e of judgment, would lay the
Parliament open to an imputation at least equally dangerous to that
respect--that of an obstinacy which refuses to confess the possibility
of being mistaken, or to hear reason. It would not be well, therefore,
that the abrogation of a previous vote should become an ordinary
practice; but it would be equally undesirable that any fixed or
unchangeable rule should be interposed to prevent a second discussion of
an important question, with the possibility of its leading to a reversal
of the opinion first expressed.

In the same year (1844) the ministers felt compelled to raise a
constitutional point of singular refinement, which had the effect of
arresting the progress of a bill, in which one part of the kingdom took
a lively interest, which a division in its favor proved to be fully
shared by the House of Lords.[268] It has been already mentioned that in
the last year of the preceding reign a bill had passed for creating,
when opportunity offered by the sees affected becoming vacant, two new
bishoprics at Ripon and Manchester, the incomes of which were to be
provided by the union of some of the smaller existing bishoprics,
Gloucester with Bristol, St. Asaph with Bangor. But the Welsh regarded
with great disapproval any reduction of the number of bishoprics in the
principality, and Lord Powis now brought in a bill to repeal so much of
the act as provided for the union of two Welsh sees, urging not only
their great extent, which he stated at 3000 square miles of very
mountainous country, but the fact that the population of North Wales was
steadily and largely increasing. The bill, as has been intimated, was
favorably received by the Lords, who passed the second reading by a
majority of twelve; but, before it could be read a third time, the Duke
of Wellington, as leader of the ministry in that House, announced that
the bill was one which touched the prerogative of the crown, and
therefore could not be proceeded with without the consent of her
Majesty, which he was not authorized to express.

As the matter was explained by the Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst, the
manner in which the bill touched the royal prerogative was this: as,
during the vacancy of any see, its temporalities belonged to the crown,
any alterations in a see affected the direct pecuniary interests of the
crown, and he, as Speaker of the House, doubted whether he should be
justified in putting a question which so touched the royal prer