which they are arranged; and no motion to commit or to postpone indefinitely, being decided, shall be again allowed on the same day and at the same stage of the bill or proposition."-Rule 42, p. 111. [When any one of the foregoing motions is received, the practice is, not to entertain another of lower dignity until the former is disposed of.] "When a resolution shall be offered, or a motion made to refer any subject, and different committees shall be proposed, the question shall be taken in the following order: the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union; the Committee of the Whole House; a standing committee; a select committee."-Rule 43, p. 111. PRIVATE BILLS AND PRIVATE BUSINESS. [The line of distinction between public and private bills is so difficult to be defined in many cases that it must rest on the opinion of the Speaker and the details of the bill. It has been the prac tice in Parliament, and also in Congress, to consider as private such as are "for the interest of individuals, public companies or corporations, a parish, city, or county, or other locality." To be a private bill, it must not be general in its enactments, but for the particular interest or benefit of a person or persons. A pension bill for the relief of a soldier's widow is a private bill; but a bill granting pensions to such persons as a class, instead of as individuals, is a public bill. Bills for the incorporation of companies, and whose operations are confined within the District of Columbia, have been treated as private; but where such companies are authorized to have agencies and transact business outside of the limits of the District, they are treated as public. Bills granting lands for railroads have always been held to be public; while a bill authorizing the extension of a railroad into the District of Columbia, or conferring certain privileges upon such an incorporation, has been held to be private.-Barclay.] A bill relieving a person elected to the House from taking the test oath is held to be a private bill.-Journal, 2, 41, pp. 265, 266. A bill, general in its enactment, though for the relief of an individual or corporation, is held not to be a private bill.-Journal, 2, 44, p. 460. PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, COMMITTEE ON. 289 "Friday in every week shall be set apart for the consideration of private bills and private business in preference to any other, unless otherwise determined by a majority of the House."-Rule 128, p. 133. And such bills may also be considered in their order on other days, notwithstanding their precedence on Friday.-Journal, 1, 19, p. 795. When all private business has been disposed of on Friday, it is competent for a majority to determine what business shall be considered. Journal, 1, 26, p. 460. A motion to go into Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union may be entertained on private bill day (Journal, 2, 22, p. 212 et passim); but the motion to go into a Committee of the Whole House takes precedence (Journals, 1, 29, p. 850; 1, 30, p. 775), [unless, according to the general, although not universal, practice, a special order is pending in the former.] [Although there is no express rule requiring it, except in the case in regard to bills from the Court of Claims, it is the usage in the commitment of private bills to send them to a Committee of the Whole House, while public bills are sent to a Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.] (See COMMITTEES OF THE WHOLE.) "On the first and fourth Friday of each month the calendar of private bills shall be called over (the chairman of the Committee of the Whole House commencing the call where he left off the previous day), and the bills to the passage of which no objection shall then be made shall be first considered and disposed of. But when a bill is again reached, after having been once objected to, the committee shall consider and dispose of the same, unless it shall again be objected to by at least five members."-Rule, 129, p. 134. [On such days, objection, such as indicated by the above rule, or debate arising thereon, is fatal to the further consideration of a bill, but an amendment may be entertained and voted on. And after a bill has been objected to, and on that account passed over, it cannot, without unanimous consent, be recurred to.] PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, COMMITTEE ON. When appointed, and number of members of.-Rule, 74, p. 119. Duty of.-Rule 86, p. 124. PRIVILEGE. "Senators and Representatives shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other place."— Const., 1, 6, 9. "This privilege from arrest privileges, of course, against all process the disobedience to which is punishable by an attachment of the person; as a subpoena ad respondendum or testificandum, or a summons on a jury; and with reason, because a member has superior duties to perform in another place."-Manual, p. 55. "Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly conduct, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member."-Const., 1, 5, 8. In the maintenance of what are denominated its privileges, and of the privileges of its individual members, the House, in former Congresses, has imposed various penalties. In some cases it has directed its Speaker to reprimand the party offending.-Journals, 1, 4, p. 389; 1, 15, p. 154; 1, 22, pp. 730, 736. In others it has committed the party to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms.-Journals, 1, 4, p. 407; 1, 12, p. 280; 1, 15, p. 119; 2, 34, pp. 277, 281, 284. In others (where the parties were reporters of the House) it has excluded them from the hall.-Journals, 1, 24, p. 1021; 2, 33, p. 315. In one case where a witness refused to answer a question propounded to him by a select committee, it was ordered and adjudged by the House that he be committed to the common jail of the District of Columbia, to be kept in close custody until he should signify his willingness to purge himself of the contempt.-Journal, 1, 35, pp. 387 to 389. And after having been so imprisoned for more than three months, he was, by the further order of the House, released from jail and delivered over to the marshal of the said District to answer a presentment against him in the United States criminal court therein.-Ibid., pp. 535 to 539. See also Journal, 1, 44, in case of Hallet Kilbourn. In the 41st Congress, Patrick Woods, having been held to answer for an assault upon a member (outside of the city), was ordered to PRIVILEGE, QUESTIONS OF. 291 be punished by imprisonment in the jail of the District of Columbia, as other criminals are, for three months.-Journal, 2, 41, pp. 1199, 1200. (The session terminated within a week after the order, but the order was executed.) PRIVILEGE, QUESTIONS OF. "A matter of privilege arising out of any question, or from a quarrel between two members, or any other cause, supersedes the consideration of the original question, and must be first disposed of."-Manual, p. 77. [According to the practice, not finally disposed of, but the House shall proceed to such immediate measures as it may think proper.] Whenever the Speaker is of the opinion that a question of privi lege is involved in a proposition, he must entertain it in preference to any other business.-Journal, 1, 29, p. 724. [Such opinion, of course, being subject to an appeal.] And when a proposition is submitted which relates to the privileges of the House, it is his duty to entertain it, at least to the extent of submitting the question to the House as to whether or not it presents a question of privilege.Journals, 3, 27, p. 46; 1, 29, p. 223; 1, 30, p. 712; 1, 31, p. 1079; 1, 35, pp. 376, 410. An enumeration of the various questions of privilege that may arise cannot, of course, be given, but the following list embraces nearly all that have arisen, viz: Election of a Speaker-Journal, 2, 44, p. 8; Right of a member to be seated-Journal, 2, 44, p. 15; Contested-election cases-Journals, 1, 26, pp. 1283, 1300; 1, 29, p. 201; 1, 31, p. 1065; 2, 31, p. 119; Failure or refusal of a witness to appear before committees of the House, or refusal to testify-Journals, 1, 12, p. 277; 2, 33, p. 315; 3, 34, pp. 241, 269; 1, 35, pp. 258, 371, 750, 821; 2, 35, pp. 411, 430, 451; 3, 40, pp. 226, 250, 392; Offer to bribe a member-Journals 1, 4, p. 389; 1, 15, pp. 119, 171; Challenge of a member by a Senator-Journal, 1, 4, p. 471; Assault by one member upon another-Journals, 1, 5, p. 154; 1, 34, p. 1527; Divulging the secrets of the House-Journal, 1, 12, p. 276; Assault upon a member-Journals, 1, 22, p. 590; 2, 23, p. 485; 2, 41, pp. 1199, 1200; Menacing language toward a member out of the House on account of interrogatories propounded by him to a witness before the House-Journal, 1, 22, p. 740; Disorder in the gallery-Journal, 1, 24, p. 331; Fracas between two reporters in the presence of the HouseJournal, 1, 24, p. 983; Refusal of a member to take his seat, in Committee of the Whole, when ordered by the chairman to do so-Journal, 1, 24, p. 1209; Duel between two members-Journal, 2, 25, p. 501; Warm words and a mutual assault between two members in Committee of the Whole-Journal, 2, 25, p. 1013; Protest by the President against certain proceedings of the House-Journal, 2, 27, p. 1459; Proposition to impeach the President-Journal, 3, 27, p. 159; 2, 39, p. 121; Alleged menace of members by a mob at the seat of Government-Journal, 1, 30, p. 712; Charge of falsehood upon a member in a newspaper by the printer of the House-Journal, 1, 29. p. 223; Alleged false and scandalous report of proceedings in the House by one of its reporters-Journal, 2, 29, p. 320 ; Alleged mutilation of the Journal by the Speaker-Journal, 1, 31, p. 713; Publication by the Public Printer of an article alleged to be for the purpose of exciting unlawful violence upon members-Journal, 1, 33, p. 965; Charges affecting the official character of a member-Journal, 1, 33, p. 1178; Alteration and interpolation of House bills-Journal, 1, 33, p. 1194; Assault upon a Senator by a member of the House-Journal, 1, 34, p. 1023; Alleged corrupt combinations on the part of certain membersJournal, 3, 34, pp. 475, 476; |