Cabinet

Certain officers who, taken collectively, form a council or advisory board; as the cabinet of the president of the United States, which is composed of the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of the interior, the secretary of war, the secretary of the navy, the secretary of agriculture, the attorney general, the secretary of commerce, the secretary of labor, and the postmaster general.

Certain officers who, taken collectively, form a council or advisory board; as the cabinet of the president of the United States, which is composed of the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of the interior, the secretary of war, the secretary of the navy, the secretary of agriculture, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, the secretary of commerce and the secretary of labor. See Departments. "The president — not the cabinet — is responsible for all the measures of the administration, and whatever is done by one of the heads of department is considered as done by the president, through the proper executive agent;" 1 Cooley's Bla. Com. 232. The cabinet, as such, has no legal existence. In passing the act (1913) creating the department of labor, a provision that the incumbent should "be a member of the cabinet" was stricken out. In case of the removal, death, resignation or inability of both the president and vicepresident of the United States, then the members of the cabinet shall act as president until such disability is removed or a president elected, in the following order: the secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, attorney-general, postmaster-general, secretary of the navy, and the remaining (and more recently created) secretaries. These officers are the heads of their respective departments; and by the constitution (art. 2, sec. 2) the president may require the opinion in writing of these officers upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective departments. These officers respectively have, under different acts of congress, the power of appointing many inferior officers charged with duties relating to their departments. See Const, art. 2, sec. 2. The cabinet meets frequently at the executive mansion, by direction of the president. No record of its doings is kept; and it has, as a body, no legal authority. Its action is advisory merely; and the president and heads of departments in the execution of their official duties may disregard the advice of the cabinet and take the responsibility of independent action. See Lerned, The President's Cabinet. In Great Britain, the members of the Ministry are the heads of various executive departments of the government. The Prime Minister and his associates, having been selected from the party in power in the House of Commons, may be said to be in control of the House. If they lose their majority in the House, they resign office in a body and a new Ministry is then chosen from the new party in power. The head of the Cabinet and of the Ministry is the Prime Minister, who is selected by the Crown. He chooses his colleagues, but his choice really extends rather to the division of offices and to the choice of ministers; he is in effect limited to the prominent parliamentary leaders of his own party. He almost invariably holds the office of First Lord of the Treasury, unless he is a Peer, and then that t>ffice is held by the government leader of the House of Commons. His resignation dissolves the Cabinet. Other members of the Cabinet are: Lord Chancellor; the Chancellor of the Exchequer; the five Secretaries of State; the First Lord of the Admiralty; the Lord President of the Council; the Lord Privy Seal; the Attorney General; the Presidents of the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board and the Board of Education (of late years); the Chief Secretary for Ireland (except when the Lord Lieutenant is a member); the Secretary for Scotland; and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (usually). The President of the Board of Agriculture, and the Postmaster General are often members; the First Commissioner of Works and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland (occasionally). The tendency now is said to be towards including the head of any considerable branch of the administration. Lowell, Gov. of Engl. The king, under the British constitution, real responsibility of government in that country, therefore, rests with his ministers, some of whom constitute the cabinet. The king may dismiss his ministers if they do not possess his confidence; but they are seldom dismissed by the king. They ordinarily resign when they cannot command a majority in favor of their measures in the house of commons.

‘The advisory board or council of a king or other chiefexecutive. In the government of the United States the cabinet is composed of the secreiary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the sceretary of the interior, the secretary of war, the secretary of the navy, the secretary of agriculture, the attorney general, and the postmaster general. The select or secret council of a prince or executive government; 80 called from the apartment in which it was originally held. Webster.

See Department; President. CABIjI!. See Commerce; Telegraph. The act of Congress approved February 39, 1888 (25 St. L. 41), entitled an act to carry into effect the International Convention of March 14, 1834, for the protection of submarine cables, provides: " Section 1. That any person who shall willfully and wrongfully break or injure, or attempt to break or injure, or who shall in any manner procure, counsel, aid, abet, or be accessory to such breaking or injiu-y, or attempt to break or injure, a submarine cable, in such manner as to interrupt or embarrass, in whole or in part, telegraphic communication, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be hable'to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding Ave thousand dollars, or to both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court." " Sec. 2. That any person who by culpable negligence shall break or injure a submarine cable in such manner as to interrupt or embarrass, in whole or in part, telegraphic communication, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to a fine not exceeding five hxmdred dollars, or to both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the com't." Sec. 3. The foregoing sections shall not apply to a person who breaks or injtires a cable in an effort to save life or limb, or to save his own or any other vessel: Provided, that he takes reasonable precautions to avoid such breaking or injury. " Sec. 4. That the master of any vessel which, while engaged in laying or repairing submarine cables, shall fail to observe the rules concerning signals that have been or shall hereafter be adopted by the parties to the convention with a view to preventing collisions at sea: or the master of any vessel that, perceiving, or being able to perceive the said signals displayed upon a telegraph ship engaged in repairing a cable, shall not withdraw to or keep at a distance of at least one nautical mile; or the master of any vessel that seeing or being able to see buoys intended to mark the position of a cable when being laid or when out of order or broken, shall not keep at a distance of at least a quarter of a nautical mile, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month, or to a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars." Sec. 5. The master of any fishing vessel who shall not keep his implements or nets at a distance of at least one nautical mile from a vessel engaged in laying or repairing a cable, or at a distance of at least a quarter of a nautical mile from a buoy intended to mark the position of a cable when being laid or when out of order or broken, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be liable to imprisonment and imprisonment, at.the discretion of the court: Provided, hoioever, that fishing vessels, on perceiving or being able to perceive the said signals displayed on a telegraph ship, shall be allowed such time as may be necessary to obey the notice thus given, not exceeding twenty-four hours, during which period no obstacle shall be placed in the way of their operations. Sec. 6. A person commanding a ship of war of the United States or of any foreign state for the time being bound by the convention, or a ship specially commissioned by such government or state, may exercise and perform the duties vested in and imposed on suqh officer by the convention. Sec. 7. Any person having the custody of the papers necessary for the preparation of the statements provided for in article ten of the convention who shall refuse to exhibit them or shall violently resist persons having authority according to said article to draw up statements of facts in the exercise of their functions, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or to both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. Sec. 8. The penalties provided for the breaking or injury of a cable shall not be a bar to a suit for Sec. 9. "When an offense against this act shall have been committed by means of a vessel, or of any boat belonging to it, the master of such vessel shall, unless some other person is shown to have been in charge, be deemed to have been navigating the same, and be liable to be punished accordingly. Sec. 10. Unless the context of this act otherwise requires, the term "vessel" shall be taken to mean every description of vessel used in navigation, in whatever way it is propelled; " master" every person having command or charge of a vessel; and "person" to include a body of persons, coi-porate or incorporate. " Convention " shall mean the International Convention for the Protection of Submarine Cables, made at Paris, May 14, 1884, and proclaimed by the President of the United States May 23, 1885. Sec. 11. The provisions of the Revised Statutes, from § 4300 to 4305 inclusive, for the simamary trial of offenses against the navigation laws, shall extend to offenses against sections four and five of this act. Sec. 12. This act shall apply only to cables to which the convention for the time being applies. Sec. 13. The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction over all offenses against this act and of all suits of a civil nature arising thereunder, whether the infraction complained of shall have been committed within or outside of the territorial waters of the United States: Provided, that in case such infraction is committed outside of said waters the vessel is a vessel of the United States. From decrees and judgments, appeals and writs of error shall be allowed as now provided by law in other cases. Criminal actions and proceedings shall be prosecuted in the district court for the district within which the offense was committed, and when not committed within any judicial disti^ict, then in the district court in the district court for any district within which the defendant may be found and shall be served with process.