t and Lord Halifax continued to be
Secretaries of State; Lord Henley (afterward Lord Northington) retained
the Great Seal; Lord North and Sir John Turner remained as Lords of the
Treasury; and Mr. Yorke and Sir Fletcher Norton were still Attorney and
Solicitor General.]

[Footnote 5: Parliament was prorogued April 19, and _The North Briton_
(No. 45) was published April 23.]

[Footnote 6: A letter of the Prince Consort examines the principle of
ministerial responsibility with so remarkable a clearness of perception
and distinctness of explanation, that we may be excused for quoting it
at length: "The notion that the responsibility of his advisers impairs
the monarch's dignity and importance is a complete mistake. Here we have
no law of ministerial responsibility, for the simple reason that we have
no written constitution; but this responsibility flows as a logical
necessity from the dignity of the crown and of the sovereign. 'The King
can do no wrong,' says the legal axiom, and hence it follows that
somebody must be responsible for his measures, if these be contrary to
law or injurious to the country's welfare. Ministers here are not
responsible _qua_ ministers, that is, _qua_ officials (as such they are
responsible to the crown), but they are responsible to Parliament and
the people, or the country, as 'advisers of the crown.' Any one of them
may advise the crown, and whoever does so is responsible to the country
for the advice he has given. The so-called accountability of ministers
to Parliament does not arise out of an abstract principle of
responsibility, but out of the practical necessity which they are under
of obtaining the consent of Parliament to legislation and the voting of
taxes, and, as an essential to this end, of securing its confidence. In
practice, ministers are liable to account for the way and manner in
which they have administered the laws which they, conjointly with the
Parliament, have made, and for the way they have expended the moneys
that have been voted for definite objects. They are bound to furnish
explanations, to justify their proceedings, to satisfy reasonable
scruples, and the answer, 'We have, as dutiful subjects, obeyed the
sovereign,' will not be accepted. 'Have you acted upon conviction, or
have you not?' is the question. 'If you have not, then you are civil
servants of the crown, who counsel and do what you consider wrong or
unjust, with a view to retain your snug places or to win th