§ MR. MACFIEasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, if the Customs and Inland Revenue Bill becomes Law as it now stands, he will allow carts and horses kept exclusively for agricultural purposes to be used by farmers without hire for the conveyance, to and from church or chapel, of themselves, their domestic servants, and their children, when the weather or the roads are bad, provided such use, being thus dependent on circumstances, is only occasional?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERThe hon. Gentleman the Member for Leith asks me in effect, whether, if the Legislature lays down one law, I am to lay down another of a directly contrary character in respect to carts and horses kept for agricultural purposes being used for the conveyance of the owners and families to church on Sundays. Now, I have to say, in answer to the Question of the hon. Member, that I cannot arrogate to myself the prerogative, as it is now the fashion to call it, of setting aside the law. Even if I were disposed to do so in the case referred to, how, I ask, am I, sitting in Downing Street, to know whether the weather is bad, or the roads out of repair, in distant parts of the country? Or how could I tell whether the practice of using a cart and horse for taking persons to church on a Sunday is "dependent on circumstances" and "only occasional?" How could such questions be decided without a Court of Appeal?