an end to the new practice, and of taxing themselves as before if it were thought desirable. Since 1664 the clergy have not on any single occasion made use of this power; they have continued to bear their part in the payment of the public taxes imposed by Parliament. But the right is not abolished by any Act, and so even nowadays the parliamentary power of taxing a whole class does not rest on a special statutory enactment. It rests on the fact that a particular class, though quite free legally to exercise its power, by tacit consent and long abstention refrains from reviving this special power or privilege.[1]
Moreover, from this modification, thus casually introduced and unsanctioned by written law, another of the same kind resulted which seriously altered the composition of the electoral body. When the clergy voted their own taxes they naturally took no part in electing the members of the House of Commons. But when once they were liable to general taxation, it was but just that they should be represented in the House which voted the taxes, and that clergymen, who for a long time had not been in fact eligible[2] as members, should at least become electors. In fact, a few years later the clergy came forward at elections and voted for members of Parliament. We look for an Act which has
- ↑ “Gibson, Bishop of London, told me,” writes Speaker Onslow, “that this measure (taxation of the clergy otherwise than by Convocation) was the greatest alteration that had been made in the Constitution without a special Act.” (Cf. Onslow, Note on Burnet, Oxf. ed. iv, 508.) [See Hallam, Const. Hist, iii (8th ed.) p. 240, note y (D).]
- ↑ Their ineligibility was settled by the Act, 41 Geo. III. ch. 63.
