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CABINET

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 920 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CABINET , a word with various applications which may be traced to two See also:

principal meanings, (I) a small private chamber, and (2) an See also:article of See also:furniture containing compartments formed of drawers, shelves, &c. The word is a diminutive of " See also:cabin " and therefore properly means a small hut or shelter. This meaning is now obsolete; the New See also:English See also:Dictionary quotes from Leonard See also:Digges's Stratioticos (published with additions by his son See also:Thomas in 1579), " the See also:Lance Knights encamp always in the See also:field very strongly, two or three to a Cabbonet." From the use both of the article of furniture and of a small chamber for the safe-keeping of a collection of valuable prints, pictures, medals or other See also:objects, the word is frequently applied to such a collection or to objects See also:fit for such safe-keeping. The name of Cabinet du Roi was given to the collection of prints prepared by the best artists of the 17th See also:century by See also:order of See also:Louis XIV. These were intended to commemorate the See also:chief events of his reign, and also to reproduce the paintings and sculptures and other See also:art treasures contained in the royal palaces. It was begun in 1667 and was placed under the superintendence of See also:Nicholas See also:Clement (1647 or 1651-1712), the royal librarian. The collection was published ib 1727. The plates are now in the Louvre. A " cabinet " edition 918 of a See also:literary See also:work is one of somewhat small See also:size, and See also:bound in such a way as would suit a tasteful collection. The See also:term is applied also to a size of photograph of a larger size than the See also:carte de visite but smaller than the " See also:panel." The See also:political use of the term is derived from the private chamber of the See also:sovereign or See also:head of a See also:state in which his advisers met. Cabinet in Furniture.—The artificer who constructs furniture is still called a " cabinet-maker," although the manufacture of cabinets, properly so called, is now a very occasional See also:part of his work. Cabinets can be divided into a very large number of classes according to their shape, See also:style, See also:period and See also:country of origin; but their usual characteristic is that they are supported upon a stand, and that they contain a See also:series of drawers and See also:pigeon-holes.

The name is, however, now given to many pieces of furniture for the safe-keeping or See also:

exhibition of valuable objects, which really See also:answer very little to the old conception of a cabinet. The cabinet represented an See also:evolution brought about by the necessities of convenience, and it appealed to so many tastes and needs that it rapidly became universal in the houses of the See also:gentle classes, and in See also:great measure took the impress of the peoples who adopted it. It would appear to have originated in See also:Italy, probably at the very beginning of the 16th century. In its rudimentary See also:form it was little more than an oblong See also:box, with or without feet, small enough to stand upon a table or See also:chair, filled with drawers and closed with doors. In this See also:early form its restricted dimensions permitted of its use only for the safeguard of jewels, See also:precious stones and some-times See also:money. One of the earliest cabinets of which we have mention belonged to See also:Francis I. of See also:France, and is described as covered with gilt See also:leather, tooled with mauresque work. As the See also:Renaissance became See also:general these early forms gave See also:place to larger, more elaborate and more architectural efforts, until the cabinet became one of the most sumptuous of See also:household adornments. It was natural that the countries which were earliest and most deeply touched by the Renaissance should excel in the designing of these See also:noble and costly pieces of furniture. The cabinets of Italy, France and the See also:Netherlands were especially See also:rich and monumental. Those of Italy and See also:Flanders are often of great magnificence and of real See also:artistic skill, though like all other furniture their style was often grievously debased, and their details incongruous and bizarre. Flanders and See also:Burgundy were, indeed, their lands of See also:adoption, and See also:Antwerp added to its renown as a See also:metropolis of art by developing consummate skill in their manufacture and adornment. The cost and importance of the finer types have ensured the preservation of innumerable examples of all but the very earliest periods; and the student never ceases to be impressed by the extraordinary variety of the work of the 16th and 17th centuries, and very often of the 18th also.

The basis of the cabinet has always been See also:

wood, carved, polished or inlaid; but lavish use has been made of See also:ivory, See also:tortoise-See also:shell, and those cut and polished precious stones which the Italians See also:call pietra dura. In the great Flemish period of the 17th century the doors and drawers of cabinets were often painted with classical or mythological scenes. Many See also:French and Florentine cabinets were also painted. In many classes the drawers and pigeon-holes are enclosed by folding doors, carved or inlaid, and often painted on the inner sides. Perhaps the most favourite type during a great part of the 16th and 17th centuries—a type which See also:grew so See also:common that it became cosmopolitan—was characterized by a conceit which acquired astonishing popularity. When the folding doors are opened there is disclosed in the centre of the cabinet a tiny but palatial interior. Floored with alternate squares of See also:ebony and ivory to imitate a See also:black and See also:white See also:marble See also:pavement, adorned with Corinthian columns or pilasters, and surrounded by mirrors, the effect, if occasionally affected and artificial, is quite as often exquisite. Although cabinets have been produced in See also:England in considerable variety, and sometimes of very elegant and graceful form, the See also:foreign makers on the whole produced the most elaborate and monumental examples. As we have said, Italy and the Nether-lands acquired especial distinction in this See also:kind of work. In France, which has always enjoyed a See also:peculiar See also:genius for assimilating modes in furniture, Flemish cabinets were so greatly in demand that See also:Henry IV. determined to establish the See also:industry in his owndominions. He therefore sent French workmen to the See also:Low Countries to acquire the art of making cabinets, and especially those which were largely constructed of ebony and ivory. Among these workmen were See also:Jean See also:Mace and See also:Pierre See also:Boulle, a member of a See also:family which was destined to acquire something approaching See also:immortality.

Many of the Flemish cabinets so called, which were in such high favour in France and also in England, were really armoires consisting of two bodies superimposed, whereas the cabinet proper does not reach to the See also:

floor. Pillared and fluted, with panelled sides, and front elaborately carved with masks and human figures, these pieces which were most often in See also:oak were exceedingly harmonious and balanced. See also:Long before this, how-ever, France had its own school of makers of cabinets, and some of their carved work was of the most admirable See also:character. At a somewhat later date See also:Andre See also:Charles Boulle made many pieces to which the name of cabinet has been more or less loosely given. They were usually of massive proportions and of extreme elaboration of See also:marquetry. The See also:North See also:Italian cabinets, and especially those which were made or influenced by the Florentine school, were grandiose and often gloomy. Conceived on a palatial See also:scale, painted or carved, or incrusted with marble and pietra dura, they were intended for the adornment of galleries and lofty See also:bare apartments where they were not See also:felt to be overpowering. These North Italian cabinets were often covered with intarsia or marquetry, which by its subdued gaiety retrieved somewhat their heavy stateliness of form, It is, however, often difficult to ascribe a particular See also:fashion of shape or of workmanship to a given country, since the interchange of ideas and the imports of actual pieces caused a rapid assimilation which destroyed frontiers. The See also:close connexion of centuries between See also:Spain and the Netherlands, for instance, led to the See also:production north and See also:south of work that was not definitely characteristic of either. Spain, however, was more closely influenced than the Low Countries, and contains to this See also:day See also:numbers of cabinets which are not easily to be distinguished from the characteristic ebony, ivory and tortoise-shell work of the craftsmen whose skill was so rapidly acquired by the emissaries of Henry IV. The cabinets of See also:southern See also:Germany were much influenced by the See also:models of See also:northern Italy, but retained to a See also:late date some of the characteristics of domestic See also:Gothic work such as elaborately fashioned wrought-See also:iron handles and polished See also:steel hinges. Often, indeed, 17th-century South Germany work is a curious blend of Flemish and Italian ideas executed in oak and Hungarian ash.

Such work, however interesting, necessarily lacks simplicity and repose. A curious little detail of Flemish and Italian, and sometimes of French later 17th-century cabinets, is that the interiors of the drawers are often lined with stamped See also:

gold or See also:silver See also:paper, or marbled ones somewhat similar to the " end papers " of old books. The great English cabinet-makers of the 18th century were very various in their cabinets, which did not always answer strictly to their name; but as a See also:rule they will not See also:bear comparison with the native work of the preceding century, which was most commonly executed in richly marked See also:walnut, frequently enriched with excellent marquetry of See also:woods. See also:Mahogany was the dominating See also:timber in English furniture from the See also:accession of See also:George II. almost to the See also:time of the See also:Napoleonic See also:wars; but many cabinets were made in See also:lacquer or in the See also:bright-hued foreign woods which did so much to give lightness and See also:grace to the See also:British style. The See also:glass-fronted cabinet for See also:China or glass was in high favour in the Georgian period, and for pieces of that type, for which massiveness would have been inappropriate, satin and See also:tulip woods, and other timbers with a handsome See also:grain taking a high See also:polish were much used. (J. P.-B.) The Political Cabinet.—Among English political institutions, the " Cabinet " is a conventional but not a legal term employed to describe those members of the privy See also:council who fill the highest executive offices in the state, and by their concerted policy See also:direct the See also:government, and are responsible for all the acts of the See also:crown. The cabinet now always includes the persons filling the following offices, who are therefore called " cabinet ministers?" viz. :—the first See also:lord of the See also:treasury, the lord See also:chancellor of England, the lord See also:president of the council, the lord privy See also:seal, the five secretaries of state, the chancellor of the See also:exchequer of the See also:ministry between the two Houses of See also:Parliament. See also:Pitt's cabinet of 1783 consisted of himself in the See also:House of See also:Commons and seven peers. But so aristocratic a government would now be impracticable. In See also:Gladstone's cabinet of 1868, eight, and afterwards nine, ministers were in the House of Commons and six in the House of Lords.

Great efforts were made to strengthen the ministerial See also:

bench in the Commons, and a new principle was introduced, that the representatives of what are called the spending departments—that is, the secretary of state for See also:war and the first lord of the admiralty—should, if possible, be members of the House which votes the supplies. Disraeli followed this precedent but it has since been disregarded. In See also:Sir H. See also:Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet formed in 1905, six ministers were in the House of Lords and thirteen in the House of Commons. Cabinets are usually convoked by a See also:summons addressed to " His See also:Majesty's confidential servants " by the See also:prime See also:minister; and the See also:ordinary place of See also:meeting is either at the See also:official See also:residence of the first lord of the treasury in See also:Downing See also:Street or at the foreign See also:office, but they may be held anywhere. No secretary or other officer is See also:present at the deliberations of this council. No official See also:record is kept of its proceedings, and it is even considered a See also:breach of ministerial confidence to keep a private record of what passed in the cabinet, inasmuch as such memoranda may fall into other hands. But on some important occasions, as is known from the See also:Memoirs of Lord See also:Sidmouth, the See also:Correspondence of See also:Earl See also:Grey with See also:King See also:William IV., and from Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel's Memoirs, published by permission of See also:Queen See also:Victoria, cabinet minutes are See also:drawn up and submitted to the sovereign, as the most formal manner in which the See also:advice of the ministry can be tendered to the crown and placed upon record. (See also Sir Algernon See also:West's Recollections, 1899.) More commonly, it is the See also:duty of the prime minister to See also:lay the collective See also:opinion of his colleagues before the sovereign, and take his See also:pleasure on public See also:measures and appointments The sovereign never presides at a cabinet; and at the meetings of the privy council, where the sovereign does preside, the business is purely formal. It has been laid down by some writers as a principle of the British constitution that the sovereign is never present at a discussion between the advisers of the crown; and this is, no doubt, an established fact and practice. But like many other political usages of Great See also:Britain it originated in a happy See also:accident. King William and Queen See also:Anne always presided at weekly cabinet See also:councils.

But when the Hanoverian princes ascended the See also:

throne, they knew no English, and were barely able to converse at all with their ministers; for George I. or George II. to take part in, or even to listen to, a debate in council was impossible. When George III. mounted the throne the practice of the See also:independent deliberations of the cabinet was *ell established, and it has never been departed from. Upon the resignation or See also:dissolution of a ministry, the sovereign exercises the undoubted See also:prerogative of selecting the See also:person who may be thought by him most fit to form a new cabinet. In several instances the statesmen selected by the crown have found themselves unable to accomplish the task confided to them. But in more favourable cases the minister chosen for this supreme office by the crown has the See also:power of distributing all the political offices of the government as may seem best to himself, subject only to the ultimate approval of the sovereign. The prime minister is therefore in reality the author and constructor of the cabinet; he holds it together; and in the event of his retirement, from whatever cause, the cabinet is really dissolved, even though its members are again See also:united under another head. and the first lord of the See also:admiralty. The chancellor of the duchy of See also:Lancaster, the postmaster-general, the first See also:commissioner of See also:works, the president of the See also:board of See also:trade, the chief secretary for See also:Ireland, the lord chancellor of Ireland, the president of the See also:local government board, the president of the board of See also:agriculture, and the president of the board of See also:education, are usually members of the cabinet, but not necessarily so. A See also:modern cabinet contains from sixteen to twenty members. It used to be said that a large cabinet is an evil; and the increase in its numbers in See also:recent years has often been criticized. But the modern widening of the See also:franchise has tended to give the cabinet the character of an executive See also:committee for the party in power, no less than that of the prime-minister's consultative committee, and to make such a committee representative it is necessary to include the holders of all the more important offices in the See also:administration, who are generally selected as the influential politicians of the party rather than for See also:special aptitude in the work of the departments. The word " cabinet," or "cabinet council," was originally employed as a term of reproach.

Thus Lord See also:

Bacon says, in his See also:essay Of Counsel (xx.), " The See also:doctrine of Italy and practice of France, in some See also:kings' times, hath introduced cabinet councils —a remedy worse than the disease "; and, again, " As for cabinet councils, it may be their See also:motto Plenus rimarum sum." Lord Clarendon—after stating that, in 164o, when the great Council of Peers was convened by the king at See also:York, the See also:burden of affairs rested principally on See also:Laud, See also:Strafford and See also:Cottington, with five or six others added to them on See also:account of their official position and ability—adds, " These persons made up the committee of state, which was reproachfully after called the Juncto, and enviously then in See also:court the Cabinet Council." And in the Second Remonstrance in See also:January 1642, parliament complained " of the managing of the great affairs of the See also:realm in Cabinet Councils by men unknown and not publicly trusted." But this use of the term, though historically curious, has in truth nothing in common with the modern application of it. It meant, at that time, the employment of a select See also:body of favourites by the king, who were supposed to possess a larger See also:share of his confidence than the privy council at large. Under the Tudors, at least from the later years of Henry VIII. and under the Stuarts, the privy council was the council of state or government. During the See also:Commonwealth it assumed that name. The Cabinet Council, properly so called, See also:dates from the reign of William III. and from the See also:year 1693, for it was not until some years after the Revolution that the king discovered and adopted the two fundamental principles of a constitutional executive government, namely, that a ministry should consist of statesmen holding the same political principles and identified with each other; and, secondly, that the ministry should stand upon a See also:parliamentary basis, that is, that it must command and retain the See also:majority of votes in the legislature. It was long before these principles were thoroughly worked out and understood, and the perfection to which they have been brought in modern times is the result of time, experience and in part of accident. But the result is that the cabinet council for the time being is the government of Great Britain; that all the See also:powers vested in the sovereign (with one or two exceptions) are practically exercised by the members of this body; that all the members of the cabinet are jointly and severally responsible for all its measures, for if See also:differences o> opinion arise their existence is unknown as long as the cabinet lasts—when publicly manifested the cabinet is at an end; and lastly, that the cabinet, being responsible to the sovereign for the conduct of executive business, is also collectively responsible to parliament both for its executive conduct and for its legislative measures, the same men being as members of the cabinet the servants of the crown, and as members of parliament and leaders of the majority responsible to those who support them by their votes and may See also:challenge in debate every one of their actions. In this latter sense the cabinet has sometimes been described as a See also:standing committee of both Houses of Parliament. One of the consequences of the close connexion of the cabinet with the legislature is that it is desirable to See also:divide the strength 920 A. Todd, Parliamentary Government in England (1867–x869); much valuable See also:information will also be found in such works as W. E. Gladstone's Gleanings; the third earl of See also:Malmesbury's Memoirs of an ex-Minister (1884–1885); Greville's Memoirs; Sir A.

West's Recollections, 1832–1886 (1889), &c.

End of Article: CABINET

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