Extract from the votes of assembly, Sept. 29, 1755. The Speaker read to the house a paper containing some authorities relating to the rights of the commons of Great Britain over money bills, and in support of the bill passed by this house for granting fifty thousand pounds to the king's use, so far as the said bill relates to the taxing the proprietaries estate within this province: and the speaker being requested by the house to let the same be entered upon the minutes, consented thereto; and it accordingly followed in these words, viz. THE governor, in his message of the thirteenth of August last, asserts, That as our proprietaries (being hereditary governors of this province) have no vote in choosing representatives in the assembly, therefore it is not consistent with the British constitution that their estates here should be liable to pay taxes.' And in answer to the privilege we claim, of having our bills granting supplies passed as they are tendered, without alterations, the governor in his message of the twenty-fourth instant says, that this claim is not warranted by charter; to which the house very justly replied on the twenty-ninth, that the charter gives us all the powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the king's plantations in America. If the free-born subjects of England do not exercise this right, and it is not usual in any of the king's plantations in America, then we are in the wrong to claim it, and the governor is in the right in denying it.' The governor in the beginning of his administration has solemnly promised, that he would upon all occasions be studious to protect the people committed to his charge in all their civil and religious privileges.' So far then, as these privileges belong to the people and their representatives, from known facts and unexceptionable authorities, so far the governor must have failed of his promise in the protection we have a right to from the duty of his station, and our charters, and the laws of this province. The practice of the other plantations in America, and particularly very late instances of his majesty's colony of New York, on money bills, are against the governor; but I shall choose to confine myself to the rights of the house of commons, to which we are entitled by our provincial charter, confirmed by a law passed in the fourth year of the late queen Anne, for ascertaining the number of members of assembly, &c. which enacts, in the words of the charter, That the representatives chosen and met according to the directions of that act, shall have power to choose a speaker, and other their officers; and shall be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members, sit upon their own adjournments, appoint committees, prepare bills in order to pass into laws, impeach criminals, and redress grievances; and shall have all other powers and privileges of assembly according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual Ch. Com. Deb. Vol. III. Page 311, &c. Jour. H. Com. in any of the queen's plantations in America.' The house of commons then do claim by the law and usage of parliament, the right of determining their own elections, and consequently, and necessarily, the right of the electors to vote; and in virtue of this right it appears by the journals of the house of commons, vol. XIII, page 326, that no peer of the realm hath any right to give his vote in the election of any member to serve in parliament. The same was again unanimously resolved in the beginning of the sixth and last parliament of king William III, with an additional resolve, "That for any lord of parliament, or any lord lieutenant of any county to concern themselves in the elections of members to serve for the commons in parliament, the same is a high infringement of the liberties and privileges of the commons of England." Page 684. Id. Vol. XIV. Ch. Com. Deb. Vol III. Jour. H. Com. The same unanimous resolves appear in the first parliament of queen Anne, and in the beginning of every parliament to the ninth of king George, where our journals end. And it is a standing order of the house of commons, 'That no peer hath a vote in the election of a commoner;" Nevertheless the commons assert, "That the grant of all aids to the king is by the commons, and that the terms, conditions, limitations and qualifications of such grants have been made by the commons only." And upon a particular order to a committee, 30 Car. II, that they should prepare and draw up a state of the right of the commons in granting of money, and how those rights might be asserted: the house of commons, upon that report, resolve, "That all aids and supplies, and aids to his majesty in parliament, are the sole gift of the commons; and all bills for the granting such aids and supplies, ought to begin with the commons; and that it is the undoubted and sole right of the commons, to direct, limit, and appoint in such bills, the ends, purposes, considerations, conditions, limitations, and qualifications of such grants, which ought not to be changed or altered by the house of lords." The house of commons have been always extremely careful of this valuable right, as upon the bill for an additional duty on coffee, &c. 1st of William and Mary; and the bill for the sale of the forfeited estates in Ireland, and indeed upon all occasions upon money bills. Jour. H. Com. Ch. Com. Upon the bill for appointing commissioners to examine and state the public accounts, "the house of commons were fully sensible, and thought the bill so useful at that time, as could not be sufficiently expressed; yet nothing could be of greater importance to the public than the maintaining the just and distinct rights and privileges which each estate of the kingdom enjoyed according to their constitution; that the lords had many high privileges to recommend their lordships to the favor of their prince, and to support their figure in the government, but the commons had little besides that one of giving mo ney and granting aids, which was their undoubted and inherent right, and therefore every thing that intrenched upon that the commons might be allowed to be extremely jealous of." As it would be dangerous to proceed in the subject now before us without authorities, I shall add the continuation of Rapin's History of England, by Tindal, vol. III, page 231, and the record relating to the same controversy between the houses of lords and commons, as it lies upon the journals of the commons, in the fourth session of king William's second parliament. Tindal says, that the lords added a clause to the money bill sent up by the commons, by which they taxed themselves. That clause was disagreed to by the commons, nemine contradicente, as an encroachment on their rights in the article of giving money, and sent to the lords to desire a conference thereupon; to whom they represented, "That the commons had disagreed to the clause added by their lordships to the money bill, as being a notorious encroachment upon the rights of the house of commons to order and settle all matters relating to the giving of money, which their ancestors had been so jealous of; that they thought it a diminution of this their fundamental privilege to give their lordships any reason for supporting it; and their lordships, after a long debate, resolved to recede from the said clause by so great a majority, that the house did not divide upon it--and so dropped the clause. On the journals of the house of commons it appears, "That the lords had agreed to the bill, entitled, An act Vol. X. for granting to their majesties an aid of four shillings in Page 780. the pound, &c. with an amendment. Provided, neverthe less, that all and every the peers that are to be rated by virtue of this act, for their offices or personal estate, shall be rated by Thomas earl of Pembroke, lord privy seal, George marquis of Halifax, William earl of Devon, lord steward of the houshold, Charles earl of Shrewsbury, &c. &c. or any five of them, and not otherwise; and shall not be subjected to the imprisonment of his or their persons, any thing in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding. Provided also, and it is hereby declared, that the several rates and taxes to which the lords and peers of this realm shall be liable, by virtue of this act, shall be received by a collector to be nominated by the peers; which said collector shall cause the same to be paid into his majesty's receipt of exchequer, on or before the twenty-fifth day of March, 1693." And the question being put, that the house do agree with the lords in the said amendment, it passed in the negative. And, by order of the house, sir Thomas Clarges reported the reasons to be offered at a conference with the lords, "That the right of granting supplies to the crown is in the commons alone as an essential part of their constitution, and the limitation of all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and time, is only in them, which is so well known to be fundamentally settled in them, that to give reasons for it, has been esteemed by our ancestors to be a weakening of that right, and the clause sent down by their lordships was a manifest violation thereof;" and an amendment being proposed to leave out "violation," and insert "invasion" instead thereof, the same was, upon the question put thereupon, agreed unto by the house. Id. ib. Page 784. And after several conferences Mr. attorney general reported, "that their lordships did not insist upon their provisos." [See editor's note at the end of this article, p. 400.] From these records and other authorities, as well as known facts, I apprehend it clearly appears, that the lords do not vote in the election of a commoner to serve in parliament, nor intermeddle therein. And that the house of commons have a right in money bills, that they are to be assented to or rejected by the lords without alterations or amendments, I will now add such other acts and authorities as may further shew, that the king's fee-farm rents, the palaces of St. James's, Whitehall, Somerset-house, &c. and the regalities of Wales and Chester, and even the civil list revenue, are, and have been occasionally subjected to be charged by acts of parliament for the public uses. See Bp. Worcester's Case. Jour H. Com. Vol. XIV. Page 37. et alibi. Tind. Cont. It is well known, that before the revolution the whole standing income of the state was in the power and disposal of the crown; and was called the revenue of the crown; there was then no distinction of what was to be allotted to the king's use, and what for the service of the public, by which means the king might reserve what part he thought fit for his own designs, and employ no more than he pleased for the purposes of the nation; accordingly it was found, after the restoration, the public revenue had been constantly embezzled, and immense sums very often sunk without being applied to the uses for which they were granted; it was therefore wisely concerted, after the revolution, for the security of the nation from perpetual misapplications of the public money, to allot a separate income for the maintenance of the king's houshold, and the support of his dignity, which is now called the civil list, and to put the rest of the public revenues entirely under the command of the parliament. It was not till the ninth and tenth of William III, that the civil list was settled upon the king for life, though he had earnestly desired it, and had subjected that revenue to be charged to the uses of the war. And on the opening of the third sessions of the third parliament, when they did settle it upon him during his majesty's life, the king tells them, "that the revenues of the crown had been so anticipated by his consent for public uses, that he was wholly destitute of means to support the civil list;" Nevertheless, by an act of the twelfth and thirteenth William III, three thousand seven hundred pounds a week (as the necessityof the public affairs required it) was taken out of that revenue "to be applied and disposed of to and for the public uses during his majesty's life." By an act granting an aid to her majesty by a land tax, passed in the first year of the reign of queen Anne, for carrying on the war against France, the receivers of the chief rents of her majesty, and of the Ch. 1, § 23. queen Dowager, and the receivers of any persons claim Jour. H. Com. Vol. XIV, Page 48. ing under the crown were enjoined under severe penalties to deduct their taxes of four shillings in the pound out of the said rents, and in like manner the fee-farm rents of the crown, the palaces of St. James's, Whitehall, Windsor-Castle, and Somerset-house, &c. are subjected to the land tax through all the succeeding acts of parliament. By an act of the first of king George, entitled, An act to enable his majesty to grant the regalities of North-Wales, South-Wales, and county of Chester, to his royal highness the prince of Wales, &c. it is enacted, "that it shall and may be lawful for the king's most excellent majesty, by letters patent, &c. to give and grant unto his said royal highness all the said honors, castles, &c. within the counties of Flint, Denby, Montgomery, Carnarvon, &c. and the county Palatine of Chester, and every or any of them, which do not belong to his majesty, his heirs and successors, &c. so nevertheless that the same do not extend to any taxes, aids or revenues whatsoever granted or to be granted to the crown by parliament, to or for any public use or uses whatsoever; to have and to hold the said honors, castles, lordships, manors, messuages, lands, tythes, tenements, rents, hereditaments, possessions, and premises, so to be granted as aforesaid unto him the said prince, and his heirs, kings of Great Britain; subject, nevertheless to such annual and other payments and incumbrances as are legally charged thereupon, or usually satisfied out of the revenues of the same." And upon a computation of the revenues of the late prince of Wales, in the year 1736, when the land tax was at two shillings in the pound, the deductions were five thousand pounds a year for the land tax upon fifty thousand pounds, the six-penny duty to the civil list, and the fees payable at the exchequer, about two thousand pounds more; so that his nett revenue on the fifty thousand pounds a year, allowed him by the king, would not amount to more than forty-three thousand pounds yearly, besides his dutchy of Cornwall. By this estimate we see the royal family, for what they received out of the civil list, were subject to parliamentary taxes, until it was otherwise provided by particular acts; and indeed by the seventh and eighth of William III, chap. 17, sect. 12, it is enacted, "That no letters patents, granted by the king's majesty, or any of his royal predecessors, &c. shall be construed or taken to exempt any person, city, borough, &c. or any of the inhabitants of the same, from the burden and charge of any sum or sums of money granted by the act; and all non obstantes, in such letter patent made, or to be made, in bar of any act of parliament for the supply or assistance of his majesty, are declared to be void, and of none effect." If upon these, and many other authorities which might be adduced Com. Deb. Vol. IX. Page 327. Hist. Reg. |