After the general election of 1880, however, the Ministerialists, aided by a number of factious Conservatives, passed a third bill repealing the grist tax on wheat (10th July 1880), the repeal to take effect from the 1st of January 1884 onwards.
The President was insistent upon the need of repealing the excess profits taxes and reducing transportation taxes and income surtaxes.
The motion was lost but the House resolved to bring in a bill for repealing the Corporation Act, and ten years later (March 5) the Grand Committee of Grievances reported to the House its opinion (I) that the rights of the City of London in the election of sheriffs in the year 1682 were invaded and that such invasion was illegal and a grievance, and (2) that the judgment given upon the Quo Warranto against the city was illegal and a grievance.
The president had undertaken to coerce his own party to do something against its will, and it was only by the aid of the Republican minority that the passage of the repealing bill was at last made possible (October 30th).
It was declared to be unlawful for the regent to make war or peace, or ratify any treaty with any foreign power, or prorogue, adjourn or dissolve any parliament without the consent of the majority of the council of regency, or give her assent to any bill for repealing or varying the Act of Settlement, the Act of Uniformity, or the Act of the Scottish parliament for securing the Protestant religion and Presbyterian church government in Scotland (1707, c. 6).
