ogative
without the sovereign's consent. A committee which was appointed to
investigate the case fully confirmed the view thus taken by the
ministers, and the bill was dropped.

It was, however, an exercise of the royal prerogative which was received
by the House in general with great dissatisfaction. Certainly, since the
Civil List and royal income had been placed on their present footing, it
was only by a very forced construction that the pecuniary interests of
the sovereign could be said to be affected. And it seemed a very
insufficient plea for evoking the exercise of a power which, as it was
said, had certainly never been exerted before since the accession of the
Hanoverian dynasty. Nor was it made more acceptable by the explanation
of Lord Brougham, who on this occasion came to the support of the
minister, that the refusal of the crown's consent at this stage was "a
warning, as it were, a polite and courteous communication between the
sovereign, as guardian of the privileges of the crown, and the two
Houses of Parliament, that if they passed a certain bill it would not
receive the royal assent;" for, though the right to refuse the royal
assent to any bill was incontestable, it had not been exercised since
the time of William III., and to put it in force for the protection of
an imaginary interest of the crown itself would have been so unpopular
an exercise of it that no administration could have ventured to advise
it.

One of the arguments which the Duke of Wellington brought forward in the
discussion, and which, probably, contributed to induce him thus to
strangle Lord Powis's bill, has had an influence on subsequent
legislation. He urged that its adoption--since the resolution to
establish bishoprics at Manchester and Ripon was one which every one
desired to carry out--would increase the number of bishops, "and thus
make an organic change in the constitution of the House of Lords." It is
not very clear how the addition of a single spiritual peer could have
that effect. But the Duke had dwelt upon the same argument before in the
debate on the proposed union of the sees affected, urging that there was
such a jealousy of the Church in many quarters, and especially in some
of the large towns, that it would be very undesirable to pass any
measure the effect of which would be to increase the number of Episcopal
peers. Even if there was any general reluctance at that time to see such
an increase (a fact which was by