m for the exercise of discretion. Only when
there is no clearly recognized leader, or when circumstances compel
the formation of a coalition ministry, is there a real opportunity for
the sovereign to choose a premier from a number of more or less
available men.[75] In the appointment of the remaining ministers, and
of all persons whose offices are regarded as political, the crown
yields uniformly to the judgment of the premier. The King's Speech, on
the opening of Parliament, is written by the ministers; all public
communications of the crown pass through their hands; peers are
created and honors bestowed in accord with their advice; measures are
framed and executive acts are undertaken by them, sometimes without
the sovereign's knowledge and occasionally even contrary to his
wishes.

[Footnote 75: This sort of situation presented
itself several times during the reign of Queen
Victoria, but in general it is exceptional.]

III. THE IMPORTANCE AND STRENGTH OF THE MONARCH (p. 058)

*59. The Real Authority and Service of the Crown.*--It would be an
error, however, to conclude that kingship in England is unimportant,
or even that the power wielded in person by the crown is negligible.
On the contrary, the uses served by the crown are indisputable and the
influence exerted upon the course of public affairs may be decisive.
The sovereign, in the words of Bagehot, has three rights--the right to
be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn. "A king
of great sense and sagacity," it is added, "would want no others."[76]
Despite the fact that during upwards of two hundred years the
sovereign has not attended the meetings of the cabinet, and so is
deprived of the opportunity of wielding influence directly upon the
deliberations of the ministers as a body, the king keeps in close
touch with the premier, and cabinet councils at which important lines
of policy are to be formulated are preceded not infrequently by a
conference in which the subject in hand is threshed out more or less
completely by king and chief minister. Merely because the ancient
relation has been reversed, so that now it is the king who advises and
the ministry that arrives at decisions, it does not follow that the
advisory function is an unimportant thing. Queen Victoria many times
wielded influence of a decisive nature upon the public measures of her
reign, especially in