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Chapter

VIII.

relate to a motion upon the notice paper or to an order of the day may be presented, however, when the mover of the motion is called on, or when an order of the day is the presen- read for the first time,' but not after the question consepetitions, quent thereon has been proposed, or on resuming an see p. 529. adjourned debate.2

Duty of

members in

tation of

3. Unopposed returns.-From the time when the pre- Motions for unopposed sentation of petitions begins, until the commencement of returns. public business, if the house be not otherwise engaged, motions may be made for returns of which notice stands upon the notice paper for the day, and which the government department concerned has signified its readiness to grant.

If a member who desires to make such a motion enters his name upon a paper which lies upon the table, headed "unopposed returns," his name will be called by the Speaker before the time appointed for giving notices of motions (see p. 238). A member may, if duly authorized, make this motion in behalf of another member, in his absence. Before an unopposed return can be moved, the Speaker should be assured that the department which furnishes the return has notified its consent; and if an order for a return is obtained as unopposed, without such consent, the order may be struck out of the minute books by the Speaker's direction, or on a subsequent day the order may be read and discharged. If a motion for an unopposed return, made during the time before the commencement of public business, is opposed, though official consent may have been given, the motion must be deferred until, during the course of the day, notices of motions. are called on in their regular order, but formal oppoSee also p. sition either before the commencement of public business or after its interruption has been overruled by the Speaker, who has also deprecated opposition to motions

216.

3

1 151 C. J. 85. 87.

2 On one occasion the motion made upon an order of the day was temporarily withdrawn in order to enable a member to present a petition

relating thereto, 10th April, 1856,
Education, 111 C. J. 131.

3 53 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 466; 142 ib.
1038-2.

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Mode of giving notice.

Extent of
notice.
S. O. 7,
Appendix I.

for returns which the government has signified its willing- Chapter ness to give.1

4. Motions for leave of absence.-These motions, notice having been given (see p. 246), may be moved before the commencement, or after the close, of public business.

2

VIII.

5. Notices of motions.-By a practice dating from the Rules regarding beginning of last century, the terms of a substantive motion, motions, when moved in the House of Commons, should be stated, see p. 277. and printed on the notice paper of the house. It is not sufficient, in the case of a substantive motion, or of an amendment on going into the committee of supply (see p. 609), to give notice that attention will be called to a matter, and that a resolution, or a return, or a select committee will be moved thereon, unless the actual terms are stated of the motion that is to be submitted to the house.3 Of charges affecting personal character or conduct, no form of notice is permitted, save a specific notice of a substantive motion, which distinctly formulates the charges (see p. 278). No debate is permitted when notice of an intended motion is given to the house. A substantive motion, as a rule, must be moved by the member in whose name the notice stands (see p. 263).

4

Under standing order No. 7 no notice of motion may be fixed for a day which lies beyond the interval of time included within the "four days next following on which notices have precedence; due allowance being made for any intervening adjournment of the house." Notices of motions have precedence over the orders of the day at a quarter-past eight o'clock on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

1 142 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1499.

2 3rd and 27th Feb. 1806, 2 Lord
Colchester's Diary, 35. 41; 6 H.
D. 1 s. 229; see also 12th March,
1836, 31 H. D. 3 s. 1154.

3 28th March, 1871, 205 ib. 774.
4 On the 30th April, 1792, the
Speaker allowed Mr. Grey to make a
speech on giving notice of a motion
on the subject of parliamentary re-
presentation, which was followed by
a debate. He said to Mr. Pitt, "that

in strictness it was not allowable but
that it was the spirit of his duty
to consult the wishes of the house,"
Lord Sidmouth's Life, 88. On the
5th July, 1872, a member, on rising
to give a notice, proposed to raise a
debate thereon, but was at once
stopped by the Speaker, 212 H. D.
3 s. 698. And so again 7th July,
1876, 230 ib. 1135; 28th June, 1887,
316 ib. 1222.

VIII.

Chapter before Easter and after Michaelmas, and on Wednesdays between Easter and Whitsuntide (see p. 258).

Following this method of computation, no notice can be given before Easter for a day beyond the second Tuesday or Wednesday that occurs after the day on which the notice is given in the house, nor between Easter and Whitsuntide for a day beyond the fourth Wednesday so occurring. The "due allowance" in that calculation "for any intervening adjournment of the house," permitted by the standing order, is designed to meet the occasion of a lengthened adjournment of the house, such as the Easter adjournment. Under this provision, so soon as the motion for the Easter adjournment, for example, is agreed to, notice can be given for any Wednesday after Easter which is not beyond the fourth day upon which notices of motion have precedence upon which the house will sit, including in that calculation such Tuesdays and Wednesdays as occur before the adjournment and such Wednesdays as occur after the conclusion of the period of adjournment. Thus, for example, if it be intended, on the Thursday, to move the adjournment of the house until the Monday next after Easter Monday, a member cannot, on the preceding Tuesday or Wednesday, give notice for a day beyond the third or fourth Wednesday after Easter Day respectively: but so soon as the house has agreed, on Thursday, to adjourn, at its rising, over the next ten days, notices may be given for the four next notice days which occur after the adjournment.

motions,

Public notice may be given of an intended motion, if the Notice of time of the house be not otherwise engaged, after the con- how given. sideration of private business is concluded, and before the commencement of public business, or subsequently, after Order of, the close of public business. Notices of motion may also be given at any time during the sitting of the house, by delivering the terms of the motion, in writing, at the table.1

on notice

paper, see

p. 260.

1 On the 11th April, 1854 (the last day before the Easter recess), it was ordered "that members wishing to

move amendments to the Oxford
University Bill, do send them to the
Clerk of the house on or before

Notices on the first

day of a session.

Ballot for notices.

VIII.

Members of the government can claim priority in giving Chapter notice, whenever they make announcements relative to public business; and on the first day of the session they give their notices after the usual sessional orders and resolutions have been agreed to (see p. 174).1 But they do not avail themselves of this privilege to anticipate other members at a quarter-past eight on the Tuesday or Wednesday sittings, or the Friday sittings when precedence is given to the business of unofficial members (see p. 258).

If a member desires to obtain precedence upon the day when he proposes to bring on a notice of motion, he enters his name on the ballot paper, which is, at the meeting of the house, placed in the "No" division lobby for that purpose. Notice may be given in behalf of a member, at that moment absent from the house; and in that case, the member who gives the notice enters upon the paper the name of the member for whom he acts, answers for him when the name is called, and delivers at the table the written notice in his behalf, but he cannot in that case enter his own name on the ballot paper. The name or signature of a member must not appear more than once upon the ballot paper.

When the house meets at a quarter to three o'clock, the ballot takes place after questions. At other sittings of the house the ballot is taken immediately after the close of private business, or, if no private business is set down for

Monday, the 24th day of this instant
April, and that the same be printed
and circulated with the votes." A
member may not keep the same
notice on the notice paper for two
days at the same time, Mr. Speaker's
ruling (private), 5th April, 1895.

119th Feb. 1906, 152 Parl. Deb.
4 s. 139. The ballot for private
members' bills before 1894 was
taken in the house on the first
day of the session at half-past
four o'clock, and members of the
government gave their notices before
the ballot. On the 26th Feb. 1867,
this privilege gave ministers

a

strategic advantage over their op-
ponents. Mr. Gladstone desired to
give notice of an amendment for the
28th, on going into committee to
consider resolutions on the repre-
sentation of the people: but before
the ballot, he was anticipated by the
chancellor of the exchequer, who
rose and announced, with reference
to public business, that he should
not ask the house to proceed with
that committee.

2 27th April, 1843, 68 H. D. 3 s.
1002; 18th April, 1901, 92 Parl.
Deb. 4 s. 589; 13th Feb. 1902, 102
ib. 1271.

Chapter consideration, so soon after prayers as suits the convenience of the house.

VIII.

the ballot.

Numbers are assigned by the ballot paper to the names The taking or signatures of the members intending to give a notice, and slips of paper bearing corresponding numbers are folded up and placed in the ballot box. When the Speaker has called on members to give their notices of motions, the clerk assistant, having shuffled the slips of paper, draws them out, one by one, and notifies to the house the number that has been drawn out. The Speaker thereupon announces the name of the member to whose signature that number is attached upon the ballot paper; and, following the Speaker's call, each member, in his turn, rises and states the notice which he gives, and the day that he has chosen for the motion. In order to secure the precedence obtained by the ballot he must hand in a copy of his notice at the table on the same day before the rising of the house.1 When the ballot paper has been called over, members whose names were thereon, and other members, may give further notices.

bills and

motion at

ment of

session.

The ballot to determine the precedence of the bills of Ballot for unofficial members at the commencement of the session notices of and of notices of motions for the first four notice days has commencebeen held out of the house since 1894.2 Members desiring session. to take part in the ballot are required to sign the ballot paper on the first or second day of the session during the sitting of the house. The ballot is taken on the third day at a time and place fixed by the Speaker, and during the sitting of the house on the same day members must hand in at the table their notices of motions or the titles of the bills that they propose to present. These are arranged upon the notice paper of the following day in the order determined by the ballot. On the fourth day of the session the presentation of bills takes place after questions, or if that day be a Friday as soon after prayers as may be convenient. The precedence obtained in the ballot can be used either for a bill or a notice of motion, and the power of

1 13 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1078.

P.

2 149 C. J. 9; 150 ib. 9; 158 ib. 9.
R

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