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Chapter on the 1st March, 1814;1 and it is probable that the practice will not be revived.

II.

See a'so p. 45.

Rescrte).

A power of interfering with adjournments in certain cases has been conceded to the Crown by statute. The 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 14, amended by 33 & 34 Vict. c. 81, enacts that when both houses of Parliament stand adjourned for more Proclama than fourteen days, the king may issue a proclamation, tion Army with the advice of his privy council, declaring that the Parliament shall meet on a day not less than six days from the proclamation; and the houses of Parliament then stand adjourned to the day and place declared in the proclamation; and all the orders which may have been made by either house, and appointed for the original day of meeting, or any subsequent day, stand appointed for the day named in the proclamation.

Dissolutions and appropri

ation of supplies, see p. 551.

tion.

The king may also close the existence of Parliament Dissoluby a dissolution, but is not, however, entirely free to define the duration of a Parliament. Before the Triennial Act, 6 Will. & Mary, c. 2, there was no constitutional limit to the continuance of a Parliament but the will of the Crown: but under the Statute 1 Geo. I. c. 38, commonly known as the Septennial Act, it ceases to exist after seven years from the day on which, by the writ of summons, it was appointed to meet. Before the Revolution of 1688, a Parliament was dissolved by the demise of the Crown: 2 but appeals, and by the 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 15, and by the 6 Anne, c. 7, a Parliament was determined six months after the demise of

Dissolu

tions and

impeach

ments, House of Lords, see pp. 51,

667.

27th October, in order to give time
to the Irish Parliament to consider
the commercial resolutions. 25 Parl.
Hist. 934. In 1799 an adjournment
extended from the 12th October to
the 21st January; and in 1813 from
the 20th December to the 1st March.
In 1820, while the Bill of Pains and
Penalties against the Queen was
pending in the House of Lords, the
Commons adjourned, by four suc-
cessive adjournments, from the 26th
July to the 23rd November, when
Parliament was prorogued. On the
18th August, 1882, both houses ad-

journed until the 24th October, in
order to enable the Commons to
conclude the consideration of new
rules of procedure. On the 22nd
September, 1893, the Lords adjourned
to the 9th November and the Com-
mons to the 2nd November for the
Local Government (England and
Wales) Bill, and on the 8th August,
1902, both houses adjourned to the
16th October for the Education
(England and Wales) Bill.

149 L. J. 747; 69 C. J. 132.
2 Blackstone, Com. i. 177.

II.

the Crown (see p. 40), and so the law continued until, by the Chapter Reform Act of 1867, it was provided that the Parliament in being, at any future demise of the Crown, shall not be determined by such demise, but shall continue as long as it would have otherwise continued, unless dissolved by the Crown.2

Parliament is usually dissolved by proclamation under the great seal, after having been prorogued to a certain day. This proclamation is issued by the king, with the advice of his privy council; and announces that the king has given order to the lord chancellor of Great Britain and the lord chancellor of Ireland to issue out writs in due form, and according to law, for calling a new Parliament; and that the writs are to be returnable in due course of law. Since the dissolution of the 28th March, 1681, by Charles II., the sovereign had not dissolved Parliament in person until the 10th June, 1818, when it was dissolved by the Prince Regent in person. Parliament has not since been dissolved in that form: but proceedings not very dissimilar have occurred in recent times. On the 22nd April, 1831, William IV., having come down to prorogue Parliament, said, "I have come to meet you for the purpose of proroguing Parliament, with a view to its immediate dissolution;" and Parliament was dissolved by proclamation on the following day. On the 17th July, 1837, Parliament was prorogued and dissolved on the same day. On the 23rd July, 1847, Queen Victoria, in proroguing Parliament, announced her intention immediately to dissolve it; and it was accordingly dissolved by proclamation on the same day, and the writs were despatched by that evening's post;1 and this course is now the ordinary,5 but not the invariable, practice."

Even the privy council expired at the demise of the Crown, and its members were reappointed in the new reign, and Queen Anne omitted the names of the Whig chiefs, Somers, Halifax, and Orford. Lord Stanhope, Reign of Anne, p. 44.

230 & 31 Vict. c. 102, s. 51.
373 C. J. 427; 86 ib. 517; 92 ib.

671; 93 ib. 3.

102 ib. 960; 103 ib. 3.

5 21st March, 1857; 23rd April, 1859; 6th July, 1865; 26th January, 1874; 24th March, 1880; and 28th June, 1892.

1859, prorogation, 19th April, proclamation, 23rd April ; 1886, prorogation, 25th June, proclamation,

Chapter

II

of Parlia

ment after

Subject to the statutory period of thirty-five days between Assembling the proclamation calling a parliament and its meeting (see p. 41), the interval between a dissolution and the assembling dissolution. of the new Parliament varies according to the season of the year, the state of public business, and the political conditions under which an appeal to the people may have become necessary. When the session has been concluded, and no question of ministerial confidence or responsibility is at issue, the recess is generally continued, by prorogations, until the usual time for the meeting of Parliament.

Lords.

In addition to these several powers of calling a Parliament, appointing its meeting, directing the commencement of its proceedings, determining them from time to time. by prorogation, and finally of dissolving it altogether, the Crown has other parliamentary powers, which will hereafter be noticed in treating of the functions of the two houses. Peers of the realm enjoy rights and exercise functions in House of five distinct characters: First, they possess, individually, titles of honour which give them rank and precedence; secondly, they are, individually, hereditary counsellors of the Crown; thirdly, they are, collectively, together with Peers of the the lords spiritual, when not assembled in Parliament, the permanent council of the Crown; fourthly, they are, collectively, together with the lords spiritual, when assembled in Parliament, a court of judicature; and lastly, they are, conjointly with the lords spiritual and the Commons, in Parliament assembled, the legislative assembly of the kingdom, by whose advice, consent, and authority, with the sanction of the Crown, all laws are made.2

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realm.

Judicature of the Lords,

II.

ments, see

The most distinguishing characteristic of the Lords is Chapter their judicature, of which they exercise several kinds. They have a judicature in the trial of peers (see p. 667); and Impeachanother in claims of peerage and offices of honour, under p. 663. references from the Crown, but not otherwise. Since the union with Scotland, they have also had a judicature for controverted elections of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland; 2 and by the act of union with Ireland, all questions touching the rotation or election of lords spiritual or temporal of Ireland were to be decided by the House of Lords: but part of this judicature was superseded in 1869, when Irish bishops ceased to have seats in Parliament. In addition to these special cases, they have a general judicature, as a supreme court of appeal from other courts of justice. This high judicial office has been retained by them. as the ancient consilium regis, which, assisted by the judges, and with the assent of the king, administered justice in the early periods of English law. Their appellate jurisdiction would also appear to have received statutory confirmation from the 14 Edw. III. c. 5, A.D. 1340. In the 17th century they assumed a jurisdiction, in many points, which has since been abandoned. They claimed an original jurisdiction in civil causes, which was resisted by the Commons, and has not been enforced for the last century and a half. They claimed an original jurisdiction over crimes, without impeachment by the Commons: but that claim was also abandoned." Their claim to an appellate jurisdiction over causes in equity, on petition to themselves, without reference from the Crown, has been exercised since the reign of Charles I.; and notwithstanding the resistance of the Commons in 1675,7 they have since remained in undisputed

1 See Knolly's case, 12 St. Tr. 1167-1207; 1 Lord Raym. 10; Salk. 509; Carth. 297; 2 Lord Campbell, Lives of Ch. Just. 148; Lord Campbell's Speeches, 326; but see Debates and Proceedings upon the Wensleydale Life Peerage, 1856.

2 Act of the Parl. of Scotland, 5 Ann. c. 8; 6 Ann. c. 23; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 52.

3 4th Art. of Union; 89 L. J. 289. 295. 329, &c.

Hale, Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, c. 14; Barrington on the Statutes, 244.

5 See 5 Howell, St. Tr. 711; 4 Parl. Hist. 431. 443; 3 Hatsell, 336. 68 C. J. 38.

See 6 Howell, St. Tr. 1121.

II.

ages, see p. 12.

Chapter possession of it. They had a jurisdiction over causes brought, on writs of error, from the courts of law, originally derived from the Crown, and confirmed by statute,1 and to hear appeals from courts of equity. In 1873, indeed, their ancient appellate jurisdiction was surrendered by the Judicature Act: but before that Act came into operation this provision was repealed; 2 their jurisdiction was restored and defined, while their efficiency as a court of appeal was increased by the addition of four lords of appeal in Life peer- ordinary. The power of hearing causes during a prorogation or dissolution of Parliament was also given; and in pursuance of this authority, at the close of each session, the Lords appoint a day irrespective, of the session of Parliament, when the house meets for the purpose of hearing appeals, and empowers the appeal committee to meet and choose their own chairman.3 An appeal now lies to the House of Lords from the Court of Appeal in England, and from any Court in Scotland and Ireland from which a writ of error or appeal previously lay by common law or by statute. But appeals in ecclesiastical, maritime, or prize causes, and colonial appeals, both at law and in equity, are determined by the privy council. The powers which are incident to the House of Lords, as a court of record, will claim attention in other places.

ments, see p. 663.

A valuable part of the ancient constitution of the consilium Judges' regis has never been withdrawn from the Lords, viz. the opinions. assistance of the judges (see p. 198).

ments.

In passing Acts of attainder and of pains and penalties, Impeachthe judicature of the entire Parliament is exercised (see p. Imyeah- 670); and there is another high parliamentary judicature in which both houses also have a share. In impeachments, the Commons, as a great representative inquest of the nation, first find the crime, and then, as prosecutors, support their charge before the Lords; while the Lords, exercising at once the functions of a high court of

127 Eliz. c. 8; see also Intr. to
Sugden, Law of Real Prop. 2.
237 & 38 Vict. c. 83.

3 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59, s. 8 & 9; see

also 50 & 51 Vict. c. 70; 119 L. J.
451, &c.

4 Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876;
Judicature (Ireland) Act, 1877.

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