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annexing any clause or clauses to a Bill of Aid or Supply , the matter of which is foreign to , and different from , the said Bill of Aid or Supply , is unparliamentary , and tends to the destruction of the constitution of the Government . " Jn some cases they have not insisted on their Standing Orders ; in others they have insisted . ( See App . 6 S ,, 192 . ) . BlELS FOE THE ApPJttOPBli-TION OF SUPPLIES .: XV . The appropriation * of Supplies ' to specified heads of expenditure was introduced in the reign of Charles II . ; and generally , though not in every instance , it was adopted by Parliament . The practice with regard to it assumed , substantially , its present form in the reign of William III . ; and as the Bill by which the appropriaision is made enacts that the aids and supplies enumerated therein shall not be issued or applied to any use , intent , or purpose , other than . those which are mentioned hi it , the constitutional usages with
re-Bpect to these Bills are tlie same as those above adverted to with respect to Supply Bills ; it is prepared in the same way as the Act of the Commons only ; it is sent up to the Lords for their assent ; it is returned by that House into the charge of the Commons ; and when the Commons are summoned to attend Her Majesty or the jiords Commissioners in the House of Peers , it is carried , with the Supply Bills , to the bar of their House by the Speaker , and there presented by him for the Royal assent . Although the Lords have in some instances rejected Bills for specific appropriation of supplies , they appear to have uniformly passed the General Appropriation Bill at the > end of the session without any amendment . . PUBLIC BlLLS WHICH OPEBATE AS A CHAEGE ON THE PEOPLE .
Order of the Commons made on the 22 nd of June , 1831 , it was ordered , " That if in any Bill which , having passed the House of Lords , shall be sent down to this House for their concurrence , or in any Bill which , having passed this House , shall be returned by the Lords with amendments , it shall appear that any pecuniary penalty or . forfeiture is thereby imposed , varied , or taken away , the Speaker shall , ' before the second reading of such Bill or amendments , report to the House his opinion whether the object thereof is to impose , vary , or take away any pecuniary charge or burthen on the subject ; or whether the same relates only to the punishment or prevention of offences : and the House shall thereupon determine whether it may be expedient , in such particular case , to insist upon the exercise of their ipriviiege to originate all such provisions respecting pecuniary penalties or forfeitures . "
By a more recent Standing Order , made on the 24 th of July , 1849 , a further amendment has been made in the rule upon which the House at present acts , for by that Standing Order it was ordered , " That with respect to any Bill brought to this House from the House of Lords , or returned by the House of Lords to this House , with amendments , whereby any pecuniary penalty , forfeiture , or fee shall be authorised , imposed , appropriated , regulated , varied , or extinguished , this House will not insist on its ancient and undoubted privileges in the following cases : — " 1 . When the object of such pecuniary penalty or forfeiture is to secure the execution of the Act , or the punishment or prevention of offences .
" 2 . Where such fees are imposed in respect of benefit taken or service rendered , under the Act , and in order to the execution of the Act , and are not made payable into the Treasury or Exchequer , or in aid of the public revenue , and do not form the ground of public accounting by the parties receiving the same , either in respect of deficit or surplus . " 3 . When such Bill shall be a private Bill for a local or personal Act . " Public Ghab&e Bins . Practice of the Commons wlten the Lords Amend , Postpone , / or
Reject . XVII . With regard to those Bills which operate as a charge on the people the practice of the Commons is substantially the same as that which is observed in Bills of Supply aud Tax Bills . Dhe form of the Bill and the mode of procedure is different from that in Bills 6 f ; Supply ; and the Lords may , without objection from the Commons , make amendments in those provisions ^ which do not concern the charge , or the mode 6 t' levying it , or its duration or distribution , or the tiianagement _ pr collection of it . In other
respects the practice is identical in both classes of cases . As a general rule ; when the Lords otherwise amend , the practice of the Commons has been either to postpone the consideration of such amendments , or to disagree , and by disagreeing to invite reconsideration on the part of the Lords , or to lay aside the Bill , without ' * 'taking , any further proceedings upon it ; and , in some instances , when the Bill has been laid aside , the practice hus been to bring in a new Bill , embodying or ' not embodying , as the case iriay be , the Lords' amendments . to the amendmentsand t
The earlier practice was to disagree , o invite a reconsideration of them on the part of the Lords . Thus , on the 9 th of December , 1692 , the Lords made amendments in the occasional Conformity Bill , by altering the penalties which the -Commons—had-iniposed ^^ l ! o-these- « me « dments-J ; he-Coiajm ) iis _ disr agreed ; a conference was desired , and one of the reasons to be assigned by the 'Commons was , " Because ( though many other reasons might be offered from which the Commons can never depart ); yet , at this time , they think it sufficient to say that the penalties left out by yonr Lordships in this amendment am reasonable , and no more than what are necessary to make this Bill effectual . " The managers report " That they had given the Lords the reasons for disagreeing to the said amendments , and had left the Bill an amendments ' ¦ wijbh the Lords . " The
conference was held ; the Commons insisted oil their disagreement ; and in this , as in many other cases of a similar kind , no further proceedings were taken on the Bill , the differences having been sometimes terminated by the prorogation of Parliament ( see App . 77 , 78 , 79 , 88 , 83 , 85 , -89 , 90 , 91 , 101 , MM , 105 , 121 ) , and in others , again , the Lords gavo way . ( App . 81 , 116 , 120 , 122 . ) Latterly the Commons have occasionally disagreed to an amendment , on the sole ground of privilege , without offering other reasons ; but the more usual practice has been to lay the Bill aside at once , of which the Poor-rate Bill in 1836 , and the County Bridges Bill in 1841 , may be cited as examples . ( See App . Nos . 112 and 119 . ) Not unfrequently when that has been done new Bills have been brought in for carrying into effect the sumo object ( App . Nos . 95 , 99 , 100 , 106 , 111 , 112 , 117 , 118 , 119 ) , some of which embodied the Lords' amendments in wholo or in part . ( See App . Nos . 92 , 112 . ) Piuvate Bills Involving a Chabge . Practice of the Commons . XVIII . In part V . of tire Appendix hereto , will be found a list of private Bills , which involved or related to some charge on the people , aridwhenthe 1 ^ be seen thattho practice of the Commons is strongly confirmatory of that right which thoy have always insisted upon of originating , imposing , or in any wiiy altering' any of such charges . liRuBut by a standing order , dated 27 th of July , 1858 , it is ordered that " this House will not insist on its privileges with regard to any clauses in private Bills sent down from the Houbo of Lords which refer to tolls and charges for services performed , and are not in the nature of a tax . "
XVI . While the controversy was going on respecting Supply and lax Bills , in the early part of the reign of Charles the Second , a question arose whether other Bills which were not strictly Bills of Supply , or Tax Billis , but which would operate as a charge on the people , could or could not originate in the JLords . Thus , in the year 1661 , a Bill came down from the Lords to the Commons , eritituled a Bill for paving , repairing , or amending the streets and highways of Westminster . But the House " observing that the said Bill was to alter the course of law in part , and to lay a charge upon the people , and conceiving- that it is a privilege inherent in this House that Bills of that nature ought first to be considered here , it was ordered that the said Bill be laid aside , aud that the Lords be acquainted therewith , and with-the reasons inducing the House thereunto . " _ ~ -
So , on the 17 th of May , 1662 , the Lords returned , with amendments , a Highways Bill , by insertingrtwo provisoes concerning the erecting and repairing two bridges . These provisoes were disagreed to by the Commons ; and it \ vas ordered , " That it be insisted On for a reason of the dissent of this House to these provisoes , because the ~ provisoes are to lay a charge on the people , which ought not to begin with the Lords , but in this House ; and although it be but a part of the kingdom , yet , by the same reason , it may be extended to the whole . " Upon a conference the Lords . gave way . So , on . the 15 th of February , 1664 , an engrossed Bill , sent from the Lords , "for regulating and ordering of buildings and for amending of highways in towns , " was ordered to be laid aside , "it appearing that the said Bill was to impose and continue a tax upon the people which ought to have begun in this House . " all Bills which
It was insisted on the plirt of the Commons that would operate as a charge on the people must as much beginin their -Hou 8 e-a 6-Bills-of-Supply-and-4 rax- ^ illswr ^ The- ^ anie-principle-was applied to pecuniary penalties or forfeitures , for the Commons have insisted that the Lords cannot originate or alter such penalties or forfeitures , or-alter the application or distribution of them , or the quantum of any toll or rate , or the disposition or duration of it , or the persons , commissioners , or collectors appointed toinanageit . The 5 th of January , 1690 , the Lords amended a Bill for suspending during the war with France the Navigation and Corn Acts , by imposing a penalty of 101 . on any person who should conceal , hide , or rescue a British seaman . The Commons disagreed on the ground of privilege ; several conferences toi > k pluce , but they were interrupted by an adjournment , and afterwards by a prorogation , without any settlement of the matter in difference .
Again , on the 20 th Felh-uary , 1691 , the Commons , after a conference , disagreed to amendments made by the Lords in a Bill for punishing mutineers and deserters , the reason assigned being '' that it is the undoubted right of the Commons only to appointpecimiary mulcts and the distribution of them . " The proceedings in this case , Jike the last , were interrupted by a prorogation . Several other cases of a similar kind occurred towards the latter end of the 17 th century , The Lords insisted on their right to make such amendments , and the Commons denied it ; but , us the Commons would not agree to such amendments , the Bills were either lost , or the Lords ultimately gave way . ( See Appendix 75 , 78 , 79 , 80 , and the cases referred to under the next head . )
So with regard to the mode in which duties were to be collected . On the 28 th of November , 1696 , the Lords amended a Bill " for regulating the 111 state of the Coin in the Kingdom , " by giving a longer time to receivers and collectors to pay into the JExohequer hammered money . The Commons disagreed , upon the ground that tlieXiirdH could not"WakB " aifiyrai « end » M 0 nt'wtrfoJria"tO' * b'e "" a : oh"arg e upon the people . " Tlie Lords did not insist on their amendment , and the Bill passed . —( See also App . No . 145 . ) . Tlie same rule was also upplied to fees as well as to penalties ; and thai equally , whether Bills were of a public or a private nature . Latterly , indeed , that rule liaa been relaxed when the penalty relates to the punishment or prevention of offtwcoa ; for , by the Standing
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July 7 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 645
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* For the authorities and rules on this aubjoot , Bee " HatstiH , " rol . 8 , p . 303 , &o ., fund Hallnan ' s Oonirtitutional History , " ohnp . 15 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1860, page 645, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2355/page/21/
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