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Chapter precedence over all the other orders of the day and notices of motions.1

VIII.

Privilege motions,

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pursuant

Thirdly. Motions for leave to bring in bills, and for the Motions nomination of select committees, may be set down at the to S. o. 11, commencement of public business after the foregoing Appendix I. motions on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays by members of the government, and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays by unofficial members. Such bills must be presumably noncontentious; and when such motions are opposed, the Speaker, after permitting, if he thinks fit, a brief explanatory statement from the member who moves, and from a member who opposes the motion, puts the question thereon without further debate, or else the question that the debate be now adjourned.5 The Speaker, pursuant to the standing order, reserves to himself the power of proposing the question for an adjournment of the debate, and only permits a brief reply to a speech from an opposer of the motion."

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Motions and orders of the day touching a matter of privisee p. 270. lege are placed upon the notice paper after these motions, and before the appointed business of the sitting.

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The ordinary course of business.-The ordinary public Orders of business of the house consists of orders of the day, i.e. a the day and bill or other matter which the house has ordered to be motions.

1 137 C. J. 492; 14th May, 1887, 316 H. D. 3 s. 60. On Tuesday, 24th May, 1898, the motion for the adjournment of the house over the Whitsuntide holidays was placed upon the notice paper immediately after a government bill, for which precedence, whenever it might be appointed, had been obtained. Notices of motions, sess. 1898, p. 1543.

253 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1383; 68 ib. 42. 6th March, 1893, Speaker's private ruling, Parliaments Duration Bill.

* 15th March, 1892, 147 C. J. 105; 26th July, 1905, 160 ib. 358. An amendment cannot be moved to the question, 113 Parl Deb. 4 s. 249.

10th Feb. 1891, 146 C. J. 81; 154 ib. 167; 160 ib. 339. See also the Speaker's remarks in refusing to put the question for the adjournment of the debate on the motion for leave to introduce a government bill, 97 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 868. The adjourned debate of 6th March, 1899, on the nomination of a select committee, was ordered to be resumed at the commencement of public business on the following day, 154 C. J. 75.

667 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1375; 148 ib. 388.

14th July, 1890, 346 H. D. 3 s. 1615; 12th April, 1894, 23 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 225.

8 252 H. D. 3 s. 422. 438.

notices of

taken into consideration on a particular day; and notices Chapter of motions.

The relative precedence of government business, and 8.0. 2. 4. business in charge of unofficial members, and of orders of 5. 13, Appendix I. the day,1 and notices of motions, is prescribed by the standing orders, or by such orders as the house may make from time to time.

Sittings

appointed

for govern

ness.

Government business has precedence at every sitting, but notices of motions and public bills of unofficial members are given precedence over government business at a quarterpast eight on Tuesday until Easter, and on Wednesday until Whitsuntide and after Michaelmas. The bills of unofficial members have precedence of government business on Friday until Whitsuntide, and on the third and fourth Fridays after Whit Sunday.

At sittings at which government business has precedence 2 the orders of the day or notices of motions are placed in ment busi- such sequence as the government may think fit, before other business set down upon the notice paper for those sittings; 3 subject to the priority, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, of motions set down by unofficial members at the commencement of public business (see p. 257), and on Thursdays of the order of the day for the business of supply (see p. 259).

After a quarter-past eight when government business has not precedence, the notices of motions of unofficial

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1 The first resolution giving precedence to orders of the day was in 1811, and applied to Monday and Friday only, 66 C. J. 148; 19 H. D. 106. 244. In 1835, it was extended to Wednesday.

The origin of government nights may probably be traced to the following order, 15th Nov. 1670: "That Mondays and Fridays be appointed for the only sitting of committees to whom public bills are committed; and that no private committee do sit on the said days," 9 C. J. 164; see also 1 ib. 523. 640 (Committee of Grievances, 1621).

3 Government bills on Saturdays, 9th Aug. 1878, 242 H. D. 3 s. 1640.

* Before 1896, as the first order of the day on Friday was either supply or ways and means, and the question had to be proposed for the Speaker's leaving the chair, that day was devoted to the motions of unofficial members, their motions assuming the form of amendments on going into committee of supply, and on this occasion an exception was made to the rule that government tellers should act, in support of the question that the Speaker

VIII.

VIII.

Chapter members are considered before their orders of the day, and any government business under consideration at a quarterpast eight is postponed without question put until the business of unofficial members is disposed of. The orders of the day set down for Fridays when government business has not precedence are usually, but not exclusively, the orders in the charge of unofficial members,1 and on these days orders of the day are considered before notices of motions. By established usage, orders of the day are taken first when the house sits upon a Saturday.

Course of business on days allotted to supply.-On Thursdays, as soon as the committee of supply has been appointed, and the estimates have been presented, the business of supply must, until disposed of, be the first order of the day, unless the house otherwise order (see p. 266), while other days may also be allotted to the same business. After the presentations of bills and the motions, that can be made at the commencement of public business, have been concluded on a day allotted to the business of supply, no business other than supply can be taken before eleven o'clock, with the exception of motions for the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10, and opposed private business.

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Bills and motions of unofficial members on government sittings. Orders of the day in charge of unofficial members may be set down for any sitting devoted to government business, subject to the rights of the government, and to an arrangement usually made, on sittings on S. O. 2. 3, special occasions, such as a sitting on Saturday, that the time thus made available for business shall be devoted Unofficial

Saturday sittings

subject to

see p.

267.

should leave the chair for that com-
mittee. Mail Contracts, 12th March,
1869, 124 C. J. 80; Monastic Insti-
tutions, 31st March, 1876, 131 ib.
132; East India (Duty on Cotton
Goods), 4th April, 1879, 134 C. J.
136; Sale of Intoxicating Drinks on
Sunday, 25th June, 1880, 135 ib. 247,
also 138 ib. 154. 167; Contagious

bills

treated as govern

Diseases Acts, 20th April, 1883, 278 ment bills.
H. D. 3 s. 855.

1 Accidents (Mines and Factories)
Bill, 160 C. J. 40; Post Office (Tele-
phone Agreement), ib. 178.

2 92 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 611; 125 ib. 1163.

3 121 ib. 103.
4 122 ib. 1361.

Order of notices of motions.

VIII.

exclusively to government business: but a minister may Chapter
give to a bill or motion, in charge of an unofficial member,
a position among the government business.

Notices of motions, both official and unofficial, are placed
upon the notice paper in the order imparted by the ballot,
or in which they are handed in at the table, no priority
as regards notices of motions being accorded to the govern-
ment, save under the power of arranging their business
given by standing order No. 5 (see p. 266).

S. 0.6, Order of bills, other than government bills, after Whitsun-
Appendix I.
tide.-After Whitsuntide, public bills, other than govern-
ment bills, are arranged on the notice paper so as to give
priority to the most advanced. Lords' amendments to bills
received from the Commons are placed first, followed by
third readings, the consideration of bills on report, bills in
progress in committee, bills appointed for committee, and
second readings. The order of bills standing at the same
state is decided, inter se, by the priority of their appoint-
ment for the day on which they appear upon the notice
paper, and not by the date on which they reached their
present stage.

read.

See also

p. 268.

on private

Orders Procedure upon the orders of the day.-Whenever orders Procedure
S.O.12.13, of the day are the appointed business of the house, pur- business,
Appendix I. suant to standing orders Nos. 12 and 13, the Speaker see p. 234.

directs the Clerk at the table to read the orders of the
day, without any question being put; and the orders are
thereupon disposed of, following the order in which they
stand upon the notice paper, subject, however, to an inter-
ruption to the proceedings of the house 1 (see p. 269).

A motion was formerly permitted, moved when an order
of the day was read, that it, either singly or coupled with
other orders of the day, be postponed to give priority to
a notice of motion, or to another order of the day.

On the 21st Aug. 1894, an order of the day was deferred till after another order by a motion made at the commencement of public business by a member of the

Such

government, 149 C. J. 394, 29 Parl.
Deb. 4 s. 178.

23rd May, 1852, 107 C. J. 186;
25th July, 1856, 111 ib. 386.

VIII.

Chapter motion, however, is at variance with the provision of standing order No. 13, which prescribes that the orders of the day shall be disposed of in their appointed order; and the same objection applies to attempts that have been made, after an order of the day has been read, to obtain precedence for other orders of the day by means of an amendment moved to the question proposed from the chair.1

No seconder required,

Accordingly, whilst the Clerk is reading the orders of the day, the proceedings thereon may not be interrupted by any other business or debate which members may endeavour to interpose.2 Nor can a motion for the adjournment of the house be made whilst the orders of the day are being read, i.e. neither upon an order of the day, nor in the interval between reading one order and another. A motion for adjournment can, under such circumstances, only be made by a member of the government, because it is desirable that the house should adjourn forthwith.1

When an order of the day has been read, it must there-
see p. 277. upon be proceeded with, appointed for a future day, or
Bills with discharged. The Speaker, therefore, calls upon the mem-
drawn, &c.,
see p. 470. ber in charge thereof, no other member being allowed to

interpose, unless with his consent; 5 or upon the member,
in the case of an adjourned debate, who has moved the
adjournment, if he rises to address the chair (see p. 313);
and the Speaker, therefore, will not permit any question to
be asked of a minister or other member when an order
of the day has been read, unless it relates thereto.

the house

The right to move an order of the day, to a certain Power of extent, belongs to the house at large, and is not vested over orders solely in the member who has charge of the order. In of the day.

119th May, 1852, 107 C. J. 225; 28th June, 1854, 109 ib. 342; 5th Aug. 1857, 112 ib. 377.

7th Aug. 1872, 213 H. D. 3 s. 644.

* 26th Aug. 1887, 320 ib. 153–157; 16th Feb. 1891, 350 ib. 805; 5th Aug. 1904, 139 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1269.

4 160 C. J. 346.

5 Refreshment Houses Bill, 26th March, 1860, 157 H. D. 3 s. 1301; see also 160 ib. 349. Sir J. Fergusson, on the Representation of the People Bill, 7th June, 1860, 159 ib. 26.

6 5th May, 1886, 305 ib. 353.

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