XXX. Order bill brought from the other house, in which pro- Chapter visions have been there inserted to which the standing orders of the second house would apply if the bill were a private (local) bill, the Examiners are also directed to inquire and report whether, with respect to these provisions, such standing orders have been complied with. Further In the Lords, no Provisional Order bill "shall be read proceedings in the a second time until the Examiner has certified whether Lords. the standing orders have or have not been complied with." Petitions against Provisional Order bills must be preS.O.(H.L.) sented in the Lords by being deposited in the Private Bill Office before three o'clock on or before the seventh day against after the second reading, if the bill has originated in that S.O. (H.L.) 92.93. house; or, in the case of bills brought from the Commons, on or before the seventh day after the first reading. Second reading. 88. Petitions Committee By standing order No. 96, every Provisional Order bill and subse- which is opposed is to be referred to a select committee of five Lords; and, by standing order No. 102B quent stages in the Lords. S.O.(H. L.) 96. 102B. Further proceed Second “Every provisional order confirmation bill shall as respects any unopposed orders scheduled thereto, before being committed to a committee of the whole house be referred to the chairman of committees to be dealt with in the same manner as an unopposed local bill." All Provisional Order bills are then considered in a committee of the whole house and proceed as public bills. In the Commons, as soon as the Examiners report that ings in the the standing orders have been complied with-or, in the Commons. case of a non-compliance, as soon as the standing orders committee report that the standing orders should be dispensed with a Provisional Order bill is ordered to be read reading, &c. a second time on the following (or a future) day. After second reading, every bill for confirming provisional orders or certificates stands referred to the committee of selection or to the general committee on railway and canal bills, S.O.(II.C.) as the case may require,1 and is "subject to the standing orders regulating the proceedings on private bills so far as they are applicable." 208B. For cases where, in departure from the ordinary rule of commitment, provisional order bills have been specially referred to a joint Chapter Commit The time before which petitions against such bills have Petitions to be deposited in the Commons has already been detailed.1 1 against. The proceedings of the referees, and the proceedings of tees on committees, on bills for confirming provisional orders or Order bills certificates, are conducted "in like manner as in the case Commons. of private bills," and are subject to the same rules and S. O. (H.C.) orders of the house as may be applicable. "2 Provisional in the 151. 208A. Standing order No. 208A provides that when any order or S. O.(H.C.) certificate contained in any such bill is opposed, the committee to whom it is referred shall consider all the orders and certificates comprised in the bill, "and may, if they think fit, divide the bill into two bills, dealing with the opposed and unopposed orders or certificates respectively, and report the same separately.' The parties promoting the order or certificate are first heard, and their evidence thereon is taken; the petitioners against it follow, and they are heard, whether they oppose the order or certificate as a whole, or only on particular articles or clauses, and the promoters' counsel replies or not, according as the petitioners have or have not called evidence. On the conclusion of the case, the question is put to the committee, "That this order (or certificate) be confirmed," or "as amended be confirmed," which is resolved in the affirmative or negative, as the case may be; and the chairman, the preamble having been agreed to, reports the bill with the decision of the committee on the Provisional Orders both opposed and unopposed. If all the orders or certificates comprised in a confirming 1 Supra, pp. 757-8. 2 Before the passing, in 1903, of this latter proviso, the division of a bill in such cases could not be carried out by the committee without an instruction from the house. As to a proposed mandatory instruction to a committee to strike out one of the Provisional Orders contained in a bill, cf. proceedings in the house on the Water Provisional Orders (No. 2) Bill, 1893 (12 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1230), and the Pier and Harbour Provisional Orders Report and XXX. bill are unopposed, the bill is treated by the committee of Chapter On being reported, a Provisional Order bill is ordered to subsequent be considered, as amended-or, if not amended, to be read the Com- the third time-on the following (or a future) day. stages in mons. This practice has been followed in deference to the wishes of the Local Government Board, who object, on the question of precedent, that an order emanating from them should contain provisions which they were not authorized by the enabling Act to have inserted in the order. It has been suggested that all amendments should be inserted in the order, and some method be adopted of distinguishing those made by the authority of Parliament. In 1901 the committee on the Local Government Provisional Orders (No. 7) Bill (which comprised orders relating respectively to South Shields and to other places), inserted provisions affecting the boundary of the borough of South Shields, and stated their reasons for doing so in their report on the bill (156 C. J. 290; and Minutes of Evidence, Group N, June 19-28 and July 2, 1901). The bill was thereupon referred to the Examiners with respect to compliance with the standing orders (156 C. J. 302). The Examiners made a special report, stating that, if it was intended that the bill should be treated as a private bill, the standing orders had not been complied with, inasmuch as no notice had been given of the powers sought in clause 2 as amended by the committee, but that the standing orders did not contemplate the examination of confirmation bills except in regard to the standing orders with which compliance is required in the case of such bills and with which compliance had in this case been already proved (156 C. J. 307). And the standing orders committee, to whom this report was referred, reported that no standing orders not previously inquired into were applicable (156 C. J. 307. 318). On consideration of the bill as amended, clause 2, by which the South Shields boundary was altered, was omitted. XXXI. CHAPTER XXXI. PRIVATE LEGISLATION PROCEDURE (SCOTLAND). for case of Scotland, on by bills, but by provisional Chapter THE Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, which Private legislawas passed in 1899,1 provides the machinery and prescribes tion, in the the method by which parties must now proceed when they case desire to obtain parliamentary powers in regard to any not carried matter affecting public or private interests in Scotland for private which they are entitled to apply by a petition leave to bring in a private bill." Under the system set up, instead of presenting a petition for a private bill, under the "they shall proceed "-to quote the directions of the Act 63 Vict. -"by presenting a petition to the Secretary for Scotland, praying him to issue a Provisional Order in accordance with the terms of a draft Order submitted to him or with such modifications as shall be necessary. "2 so orders Act 62 & c. 47. Act. The Act does not affect the powers which at the time of Scope of its passing were already possessed by the Secretary for Scotland of making Provisional Orders under the provisions of statutes then in force. Nor does it affect the procedure specified in such statutes, except that, where the orders issued under their provisions require parliamentary confirmation, the confirming bill in its passage through Parliament shall follow the special procedure (described later) which is laid down in sec. 9 of the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act.3 The special procedure, throughout, 1 62 & 63 Vict. c. 47. An Official Journal (Off. J.) of Proceedings upon Applications to the Secretary for Scotland under the Act, is periodically issued by the department. Cf. also the volumes, periodically published, of Private Legislation (Scotland) Reports (P. L. R.), edited by Constable, Macmillan & Beveridge; and the Report and Minutes of Evidence of the Select Committee (H. C. No. 243) of 1904, on the Private 2 Sec. 1 (1); and cf. H. C. Paper Sec. 16. And cf. Constable & between these orders. XXXI. Difference upon Orders under the Private Legislation Procedure Chapter (Scotland) Act, and upon the bills for their confirmation, orders and is materially different, in most respects, from the proceordinary provisional dure upon the ordinary Provisional Orders and Provisional Order bills described in the last chapter. The objects, moreover, that can be obtained through an ordinary Provisional Order are confined, by the particular enabling Act under which it is granted, within very specifically defined limits; but the objects to be obtained through an order under the Act of 1899 comprise almost every matter in Scotland in regard to which parties "are entitled to" seek parliamentary powers by the means of a private bill -the only objects that are expressly excepted being specified in sec. 16 of the Act, which provides that the Act "shall not apply to Estate bills," and shall not The Orders." "affect the right of any person to apply for or the power of the The provisions of the Act are supplemented, and the "General proceedings under it regulated in detail, by a number of General Orders" made (in accordance with its provisions) by the Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords and the Chairman of Ways and Means in the House of Commons, acting jointly with the Secretary for Scotland.1 The main aim of the Act being to provide a special machinery and procedure, in the promotion of undertakings in Scotland, in place of the proceedings upon a private bill in its preliminary and committee stages, these general orders will be found to correspond very largely to the standing orders of both houses by which Provisional Orders applicable to 1 Sec. 15. 18. Every "general the standing orders, from time to |