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The select committee on Standing Orders is appointed at the commencement of each session, and consists of eleven members, together with the chairman of the committee and of the sub-committee on petitions for private bills (of whom five form a quorum). (H. C. 3.)

To this committee are referred (in addition to all reports from the select committee on petitions for bills, in which they shall report that the Standing Orders have not been complied with), all petitions for leave to dispense with any of the sessional orders of the House relating to private bills. (H. C. 106.)

The committee on Standing Orders has to report to the House whether such sessional orders ought or ought not to be dispensed with in the particular case. (H. C. 47.)

There is another duty appertaining to this committee a duty they have not to perform until the private bill referred to them has reached an advanced stage.

Clauses or amendments offered upon the report, or the consideration of report, on the third reading, have to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee. (H. C. 121.)

In such a case, that committee has to report to the House whether such clauses or amendments are of such a nature as should not be adopted by the House without the re-commitment of the bill, or of such a nature as to justify the House in

entertaining them without recurring to that proceeding, or of such a nature as not in either instance to be adopted by the House. (H. C. 48, 49.)

Leave having been given to bring in a bill, some member or members of the House are ordered to prepare and bring it in. The following extract from the official records of the House shows the form of proceeding :

Wilsontown, Morningside, and Coltness Railway (improve

ment and branches),-petition for bill reported, and bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Oswald and Mr. Forbes. Wilsontown, Morningside, and Coltness railway (Knowton branch),—petition for bill reported, and bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Oswald and Mr. Forbes.

Printed Bill to be Presented.

Every private bill must be printed on paper of a size to be determined by the Speaker, and presented to the House, with a cover of parchment attached to it, upon which the title of the bill is to be written. The short title of the bill, as first entered on the votes, must be in accordance with the subject matter thereof, and must not be changed unless by the special order of the House. (It must be in conformity with the notices given.) (H. C. 109, 107.)

The names of the members who obtain leave to bring in the bill should also be printed on the back of it.

Of these bills, printed copies are to be delivered to the door-keepers for the use of the members, before the first reading, (H. C. 109.) and also eight copies at the Private Bill Office when the bill is presented.

If these orders of the House be not complied with, the effect is to nullify any proceedings that may have been adopted subsequently to such non-compliance. The following is an instance quoted from the official records of the House of Commons during the present session, (Feb. 19, 1846).

Cambridge and Oxford Railway Bill,-Notice being taken,

that the Cambridge and Oxford railway bill had been read a first time yesterday, and that no copies had been delivered to the door-keepers for the use of members before such first reading, as directed by Standing Order No. 109;

Ordered, That the proceeding of yesterday on such first reading, be null and void.

The Order of the House having, however, subsequently been complied with, and copies of the bill duly delivered, the bill was re-presented the same evening and read a first time by leave of the House, and notice of a second reading given for the 24th.

The following extract from the official records of the House shows the form of presentation and first reading:

Windsor, Slough, and Staines Atmospheric Railway Bill,— “ for making a railway from the town of New Windsor, in the county of Berks, to the Great Western Railway at Slough, in the county of Buckingham, with a branch or diverging railway therefrom to Staines, in the county of Middlesex, to be called 'The Windsor, Slough, and Staines Atmospheric Railway,'” presented, and read 1o;

to be read 2°.

Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midlands Junction Railway Bill,—“ for making a railway from the Manchester and Birmingham railway at Cheadle, in the county of Chester, to or near to the Ambergate station of the Midlands railway, in the county of Derby, to be called 'The Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midlands Junction Railway,'” presented, and read 1°; to be read 2o.

The proposed amount of all rates, tolls, and other matters, heretofore left blank in bills when presented to the House, are to be inserted in italics in the printed bill. (H. C. 108.)

The Houses usually give notice that no private bill will be read a first time after a particular day named in such notice; but in the case of railway bills an exception was made (in the session of 1845,) that was granted to no other private bill, and a longer time was then allowed before the former must pass its first stage. No such exception, however, has been made this year in favour of railway bills. It will be seen, however (in the third Part of this volume), that the Lords this session have given (under the

regulations made for this year), till the 23rd of February to present petitions for private bills.

The following are the resolutions adopted (19th Feb., 1846), by the House of Commons with respect to the days for various stages of private bills, this session :

That no notice for a committee on a petition for a private bill be received at the Private Bill Office which shall fix for the first meeting of such committee any day later than Friday the 6th day of March next. That no notice of postponement of any such committee be received at the Private Bill Office except by the authority of the committee on petitions for private bills. That no private bill be read a first time later than the next day but one after the report of the committee on petitions, or of the Standing Orders Committee, on such bill, as the case may be, shall have been laid on the table, except by special order of the House.

That there be no more than twenty-one clear days between

the first reading of any private bill, not being a railway bill, and the second reading thereof, except by special order of the House.

That no private bill, not being a railway bill, which shall now have been read a first time, shall be read a second time after ten clear days from this day, (19th Feb.) except by special order of the House.

[See Notes to this Chapter.]

What the Bill should contain.

The Parliament in the session of 1845 passed three Consolidation Acts, embodying in a collected form the various clauses that are usually inserted in Acts for incorporating companies. These

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