BUTTERWORTHS, 7, FLEET STREET, Law Publishers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty. MANCHESTER: MEREDITH, RAY & LITTLER. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK; BELL & BRADFUTE. CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK & CO. MELBOURNE: GEORGE ROBERTSON. PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION. UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA THIS work has continued to expand, in each successive Edition; and the last four years have been unusually fruitful of Parliamentary incidents. It will be sufficient to mention the case of Mr. Bradlaugh, the conflicts of the House of Commons with Obstruction, the exceptional Rules of Urgency, the new Standing Orders for the regulation of Procedure, and the appointment of Standing Committees for the consideration of Bills relating to Law and Courts of Justice, and to Trade, Shipping and Manufactures. During the same period, questions of Order have also been frequent, beyond any previous experience; and many additional precedents, of earlier date, have been inserted in various parts of the work. I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of acknowledging my obligations to many gentlemen, specially qualified to assist me,-to some of whom I am bound more particularly to allude. Mr. Speaker placed his valuable Note-Books at my disposal. My colleagues, Mr. Palgrave and Mr. Milman, gave me the benefit of their judicious minutes of decisions from the Chair, and collections of precedents. Mr. Bull, the Clerk of the Journals, aided me with many skilful searches for precedents; and Mr. Bonham-Carter advised and assisted me in the review of cases of locus standi before the Court of Referees, and the practice of Committees on Private Bills. HOUSE OF COMMONS, June 6th, 1883. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IT is the object of the following pages to describe the various functions and proceedings of Parliament, in a form adapted, as well to purposes of reference, as to a methodical treatment of the subject. The well-known work of Mr. Hatsell abounds with Parliamentary learning, and, except where changes have arisen in the practice of later years, is deservedly regarded as an authority upon all the matters of which it treats. Other works have also appeared, upon particular branches of Parliamentary practice; or with an incidental rather than direct bearing upon all of them: but no general view of the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, at the present time, has yet been published; and it is in the hope of supplying some part of this acknowledged deficiency, that the present Treatise has been written. A theme so extensive has only been confined within the limits of a single volume, by excluding, or rapidly passing over, such points of constitutional law and history as are not essential to the explanation of proceedings in Parliament; and by preferring brief statements of the general result of precedents, to a lengthened enumeration of the precedents themselves. Copious references are given, throughout the work, to the Journals of both houses, and to other original sources of information: but quotations have been restricted to resolutions and standing orders, to pointed authorities, and to precedents which serve to elucidate any principle or rule of practice better than a more general statement in the text. |