You shall, in all things to be moved, treated and debated in Council, faithfully and truly declare your Mind and Opinion according to your Heart and Conscience; and shall keep secret all Matters committed and revealed unto you, or that shall be treated of secretly in Council. And if any of the said Treaties or Councils shall touch any of the Counsellors, you shall not reveal it unto him, but shall keep the same until such time as, by the Consent of his Majesty, or of the Council, Publication shall be made thereof.
The oath winds up, “So help you God and the Holy contents of this book,” though by an Act of 1889 affirmation may be substituted for the oath.
Disraeli, who knew something about the formation of Ministries, has described the antithesis of the Ministry of All the Talents, in his novel Endymion, as the Ministry of Untried Men. There is much fact and some fiction in the description. The Ministry was the one formed by Lord Derby in 1852, with Disraeli himself in it as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Derby, leader of the Protectionists, seemed to have a difficult task, for, barring himself, there was no one to choose who had already held office. The task, Disraeli tells us, was accomplished in this way: “A dozen men without the slightest experience of official life had to be sworn in as Privy Councillors before they could receive the seals and insignia of their intended offices. On their knees, according to official custom, a dozen men, all in the act of genuflexion at the same moment, and headed, too, by one of the most powerful peers in the country, the Lord of Alnwick Castle himself, humbled themselves before a female Sovereign, who looked serene and imperturbable before a spectacle never seen before, and which in all probability will never be seen again. One of the band, a gentleman without any experience whatever, was not only placed in the Cabinet, but was absolutely required to become the Leader of the House of Commons, which had never occurred before, except in the instance of Mr. Pitt in 1782.” Lord Beaconsfield’s confession, it is well to recall, appeared after his final disappearance from the political scene.
When the whole Cabinet has thus qualified for admission to the Privy Council, his Majesty declares Lord President of the Council the Minister appointed to that office, who thereupon takes the oath to “well and truly serve his Majesty,” and kisses his Majesty’s hand. The other Ministers take a similar oath in due order, beginning with the Lord Chancellor, who receives the Great Seal, followed by the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury; and those who are entitled to seals receive them from the King, while the others kiss his Majesty’s hand in acceptance of office. Thus does the Sovereign ratify the selections of the Prime Minister for the various posts in the Administration.
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Lord Campbell relates in his Diary that in 1859, as the members of the Palmerston Administration, in which he held the office of Lord Chancellor, were going down to Windsor by special train, they passed another express returning to London with the outgoing Premier, Lord Derby, and his colleagues. What an opening for aspiring young statesmen if a wicked wag of a railway director had ordered the two trains to be put on the same line, was the genial comment of the Lord Chancellor! Sir Stafford Northcote, who was a Minister in the next Derby Administration, formed in July 1866, also gives some interesting glimpses of the proceedings associated with a change of Government. He writes: “Queen’s carriages met us at the terminus and took us to Windsor Castle. As we went upstairs we met the late Ministers coming down, and shook hands with them. While we were waiting in the long room there was a sharp thunderstorm, and there was another while we were at luncheon, after taking office. The slopes of the Terrace looked as if there had been a fall of snow. Some thought this a bad omen for us. Disraeli had a bad omen of his own as we came down, for, thinking there was a seat at the end of the saloon carriage, he sat down there, and found himself unexpectedly on the floor.” This Administration lasted scarcely two years; but, despite the ill-omened accident to Disraeli, it was for that statesman a fortunate Administration. In it he first filled the great office of Prime Minister, to which he succeeded on the resignation of Lord Derby, on account of failing health, early in 1868.
But to return to Windsor Castle. Sir Stafford Northcote goes on to say: “Lord Derby was first sent for by the Queen, and had a short audience. We were then all taken along the corridor to the door of a small room, or, rather, closet. Lord Derby, Lord Chelmsford, and Walpole were called in; then the five new members of the Privy Council—Duke of Buckingham, Carnarvon, Cranborne, Hardy, and I—were called in together, and knelt before the Queen while we took the oath of allegiance; then we kissed hands, rose, and took the Privy Councillor’s oath standing. The Queen then named the Duke of Buckingham Lord President of the Council, and we all retired. The Prince of Wales and Duke of Edinburgh were in the room. We were then called in one by one and kissed hands on appointment to office, Lord Derby going first, then the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President, the Lord Privy Seal, the Secretaries of State (all together), the Chancellor of the Exchequer, etc. The seals were delivered to all these, except the Lord President. Lord Derby then had a long audience with the Queen, while we went to luncheon. Returned by special train at four o’clock.” John Bright was the only Minister who, so far as I know, was relieved of the obligation to kneel and kiss the Sovereign’s hands on receiving the seals of office. When he went to Windsor on his appointment as President of the Board of Trade, Queen Victoria, a great admirer of his speeches, sent Helps, Clerk to the Privy Council, to tell Bright she would dispense with the ceremony if that was more agreeable to his feelings as a Quaker, and he availed himself of this “considerate permission,” as he regarded it.
How a Minister (Henry Chaplin, afterwards Lord Chaplin) held the seals of the Secretary of State for War, for the briefest period possible, is mentioned in the diary of Lord Cranbrook, when he enters the visit to Windsor of the Conservative Ministry of 1885 upon taking office. “There was no contretemps but the careless omission of the kissing hands by Northcote, which was soon set right; and her Majesty gave Chaplin the War Office seals by mistake, easily rectified. Still, there should be some distinctive mark on each set.”