a member to refer to another member by name-he must be addressed as "the hon. or right hon. member for so-and-so." All observations must be addressed to the chair. It is irregular to refer directly to proceedings in the House of Lords, unless they have been formally made known by message or recorded on the minutes of the Upper House. Proceedings in the House of Lords are alluded to as having transpired "in another place." It is out of order to refer to the opinions of the Sovereign, Ministers being responsible for the speeches and messages from the throne. To facilitate order, rules of procedure were passed in 1882, which provided that a member who disregarded the authority of the chair might, under a new standing order (order in debate), be "named" by the Speaker and suspended from the service of the House, on the first occasion for a week, on the second for a fortnight, and on the third and subsequent occasions for a month. The Speaker was empowered when a subject had been adequately discussed, and it was the evident sense of the House that the question be put, so to inform the House, whereupon a motion to close the debate might be made. He could also place restrictions upon the practice of making motions of adjournment. In cases where the second reading of a bill is not met with a direct negative, an amendment is proposed to the effect that the bill "be read this day three months" or "six months," it being understood that the House will not be sitting then. The " previous question" may be carried in cases where the House is unwilling to come to a decision. The first Salisbury adininistration projected new rules of procedure, which Mr. Gladstone in the main accepted; and a select committee appointed by the House of Commons to consider the question met in March 1886. In pursuance of its recommendations, the Government proposed various draft rules of procedure, but the only one adopted by the House was that dealing with the closure of debate. The new rule, however, worked somewhat inconveniently, as it necessitated the presence of upwards of two hundred members to enforce the closure when the minority numbered forty or upwards. The subject was again discussed in the session of 1888, when a settlement was arrived at satisfactory to both sides of the House.

The new rules were very comprehensive. First, as to the sittings of the House, it was provided that, unless the House should otherwise order, the House should meet every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, at three o'clock, and should, unless previously adjourned, sit till one o'clock a.m., when the Speaker might adjourn the House without question put, unless a bill originating in Committee of Ways and Means or specially exempted proceedings should be under consideration. At midnight on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (except as aforesaid), and at half-past five on Wednesdays, proceedings are to be interrupted, and any dilatory motion before the House is to lapse without question put; the business then under consideration, and any business subsequently appointed, is to be appointed for the next day on which the House shall sit, unless the Speaker ascertains that the majority of the House desires it to be deferred until a later day. On the interruption of business the closure may be moved, and the Speaker or

Chairman is not to leave the chair until the questions consequent thereon have been decided. After the business under consideration at midnight or at half-past five on Wednesdays has been disposed of, no opposed business is to be taken. At the commencement of public business, however, a Minister of the Crown may make a motion, without amendment or debate, that proceedings on any specified business under discussion at twelve o'clock that night be not interrupted under the standing order. The Speaker may when expedient request the Chairman of Ways and Means to take the chair as deputy Speaker without any formal communication to the House; and he is to nominate at the commencement of every session a panel of not more than five members to act as temporary Chairmen of Committees when requested by the Chairman of Ways and Means. Secondly, questions of closure of debate are to be decided in the affirmative, if when a division be taken it appears that not less than one hundred members voted in the majority in support of the motion. The standing order of 1882 which left it to the Speaker to take the initiative for the closure of a debate was repealed. Thirdly, the Speaker or Chairman was empowered to order disorderly members to withdraw from the House during the remainder of a sitting, the Sergeant-at-Arms to act upon any instructions received from the chair. But if this power seems inadequate, the Speaker or Chairman may name offending members in pursuance of the standing order on debate, or he may call on the House to adjudicate upon their conduct. Suspended members are to withdraw from the precincts of the House, subject to the proviso in the standing order relating to their service on private bill committees. Fourthly, the Speaker or Chairman may order a member to discontinue his speech on the ground of irrelevance or tedious repetition. Fifthly, in case of motions for adjournment in abuse of the rules of the House, the Speaker or Chairman may forthwith put the question from the chair, or decline to propose the question thereupon to the House. Sixthly, the Government to have full power to arrange business as they see fit upon those days on which the Government business has priority. Seventhly, whenever an order of the day is read for the House to resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, the Speaker shall leave the chair without putting any question, unless notice of an instruction has been given, when such instruction shall be first disposed of. Eighthly, upon the report stage of any bill, no amendment may be proposed which could not have been proposed in committee without an instruction from the House. Ninthly, with regard to divisions, the Speaker or Chairman may after the lapse of two minutes, if in his opinion the division is frivolously or vexatiously claimed, take the vote of the House or committee by calling upon the members who support and who challenge his decision successively to rise in their places, and he shall thereupon, as he thinks fit, either declare the determination of the House or committee, or name tellers for a division, If there be no division, the number of the challenging minority shall be declared from the chair, and their names taken down and printed in the division lists. Tenthly, the stages of committee and report on the Address

to the Queen, in reply to the royal speech at the commencement of the session, to be discontinued. Rule 11 provided that after Whitsuntide public bills other than Government bills be arranged on the order book so as to give priority to the bills most advanced; that Lords' amendments to public bills be placed first, followed by third readings, considerations of report, bills in progress in committee, bills appointed for committee, and second readings. The twelfth rule revived the resolutions of 1882 relating to the standing committees on law and trade; and trade was ordered to include agriculture and fishing. Other resolutions passed by the House provided in effect that when the House meets at three o'clock opposed business is as a rule not taken after midnight, but when it meets at two o'clock opposed business may be proceeded with until one a.m. The House meets at noon on Wednesdays and adjourns at six, and opposed business is not taken after half-past five. The old half-past twelve rule and some others which were incompatible with the new resolutions were repealed.

British subjects and persons resident in the British dominions may petition either House of Parliament; but a petition must be presented by a member of the House to which it is addressed, except petitions from the Corporation of London, which are presented by the sheriffs of London at the bar. The Lord Mayor of Dublin has enjoyed the same privilege, and it would probably be conceded to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Formerly a member could address the House when presenting a petition, but this is not now permissible under the standing orders. A committee on public petitions reports twice a week during the session.

The English Parliament is practically omnipotent. No act of Parliament can be set aside by any authority whatsoever except that of the two Houses which passed it. Sir Edward Coke has observed that the power of Parliament "is so transcendent and absolute that it cannot be confined, either for causes or persons, within any bounds."

In the case of a dissolution of Parliament by Ministers, it is customary to put an end to the session by prorogation. A proclamation is then issued dissolving the Parliament, and giving directions for the issue of new writs of summons. The House of Commons is temporarily put an end to by a dissolution. Not more than three years may elapse between the dissolution of a Parliament and the calling of a new one; but inasmuch as the Commons only votes the supplies year by year, it is absolutely necessary that there should be an annual session of Parliament. Under the Septennial Act of 1714 no Parliament may endure for more than seven years from the time when it is first summoned to meet. Parliament is not dissolved by the demise of the Crown; on the contrary, an immediate assembling of the two Houses is rendered necessary; and if no Parliament should then be in existence, the old Parliament must reassemble. It may sit again for six months, if it be not within that time dissolved by the new Sovereign. If such a step be at any time deemed necessary, it is in the power of the Crown to call Parliament together by proclamation for the despatch of business in six days from the date of such proclamation.

XVI.

THE STATUTES.

The consolidation of the vast mass of legislation upon the statute book and the expurgation of acts expressly repealed or obsolete by their age is a work that has long been going forward. Its necessity has been acknowledged for more than three hundred years. Lords Campbell, Cranworth, and Westbury facilitated the work of consolidation; but it was not until the Chancellorship of Lord Cairns that an edition of the statutes actually in force was directed to be printed, and a committee appointed to carry out the work. Since then satisfactory progress has been made. The various Statute Law Revision Acts passed since 1861 have swept away a great number of obsolete enactments, while the committee have also done much in the way of compressing existing statutes. But much remains yet to be done in consolidating and codifying the numerous statutes relating to procedure, the criminal laws, the poor-laws, commerce, highways, prisons, public libraries, etc. It is also very desirable that the statutes of the realm should be published in a cheap form, so that they may no longer be confined to the libraries of public institutions or wealthy private individuals. A revised edition of the statutes is now in course of issue by the Government, but its distribution must be considerably restricted owing to its cost.

By the Statute Law Revision Acts of 1890 the work of revision was brought down to the close of the session 5 and 6 Victoria. The select committee on the Statute Law Revision Bill and other measures reported in 1890 that they were struck in the course of their examination of the statute book by the large number of statutes of little or no practical utility which still remained unrepealed. This especially applied to imperial acts operative in Scotland or Ireland only, as well as to many acts of the Parliament of Ireland before the Union. Modern repealing acts had frequently been expressed to apply to England only where the committee found no reason to think that in point of fact the act or part of an act repealed for England had any practical application at the present day to the circumstances of Scotland or of Ireland, as the case might be. Where the conditions of two or of all three of the countries coincided, it was obviously desirable that the work of revision and repeal should be effected by the same act, so that the law of the several countries should, as far as possible, be made uniform. The committee believed that a few consolidation acts might with advantage be passed, embodying in a very small space all that was worth preserving in these old statutes, so that the residue might be forthwith repealed; and they ventured to express the hope that the departments of state within whose respective provinces of administration these statutes lay would energetically co-operate with the Statute Law Committee in preparing such consolidating and repealing measures.

XVII.

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTING.

Some references to the records of Parliamentary proceedings before and during the reign of Elizabeth have been made in the first volume of this work. These now require to be supplemented. The Journals of the reign of James I. have been corrected and amplified by independent sources of information. The Parliamentary Debates of 1610, printed from a manuscript in the British Museum by the Camden Society, is valuable as throwing light upon a Parliament whose records are unusually defective. There are also manuscripts in the Harleian and Cottonian collections which give whole speeches of this period. Another Camden Society publication of considerable value is one entitled The Debates of the House of Lords in 1621. It gives a full account of the debates on Bacon's fall, on the gold and silver thread patents, and on the Monopolies Bill. These debates excited wide-spread interest, as did also that on liberty of speech in the House of Commons in 1621, which is given fairly fully in the Parliamentary History, though there is hardly a trace of it in the Journals. In Petyt's collections there is also a copious report of the debate. For the reigns of James I. and Charles I. Cobbett, in writing the Parliamentary History, drew largely from the Rushworth, Somers, Hardwicke, and other collections, which publish important speeches by the leaders of the Court and popular parties. Then there are the publications of Sir Benjamin Rudyard and Sir E. Dering. Rushworth, who covers five Parliaments, reports debates on episcopacy, short Parliaments, grievances, tunnage and poundage, etc., and he also gives the first speech made by Oliver Cromwell. The Diurnal Occurrences and the Mercurius Politicus were a kind of narrative of proceedings published by order of Parliament. The Diary of Sir R. Knightley, printed by the Camden Society, fills up large gaps in the Journals touching the first Parliament of Charles I. In the appendix are full notes by Sir T. Crewe (formerly Speaker and afterwards Lord Crewe) of the Parliament which sat from January to March 1629. The political literature dealing with the famous Long Parliament surpasses in extent that of any other period. The Camden Society has published Sir R. Verney's Notes of Proceedings for the years 1640 to 1642. Burton took copious notes of the Protector's Parliament. The best authority for the earlier portion of the Long Parliament is Sir Simonds D'Ewes's manuscript diary (in five folio volumes), which was largely used by Carlyle in preparing his Cromwell and John Forster in writing his Grand Remonstrance and the Arrest of the Five Members. Burton's Diary of the Last Parliament of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament of his Son Richard" was printed in 1828. There was prefixed to it by way of preface an account of the Parliament of 1654 from the manuscript of Guibon Goddard, member for Lyme Regis. It supplies a missing speech of the Lord Protector, which must have occupied upwards of an hour in delivery.