ABSTRACT
Sir Arthur Helps followed Taylor in expressing the contrary case for official independence: discretion and initiative exercised by executive agents who would do the politician's ‘inventive and suggestive’ work. This was the starting point for the modern discovery of the separateness of administration. But the language for expressing the idea had to be created: there was as yet no word for administration, or civil service or, indeed, minister. The charm of Helps’s style depends, then, on the modesty of his practical purpose and in this very restraint his usefulness lies. Typical of a certain sort of Victorian career, they both composed series of short pieces of advice on the demands of administrative behaviour. In so doing they expressed views about the arts of rising and the role of Parliament which were, perhaps, unacceptable at the time. Helps was, too, a stranger to his time in being prepared to criticize the responsible ministerial department.
