ion
of the Kingdom of Prussia, 36-37.]

[Footnote 373: Schulze, Preussisches Staatsrecht,
I., 158.]

*271. The Ministry: Composition and Status.*--The organization of the
executive--the creation of ministerial portfolios, the appointment of
ministers, and the delimitation of departmental functions--rests
absolutely with the king, save, of course, for the necessity of
procuring from the Landtag the requisite appropriations. Beginning in
the days of Stein with five, the number of ministries was gradually
increased until since 1878 there have been nine, as follows: Foreign
Affairs;[374] the Interior; Ecclesiastical, Educational, and Sanitary
Affairs; Commerce and Industry; Finance; War; Justice; Public Works;
and Agriculture, Public Domains, and Forests. Each ministry rests upon
an essentially independent basis and there has been little attempt to
reduce the group to the uniformity or symmetry of organization that
characterizes the ministries of France, Italy, and other continental
monarchies. Departmental heads, as well as subordinates, are appointed
with reference solely to their administrative efficiency, not, as in
parliamentary governments, in consideration of their politics or of
their status in the existing political situation. They need not be,
and usually are not, members of either of the legislative chambers.

[Footnote 374: The Minister of Foreign Affairs is
at the same time the Minister-President of Prussia
and the Chancellor of the Empire. On the functions
of the various ministries see Dupriez, Les
Ministres, I., 448-462.]

For it is essential to observe that in Prussia ministers are
responsible only to the sovereign, which means that the parliamentary
system, in the proper sense, does not exist. The constitution, it is
true, prescribes that every act of the king shall be countersigned by
a minister, who thereby assumes responsibility for it.[375] But there
is no machinery whereby this nominal responsibility can be made, in
practice, to mean anything. Ministers do not retire by reason of an
adverse vote in the Landtag; and, although upon vote of either
legislative chamber, they may be prosecuted for treason, bribery, or
violation of the constitution, no penalties are prescribed in the
event of conviction, so that the provision is of no practical
effect.[37