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Instructions involving charges.

Notice of instruc

tions,

XIX.

of action which they must follow, can be given by the Chapter
house. An instruction to be in order must be drawn in
clear and specific terms, so as to direct the committee to
the precise object that the member in moving it has in
view.1

An instruction to make provisions in a bill which would
entail a charge upon the people cannot be put from the
chair, unless the recommendation of the Crown be given to
the instruction (see p. 562). An instruction is also out of
order if it proposes to enable the committee on the bill to-
introduce amendments for which a resolution of the com-
mittee of ways and means is required. Nor can matters
already decided during the current session, or which are
appointed for the future consideration of the house, be
brought forward by an instruction, in accordance with the
general practice of the house regarding motions and
debates (see p. 278).

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The powers conferred by an instruction moved when à bill is committed for the first time, continue operative, if occasion should arise for the subsequent recommittal of the bill.5

Pursuant to the established practice of the house, a member cannot move more than one instruction to a committee."

Notice is required, not only of an instruction, but of amendments to an instruction, which, if agreed to, would

141 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 977; 51 ib. 641; 135 ib. 809.

2 24 ib. 1218; 95 ib. 755.

3 Conventual Establishments, 10th May, 1870, 201 H. D. 3 s. 534; Mr. H. Gardner's Instruction, Local Government Bill, 7th June, 1888, 326 ib. 1440.

4th June, 1860, 158 ib. 18511854.

5 National Education (Ireland) Bill, 1892. Instruction and committee, 15th June; recommitted 16th June; instruction read in com-mittee.

6 39 Parl, Deb, 4 s. 1708; 41 ib.

866.

176 H. D. 3 s. 1940; 269 ib. 218; 317 ib. 356; 51 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 642, see also the Speaker's ruling, 16th Feb. 1893, that such notice to be effective must be on the notice paper, 8 ib. 1684. The Speaker has ruled out of order in a notice of an instruction prefatory words in the nature of a preamble, see Mr. Whittaker's notice of an instruction to the committee on the Licensing Bill as handed in at the table and amended by the Speaker's directions, Notices of Motions, sess. 1904, pp. 1621, 1676.

Chapter enlarge the scope of the instruction, or convert the same
XIX.
into a novel proposition. Nor, even in the case of an in-
struction to a committee on a private bill, can an amend-
ment be proposed, without notice, to alter the form of a
mandatory instruction which stands upon the notice paper
into a permissive instruction."

Mover to be present, see

Debate on a motion for an instruction must be strictly relevant thereto, and must not be directed towards the general objects of the bill to which the instruction relates; 3 and the mover has not the right of reply."

structions

moved.

An instruction to a committee of the whole house can only When inp. 380, n. 1. be moved when the order of the day for the first sitting of can be the committee has been read (see p. 380). Instructions to committees of the whole house upon bills are also moved, when founded on the report of a committee of the whole house. In the case of bills referred to standing or select committees, an instruction can be moved when the order is made that the bill be committed, or subsequently.

sidered in

When the Speaker has left the chair, the mace is re- Bill conmoved from the table, and the committee begin the con- committee. sideration of the bill. As its principle has been affirmed at the second reading, the details of the bill are examined in committee, clause by clause and line by line; for which purpose the permission to speak more than once offers great facilities.

ment of

In the Lords, the first proceeding of the committee is to Proceedings in postpone the title, which is there treated as a part of the committee. bill. The preamble is next postponed in a Lords' com- Postponemittee; and on the 29th June, 1869, in committee on the preamble. Irish Church Bill, a long debate was raised upon the postponement of the preamble, which was, however, agreed to without a division; whilst in the Commons, by standing S. O. 35, Appendix I.

Amendment of title in Commons, see pp. 491, 1825. 497, 502,

1 27th Feb. 1891, 350 H. D. 3 s.

* 5th Dec. 1890, 349 ib. 667.

3 12th Aug. 1889, 339 ib. 1078; 18 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1089; 149 ib. 1095; 157 ib. 963, 983.

* 10th April, 1867, 186 H. D. 3 s.

5 105 C. J. 635.

• Standing order, No. 33, which empowers the reference of several bills to one committee, has become unused, owing to the operation of standing order No. 51 (see p. 477). : 197 H. D. 3 s, 689.

Amendments,

offered.

order No. 35, the preamble stands postponed until after Chapter the consideration of the clauses, without question put.1

This practice is adopted because the house has already affirmed the principle of the bill on the second reading, and it is therefore the province of the committee to settle the clauses first; and then to consider the preamble in reference to the clauses only. By this rule the preamble is made subordinate to the clauses, instead of governing them.

XIX.

When notice of

ments

see p. 477.

The chairman proceeds to read the number of each clause, when to be which is thus brought under the consideration of the com- amendmittee; and to call on the members who have given notice received, of amendment. A member is not at liberty to speak generally upon a clause, upon its being called by the chairman, there being no question before the committee until an amendment has been moved, or a question put that the clause stand part of the bill. If no amendment be offered to any part of the clause, the chairman at once puts the question, "That this clause stand part of the bill,” and proceeds to the next: but when an amendment is proposed, he states the line in which the alteration is to be made, and puts the question in the ordinary form. Members who are Procedure after desirous of offering amendments in committee should watch moment carefully the progress of the bill; for if the committee have of interamended a later line or words in the same clause, amend- P. 214. ments cannot be made in a earlier part of the bill. When- Procedure ever several amendments are about to be moved to the clauses, see same clause, the chairman proposes each of them in such a form as not to exclude any later amendments; and with this view he often proposes only the first words of an earlier amendment; but if an amendment has been proposed Practice in from the chair, which, if carried, excludes amendments that of the whole other members seek to submit to the committee, the ques- amendtion on that amendment must be put, if the mover insists ments, see

3

1 An instruction to a committee that they had power to suspend standing order No. 35 has been ruled to be out of order, 12 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 345.

2 Representation of the People, Bill, 18th June, 1866 (chancellor of the exchequer), 184 H. D. 3 s. 536..

181 ib. 539; 184 ib. 445.

ruption, see

on nero

P.

489.

committees

house on

P. 384.

Chapter upon obtaining the decision of the committee thereon1 (see also p. 290).

XIX.

When several amendments are offered at the same place in a clause, it is within the chairman's discretion to decide. which amendment he will receive. An amendment to leave out words in order to insert other words takes precedence of an amendment merely to leave out the words.

ments ad

ments in

Amendments may be made in every part of the bill, Amendwhether in the preamble, the clauses, or the schedules; missible, clauses may be omitted, and new clauses and schedules added; though no amendments can be moved to the granting or enacting words of money, and of other bills. Those words are part of the framework of the bill, and are never submitted to the committee. An amendment must be coherent, and consistent with the context of the bill; and Amendwhen a proposed amendment had been so amended as to admissible. form an incoherent question, the chairman stated that if no further amendment were proposed, he should proceed with the question which next arose upon the clause.5 Amendments also cannot be moved which are based on schedules or other provisions, the terms of which have not been placed before the committee. Amendments are out of order that are-irrelevant to the bill; governed by or dependent upon amendments already negatived; & inconsistent with, or contradictory to, the bill as agreed to by the committee; 9 offered at a wrong place in the bill 10 or that are tendered to the committee in a spirit of mockery;" and the chairman would decline to put such questions from

1 Labourers' Allotment Bill, 27th Aug. 1887, 320 H. D. 3 s. 200.

2 47 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 716; 60 ib. 651.

3 18 ib. 1162.

332 H. D. 3 s. 1010; 339 ib. 218; 80 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1364.

* Prisons Bill, 1877, 132 C. J. 73. Tithe Rent - Charge Recovery Bill, 29th Jan. 1891, private ruling; 70 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 449; 112 ib. 204.

111 C. J. 213; 179 H. D. 3 s. 522; 258 ib. 1451; 14 Parl. Deb. 4 s.

8

918; 41 ib. 12. 1702. 1704; 60 ib.
721; 74 ib. 326; 81 ib. 753. 1035;
114 ib. 913; 116 ib, 1043.

8 167 H. D. 3 s. 112; 211 ib. 137.
2026; 258 ib. 1333; 296 ib. 800; 305
ib. 83; 18 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 955; 20 ib.
228; 42 ib. 319; 74 ib. 851; 111 ib.
962-5.

9258 H. D. 3 s. 1239. 1455; 41
Parl. Deb. 4 s. 360; 113 ib. 493.
10 57 ib. 54; 60 ib. 651; 71 ib.
163.

11 270 H. D. 3 s. 862; 58 Parl. Deb.
4 s. 461.

XIX.

power of

the chair.1 Amendments to a bill proposing that the chapter address or resolution of one House of Parliament should effect the repeal of the bill have been ruled out of order as unconstitutional,2 while an amendment proposing that a bill relating to England alone should not come into force until a similar bill should have been passed for Scotland has been ruled to be irrelevant. The chairman also, regarding an amendment offered to a bill that was limited in scope to the repeal of a clause in a statute, ruled that the amendment was out of order, because its object was the continuance and the extension of the clause to be repealed. The chairman stated that, though the committee had full See also power to amend, even to the extent of nullifying the committees provisions of a bill, they could not insert a clause which reversed the principle which the bill, as read a second time, sought to affirm. In the case of a bill to extend a statute to London with certain modifications which were contained in the schedule to the bill, the chairman ruled that any alterations of the principal Act, that were not extensions or adaptations of it, would be beyond the scope of the bill and therefore out of order.5 He ruled out of order collectively a number of amendments to the schedule on the ground that, taken together, they would not be modifications of the principal Act specially applicable to London.

In like manner, it is not within the scope of a committee on an expiring laws continuance bill to amend the provisions of the Acts proposed to be continued, or to abridge the duration of such provisions; or to make the Acts permanent nor can an amendment be moved whereby

1 The chairman has declined to accept an amendment proposed to be moved to an amendment proposed to a proposed amendment to a clause, 127 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 423. 2 41 ib. 361.

341 ib. 1702.

15th March, 1880, 251 H. D. 3 s. 1134.

122 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1886,

7

6 122 ib. 1897.

30th July, 1874, 221 H. D. 3 s.
1018. It has been ruled also that
the continuance of any particular
Act must be discussed
on the
schedule to the bill when the Act is
reached there and not on clauses of
the bill, 139 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1697.
8 113 ib. 553.

over bills,

p. 491.

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