SUPPLY

In Parliamentary language, the sum granted to the sovereign by parliament for defraying the expenses cf the current year. The known or probable amount of the different branches of the year's expenses is stated to the House of Commons, in a committee of supply, by the chancellor of the exchequer, and, after these have been voted by the committee, they are formally granted by an act of parliament, called the Appropriation Bill. The granting of the annual supplies is a peculiar privilege of the House of Commons, which never permits any alteration or amendment (except merely verbal) to be made by the House of Lords in the bills pa ed for this purpose. Supply. In Political Economy. See Political Econ omy. [s. 1218]