of persons the state has heretofore granted relief to. They therefore offer the following:

Resolved, That the petitioner have leave to withdraw his petition and documents."

If the member who presented the petition upon which the committee here report, wishes for a few days delay, the chairman of the committee, when the speaker asks what order shall be taken upon the resolution, says, " lie on the table." The speaker then says, "it will be laid on the table." But if no delay should be asked, the chairman of the committee of claims will move, "that the house proceed to the second reading and consideration of the resolution attached to the report" -And the speaker puts the question, and the proceedings are the same as in the case of the newspaper resolutions, page 77. If the commit, tee of claims however, should have come to the conclusion that the applicant was entitled to a pension, the chairman would have made the following report: Mr. Speaker, the committee to whom was referred the petition and documents of , a revolutionary soldier praying for relief, report a bill, entitled "An act for the relief of a soldier in the revolutionary war." Connected with this title is the section granting relief.

The speaker receives the bill from the chairman of the committee of claims, and says: "The committee on claims report a bill, entitled an act for the relief, &c."

A report from a select committee is made as follows:

The chairman, standing up in his place, says: "Mr. Speaker, The committee to whom was referred the petition of the administratorrs of John Jones, soliciting power to sell certain real estate, ask leave to report by bill." The speaker then says: "The committee mentioned by the gentleman in his place, ask leave to report by bill. Shall the committee have leave?" They answer him in the affirmative. The speaker says, "The member has leave." The member then rises, and makes the following report: "Mr. Speaker, on leave given, I report a bill, entitled an act authorizing the administrators of John Jones to sell certain real estate." He hands it to the speaker, who states to the house, "The committee mentioned by the member in his place, on leave giv. en, report a bill," repeating the title. He hands the bill to the clerk, who puts its proper number upon it, as all private bills take order according to their number, which is marked at the time of their presentation to the house.

I have often thought it would be as well to allow all committees to report without putting the chairman to the trouble of "asking leave," or the speaker to the necessity of submitting so many questions to the house. To avoid in some measure, the inconvenience of putting separate motions for leave, it frequently happens, in the commencement of the session, that when a member moves that a petiton of a special character should be referred to a committee, he adds the following words, "with leave to report by bill or otherwise." When this is the case, select or special committees report as if they were standing com

mittees, leave having been granted them to do so, at the time of their appointment. Where, however, a select committee has agreed to report without a bill, for instance, against the proposition committed to their charge, they do so without asking leave. To a report, a resolution is always attached, either recommending that the committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject, or that the committee be authorized to bring in a bill in conformity to the prayer of the petition. In either case, as soon as the clerk has read the report and resolution, the speaker asks, "What order will the house take upon the resolution attached to the report?" For further proceedings on resolutions, see page 80, on the resolution connected with the report of the committee on claims. It is, therefore, the resolution that is acted upon, and not the report. Sometimes, however, when a committee may wish to place their reasons upon some matter submitted to them, upon the journal, and yet leave the house little or nothing to act upon, they append a resolution of this kind: "That the committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject."

To vote for or against such a resolution, by no means affords any just conception of the reasons of a member's vote; for the whole house may be willing to discharge the committee, and yet not for reasons contained in this report. To meet this difficulty, a member usually prepares what he calls a substitute, containing the reasonings of the opposition to the report, and ending with a resolution; and when the question comes before the house, he makes the following motion: “Mr.

Speaker, I move that the resolution, together with the report, (on the subject, stating it) be postponed, for the purpose of introducing the following, as a substitute;" which motion, if seconded, the speaker states, and by this expedient the substitute is placed upon the journals with the original report; and he thus obtains a vote thereon, expressive of the wish of the house.

Reports of Committees Amended.

During the session of 1823-4, a report was made upon an item of the governor's message relative to the choosing of electors of president and vice-president of the United States. The report was accompanied by a resolution requesting that the committee might be discharged from the further consideration of the subject. Many of the members said, that the report was not such an one as ought to be adopted by the house. That it was drawn up with the view of supporting the caucus system. On page 362, we find, on motion of R. Smith and Mr. Roberts, the house resumed the consideration of the resolution attached to the report of the committee, relative to changing the time and place of meeting of the electors of president and vice-president of the United States, postponed on the 5th instant; when a motion was made by Mr. Todd and Mr. Holgate, That the house resolve itself into committee of the whole for the express purpose of "amending the report, so that it will contain no expression for or against either a congressional or state caucus ;" and on agreeing to the question, the yeas were 62, nays 26. So it was determined in the affirmative. Page 379, the

house resolved itself into committee of the whole, and the chairman reported the same with one amendment. Whereupon the house resumed the second reading of the report, and the resolution thereto attached was considered and adopted. And the report being under consideration, a motion was made by Mr. Norbury and Mr. Roberts, to amend the same by inserting after the word "public," in the fortieth line from the top of the 4th page, these words: "to maintain this principle seems to become a serious duty, whether it be assailed directly and openly, or by implication, and firmly to adhere to the example set by those who have gone before." These were the words that had been stricken out in committee of the whole. See the whole report, 339.

I have gone somewhat into a detail upon this question, to show, that here the legislature allowed the report to be amended in committee, and no objections were made as to Mr. Norbury's motion being out of order to amend the report when it was before the house on a second reading. In this instance, therefore, the report was reached without introducing a substitute, and will be a very good mode of correcting reports hereafter: for in this case the report was every thing, the resolution nothing; to pass upon the resolution was there. fore a subject of no importance. Indeed I can see no good reason why a report to which a resolution is attached, should not be subject to amendment or correction in the same manner as preambles to bills.

[4th. Bills on third reading.]