The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, IDLY &

Tux privilege debate in the House of Commons
last night will at least prove an important contri-
bution to our constitutional history. Lord PAIr
es,rii,i's resolutions, as they stood, just recog-
nised the great constitutional principle which the
vote of the Lords had threatened, but his speech
was one to destroy their value. The noble vie
count, as we well know, an deal only too lightly
and pleasantly with the most serious subjects.
But last night he showed a stronger desire than
usual to make things pleasant to all parties.
So strongly was he animated by the spirit of
peace, indeed, that he ventured on an elaborate
apology for the unusual conduct of the House of
Lords. They had, no doubt, he intimated, been
guilty of a constitutional indiscretion, but, after
all, they didn't mean any harm, and he
ventured to engage that if the House
of Commons forgave them this once, or
at least passed over their error with a quiet
reprimand, they would not do so any more. The
noble lord richly deserved the insidious praise
which, later in the evening, he received from Mr.
Drsa.►eLl. When the noble lord sat down the
debate took a more decided tone. Mr. Cot.-
tiax in an able and temperate speech annihilated
the argument from precedent by a complete analy-
sis of all the cases brought forward as bearing on
the late vote. Ho proved that so far from
any of these bills being simply bills to impose
or repeal taxation, in all of them the element of
taxation was only secondary, and in the great
majority utterly insignificant. A number of Libe-
ral members followed the hon. member for Ply.
mouth in the same strain, and showed that stronger
resolutions than those proposed by the Govern-
ment wouldhave been heartily welcomed by the sup-
portersof the Government. Meanwhile not a sound
was heard from the Oppoaition benches. Six members
on the liberal side of the House spoke in succes-
sion, but not a word was spoken by any Conserva-
tive member in support of ancient constitutional
usage, or of the rights and privileges of the Com-
mons. They sat in solemn silence, as if (accord-
ing to Mr. Beaxat (imoasz's suggestion) they
were mutes or mourners attending the funeral of
the constitution.

Mr. G LA LIMN E then rose and made the speech
of the evening. His powerful arguments and
earnest words would alone be sufficient to save the
character of the House, and redeem the debate
from the charge of having fallen below the ooze,
sion. He boldly challenged the Opposition to
discuss the constitutional question at issue, while
commending the prudence of the silence they had
hitherto observed. " Considering," said the CHAN-
o Btu,' of the EICH WEN, "that gentlemen op-
" pante are the partisans on this occasion of the
" most gigantic innovation—the most gigantic
" and the most dangerous that has been attempted
" in our time, I may compliment them on the
" prudence they have shown in resolving to he its
" silent partisans." He vindicated the reso-
lutions of the Government as a temperate, but at
the same time a firm and intelligible assertion of
the rights of the House. In reply to previous
speakers who had advocated • stronger line of
policy, Mr. GtsteeroNe frankly expressed his own
willingness to vindicate the privileges of the Com-
mons by actions as well as words, expressly re-
serving to himself full liberty to adopt any course
at all likely to secure this further end. This de-
claration elicited the greatest cheering that has
been heard in the House of Commons for many
week,. There was for some minutes a perfect
tempest of applause. The right hon. gentleman
then proceeded to vindicate his assertion that
the conduct of the Lords in rejecting the Paper
Bill was • gigantic innovation. The question of
precedent was soon disposed of. In the first
place the rights of the Commons were
deeper and stronger than formal precedents.
To vindicate their essential rights the Commons
had established many claims which the Lords had
never formally recognised. It is allowed, for
example, that the Lords have no power to origi-
nate or to amend money bills. On this point
Mr. tCLaL,ar,IN says Strange to say, some
" great doctors of the constitution are reported to
" have stated on recent occasions—and that this
" was allowed on all hands--that no money bill
" could be amended in the House of Lords. On
" the contrary, not only is there nothing on the
" rolls of the Lords, so far as the researches of the
" committee have gone, to prevent such amend-
" ment, but it is actually the fact that cases et
" amended money bills are more frequent this
" those where money bills hare been rejected by
" the House of Lords. Under cover of these
" broad in themselves but extravagant proposi-
" tions and untenable doctrines of privi-
.. lege, the House of Commons claiming
" everything, and the House of Lords eon-
" ceding nothing—under cover of that apparent
" conflict there has been a real, and there has
" continued up to the present time an unbroken
" harmony for 200 years. And the secret of that
" harmony is this, that both Houses, each appa-
" rently claiming a conflicting right, have meant
" the same thing. The House of Commons, by its
" privilege in money bills, meant to reserve to

" itself the integrity of the taxing power ; and
" the House of Lords, by declining to admit the
" claim of the House of Commons, intended to
" preserve to itself an effective means of prevent-
" bit the House of Commons from forcing on it
" other matters ci general legislation, and taking
" to it its jurisdiction under cover of the taxing
" power. This is the whole secret of the conflict in
" which the two Houses apparently stand towards
" each other."

But, again, admitting the force of prece-
dent, not one hitherto adduced has any bear-
ing upon the recent vote. The Lords have
never in any instance rejected a Bill having
no other object than the imposition or repeal
of a tax. In every one of the precedents
adduced taxation is an incidental, if not an insig-
nificant feature. The Lords have thus never
hitherto attempted to interfere directly with
that taxing power which is the essential
and most vital privilege of the Commons.
In illustration of his point Mr. GLADIRONS referred
to what took place twenty years ago, when the
Lords were placed in much the same position with
regard to the financial scheme of the Government
as during the present session. In 1839, after the
budget had been brought forward, and the income
and expenditure of tho country provided for the
year, a bill was brought in that swept away nearly
a million and a half of taxes the bill for
reducing the rate of postage to a penny.
But the Lords did not venture to reject this Bill,
though it created a clear deficit for the year of
1,400,0001. The strangest part of the story,
sa Mr. GuneroKs remarked, was, that the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer who sent that Bill to the
House of Lords was the very Mr. Branco Rica
who, as Lord MONTLAGLI, recently moved the
rejection of a similar Bill for saving very nearly
the same amount of revenue. Since the peace
of 1815 seventy-eight millions of taxes have been
repealed without a word of opposition from the
Upper House ; but now, at the seventy-ninth
million, the Lords attempt to set up a precedent
which, if established, would destroy the only
essential and distinctive right which the Commons
powwow This bold and triumphant vindication
et the privileges of the House thoroughly roused
the enthusiasm of its members ; and though Mr.
filLauerose'm speech was short, he has rarely made
one more effective or successfuL

Mr. WHITESIDE rose to repel the charge of
silence which had been brought against the Opposi-
sion, and to vindicate himself, his friends, and the
House of Lords from the charge of being abettors
of innovation. His method of doing this was
peculiar and rather Irish. It was by an appeal
to precedents, indeed, but to precedents that are
rarely regarded with favour, much less quoted as
authoritative on the right hon. gentleman's side of
the house. Mr. Wurrouna, in justification of the
course the Lords had pursued, appealed to the
rights and usages of the American Senate. The
Americans, he argued, were a wise and sagacious
people, sprung from ourselves, and he left it to be
inferred that what they did was not only right in
itself, but an example weighty enough to justify
imitation and silence opposition in this country.
We commend the right hon. gentleman's singular
reply to the charge of innovation to the attention
of his friends, and congratulate them on at length
having discovered some precedent in favour of the
unconstitutional and revolutionary course they
I have undertaken to defend.

Mr. Disasam's speech deserves to be well
pondered by every Englishman who is capable of
the sentiment of freedom. It demonstratively

shows that the aim of the Tories is to govern
England by the House of Lords. They
have employed that House of late years
to an alarming extent to interrupt and
arrest the course of liberal legislation, and
now they presumptuously grasp at the taxing
power. There can be no doubt that Lord JOHN
Rrsatii. was right in saying that their recent
act is intended as the prelude to further inno-
vation. To what purpose will it be that pains
are taken to reform the House of Commons
and make it a more faithful reflex
of the nation, if the irresponsible branch
of the Legislature is to be allowed to ex-
tend its encroachments with no other check than
some feeble resolutions which the Minister who
proposes them is impatient to explain
away ? The resolutions moved last night
might have sufficed had Lord PALIIIIINTON
permitted the House and the country
to believe that the Government intended that
they should form a basis for any action which
might become necessary ; but by his laboured
apology for the House of Lords he has done his
best to destroy their value, and for this ho pro-
perly receives the ostentatious thanks of Mr.
Dimasitu.

Cbc Court.

OSBORNE, TCLT b.

The Quecn and the Prince Cowart, &mew psaied
by the Duke of Haze Cobourg and the royal family, arrived
at Osborne yesterday evening at seven o'clock.
Her Majesty WY graciously pleased, on Tuesday last, to
stand sponsor, in person, to the infant son of Colonel and
the Hon. Mrs. T. M. Biddalph, in the private chapel at
liskiegliani Palace ; the Princes Frederick William of
Prairie, represented by Princess Alice, being another
11P001101%

Despatches were received vestenlay at the Colonial
Office from tbs Governors of Halt* and Bermuda. De-
spatches were sent to the Governors of theCapc, St. Helena,
and Natal.

We read in the Plymouth Journal:—" His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales will arrive in Plymouth on
Monday. No official notifmetion of the time, or any of the
pnnee's movements, had been received by the local autho-
rities up to last venting. The Hero, in which kb royal
highness is to embark, is lying in the Sound. The Arisdne
has also arrived. The Channel squadron may be expected
in the county of this day or tomorrow ; but there is a ru-
mour that they may not come till the day before the prince
is to embark, sod that they will not enter inside the Break-
water. It is also stated that so public reception of his
royal highuew will take place ; but this statement I. not
consistent with the fact that the Rifle Volunteers of the
eastern division of Cornwall have solicited and obtained
permission to be present at the prince's embarkation, and
form a guani of honour, as representatives of the county
from which his royal highness derives his title of duke.*
The Prince Alexia Cebolenalry has arrived at
Maurigy's Hotel from St. Petersburg.
The Earl and Countess of Bandon, Viscount
Bement, and the Ladies Bernant, hare left Penance's
Hotel for Castle Bernard, Inland.

The Bishop of Si: Da ;id 's has arrived at
lanurigy's Hotel from Abergwilly Palace, Carmarthen.
Mr. and Mrs. Washington If ihbert entertained
at dinner, on Wednesday. at their mansion in Dover-street,
Itzosilescy the Saxon Minister, the Duchess of Inver-
ness, the Duke of Rutland, the Marquis of Bristol, the
Marini+ of Tallibardine, the Earl and Countess of Cork,
the Countess of Fife, Lord and Lady Cecilia Bingham. Vis-
count and Vineentems Ingestre, Mr. and Ledy Lean Kok,
Lady Moleswerth, the Hon. Merriman' Manna *ad Mr.
Talbot Searle ; and yesterday the Marehieases of Sligo,
Baron and Lady Mary Wade, Viscount sad Viscountess
Torrington and Lady Rolle, Mr. sad Han. Mrs. Herbert,
of Llanartb, Lord Restore Cecil, Han. Hanks Temple,
Count de la Feld. Mr. and Lady Emma AnaseSse. Hoe.
Clorlfary Morgan, Colossi and Mn. M,y4aletess 1184nlph,
Mr. Arthur Scott, Mr. J. G. Drununosd, and Mr. George
ELWOOD.

EXPltig3l%
LATEST. INTBELIGE7'C'E.
NAPLES.
AND Inman Trimaara.)

roviDsirr.)
NAPLE% duLY 4.

(i
Praou oca owe
The Constitution of 1848 is announced.
Parliament is convoked for the 10th of Sep-
tember.

A commission has been appointed to draw up
laws on the following subjects :—The National
Guard, Administration, Council of State, and
Ministerial responsibility.
Naples is tranquil.
The constitutional party is more consolidated.

A Naples letter of the 30th says :

Two afternoons back the ex-director of police, /!Mossy
took refuge at the French embassy, and was concealed
there at the very moment when bands of rioters were paring
by, and who were very sharply harangued on their turbulent
conduct by one of the members of the legation. It was not with-
out difficulty and considerable danger that the man who for
the last month has made Naples tremble was got in safety
on board the Eylau. When he found himself safe on
board, he offered, as I have been informed by one of the
oaken present, something as a present to the attaoh4 of
the embassy who had saved his life. I leave you to judge
bow the offer was received. The Queen Mother has left
Naples with haw oadosar, but only for Gaeta ; the widow
of Ferdinand bee, I am assured, taken this journey very
lunch spurt her will.

The Paris journals& announce the arrival in that
city of M. Ajmer., referred to above.
A letter in the Opinion Nationale states that the
principal assailant of Baron Brenier has been dis-
covered to be a man named Manetta a notorious
character, formerly in the service of the police, but
that he has not yet been arrested.
The Official Journal of Naples has changed its
title, and is now called The Constitutional Journal
of the Two Sicilia.