§ Lord Wharncliffebrought up the Report of the 295 Committee appointed to inquire with respect to this Bill. The Committee reported that they had inspected their Journals, and found no precedent on the subject referred to, and he moved,
That it be an Instruction to the Committee to consider, whether the Bill for preventing the Union of the Sees of St. Asaph and Bangor belongs to that class of Bills for which it has been the Usage to give the Consent of the Crown before passing the House; and to report generally on the Precedents bearing on the case, including the question of the particular stage of the Bill at which such consent has been usually given.
The Marquess of Clanricardesaid, he did not, of course, rise to oppose the Instruction, because it would be useless, and perhaps not decorous of him to do so, but he must express his doubt of the expediency and wisdom of it. It would be impossible for the Committee to make a satisfactory report in answer to the question. They must either on the one hand, decide that the Bill was one for the passing of which the consent of the Crown was required, and thereby give to the Minister of the day a power which Parliament had not recognised hitherto, or if, on the other hand, they excluded the Bill from that class, they might inflict a serious blow on the patronage and, perhaps, the prerogative of the Crown. He thought, therefore, it would be right not to moot the question, but to leave it as it stood, no practical evil having arisen.
§ Lord Monteaglethought the course proposed was the only proper one to take. There was a question whether the Bill came under a class of Bills for which it was the practice to obtain the Consent of the Crown. It would be anticipating the report which the Committee was about to make, if he said whether the Bill belonged to that class or not; but if there was to be any order in their proceedings, if there was any class of Bills which required the consent of the Crown, and if it was necessary for their Lordships to ascertain whether a particular Bill belonged to that class, the most cleat and satisfactory way of solving the doubt was to institute an inquiry. If the principle laid down by his noble Friend was correct, Parliament had been proceeding—as far back as precedents would carry us—in a very strange course, for they had been asking and receiving the consent of the Crown to Bills; and so far from vesting in the Government 296 any control over their Lordships, it seemed to him that it was the fairest principle, and in no one instance had it worked any practical injury.
Lord Clanricardedid not think it a proper principle to lay down that a Bill of this sort, or of any sort, should be stopped in its progress through that House on the ground that it had not received the Consent of the Crown.
§ The Duke of Wellingtonsuggested that if the word "required" was altered, perhaps the noble Marquess's difficulty might be removed. The words might be—"to which it has been the usage to give the Consent of the Crown.
The Marquess of Clanricardeintimated his acquiescence, and the Instruction thus modified was agreed to.