en the
supreme direction of both the executive and the legislative activities
of the state. The composition of the body is determined largely by
custom, but in part by passing circumstance. Certain ministerial heads
are invariably included: the First Lord of the Treasury, the Lord
Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the five Secretaries of
State, and the First Lord of the Admiralty. Two dignitaries who
possess no administrative function, i.e., the Lord President of the
Privy Council and the Lord Privy Seal,[88] are likewise always
included. Beyond this, the make-up of the cabinet group is left to the
discretion of the premier. The importance of a given office at the
moment and the wishes of the appointee, together with general
considerations of party expediency, may well enter into a decision
relative to the seating of individual departmental heads. In recent
years the presidents of the Board of Trade, the Board of Education,
and the Local Government Board have regularly been included, together
with the Lord Lieutenant or the Chief Secretary for Ireland.[89] The
Secretary for Scotland and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
are usually included; the Postmaster-General and the President of the
Board of Agriculture frequently, and the First Commissioner of Works
and the Lord Chancellor for Ireland occasionally.

[Footnote 88: The functions of this official are
but nominal. In 1870 Sir Charles Dilke moved to
abolish the office as useless, but Gladstone urged
the desirability of having in the cabinet at least
one man who should not be burdened with the
management of a department, and the motion was
lost. The presidency of the Council is a post
likewise of dignity but of meager governmental
power or responsibility.]

[Footnote 89: In theory the powers of the executive
are exercised in Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant,
but in practice they devolve almost entirely upon
the nominally inferior official, the Chief
Secretary.]

*68. Increasing Size.*--The trend is distinctly in the direction of an
increase in the size of the body. The more notable cabinets of the
eighteenth century contained, as a rule, not above seven to ten
members. In the first half o