REPORT ON SUPPLY AND Tax BILLS.
The report of the Select Committee appointed to search the journals of both Houses of Parliament, in order to ascertain and report on the prac- tice of each House with regard to the several descriptions of bills impos- ing or repealing taxes, is a long and elaborate document. It is contained under four heads, namely :-1. Bills of supply and tax bills ; 2. Bills for appropriating supplies ; 3. Public bills, which are not strictly bills of supply or tax bills, but which operate as a tax or charge on the people; and 4. Bills for altering or repealing Acts which relate to sup- ply, taxes, or charges. There are several sub-heads. The report gives a history, with illustrative cases from the journals, of the practice of both Houses. As an absolute rule, the Commons grant supplies and taxes, and the Lords assent. As a general rule, nearly absolute, no supply or tax bill is passed which the Lords have amended in the slightest degree, but there are a few instances, in the seventeenth century, where the Lords have amended bills of supply, and the Commons have agreed to the amendments. But when the Commops have annexed to a bill of aid or supply any clause or clauses of which the matter is foreign to the bill, the Lords have claimed the right either of amending it in that be- half, or of rejecting it. Having disposed of the first branch of the in- quiry—namely, that which relates to the imposition of taxes, the Com- mittee proceed , to the other branch of the inquiry, or that which re- lates to the repeal of taxes. The rules with reference to this class of bills are almost identical with those which are applicable to the other classes. Two of these rules are—first, that bills for repealing taxes or charges of the people, like bills for imposing such taxes or charges, ought always to originate in the House of Commons ; and, secondly, that the Commons will not allow them to be amended in the Lords, except where the amendments are for the correction of clerical errors, or in further-
ance of the intent and objects of the bill. When the Lords have amended, the Commons have disagreed to such amendments, and the bill has been lost or the Lords have given way. When the Commons have agreed to the Lords' amendments, such amendments have been usually made for the correction of some clerical errors, or in furtherance of the intent and objects of the bill. The last section is as follows :— " for Repealing or Altering any Laws Relating to Supply Taxes or Charges upon Me People.
"Practice of the Commons when the Lords postpone or reject. " XXI. With regard to those cases where the Lords have rejected or post- poned bills for repealing or altering taxes or charges upon the people, the practice has been as follows :— "The earliest case under this head occurred in the year 1714. There the bill was a bill for the relief of wine merchants in payment of their bouds. It was founded on a petition of several merchants, which, on the 10th of April, had been referred to the Committee of Supply. On the 12th of April it was reported by the chairman of the Committee of Supply, That they had considered the matters of the petition to them referred, and had directed
him to move the House that leave may be given to bring in a accord- ing to the prayer of the petition. The bill passed the House of Commons, but it was negatived by the Lords on the question, That the bill do pass,' and nothing further was done upon it.
"In the following year a similar bill, intituled, An Act for Relief of Merchants, Importers of Tobacco and Wine, concerned in Bonds given for part of the duties on the same,' was rejected by the Lords. "On the 5th of May, 1758, the second reading of a bill brought from the Commons, intituled, An Act to Discontinue for a limited time the Duties payable upon Tallow imported from Ireland,' was ordered by the Lords to be put off till that day two months. Parliament was prorogued on the 20th of June.
"On the 15th of June, 1767, a bill, intituled, 'An Act to allow for a limited time the Free Importation of Salted Meat and Butter into this king- dom from any place, except Ireland,' was brought from the Commons ; and on the 26th of June it was ordered by the Lords that the House be put into Committee on the said bill that day two months. Parliament was prorogued on the.2c1 of July. "On the 30th of May, 1781, a bill for extending the provisions of an Act made in the eighth year of the reign of his present Majesty, which related to the reducing the duties on foul salt used for manure, to foul salt to be used in making marine acid and fixed fossil or mineral alkali, was ordered by the Lords to be read a second time on that day three months. The Act here re- ferred to was the 8th of George III., cup. 25, and though without the sup- ply preamble, it was founded on the resolution of a Committee of Ways and Means for raising a supply, to be granted to his Majesty.
"On the 13th of June, 1803, the Act of the 43d of George ItI., cap. 68, having been ordered to be read, it was resolved, in a Committee of the whole House, to consider the duties on coals carried coastwise. The Act was a Supply Act. Founded on this resolution, a bill was brought in to repeal these duties, and for granting other duties in lieu thereof. The bill passed the Co,amons on the 224.1 of June, on the 29th of June it was put off by the Lords for three months. Parliament was prorogued on the 6th of July.
On the 12th of March, 1811, a bill was brought in on report of Com- ltee of the whole House, for suspending the duties on corn wash for the tillation of spirits from sugar in Scotland, and to enable distillers to make irits from corn or from sugar wash as the relative prices of the materials all render it expedient. The bill was sent to the Lords on the 11th of and on the 6th of May it was ordered to be read a second time on that
y, six months. • On the 27th of June' 1816, the Lords postponed for three months the cond reading of a bill for repealing the duties of excise on stone bottles, d for imposing other duties in lieu thereof. These duties, amounting to . 6d. in every hundredweight of stone bottles made in Great Britain, were
founded on a resolution of a Committee of Ways and Means, and they were granted to his Majesty towards raising the Supply for the year 1812, by the 52d of George HI., cap. 139. It is doubtful whether this case ought not to be placed in the class of bills for imposing taxes. "And on the 2d of July, 1858, the Church-rates Abolition Bill, having been sent from the Commons, was rejected by the Lords. " There are other bills of a similar character which have also been dealt with in a similar manner by the House of Lords (see App. 187, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 206, 2080 and sometimes the House of Commons, on the rejection of such bills, have passed other bills on the same subject, and sent them to the Lords. (See App. 196, 199, 200.) "22. In concluding this report on the practice of either House of Par- liament with regard to the several descriptions of bills imposing and re- pealing taxes your Committee have refrained from offering any opinion and from making
ing any comments upon that practice, except to illustrate and itstai n ;1121---they_hav e abstained from any statement of the practice of each House, except iilspfar as such practice appears from the entries in the Journals."
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