ntle and tender manner of rejecting it, by hinting to the
commons your disapprobation of it, and the necessity of sending up
another, which you cannot do without hazarding the peace of the nation
and the fate of the war.

The commons, who are not obliged to inquire what reception their bills
find here, may perhaps not immediately prepare another, but suffer
time to elapse, till necessity shall oblige us to comply with those
measures which we cannot approve.

They may, likewise, by a kind of senatorial craft, elude all our
precautions, and make the rejection of the bill ineffectual, as was
once done, when a bill for a tax upon leather was rejected: the
commons, determining not to be directed in the methods of raising
money, sent up the same bill with only a small alteration of the
title, to lay a duty upon tanned hides, which the lords were, for want
of time, obliged to pass.

But, my lords, should the other house discover in this single
instance, any uncommon degree of flexibility and complaisance, should
they patiently endure the rejection of the bill, admit the validity of
the reasons upon which your lordships have proceeded, and willingly
engage in drawing up a new scheme for raising supplies; even upon this
supposition, which is more favourable than can reasonably be formed,
the business of the year will be very much perplexed, and the new bill
hurried into a law without sufficient caution or deliberation.

The session is now, my lords, so far advanced, that many of the
commons have retired into the country, whose advice and assistance may
be necessary in the projection of a new money bill, so that the new
bill must be formed in a short time, and by a thin house; and, indeed,
the multiplicity of considerations necessary to another bill of this
kind, is such, that I cannot think it prudent to advise or undertake
it.

The committee on ways and means must strike out another scheme for a
considerable impost, which, in the present state of the nation, is in
itself no easy task. This scheme must be so adjusted as to be
consistent with all the other taxes, which will require long
consultations and accurate inquiries. It must then struggle, perhaps,
through an obstinate and artful opposition, before it can pass through
the forms of the other house; and, when it comes before your
lordships, may be again opposed with no less zeal than the bill before
us, and perhaps, likewise, with equal reason.

All these dangers and