Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/657

 BILIOUS FEVER BILL 637 yearly sent to the other Bohemian watering places. BILIOUS FEVER, a term heretofore applied to cases of intermittent and remittent fever. Its use was based on the conjecture that the disease involved, as an essential pathological condition, a superabundance of bile. The name " bilious " has also been applied to many affec- tions which, in like manner, were supposed to depend more or less on an excessive secre- tion of bile. At the present time the term, as applied either to diseases or symptoms of dis- ease, is not much used by medical writers. It is, however, a popular term as applied to disorders of the digestive system. An acute form of dyspepsia is popularly known as a " bilious attack," and this name is not unfre- qnently used by physicians. (See STOMACH, DlSEASCS OF.) BILL, the proposed form of a legislative act or statute, while in the course of legislation, and before it becomes a law. In American legislation a joint resolution or resolve is also properly speaking a bill. A public bill is one which pertains to matters in which the whole community is interested. A private bill is one for the benefit or particular interest of individ- uals, or distinct bodies of individuals, as a single person, or a town, or a county. In an- cient times the chief purpose of summoning the commons to parliament was that they should furnish supplies to the crown ; but be- ing convened, they took occasion to submit petitions on various subjects to the sovereign, and his answers to them, made with the con- currence of the lords and prelates, together with the petitions, were entered on the rolls of parliament, and at the close of the session the judges or others of the king's council put these matters into the form of an act. But it often happened that by additions to or modifi- cations of the matter submitted, or of the crown's answer to it, the actual purpose of the parties to the proceeding was defeated. In the time of Henry V. remonstrances were made by the commons touching these evils. They demanded that the statutes should be made according to the tenor of their petitions, and in this reign or that of Henry VI. the practice was established of presenting the subject to which the approval of the sovereign was soli- cited in the form of a bill. Ever since that time it has been a rule of the English constitu- tional law not only that nothing shall be enact- ed without the consent of the commons, but also that, although the crown may reject or assent at pleasure to bills in parliament, it may not alter them. But if the crown is specially in- terested in a bill, its assent to it must be pro- cured at some stage of its progress before its passage by the houses ; and if the bill in- terferes with the royal patronage in any way, the royal assent to it must be had before it can proceed at all. The tenor of bills pertaining to attainders or for granting titles must be communicated to the sovereign before they are presented in parliament. The house of com- mons will not entertain a supply bill unless it is first communicated to it by the crown ; and a bill for a pardon is regularly first signed by the king before it proceeds at all, and it is read only once in each of the houses. But in gen- eral bills are entertained by one house or the other in the first instance and independently of the crown, though they cannot become laws until they have received its assent. Practically assent is never withheld, and it is given either by the sovereign in person in the house of lords, the commons being called into that house for the occasion, or more usually it is signified by the royal commission. For the most part bills may originate in either house indifferently, but bills for supply must begin in the commons, and bills relating to the peerage, or to restitu- tion of blood, must begin in the lords. In the commons again certain bills must originate in the committee of the whole house, such bills for example as those for granting money, or those relating to trade, or to the alteration of the laws concerning religion. But, with these and a few other exceptions, any member of the commons may ask leave to introduce a public bill. If the motion prevails, it is ordered that the bill be prepared and brought in by the mover or by a select committee to whom the matter is referred. In the lords any member may offer a bill without first obtaining leave. In either house a public bill goes regularly through five stages, namely : the first reading, the second reading, the commitment, the third reading, and finally the motion for its passage. The bill is usually first read when it is presented. It is not common to debate it at this stage, though, if it appears to be of a mischievous or extraordinary character, it may be discussed then. The first discussion of the bill usually takes place on the second reading. The commitment is a refer- ence to a committee, either of the whole house, or if the subject of it is of a technical nature, or for any reason it is desired to have special information about it, the bill goes to a special committee, and in that case it must still go to the committee of the whole house before it passes to a third reading. In this committee the whole bill is read and considered clause by clause, and approved as it is drawn, or amended, as may be decided. The chairman of the committee then reports the bill as approved to the house itself, and it is then discussed again clause by clause, and the amendments made by the committee, or any new amendments pro- posed by the house, are debated. After the consideration of the bill upon the report of the committee of the whole house, it advances to the third reading. In the house of commons no substantial amendment can then be made. After the bill has been read for the third time the vote is taken on its passage, and when it is passed and the title is added, it is sent to the other house for its concurrence ; and there it goes through the same course as in the com- mons. If the lords pass the bill, they commu-