erms, and angrily asked
the Attorney-general, Sir John Scott, why he had not prosecuted all the
parties concerned in this abominable marriage. Sir John's reply, as he
reported it himself, was sufficiently conclusive: "I answered that it
was a very difficult business to prosecute; that the act, it was
understood, had been drawn by Lord Mansfield, the Attorney-general
Thurlow, and the Solicitor-general Wedderburn, who, unluckily, had made
all persons present at the marriage guilty of felony. And as nobody
could prove the marriage except a person who had been present at it,
there could be no prosecution, because nobody present could be compelled
to be a witness."--THORP'S _Life of Eldon_, i., 235.]

[Footnote 29: A protest against the bill, entered by fourteen peers,
including one bishop (of Bangor), denounced it, among other objections,
as "contrary to the original inherent rights of human nature ...
exceeding the power permitted by Divine Providence to human legislation
... and shaking many of the foundations of law, religion, and public
security."--_Parliamentary History_, xvii., 391.]

[Footnote 30: The import duty on wheat was fixed at 6_d_. a quarter on
grain, and 2_d_. per cwt. on flour, when the price of wheat in the
kingdom should be at or above 48s.; when it was at or above 44s., the
exportation was to be altogether prohibited.--_Parliamentary History_,
xvii., 476.]

[Footnote 31: See Hallam, "Constitutional History," iii., 38-46, ed.
1833, where, as far as the imperfection of our early Parliamentary
records allows, he traces the origin of the assertion of this peculiar
privilege by the Commons, especially referring to a discussion of the
proper limits of this privilege in several conferences between the two
Houses; where, as on some other occasions, he sees, in the assertion of
their alleged rights by the Commons, "more disposition to make
encroachments than to guard against those of others." A few years before
(in 1763), the House of Lords showed that they had no doubt of their
right to reject a money-bill, since they divided on the Cider Bill,
which came under that description. As, however, the bill was passed,
that division was not brought under the notice of the House. But in
1783, in the time of the Coalition Ministry, the peers having made
amendments on the American Intercourse Bill, "the Speaker observed that,
as the bill empowered the crown to impose duties, it was, strictly
speaking, a money-bill, an