For it would, of course, be open to the House to refer for
the consideration of that body not a subject merely, but any
specific proposal, or a Draft of a Bill in extenso, when any member
thought himself capable of preparing one such as ought to pass; and
the House would doubtless refer every such draft to the Commission, if
only as materials, and for the benefit of the suggestions it might
contain: as they would, in like manner, refer every amendment or
objection which might be proposed in writing by any member of the
House after a measure had left the Commissioners' hands. The
alteration of Bills by a Committee of the whole House would cease, not
by formal abolition, but by desuetude; the right not being
abandoned, but laid up in the same armoury with the royal veto, the
right of withholding the supplies, and other ancient instruments of
political warfare, which no one desires to see used, but no one
likes to part with, lest they should any time be found to be still
needed in an extraordinary emergency. By such arrangements as these,
legislation would assume its proper place as a work of skilled
labour and special study and experience; while the most important
liberty of the nation, that of being governed only by laws assented to
by its elected representatives, would be fully preserved, and made
more valuable by being detached from the serious, but by no means
unavoidable, drawbacks which now accompany it in the form of
ignorant and ill-considered legislation.
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