ABSTRACT
In Great Britain the rise of the Cabinet to a dominant position was a political fact long before the outbreak of the war. The crisis potential of the cabinet system of government has never been more dramatically illustrated than in this British experience of the first World War. The War Cabinet was composed of Lloyd George as Prime Minister, Lord Curzon as President of the Council, Bonar Law as Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, and Lord Milner and Arthur Henderson as Ministers without portfolio. The rise of the Cabinet was matched step for step by the decline of Parliament, and the role of the British legislature in World War I was much less effective than that played by its French counterpart. For the duration of the war the ancient British liberties—consecrated in such documents as Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights—were at the mercy of the government.
