to meet
every legal requirement imposed upon the Council as a whole.[81] (p. 061)
All councillors are appointed by the crown and continue in office for
life or until dismissed. Their number is unlimited, and the only
qualification necessary for appointment is British nativity. Members
fall into three groups: (1) members of the cabinet; (2) holders of
certain important non-political offices who by custom are entitled to
appointment; (3) persons eminent in politics, literature, law, or
science, or by reason of service rendered the crown, upon whom the
dignity is conferred as an honorary distinction. Members bear
regularly the title of Right Honorable. The President of the Council,
designated by the crown, takes rank in the House of Lords next after
the Chancellor and Treasurer.[82]

[Footnote 80: On the nature of orders in council
see Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II.,
Pt. 1, 147-149.]

[Footnote 81: It is to be observed, however, that
despite the transfer of the business devolving
formerly upon the Council into the hands of the
specially constituted departments of government,
the Council does still, through the agency of its
committees, perform a modicum of actual service. Of
principal importance among the committees is the
Judicial Committee, which hears appeals in
ecclesiastical cases and renders final verdict in
all appeals coming from tribunals outside the
United Kingdom. See p. 175.]

[Footnote 82: Traill, Central Government, Chap.
12.]

*62. Ministry and Cabinet.*--Another governmental group which, like the
Privy Council, differs from the cabinet while containing it, is the
ministry. The ministry comprises a large and variable body of
functionaries, some of whom occupy the principal offices of state and
divide their efforts between advising the crown, i.e., formulating
governmental policy, and administering the affairs of their respective
departments, and others of whom, occupying less important executive
positions, do not possess, save indirectly, the advisory function. The
first group comprises, approximately at least, the cabinet. Most heads
of departments are regularly and necessarily in the c