CHAPTER VII 
THE CABINET SYSTEM IN THE DOMINIONS 
£1. Tae CABINETS OF THE DOMINIONS 
Tue Cabinet system in the Colonies is chiefly remarkable 
because of its close resemblance to the English model on 
which it is based. The conventions of the English constitu- 
tion are followed in a manner which is almost embarrassing 
in its closeness of imitation, and the number of experiments 
which have been tried is very small, and they have been 
onimportant in actual result. 
There is a certain difference in the nature of the Cabinet : 
in England the Cabinet is a body scarcely known in formal 
law, formed out of the Privy Council, and besides the Cabinet 
a Government includes ministers who have offices, and may 
or may not be Privy Councillors, but are not of the Cabinet. 
The Privy Council itself is a body including Cabinet members, 
ex-Cabinet members, ministers and ex-ministers, who have 
been called to the board, and many other persons who have 
been given the rank mainly as a compliment, such as am- 
bassadors, prominent politicians, and distinguished men of 
various kinds, including occasionally a man like the late 
Professor Max Miller, who was appointed because of his 
great literary and social qualities. 
To this body there is nothing in the Dominions precisely 
corresponding. In the first place, in many of the Dominions 
and States, and in the Canadian Provinces, the rule is simply 
that the Cabinet is the Executive Council pure and simple : 
there may be members of that body who are more closely 
in the confidence of the Premier than the others, but that 
is equally true of the Imperial Cabinet, and the only deter- 
mining feature is whether or not they are invited to the 
formal meetings of the body, and in both cases the whole 
Cabinet meets for discussion. It is the rule in Newfoundland, 
in the Provinces of Canada, in New South Wales, in South