The Nature of the Cabinet

The Cabinet has been described as ‘such of Her Majesty's confidential servants as are of the Privy Council’. Like some of Dr Johnson's definitions, this raises more questions than it solves. When Lord Melbourne used the phrase in one of his letters to Queen Victoria, the editors of the Queen's Letters thought it necessary to insert a footnote to explain what it meant. The nature of the Cabinet is more easily explained by analogy than by definition. It is the board of directors for Great Britain and all those parts of the Commonwealth which do not possess self-government. It is said to be a body of servants of the Crown because, usually, its members hold office under the Crown, though, as has been explained in ch. III, members without portfolio are not uncommon. They are said to be confidential servants because they determine the main issues of the ‘Queen's’ policy. They belong to the Privy Council because, historically, the Cabinet is a private meeting of those Privy Councillors in whom the Sovereign has particular ‘confidence’ for the time being.

The definition is, in short, a relic of history. In substance, the Cabinet is the directing body of the national policy. Consisting of the principal leaders of the party in power, it is able to forward that policy by reason of its control of the House of Commons.