Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/911

Rh That, after a question has been proposed, a member rising in his place may claim to move, " That the question be now put, " and, unless it shall appear to the chair that such motion is an abuse of the rules of the house or an infringement of the rights of the minority, the question, " That the question be now put, " shall be put forthwith, and decided without amendment or debate.

When the motion " That the question be now put " has been carried, and the question consequent thereon has been decided, any further motion may be made (the assent of the chair as aforesaid not having been withheld), which may be requisite to bring to a decision any question already proposed from the chair; and also if a clause be then under consideration, a motion may be made (the assent of the chair as aforesaid not having been withheld), " That the question ' That certain words of the clause defined in the motion stand part of the clause, ' or ' That the clause stand part of, or be added to, the bill, ' be now put." Such motions shall be put forthwith, and decided without amendment or debate.

That questions for the closure of debate shall be decided in the affirmative, if, when a division be taken, it appears by the numbers declared from the chair that not less than one hundred members voted in the majority in support of the motion.

The closure, originally brought into being to defeat the tactics of obstruction in special emergencies, thus became a part of parliamentary routine. And, the principle being Gu/7/otfne. °"'^'^ accepted, its operation was soon extended. The practice of retarding the progress of government measures by amendments moved to every line, adopted by both the great political parties when in opposition, led to the use of what became known as the " guillotine, " for forcing through parliament important bills, most of the clauses in which were thus undiscussed. The " guillotine, " means that the house decides how much time shall be devoted to certain stages of a measure, definite dates being laid down at which the closure shall be enforced and division taken. On the 17th of June 1887, after prolonged debates on the Crimes Bill in committee, clause 6 only having been reached, the remaining 14 clauses were put without discussion, and the bill was reported in accordance with previous notice. This was the first use of the " guillotine, " but the precedent was followed by Mr Gladstone in 1893, when many of the clauses of the Home Rule Bill were carried through committee and on report by the same machinery. To the Conservatives must be imputed the invention of this method of legislation, to their opponents the use of it for attempting to carry a great constitutional innovation to which the majority of English and Scottish representatives were opposed, and subsequently its extension and development (1906-1009) as a regular part of the legislative machinery.

The principle of closure has been extended even to the debates on supply. The old rule, that the redress of grievances should precede the granting of money, dating from a time "PP y "*'Yvijgjj jijg minister of the Crown was so far from commanding the confidence of the majority in the House of Commons that he was the chief object of their attacks, nevertheless continued to govern the proceedings of the house in relation to supply without much resultant inconvenience, until the period when the new methods adopted by the Irish Nationalist party created a new situation. Until 1872 it continued to be possible to discuss any subject by an amendment to the motion for going into supply. In that year a resolution was passed limiting the amendments to matters relevant to the class of estimates about to be considered, and these relevant amendments were further restricted to the first day on which it was proposed to go into committee. This resolution was continued in 1873, but was allowed to drop in 1874. It was revived in a modified form in 1876, but was again allowed to drop in 1877. In 1879, on the recommendation of the Northcote committee, it was provided in a sessional order that whenever the committees of supply or of ways and means stood as the first order on a Monday, the Speaker should leave the chair without question put, except on first going into committee on the army, navy and civil service estimates respectively. In 1882 Thursday was added to Monday for the purposes of the order, and, some further exceptions having been made to the operation of the rule, it became a standing order. The conditions, however, under which the estimates were voted remained unsatisfactory. The most useful function of the opposition is the exposure of abuses in the

various departments of administration, and this can best be performed upon the estimates. But ministers, occupied with their legislative proposals, were irresistibly temjited to post[)one the consideration of the estimates until the last weeks of the session, when they were hurried through thin houses, the members of which were impatient to be gone. To meet this abuse, and to distribute the time with some regard to the comparative importance of the subjects discussed, Mr Balfour in 1896 proposed and carried a sessional order for the closure of supply, a maximum of twenty-three days being given to its consideration, of which the last three alone might be taken after the 5th of August. On the last but one of the allotted days at 10 o'clock the chairman was to put the outstanding votes, and on the last day the Speaker was to put the remaining questions necessary to complete the reports of supply. In 1901 Mr Balfour so altered the resolution that the question was put, not with respect to each vote, but to each class of votes in the Civil Service estimates, and to the total amounts of the outstanding votes in the army, navy and revenue estimates.

It is only possible here to refer briefly to some other changes in the procedure of the house which altered in various respects its character as a business-like assembly. The chief other of these is as regards the hours. On Mondays, Changes in Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the house 'Wet/iods. meets at 2.45 p.m., " questions " beginning at 3 and ending (apart from urgency) at 3.45; and opposed business ends at ii. On Fridays the house meets at 12 noon, and opposed business is suspended at 5 p.m.; this is the only day when government business has not precedence, and private members' bills have the first call, though at 8.15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays up to Easter and on Wednesdays up to Whitsuntide the business is interrupted in order that private members' motions may be taken. These arrangements, which only date from 1906, represent a considerable change from the old days before 1879 when the standing order was formed that no opposed business, with certain exceptions, should be taken after 12.30 a.m., or 1888 when the closing hour was fixed at midnight. In fact the hours of the house have become generally earlier. Another important change has been made as regards motions for the adjournment of the house, which used to afford an opportunity to the private members at any time to discuss matters of urgent importance. Since 1902 no motion for the adjournment of the house can be made until all " questions " have been disposed of, and then, if forty members support it, the debate takes place at 8.15 p.m. This alteration has much modified the character of the debates on such motions, which used to be taken when feelings were hot, whereas now there is time for reflection. In other respects the most noticeable thing in the recent evolution of the House of Commons has been its steady loss of power, as an assembly, in face of the control of the government and party leaders. In former times the private members had far larger opportunities for introducing and carrying bills, which now have no chance, unless the government affords " facilities "; and the great function of debating " supply " has largely been restricted by the closure, under which millions of money are voted without debate. The house is still ruled by technical rules of procedure which are, in the main, dilatory and obstructive, and hamper the expression of views which are distasteful to the Whips or to the government, who can by them arrange the business so as to suit their convenience. It is true indeed that this dilatory character of the proceedings assists to encourage debate, within limits; but with the influx of a new class of representatives, especially the Labour members, there has been in recent years a rather pronounced feeling that the procedure of the house might weU be drastically revised with the object of making it a more business-like assembly. Reform of the House of Commons has been postponed to some extent because reform of the House of Lords has, to professed reformers, been a better " cry "; but when reform is once " in the air " in parliament it is not likely to stop, with so large a field of antiquated procedure before it as is represented by many of the traditional methods of the House of Commons. (H. Ch.)