XXII Part III 8.0.72-74, improvident contracts, it is provided by standing orders, Chapter Appendix I. that in every contract for packet and telegraphic services beyond sea, a condition should be inserted, that the contract shall not be binding until it has been approved by a resolution of the house. Every such contract is to be forthwith laid upon the table, if Parliament be sitting, or otherwise within fourteen days after it assembles, with a copy of a treasury minute setting forth the grounds upon which the contract was authorized. No such contract is to be confirmed, nor power given to the government to enter into agreements, by which obligations at the public charge are undertaken, by any private Act. All such contracts. are, accordingly, approved by resolutions of the house.2 3 The Army Annual Bill.-The consent of Parliament, necessary to legalize "the raising and keeping" of a standing army within the United Kingdom, in time of peace, is so intimately connected with the grant of supplies for the service of the Crown, that the bill which gives that consent, and provides for the regulation and discipline of the army, forms one of those measures which of necessity must be introduced in the House of Commons. When the house has agreed to the resolutions voted by the committee of supply, which determine the number of men who shall be maintained during the year for the army and for the sea The Army services, the bill for the regulation of the army is ordered in. A complete code of military law was formerly reenacted by each sessional Mutiny Bill. In the year 1879, this legislative necessity was obviated, and a permanent Act was passed for the discipline and regulation of the army; though, to secure the rights of Parliament to give or to withhold its consent to a standing army, the permanent Act is inoperative, unless it be put in force by an annual Act, Annual Bill. 1 On the 16th June, 1873, in the case of the Cape of Good Hope and Zanzibar mail contract, notice being taken that a treasury letter had been presented instead of a treasury minute, the order for resuming the adjourned debate on the contract was discharged; and amended papers 2 125 C. J. 414, &c. The Army Discipline, &c., Act, XXII. Chapter to which, under established constitutional usage, only a twelve months' duration is given. By this limitation, the Commons, in addition to their control over the number of the naval and military forces, and the yearly sums to be appropriated to their support, reserve to themselves the power of determining whether a standing army shall be kept on foot. The Mutiny Bill of former sessions is accordingly replaced by the Army Annual Bill, a bill which must become law before the 30th April in each year, the day on which the Army Act of the previous session. See Debate, expires.1 On the second or third reading of an Army Annual Bill, general debate on the enforcement of the existing army regulations or on the conduct of troops in war is out of order, while the details of the conduct of proceedings before military courts of inquiry and the prices paid for the billeting of troops must be discussed in committee on the bill and not on its second reading.1 p. 314. 2 Part IV.THE COMOF SUP ment of supply, and IN REPLY to the sessional announcement from the throne, AppointMITTEES that provision must be made by the Commons for the PLY, AND service of the Crown, and that the estimates for the re- ways and quisite expenditure will be laid before them, they appoint, mittees. MEANS, acting on standing order No. 14, the committees of supply, s. O. 14, WAYS AND &c. and ways and means (see p. 587). means com Appendix I. ment of At the beginning of a new Parliament, when the house Appointresolves itself for the first time into the committee of supply, chairman: the leader of the house, or a minister of the Crown in his behalf, calls upon a member to take the chair of the committee. If difference should arise in the committee concerning the election of a chairman, the matter must be determined by the house itself. The Speaker at once Duties of chairman. Retirement of chairman. Appointment of deputy chairman. XXII Part IV. resumes the chair; and a motion being made, "That A B do Chapter see p. 196. The chairman so appointed, known as the chairman of the committee of ways and means, presides over that committee, and over the committee of supply for the remainder of the Parliament. He also presides over the other com- Deputy mittees of the whole house (see p. 381), acts as deputy Speaker, Speaker, and executes various duties in connection with private bills (see pp. 707, 727, 747, 753, 789). He is also assisted by the services of the deputy chairman and five temporary chairmen, who take the chair on his request; and, in their absence, by other members, according to the usage which regulates committees of the whole house, as stated on p. 381. If the chairman of ways and means resigns the chair during the sitting of Parliament, he usually announces his retirement to the house, when observations are made by the ministerial and opposition leaders.3 In addition to the chairman of ways and means, the house has power under standing order No. 81 to appoint a 1 19th Jacobi, a dispute being 30. Mr. Playfair having resigned 2 His salary, first paid out of the Colonel Wilson Patten, 5th XXII. sitting. Chapter deputy chairman who, whenever the house is informed by the clerk at the table of the unavoidable absence of the Part IV. chairman of ways and means, is entitled to exercise all the powers vested in the chairman of ways and means, including his powers as deputy Speaker. In the appointment of the deputy chairman the procedure adopted in the case of the chairman of ways and means is followed.1 By a custom nearly as ancient as the institution of the Days of committee of supply, and of ways and means, these committees have been placed among the orders of the day for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Thursday being substituted for Friday since 1902); 2 and the sitting of the committee was formerly restricted to those days. This restriction is no longer in force. Standing order No. 16 pro- s. 0. 16, Appendix I. vides that these committees may be set down for any sitting of the house; though, following the directions given by the standing order, these committees are always appointed for every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. In session 1896 the practice was introduced of devoting a day in each week to the business of supply, and of limiting the time to be allotted to that business during the session. This practice, which was carried on with various modifications under sessional orders until 1902, was in that S. O. 15, Appendix I. session embodied in the standing order, Business of Supply. Under this standing order the business of supply must be the first order of the day on Thursday as soon as the committee of supply has been appointed and the estimates have been presented, while not more than twenty days,3 being days before the 5th of August, are allotted for the consideration of the annual estimates for the army, navy, and civil services, including votes on account, to which additional time, not exceeding three days, before or after the 5th of August, may be allotted by order of the house. The days 1 157 C. J. 65; 103 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 56; 160 C. J. 261, East India Loans (Railway) Committee. 211 C. J. 98. 501. For the purposes of this order two Fridays are deemed equivalent to a single sitting on any other day. • The motion for this purpose requires notice, and is to be decided without amendment or debate. If moved by the government it is set down at the commencement of public business, 157 C. J. 375. The motion in sess. 1905, when moved XXII allotted do not include any day on which the question has Chapter to be put that the Speaker do leave the chair (see p. 608), or any day on which the business of supply does not stand Part IV. as first order, or any day occupied by the consideration of estimates supplementary to those of a previous session or of any vote of credit, or of votes for supplementary or additional estimates presented by the government for war expenditure, or for any new service not included in the ordinary estimates for the year. As has been already stated on p. 259, on an allotted day, after the orders have been entered upon, no business other than the business of supply1 can be taken before eleven o'clock except a motion for the adjournment of the house under standing order No. 10, or opposed private business, and no business in committee or proceedings on report of supply can be taken after eleven o'clock, unless the house otherwise order on the motion of a minister of the crown, moved at the commencement of public business, to be decided without amendment or debate. This is also the case even if a general order exempting business from interruption under standing order No. 1 is in force. Of the days so allotted, not more than one day in committee shall be allotted to any vote on account, and not more than one sitting to the report of that vote. At eleven o'clock on the close of the day on which the committee on that vote is taken, and at the close of the sitting on which the report of that vote is taken, the chairman of committees or the Speaker, as the case may be, must forthwith put every question necessary to dispose of the vote or the report. At ten of the clock on the last day but one of the allotted days the chairman is directed to put forthwith every question necessary to dispose of the vote then under consideration, and then to put forthwith the question with respect to each class of the civil service estimates that the by a private member, was negatived, 160 C. J. 355. 1 Business of supply includes the reports of the committee of supply |