly to the Crown. It is clear that, in the
situation imagined, the military Secretary of State must be,
in more than a formal sense, "the King's servant "; since he
would be expressly released from all dependence on that govern-
ing committee of the dominant party in Parliament which is
known as the Cabinet. Lord Rosebery was, perhaps, not
speaking with much sense of responsibility, nor was he faced
by the immediate prospect of office. But his suggestions are
noticeable; since they show that one of the most eminent of
Liberal statesmen, at the opening of the twentieth century,
was prepared to accord to the Crown a share in the actual
conduct of administration, such as the champions of Royal
prerogative, a hundred years earlier, would scarcely have
ventured to demand.

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