, collectively responsible to
parliament, was not yet established. Government was largely carried on
by ministers working more or less independently of one another. In 1760
the cabinet, an informal committee of the privy council, was an
institution of a different character from that of to-day. During the
last two reigns it had included, along with the ministers holding the
chief political offices, whether of business or dignity, certain great
court officials, and some other personages of conspicuous position whose
assistance might be useful to the government. Nominally the "lords of
the cabinet" were fairly numerous. They did not all take an equal share
in government. The king's "most serious affairs" were directed by not
more than five or six of them, who formed a kind of inner cabinet, the
first lord of the treasury, the two secretaries of state, one or more of
the principal supporters of the administration, and generally the lord
chancellor. They discussed matters privately, sometimes settling what
should be laid before a cabinet meeting, and sometimes communicating
their decisions to the king as the advice of his ministers, without
submitting them to the cabinet at large.[3] Outside this small inner
circle the lords of the cabinet held a position rather of dignity than
of power, and some of them rarely attended a cabinet meeting.[4] This
arrangement was mainly due to the long predominance of Sir Robert
Walpole and to the overwhelming political influence of a few great whig
houses. The strife among the whigs which followed Walpole's retirement
and the critical character of foreign affairs tended to increase the
number of councillors who commonly took part in cabinet business.

[Sidenote: _THE CABINET._]

The first cabinet of George III. as settled with reference to a meeting
held on November 17, consisted of the keeper of the great seal (Lord
Henley), the president of the council (Lord Granville), the two
secretaries of state (Pitt and Holdernesse), the Duke of Newcastle
(first lord of the treasury), Lord Hardwicke (ex-chancellor), Lord Anson
(first lord of the admiralty), Lord Ligonier (master-general of the
ordnance), Lord Mansfield (lord chief-justice), the Duke of Bedford
(lord-lieutenant of Ireland) and the Duke of Devonshire (lord
chamberlain). If Lord Halifax (president of the board of trade) pleased,
he might attend to give information on American affairs; and Newcastle
suggested that Legge (the chancellor o