In the closet they speak with the authority of men who stand high in the estimation of the representatives of the people.

In Parliament they speak with the authority of men versed in great affairs and acquainted with all the secrets of the State.

Thus the Cabinet has something of the popular character of a representative body; and the representative body has something of the gravity of a cabinet.
Sometimes the state of parties is such that no set of men who can be brought together possesses the full confidence and steady support of a majority of the House of Commons.

When this is the case, there must be a weak Ministry; and there will probably be a rapid succession of weak Ministries.

At such times the House of Commons never fails to get into a state which no person friendly to representative government can contemplate without uneasiness, into a state which may enable us to form some faint notion of the state of that House during the earlier years of the reign of William.