In general, the head of a department of the executive government
is a mere politician. He may be a good politician, and a man of merit;
and unless this is usually the case, the government is bad. But his
general capacity, and the knowledge he ought to possess of the general
interests of the country, will not, unless by occasional accident,
be accompanied by adequate, and what may be called professional,
knowledge of the department over which he is called to preside.
Professional advisers must therefore be provided for him. Wherever
mere experience and attainments are sufficient wherever the
qualities required in a professional adviser may possibly be united in
a single well-selected individual (as in the case, for example, of a
law officer), one such person for general purposes, and a staff of
clerks to supply knowledge of details, meet the demands of the case.
But, more frequently, it is not sufficient that the minister should
consult some one competent person, and, when himself not conversant
with the subject, act implicitly on that person's advice. It is
often necessary that he should, not only occasionally but
habitually, listen to a variety of opinions, and inform his judgment
by the discussions among a body of advisers. This, for example, is
emphatically necessary in military and naval affairs. The military and
naval ministers, therefore, and probably several others, should be
provided with a Council, composed, at least in those two
departments, of able and experienced professional men.
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