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A message from the throne makes a house.

"The Votes

ceedings."

VIII.

A message from the sovereign, or the lords commis- Chapter sioners, for the purpose of giving the royal assent to bills, makes a house, without regard to the number present. Accordingly, when it is known that the attendance of the house in the House of Peers will be desired, the house meets at the time appointed,1 and, if forty members are not present, the Speaker takes the chair of the Clerk of the house; and when the knock of the Black Rod upon the outer door of the house is heard, the Speaker, although forty members are not present, takes the chair, receives the message delivered by the Black Rod, and passes onward to the House of Peers. On his return the Speaker resumes the chair, makes his report to the house; and, as the house has been made, business may be proceeded with, until, on notice taken, it is proved that forty members are not present.

ceedings,"

Order in the transaction of business.-On the morning "The Votes and Pro- following a sitting of the house, the record of the trans- and Proactions of the previous day, styled "The Votes and Pro- see p. 201. ceedings," is delivered at every member's residence, together with the notice paper of the house, which contains the appointed business for the next day of sitting, both private and public, together with the notices of motion which were handed in at the table during the previous day, printed answers to questions, and any other papers directed to be circulated with the votes. On every The notice Saturday during the session each member receives, in addition to the notice paper containing the appointed business for the following Monday, a notice paper which contains all the notices of motions, and orders of the day, that are set down for the consideration of the house during the remainder of the session.2

paper.

1 If the commission is not appointed before four o'clock, the house may be counted out, 3rd June, 1856, 111 C. J. 232.

2 Since Feb. 1865, the notice paper has comprised the orders of the day for the whole session, 177 H. D. 3 s. 323. The notice paper for the

following Monday was first issued
separately from that for the re-
mainder of the session, 2nd May,
1904. The daily printing of the
notice paper was begun in 1856.
These notice papers are distributed
for members' use at the commence-
ment of each day's sitting.

Chapter
VIII.

S. 0.4,

Appendix I.

ment of

When the house meets on ordinary occasions, daily Arrangeprayers having been read (see p. 159), the private and business. public business of the house is taken in the appointed order: 1. Private business; 2. Public petitions; 3. Unopposed motions for returns; and such motions as may be taken either before the commencement, or at the close of public business (see p. 245); 4. Motions for leave of absence; 5. Giving notices of motions; 6. Questions to members; 7. Asking leave to move the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10; 8. Presentation of bills; 9. Motions at the commencement of public business; followed by the orders of the day, and notices of motions, as set down on the notice paper for that day.

This business is suspended without question put at a quarter-past eight o'clock, to afford an opportunity for the discussion of: 1. A motion for the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10, for which leave has been obtained after questions at that day's sitting; 2. Opposed private business set down by direction of the chairman of ways and means; and 3. Notices of motions and orders of the day of unofficial members on those days on which precedence is then given to them under standing order No. 4, after which the postponed business is proceeded with.

Business is taken at a Friday or Saturday sitting in the same order as the business before a quarter-past eight o'clock on other days, except that bills cannot be presented or motions, other than those relating to the business of the house, be made at the commencement of public business, or leave to move the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10 be asked.

The consideration of these matters, in their appointed Orders of the day,&c. order, is followed in this treatise by an explanation of the procedure of the house regarding the orders of the day (p. 260), and on notices of motions (p. 263); the revival of a proceeding taken off the notice paper by the action. of the house (p. 263); and the orders and other

arrangements made by the house to forward the transac- Chapter tion of business (p. 265).

A statement of the practice regarding incidental interruptions that may arise during the transaction of business, and motions relating to privilege, forms the concluding portion of this chapter (p. 270).

VIII.

orders of

1. Private business.-So soon as prayers are concluded, Procedure the Speaker calls upon the Clerk at the table to read the on public titles of the private bills appointed for that day's sitting; the day, see and members rise to move the motions relating to private business of which they have given notice, according to the order in which the motions are arranged on the paper.

The notice paper containing the orders of the day, and notices of motions relating to private business, and to provisional order bills, is prepared by the Private Bill Office, in pursuance of the provisions of standing order No. 8 and of standing orders (Private Business) Nos. 225 and 225a, and of the orders of the house, and under instructions received from the chairman of ways and means, and from the parliamentary agents. The private business is set down upon the paper in the following order: 1. Consideration of Lords' amendments; 2. Third readings; 3. Consideration of bills ordered to lie upon the table; 4. Second readings; 5. Notices of motions relating to private business other than stages of bills appointed for that day. S. O. 225a. These are followed by bills for confirming provisional (Private business). orders, and orders under the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899, arranged in the same order, and notices of the presentation of such bills. In both cases unopposed business is given precedence of opposed business.

S. O. 225. (Private business).

S. 0.8,
Appendix I.

1

If, upon its title being read, no motion relative to a private bill is made, the proceedings upon it are postponed till the next day on which the house sits.

All private business which is not disposed of by three o'clock is postponed, without question put, until such time

There is no longer a formal stage

of first reading in the case of private

bills, see standing order No. 197
(Private Business).

p. 260.

VIII.

Chapter as the chairman of ways and means may determine.1 Such private business is taken at a quarter-past eight after any motion for the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10 has been disposed of (see p. 252), and is distributed as near as may be proportionately between the sittings on which government business has precedence and the other sittings. Opposed private business other than that then under consideration cannot be taken after half-past nine o'clock, but is postponed until the next sitting of the house, in order that the chairman of ways and means may appoint another day for its consideration. No opposed private business may be set down for a quarter-past eight on Wednesdays between Easter and Whitsuntide, or for a Friday sitting.2

Pursuant to the rule prescribed by standing order No. Opposed private 207 (Private Business), if an order of the day, or a notice business. of motion placed upon the notice paper of private business, when read or called on for the first time, is met by an announcement, made by a member rising in his place, that it is opposed, the proceeding is deferred until a subsequent day, which may again be deferred before that day is reached. When the member who gave a notice of motion, which has been deferred on account of opposition, materially alters the form of such notice, the motion becomes subject to this rule; and, if objection be taken, the

3

1 This provision was ruled by the Speaker privately (9th August, 1905), to extend to notices of motions relating to private bills standing "by order" (see n. 3), and not reached by a quarter-past two o'clock, after which time private business could not be taken. See Notices of Motions, Private Business (Sess. 1905), pp. 816, 817. Opposed private business was postponed until the evening sitting on 9th August, 1905, 151 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 779. Unopposed private business not disposed of at the commencement of an afternoon sitting has been appointed for the evening sitting of the same day, 158

C. J. 20; 160 ib. 363.

2 Bills, the consideration of which
has been postponed on a Thursday
under standing order No.207 (Private
Business), are in practice, however,
set down for the following day in
order that the day selected by the
chairman of ways and means for
their consideration may be an-
nounced, if they are again opposed :
23rd and 24th July, 1903, 28th and
29th April, 1904.

Private business so deferred is
distinguished on the notice paper
from other private business by the
addition of the words "By order."
4 142 C. J. 286.

Provisional

VIII.

consideration of the altered motion is again postponed to a Chapter
future day. On the other hand, when a notice of motion,
which had been deferred on account of opposition, ap-
peared the next sitting day upon the notice paper in the
same form, but in the name of another member, an
objection, that it was therefore a new notice, was over-
ruled. It is also provided by S. O. 207 (private business),
that a motion contingent on opposed private business that
has been disposed of at a time appointed by the chairman
of ways and means may be considered and disposed of at
the same sitting with the consent of the chair.

When, in breach of an arrangement that the second
reading of a private bill should be postponed, by inad-
vertence the bill was read a second time, on notice taken
thereof, the entry of the second reading was read, the
proceeding was rendered null and void, and the bill was
set down for second reading upon a future day.2

see Chapter

Motions and orders of the day relating to provisional Provisionai order bills, order bills are, when opposed, dealt with by the house in order bills, conformity with the procedure which regulates the trans- XXX, action of private business.

2. Presentation of public petitions.-When the private business taken at the commencement of a sitting is concluded, the Speaker calls on the members to present petitions who have intimated to him their desire to do so; or who have entered their names on a list headed "Public Petitions," which is placed on the table of the house. When all the names on the list have been called, any member may rise and present a petition in the interval between the close of private business and the commence- Commencement of public business: but not so as to interrupt the ment of public Petitions giving of notices, or the asking of questions. Petitions which business, relating to an order of the day,&c.

3

1 Sutton Water Bill, 142 ib. 181. 197; Birmingham Corporation Water Bill; Notices, Private Business, pp. 259. 265; 1st and 4th April, 1892, 147 C. J. 152; 3 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 535.

2 19th Feb. 1884, 139 C. J. 57.

Speaker's ruling, 19th March, 1868, 190 H. D. 3 s. 1893.

Formerly the public presentation of petitions was not permitted after five o'clock, but this restriction is rendered inoperative by standing order No. 4.

see p. 255.

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