The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 4.

Lone Psusuisros laid upon the table last
night the Resolutions with respect to the conflict-
ing privileges claimed by the Two Houses in
matters of taxation, which he means to submit to-
morrow for the approval of the Commons. After
so much inquiry into precedents, and so much
consideration bestowed upon the practical bearings
of the question as modified by latter usage and
existing circumstances, general expectation has
naturally been raised in no ordinary degree as to
the terms in which Ministers would advise the
representatives of the nation to vindicate their
moat important rights against encroachment. It
would have been difficult, perhaps, to frame
any declaratory resolutions in language too strong
for the popular conviction on the subject ; and it
would, we fear, have been difficult to adopt
any language too weak or evasive for
the prevalent humour of the gentlemen who
now sit at Westminster. Lord Pawn-lorry:4 and
his colleagues have no doubt felt it to be their
duty to steer between the rock and the maelstrom.
To have brought forward resolutions which they
could not carry, and which might possibly have
provoked amendments in a contrary sense, would
have been obviously the gravest error. However
jesuitically framed, such amendments would have
tended to justify the course taken by the House
of Lords, and would have been so interpreted by
the country. As things now stand, the elective
branch of the Legislature cannot afford to take an
equivocal step. It is unfortunately but too much
distrusted already, and but too much suspected of
faithlessness in the discharge of its high duties.
Whatever folly it may yet be betrayed into,
it certainly would not become the constitu-
tional Ministers of the Crown to precipitate its
ruin in public estimation by daring its eager ill-
advisers of the Tory party to propose for its adop-
tion resolutions openly approving the aggression of
the Lords. If the constituencies at the last election,
when they had the power to choose, chose a House
more Conservative than has been in England for
thirty years, they must not expect that Ministers,
however liberally inclined, can maintain as high
and defiant a tone as they would justly have been
required to do with a strong Liberal majority at
their back. On the other hand, we must ever
hold that no exigency of party, and no temporary
hue of parliamentary majorities, can exonerate
Liberal statesmen from the obligation to preserve
inviolate those traditional privileges on which the
very existence of constitutional government
itself depends. We do not stickle for hot or hard
words in the assertion of popular right, provided
the substance of the right be kept intact, and its
assertion, however calm and dignified, be firm and
incapable of misrepresentation. But we shall
never cease to insist on these latter conditions ;
and, come what may, we are prepared to stand
by them.

The first of the Ministerial Resolutions is, in
point of fact, a recital and reiteration of that
which was passed so long ago as 1678. It runs
thus :—" That the right of granting aids
" and supplies to the Crown is in the Commons
" alone, as an essential part of the Constitution,
" and the limitation of all such grants as to the
" matter, manner, measure, and time is only in
" them." So far good. Nobody will venture, we pre-
sume, to question the truth of this memorable de-
claration, though some may feel disposed to quibble
about the necessity or propriety of reiterating it at
the present juncture. It is manifest, however,
that its efficacy as a dictum of privilege unsup-
ported by other measures on the part of the Com-
mons has not only become questionable, but that
it has been absolutely and openly set at nought by
those against whose pretensions it was originally
framed. The fact is somewhat meekly admitted
in the Second Resolution proposed by Ministers,
land which runs thus :

" That although the Lords have exercised the
" power of rejecting Bills of several descriptions
" relating to taxation by negativing the whole, yet
" the exercise of that power by them has not
" been frequent, and is justly regarded by this
" House with peculiar jealousy as affecting the
" right of the Commons to grant the supplies, and
" to provide the ways and means for the service
" of the year."

After such an admission people will naturally
look for one of two things—either a resolution
binding the House specifically to take such mea-
sures for the future regarding finance as may
effectually baffle the insolent pretensions of the
irresponsible Chamber ; or, a vote in a Committee
of Ways and Means of a certain amount of taxes,
according to ancient usage for one year only, ac-
companied by a manly avowal on the part of Go•
vernment that the old constitutional form was
reverted to, became the modern constitutional

practice has been departed from by the House of
Lords. The Third Resolution in muffled tones avers
that the Commons possess the power of successfully
defying all future attempts at encroachment in
matters of taxation, It does not, however, assert
that the power will be used. Here are the words
employed :

" fhat to guard for the future against an undue
" exercise of that power by the Lords, and to
" secure to the Commons their rightful oontrol
" over taxation and supply, this House has in its
" own hands the power so to impose and remit