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 constitution
 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 ambassadors,
 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 determining
 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