The Express.
London, England, 1860-05-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16.

Ti. rejection of the Paper Duty Repeal Bill
by the House of Lords, which Lord Mormon'
has announced his intention of proposing, and Lord
DIRER his determination of supporting, involves

two questions of much gravity, quite irrespeo-
tiro of the Budget mite details, or the financial
prospects of the kingdom as a whole.
The first question is whether, under any circum-
stances, the House of Lords is justified in depriv-
ing the Qt7iFYII Government of the responsibility
and charge of the public finances t It may be as
alleged that Mr. GLADeroitz is wrong in attempting
to provide for the expenditure of the country with
the Ways and Means he has asked for, and in the
main obtained, and in providing so small an esti-
mated surplus beyond that expenditure. That,
however, time only can show. He and his col-
leagues do so under the most serious responsibility.
The public has its doubts of the result ; wise Mr.
]mew shakes his sagacious head and deplores
the rashness of the experiment ' • attended
by his son and accompanied by Lord HARRY
/bars, he votes against the Government ;
and but • small majority of the House
of Commons sanctions the somewhat hazardous
enterprise. But Mr. GLILDSTONB, with a full know-
_
ledge of all the -

of the case, has
declared himself prepared to provide for all
the ordinary wants of "the public service,

without a continuance of a mischievous and hurt-
ful excise on the manufacture of paper, which
every one except Lord DIEM condemns; and the
House of Commons, bound on its part by
every obligation to be careful of the public
wealth and means, has closed with Mr. GLAD-
-117011163 propositions, accepted his Budget,
and given to his financial schemes its ap-
proval. It could not have done otherwise
without destroying the Government ; and for the
House of Commons to have overthrown a Cabinet
because it offered to carry on the Administration
of public affain with one million sterling lees re-
venue than its opponents thought necessary, would
have been an absurdity of the most flagrant kind.
Mr. Gireeroes by his Budget has, beyond all
doubt, placed himself and the Cabinet in a posi-
tion of great danger. If next year it turns out
that his calculations, estimates, and expectations
were all unfounded, 'that he parted with taxes
which he should have retained, that he has thrown
on 1861-2 burdens which the current year ought
to have borne, that he has disjointed and diet-
ranged the national finances, then his eon-
demnation will be signal and complete. But
that is a prospective, not a present, ques-
tion. He and his colleagues, knowing the
public apprehensions, have on their responsibility
undertaken to carry on the government on
the assurance that these mischiefs will be averted
either by that wonderful elasticity of public
taxation which has so frequently surprised the
nation and put it in possession of resources it little
expected, or by a sudden termination of our un-
happy quarrel with' China, or by a judicious post-.
ponement of any large expenditure this year on
unproductive fortifications, or by all those
agencies combined. And that responsibility hav-
ing been accepted by the House of Commons, it
would certainly be an unparalleled act of rashness
and imprudence for the House of Lords to inter-
pose, and say, "We repudiate your responsibi-
" lily, we refuse to be bound by the decision of
" the House of Commons, we insist on censor-
" ing your propositions without waiting for
" their results, we condemn the Government by
" anticipation, we rebuke the House of
" Commons prematurely for accepting the
" Budget, we declare that the Government is unfit
"to conduct the finances of the country." This is
what Lord Morenuoxe means to do, and what
Lord DIARY intends to support him in doing. It
exceeds in precipitation and folly anything that has
recently been contemplated in (we will not say by)
the Peerage of this realm.
But there is another question of deeper consti-
tutional import involved in Lord Mozeinsout's
motion. On the invitation of the Queries
Government, the House of Commons has repealed
a bad tax. This tax Lords Moirramun and
DERBY are going to ask the House of Lords to
retain. Such a proposition has never been made
to the Lords since the Revolution of 1688, when
the constitutional privileges of the two Houses as
to taxation received their modern definition and
orpnisation. The House of Commons is by the law
sad constitution of this realm the " sole " source of
taxation ; the power of assent of the Lords is merely
formal ; the form of the grant of a tax to the
Crown is an Address in the shape of an Act of

EVENING, MAX,

lent from the Commons to the SovEmmy
Nei even the slightest verbaLaterferenoe 1:7 the
Lads in the measure is rejesrld Se the Commons.
But this, it may be said, is not Se cam of punt-
ing, but of repealing, a tax. That is true, however,
Aso far as the House of Commons is concerned ;
it has repealed the Excise duty on paper, and by
every principle and precedent of Engliah.bistory,
the assent to such repeal of the Lords is a matter
of course. The QUEEN having, by her Ministers,
proposed the repeal, is of course prepared to give
her final approbation to the abolition. The Crown,
by its constitutional advisers, has declared that it is
unnecessary to burthen the commonalty of the
kingdom by levying an excise on the manufac-
ture of paper. The House of Conutions has
abrogated that excise. For the House of Lords
to interpose now and to reverse the decision of
the House of Commons, to set at nought the
recommendation of the Crown, is in point of fact
to re-impose by its own mere authority a tax upon
the people of this kingdom, in violation of its

constitution, in disregard of the privileges of the
House of Commons, and in mockery of the prero-
gative of the Bovsnaloir. Yet this is what two
renegade Whig Peers are about to propose.
There is no imam exoept in mere technicalities,
from this dilemma. Under the form of procedure, a
great usurpation of power is about to be attempted.
The success of Lord Morrizeoui's motion will
not merely relieve the Quainir's Govern-
ment from the responsibility it had assumed,
in the interests of national economy, as to the
finances of the kingdom, it will reduce the highest
privileges of the House of Commons to a mere
appendage on the financial whims and apprehen-
sions of the House of Lords. The time may come
when the House of Lords will think it inexpedient
to concur with the Commons in a repeal of the
Income Tax. Encourage the Upper House of
Parliament in such pretensions es the present, and
the balance of power of our existing parliamentary
system will be completely disturbed. Taxation
will no longer depend, as it has for the last two
centuries, on the popular and elected branch of
the Legislature, but on the aristocratic portion of
Parliament which is beyond all external influence
or controL Cabinets in the preparation of Budgets
will have to cease to suit them to the exigencies of
the country, or to their own sense of what is due
to public economy, and to regulate their policy and
propositions by considerations of what will fit the
crotchets and the fears of an assembly which
would have maintained the Corn Laws if it dared,
end will reject the Reform Bill if thus encouraged.