The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 2.

THE presentation of the Report of the Com-
mittee of Privileges brings the House of Commons
face to face with its duty. The Committee have
found no precedent so conformed to present cir-
cumstances as to save the House the trouble of
asking itself what course is most in accordance
with the spirit of the Constitution. That ques-
tion cannot be shuffled like the Reform Bill, and
the answer made to it will fix the character of
the House. The Committee of course could
not look into the history of the country
without finding the fundamental rule respect-
ing tax bills to be—" the Commons grant,
" the Lords &went." But if the recent action of
the House of Lords passes unchallenged, the next
Committee will not be able to report that that
great rule still subsists. The taxation of the pre-
sent year includes 1,400,0001. more than the
Commons have granted. That is the simple fact, to
disguise which we are deluged with verbiage and
rhetoric, but which we hope honourable members
will keep steadily in view. The Commons have
approved and granted a certain amount of taxa-
tion, determined partly by grants of new taxes
and partly by remissions ; and the Lords'
taking one part of the scheme and not the other,
have increased the national burden. If they have
the right to do this, what becomes of the abso-
lute control of the House of Commons over taxa-
tion I It is no answer to say, the House of
Lords has the right to reject a tax bill. A sharking

bill-discounter who should take a new bill in re-
newal of a due acceptance, and then, detaining
the first, should sue upon both, might to just as
much purpose allege that they both bore legal stamps.
The Lords have taken to themselves the power
of determining, independently of the Crown
and the Commons, how much the people
shall pay in taxes, and in what manner they
shall pay it. The House of Commons must
decisively reject if it will not admit this preten•
sion. And let not honourable members think they
can divide their responsibility. Even if it were as
true as it is utterly false that the nation was too
obtuse to understand or too apathetic to feel the
importance of this question, it would still be their
duty to protect the ancient privilege of their
constituencies to be taxed only by their own
representatives. It may be that, as we
are told every other morning, the House
of Lords knows much better than the House
of Commons what taxes can and what cannot be
spared. The House of Lords is of coarse a very
wise house. but itswisdom is not that of the people.
When the House of Commons does wrong it is re-
sponsible not to the Peers but to the constituencies.

No doubt the Lords could improve the Constitu-
tion for ns ; but representative and responsible go-
vernment is worth its inconveniences, and we do
not want a Lords' Reform Bill.

TRADE in the United Kingdom continues to be
chiefly influenced by the extraordinary character
of the season. The effect is seen in the high prices
of food, both for man and beast ; in the uneasiness
which these high prices are exciting amongst the
labouring population ; in the firmness of the
markets for such articles of agricultural produce
as tallow and wool ; in the distress of thousands
of agricultural labourers whom the farmers are
unable to employ until the weather becomes more
genial ; and in the inability of many retail shop-
keepers to sell, and consequently to pay for, the
stocks of spring and summer goods which they
had ordered from the wholesale houses. It is,
perhaps, well that we should occasionally be
impressed, by ocular evidence, with a sense of the
embarrassments which the mere prolongation of
an unfavourable condition of the weather can pro-
duce amongst a not inconsiderable section of the
population. Still, these embarrassments are con-
fined to certain classes, and are not yet of a cha-
racter to affect the main springs of the national
Prosperity. The revenue returns, the official sta-
tistics of the export trade, just published, as well
as those relating to the consumption of imported
commodities, all indicate that trade is fairly active,
and the general condition of the nation prosperous.
The unusually extensive consumption of all the
principal articles of food and luxury, although that
consumptimi is still largely outstripped by the accu-
mulation of stocks in our warehouses, is especially
worthy of notice. The figures last published re-
late to the Innuth of May, and show an extremely
large consumption of coffee, tea, sugar, wine,
spirits, and tobacco. Whether, under the Mfluenoe
of an unfavourable season, the ratio of increase
will be maintained, is doubtful, but it would
appear that there must be a much more
general falling off in emplognent before the
prospects. of the revenue from these articles
will be materially affected. With regard to
the export trade, it is deserving of remark that,
although the general figures show an aggregate
increase of about 4 per cent. in the shipments of
our textile manufactures in the month of May,

as compared with those in May 1859, tho increase
is entirely in yarns. There is, on the contrary, a
decided decrease in the exports of the more
finished manufactured gods—those which admit
of the largest remuneration for labour—and it is
thence justly argued that the export figures are
really less encouraging than they appear to be at