The Commonwealth of Nations; an inquiry into the nature of citizenship in the British Empire, and into the mutual relations of the several communities thereofPt1 . in different ways, and different policiesmay be involved in their execution, according to thedisposition of the executive entrusted with the was only in the nature of things that the policyof the King should at times differ from that whichParliament or the nation would have preferred, andin such cases the only remedy open to Parliamentwas to refuse to vote supplies until their wishes wereobserved. But a control which can onl
The Commonwealth of Nations; an inquiry into the nature of citizenship in the British Empire, and into the mutual relations of the several communities thereofPt1 . in different ways, and different policiesmay be involved in their execution, according to thedisposition of the executive entrusted with the was only in the nature of things that the policyof the King should at times differ from that whichParliament or the nation would have preferred, andin such cases the only remedy open to Parliamentwas to refuse to vote supplies until their wishes wereobserved. But a control which can only be exercisedby paralysing government is a precarious does not follow that a ship will stay where it isif the stokers refuse to shovel the coal until thenavigating officer has agreed to steer the course theydesire; for while the controversy is proceeding the shipmay drift on the rocks. If some such system has sofar worked in the United States it is merely becauseit happens to be far removed from hostile shores. It was in order to solve this difficulty that theCrown attempted in the seventeenth and eighteenth 1 See Note D at the end of Chapter 106 THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH centuries to recover control of the legislature, partlyby packing the House of Commons with its ownnominees, and partly by buying the votes of itsmembers. Rotten boroughs, or sham constituencies,in which the electors were so few as to be amenable tothe influence of the Crown, were created. Patronageand money were freely used to influence votes inParliament itself. These practices were graduallystopped by a series of reforms which removed themembers from the influence of the Crown, andrendered them more accountable to the constituencieswhich elected them. But the solution of the problemwas only reached when the sovereign ceased to dis-charge the functions of the executive, and transferredthem to the minister who, for the time being, wTasregarded as their leader by the majority in theHouse of Comm
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