Form of commis

sion.

Regency
Bill, 1811.

Form of royal

assent by commission.

XIX.

In strict compliance with the words of this statute, the Chapter commission is always, "by the King himself, signed with his own hand," and attested by the Clerk of the Crown in chancery. But on the 7th March, 1702, William III. signed, with a stamp, the commission assenting to the Abjuration Act. And towards the latter end of the reign of George IV., it became painful to him to sign any instrument with his own hand, and he was enabled, by statute, to appoint one or more person or persons, with full power and authority to each of them to affix, in his Majesty's presence, and by his Majesty's command, given by word of mouth, his Majesty's royal signature, by means of a stamp to be prepared for that purpose; and the commission for giving the royal assent to bills on the 17th June, 1830, bears the stamp of the king, attested according to the provisions of that Act.3

2

On the 5th February, 1811, the Regency Bill received the royal assent by commission, under peculiar circumstances. The king was incapable of exercising any personal authority but the great seal was nevertheless affixed to a commission for giving the royal assent to that bill. When the Commons had been summoned to the bar of the House of Lords by the lords commissioners, the lord chancellor said, "My lords and gentlemen, by the commands, and by virtue of the powers and authority to us given by the said commission, we do declare and notify his Majesty's royal assent to the Act in the said commission mentioned, and the clerks are required to pass the same in the usual form and words;" after which the royal assent was signified by the Clerk in the usual words, "Le roy le veult."4

The form in which the royal assent is signified by commission is as follows. Three or more of the lords commissioners, seated on a form between the throne and the wool-sack in the House of Lords, command the usher of the Black Rod to signify to the Commons that their attendance Forms of is desired in the house of peers to hear the commission read, see pp.

15 Macaulay, Hist. 308.

2 11 Geo. IV. c. 23.

3 62 L. J. 732.

48 ib. 70; 18 H. D. 1124; see

also Debates, 27th Feb. 1804 (Com-
mons); 1st and 9th March, 1804
(Lords); 1 Twiss, Life of Eldon,
2nd edit. 416. 418.

message,

172, 173.

XIX.

Chapter upon which the Commons, with the Speaker, immediately
come to the bar. The commission is then read at length,
and the titles of the bills being afterwards read by the Clerk
of the Crown, the royal assent to each is signified by the
Clerk of the Parliaments, in Norman French; and is so
entered in the Lords' Journal. A supply bill (see p. 596)
being carried up by the Clerk of the House of Commons, is
handed to the Clerk of the Parliaments by the Speaker,
and receives the royal assent before all other bills. The
assent is pronounced in the words, "Le roy remercie ses
bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult." For a
public bill the form of expression is, "Le roy le veult;"
for a private bill, "Soit fait comme il est desiré; " upon a
petition demanding a right, whether public or private,
"Soit droit fait comme il est desiré." In an act of grace or
pardon which has the royal assent before it is agreed to by
the two houses, the ancient form of assent was, "Les prelats,
seigneurs, et communes, en ce present parlment assemblées, au
nom de touts vos autres sujets, remercient tres humblement
vostre majesté, et prient à Dieu vous donner en santé bonne vie
et longue; "1 but according to more modern practice, the
royal assent has been signified in the usual form, as to a Royal
public bill. The form of words used to express a denial of fused.
the royal assent would be, "Le roy s'avisera." 3 The
necessity of refusing the royal assent is removed by the
strict observance of the constitutional principle, that the
Crown has no will but that of its ministers, who only con-
tinue to serve in that capacity so long as they retain the
confidence of Parliament. This power was last exercised
in 1707, when Queen Anne refused her assent to a bill for
settling the militia in Scotland.4

assent re

Norman

During the Commonwealth, the lord protector gave his Use of the
assent to bills in English: but on the Restoration, the old French.
form of words was reverted to; and only one attempt has
since been made to abolish it. In 1706, the Lords passed

Given by the King

XIX.

a bill "for abolishing the use of the French tongue in all Chapter
proceedings in Parliament and courts of justice." This bill
dropped in the House of Commons; and although an Act
passed in 1731 for conducting all proceedings in courts of
justice in English, no alteration was made in the old forms.
used in Parliament. Until the latter part of the reign of
Edward III., all parliamentary proceedings were conducted
in French, and the use of English was exceedingly rare until
the reign of Henry VI. All the statutes were then enrolled
in French or Latin, but the royal assent was occasionally
given in English. Since the reign of Henry VII., all other
proceedings have been in the English language, but the old
form of royal assent has been retained.1

tion by the

P. 207.

The royal assent is rarely given in person, except at the Prorogain person. close of a session, when the King attends to prorogue the King in Parliament, and then he signifies his assent to such bills as person, see may have passed since the last commission was issued but bills for making provision for the honour and dignity of the Crown, such as bills for settling the civil lists, have generally been assented to by the sovereign in person, immediately after they have passed both houses. When the King gives Titles of his royal assent to bills in person, the Clerk of the Crown mitted to reads the titles, and the Clerk of the Parliaments makes an obeisance to the throne, and then signifies his Majesty's assent, in the manner already described. A gentle inclination, indicative of assent, is given by his Majesty, who has,

1 See Pref. to Statutes of the Realm, and Rep. of Stat. Law Commrs. 1835 (406), p. 16.

2 See Civil List Bills, 1820, 75 C. J. 258; 1831, 86 ib. 517; 1838, 93 ib. 227. In 1901 the royal assent to the Civil List Bill was given by commission, 156 ib. 282. On the 2nd Aug. 1831, the Speaker, after a short speech in relation to the bill for supporting the royal dignity of her Majesty Queen Adelaide, delivered it to the Clerk, when it received the royal assent in the usual form: but the Queen, attended by one of the ladies of her bedchamber,

and her maids of honour, was pre-
sent, and sat in a chair placed on a
platform raised for that purpose be-
tween the archbishops' bench and
the bishops' door, and after the
royal assent was pronounced, her
Majesty stood up and made three
courtesies, one to the king, one to
the Lords, and one to the Com-
mons. 63 L. J. 885, and Index
to that volume, p. 1157. The pre-
cedent here followed was that of
George III. and Queen Charlotte;
Earl Grey's Corr. with Will. IV., i.
314.

bills sub

the King,

see p. 511.

Chapter however, already given his commands to the Clerk of the
Parliaments, as already stated.

XIX.

the

absence

During the year 1876, her Majesty being about to visit Given in the continent during the session, it became a question sovereign's whether her Majesty could give her royal assent to bills, by from the commission, during her absence from the realm. No case realm. could be found in which the royal assent had been so given : but in the 2nd William and Mary, "for the exercise of the Government by his Majesty during his Majesty's absence" (in Ireland), there was a proviso that "nothing should be taken to exclude or debar his Majesty, during his absence from the realm, from the exercise of any act of royal power, but that every such act should be as good and effectual as if his Majesty was within this realm; " and it had been stated by the lord chancellor (Lyndhurst), 7th August, 1845, that any act which her Majesty "could do as sovereign would have as much validity and effect, if done on the continent of Europe, as if done in her own dominions." 1 The lord chancellor (Cairns) also, in 1876, gave it as his opinion (privately) that her Majesty would be able to give the royal assent to bills while absent from the realm; and this course has been followed whenever the necessity arose.

When Acts are passed, the original ingrossment rolls (or, Ingrosssince 1849, the authenticated vellum prints) are preserved ment rolls. in the House of Lords; and all public and local and personal Acts, and nearly all private Acts, are printed by the King's printer; 2 and printed copies are referred to as evidence in courts of law. The original rolls or prints may also be seen when necessary, and copies taken, on the payment of certain fees.

Act.

All Acts of Parliament, of which the commencement was Commencenot specifically enacted, were formerly held, in law, to take ment of effect from the first day of the session: but the Clerk or clerk assistant of the Parliaments is now required by Act 33 Geo. III. c. 13, to indorse, in English, on every Act of

1 82 H. D. 3 s. 1515.

2 See debate on printer's error in the Elementary Education Act,

1891, 18th Feb. 1892, 1 Parl. Deb.
4 s. 687. See also p. 816.

Forms not binding in the progress of bills.

Bills passed with unusual expedition.

XIX.

Parliament, immediately after the title, the day, month, and Chapter
year when the same shall have passed and received the
royal assent, which indorsement is to be a part of the Act,
and to be the date of its commencement, when no other
commencement is provided in the Act itself.

The forms commonly observed by both houses, in the
passing of bills, having been explained, it must be under-
stood that they are not absolutely binding. Though founded
upon long parliamentary usage, either house may vary its
own peculiar forms, without question elsewhere, and without
affecting the validity of any act which has received, in proper
form, the ultimate sanction of the three branches of the
legislature. If an informality be discovered during the
progress of a bill, the house in which it originated will
either order the bill to be withdrawn, or will annul the in-
formal proceeding itself, and all subsequent proceedings:1
but if irregularities escape detection until the bill has
passed, no subsequent notice can be taken of them, as it
is the business of each house to enforce compliance with
its own orders and practice.

a third time

forthwith,

In the ordinary progress of a bill, the proceedings either Bills read follow from day to day, or some days are allowed to intervene between each stage subsequent to the first reading; yet see p. 501. when a pressing emergency arises, bills are passed through all Procedure their stages in the same day, and even by both houses, and nity bills, the royal assent has also been signified on the same day.3

1106 C. J. 82. 209; 108 ib. 412. 578; 109 ib. 96; 114 ib. 138; 134 ib. 300.

258 C. J. 645. 646; 98 ib. 491; 103 ib. 770; 107 ib. 77. 363. 378; 108 ib. 21; 110 ib. 294; 121 ib. 239.

Bill for recruiting the land forces, 3rd April, 1744, 24 ib. 636639; Seamen's Additional Pay Bill, 9th May, 1797, 52 ib. 555. 557. 558. Habeas Corpus Suspension (Ireland) Bill, 17th Feb. 1866, 121 ib. 88. In this latter case, the bill was passed by both houses on a Saturday, and the Queen being at Osborne, the commission, with the bill annexed,

was forwarded to her Majesty in the
morning, and the agreement of both
houses having been communicated
later in the day by telegraph, her
Majesty signed the commission and
despatched it to Westminster. In
1871, the Queen being at Balmoral,
and again, in 1876, while the Queen
was in Germany, the telegraph was
used in like manner. On the 9th
April, 1883 (138 ib. 127. 128), the Ex-
plosive Substances Bill was passed
through all its stages, in both
houses, and received the royal
assent on the following day at
twelve o'clock.

on indem

see P.

461.