The principal duties of the Speaker are, to pray the privileges of the House of Commons in his customary speech on presentation to the King at the commencement of a new Parliament; to keep order in the House; to put the questions on which it has to decide (except in committee); to appoint tellers upon a division; to inform the House upon the points of practice referred to him as they arise; where the numbers are equal, upon a division, to give a casting vote (a); to issue warrants for new writs to supply vacancies in Parliament, in manner already mentioned; to execute the order of the House that any person be thanked or reprimanded; to present money bills for the Royal assent (b); besides numerous duties connected with private bills, election committees, and officers of the House.

May, in his Treatise on Parliament,' ch. 7, and Sir F. Dwarris, in his 'Treatise on Statutes,' p. 96, are in error in their statement that Seymour's case was a solitary instance of the King refusing to approve of a Speaker chosen by the House of Commons. Hatsell also omits to mention the rejection of Gregory, mentioned in the text. He merely says, "In the next session" [next Parliament ?] "Serjeant Gregory was chosen." (2 Precedents, 215.)

(a) The Speaker in the chair can give no other vote in the House of Commons; but in the House of Lords the Speaker may vote as any other lord, and on an equality of votes has no casting vote, the rule being semper præsumitur pro negante. (2 Hatsell, 245.)

(b) Whenever the King comes to the House of Lords and sends for the Commons, if a money bill has passed both Houses and been returned to the Commons, the Speaker takes it with him and offers it at the bar of the House of Lords for the Royal assent. In presenting money bills for the Royal assent, the Speaker, if the sovereign be present, makes a speech, either immediately arising out of the matter of the bill, or if it be at the end of the session, recapitulating the principal labours of the Commons during the session. (2 Hatsell, 248, 374; 3 Hatsell, 162-3.)

When bills were enacted by way of petition of the Commons and the answer from the King, the Commons usually presented petitions by their Speaker. The practice of presenting petitions by the Commons at the end of the session appears to have been common until the reign of Henry VIII. In that reign are several instances in which the King came to the House of Lords to pass bills ready for the Royal assent, and thereupon the Speaker made an "oration," and Parliament was dissolved. (Parry's 'Parliaments,' 203, 205.)

Sce, as to the Speaker's duties with reference to Supply bills, infra, book i. ch. 9.

His rank is next after the peers of the realm, and before all other peers and commoners (a).

By a standing order of July, 1855, in the unavoidable absence of the Speaker from the House, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means may act as deputy Speaker until the next meeting of the House, and so on from day to day until the House shall otherwise order. If the House adjourns for more than twenty-four hours, the deputy Speaker shall continue to exercise the authority of Speaker for twenty-four hours only after such adjourn

ment.

By a resolution of the House of Commons of 1604, "If any doubt arise upon a bill, the Speaker is to explain, but not to sway the House with argument or dispute." Hatsell comments on this rule thus :-" In matters of doubt, or if he be referred to to inform the House in a point of order or practice, it is the duty of the Speaker to state everything he knows on the subject from the journals or history of Parliament: but he ought not to argue or draw conclusions from this information. He has no voice but to utter the sense of the House when declared. The Speaker, however, when he gives a casting vote, usually declares the reasons which induce him to it; and in committees of the whole House he is considered as a private member, and has a voice accordingly. The rule as to the Speaker in the House of Lords is very different; for there he may give his opinion or argue on any question in the House "(b).

The important constitutional principle that the Speaker is subject to the authority of the House of Commons, and must not contravene it in deference to the Crown, is strictly regarded by the House of Commons. There are many instances in the proceedings of Parliament illustrative of this principle. Thus, in 18 Jac. I., A.D. 1621, the Speaker is admonished by several members for going out of the chair without the consent of the House, and for intricating or

(a) 2 Hatsell, 225 et seq.

(b) 2 Hatsell, 243; 1 Blackstone's Comm., 181.

deferring questions, and is told that he "is but a servant to the House, not a master or a master's mate." Again, in 4 Car. I., A.D. 1629, the Speaker, Sir John Finch, is simiJarly reprehended for refusing to put a question respecting tonnage and poundage, saying that "he is otherwise commanded by the King." And in the next Parliament, 16 Car. I., A.D. 1640, the Commons resolve that this refusal to put the question was a breach of privilege. On the celebrated occasion, 17 Car. I., A.D. 1642, of the King going to the House of Commons to arrest five of its members, and demanding of the Speaker (Lenthall) where they were, the Speaker replied, "I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak, in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here; and I humbly beg your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me”(a).

(a) Parry's 'Parliaments,' under the respective dates.

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CHAPTER IX.

PROCEDURE IN PARLIAMENT.

MANY of the rules of procedure in Parliament have been already discussed in the chapters relating to the Parliamentary powers of the Crown and the constitution of the two Houses. We shall here consider other rules of procedure in Parliament, confining our attention to those rules which appear to be of the greatest constitutional importance, and which relate to the two Houses in their legislative capacity, and reserving their procedure in matters of judicature for consideration in the second book of this work (a).

The law of Parliament is, according to an often-quoted passage of Coke, "ab omnibus quærenda, a multis ignorata, a paucis cognita" (b). The practice of Parliament is established partly by precedents, partly by standing and sessional orders, and partly by statutes and Royal prerogatives, several of which have been already referred to. Parliament has ever attached great weight to precedents as evidence of its privileges and rules of procedure, and where these have been disputed by either House or the Crown, the practice has constantly been to appoint committees to investigate precedents relating to the subjects in dispute.

(a) The present chapter is chiefly confined to so much of the subject of procedure in Parliament as appears to be of constitutional importance. For a more minute account of procedure in Parliament, the reader is referred to Mr. May's valuable treatise on the Law of Parliament.

(b) Co. Litt. 116.

The Standing Orders are rules and forms of procedure which have been adopted as they were found necessary from time to time, and which, unless rescinded, are of equal force in every Parliament, though occasionally they are "suspended," and some of them have become obsolete. Of the forms established by standing orders it has been observed, that by a strict adherence to them "the weaker party can alone be protected from those irregularities and abuses which these forms were intended to check, and which the wantonness of power is but too often apt to suggest to large and successful majorities "(a). The Sessional Orders are renewed every session, and are not of great constitutional importance. They differ from Standing Orders in being binding only during the session in which they are passed (b).

The rules of Parliamentary procedure are so multifarious that they do not admit of any very systematic classification. The following arrangement will however be sufficiently distinct for our present purpose; the subjects of this chapter will be divided into rules relating to:-1. Sittings, debates, and votes. 2. Documents and communications received by or from either House. 3. Committees. 4. Passing of bills. 5. Supply. 6. Summary jurisdiction.

1. SITTINGS, DEBATES, AND VOTES.-In the House of Lords the presence of three members is sufficient to enable the House to sit; but in the House of Commons the requisite number is forty. By a resolution of 1640, the Speaker is not to go into the chair till there be at least forty members in the House. If notice be taken after four o'clock in the afternoon that there are not forty members present, the Speaker, without question put, must adjourn the House to the next sitting day; but if the House meets before four o'clock he is to stay a reasonable time for a sufficient number of members to come in, but he is not to suffer business to proceed until forty members are present, after notice (a) 2 Hatsell, 'Precedents,' 237.

(b) Bourke's 'Decisions,' 2nd ed. p. 326.