Note 276 — Chapter XV · ON THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. (continued 2)

"The method is this," says a member in debate; "things are concerted in the cabinet, and then brought to the council; such a thing is resolved in the cabinet, and brought and put on them for their assent, without showing any of the reasons. That has not been the method of England. If this method be, you will never know who gives advice." Parl. Hist. v. 731.

In Sir Humphrey Mackworth's [or perhaps Mr. Harley's] "Vindication of the Rights of the Commons of England, 1701," Somers Tracts, xi. 276, the constitutional doctrine is thus laid down, according to the spirit of the recent act of settlement. "As to the setting of the great seal of England to foreign alliances, the lord chancellor, or lord keeper for the time being, has a plain rule to follow; that is, humbly to inform the king that he cannot legally set the great seal of England to a matter of that consequence unless the same be first debated and resolved in council; which method being observed, the chancellor is safe, and the council answerable."—P. 293.