hey will not suffer the other house to exert any power but
that of rejecting; they will not permit the least alteration or
amendment to be made by the lords to the mode of taxing the people by
a money bill; under which appellation are included all bills, by which
money is directed to be raised upon the subject, for any purpose or in
any shape whatsoever; either for the exigencies of government, and
collected from the kingdom in general, as the land tax; or for private
benefit, and collected in any particular district; as by turnpikes,
parish rates, and the like. Yet sir Matthew Hale[u] mentions one case,
founded on the practice of parliament in the reign of Henry VI[w],
wherein he thinks the lords may alter a money bill; and that is, if
the commons grant a tax, as that of tonnage and poundage, for _four_
years; and the lords alter it to a less time, as for _two_ years;
here, he says, the bill need not be sent back to the commons for their
concurrence, but may receive the royal assent without farther
ceremony; for the alteration of the lords is consistent with the grant
of the commons. But such an experiment will hardly be repeated by the
lords, under the present improved idea of the privilege of the house
of commons: and, in any case where a money bill is remanded to the
commons, all amendments in the mode of taxation are sure to be
rejected.

[Footnote t: 4 Inst. 29.]

[Footnote u: on parliaments, 65, 66.]

[Footnote w: Year book, 33 Hen. VI. 17.]

NEXT, with regard to the elections of knights, citizens, and
burgesses; we may observe that herein consists the exercise of the
democratical part of our constitution: for in a democracy there can be
no exercise of sovereignty but by suffrage, which is the declaration
of the people's will. In all democracies therefore it is of the utmost
importance to regulate by whom, and in what manner, the suffrages are
to be given. And the Athenians were so justly jealous of this
prerogative, that a stranger, who interfered in the assemblies of the
people, was punished by their laws with death: because such a man was
esteemed guilty of high treason, by usurping those rights of
sovereignty, to which he had no title. In England, where the people do
not debate in a collective body but by representation, the exercise of
this sovereignty consists in the choice of representatives. The laws
have therefore very strictly guarded against usurpation or abuse of
this power, by many salutary prov