We give elsewhere our reasons for believing that the allegation
so generally insisted upon, that the House of Lords, though it can reject a Finance Bill as a whole, has no power to reject a portion thereof, is founded upon a verbal confusion between taxes and Bills, and that the true principle is that which was recognised in the Commons' Resolution in 1671,— that the House of Lords has no power to alter "the rater or tax," but must accept it or reject it as a whole. This power to reject taxes is not destroyed by the fact of a great many taxes being grouped in one Bill instead of being pre- sented in separate Bills. We venture to say that those who will take the trouble to follow our long and technical argument, if they bring impartial minds to its study, will come to the con- clusion that it is not only common-sense, but is in consonance with the true reading of the precedents.
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