of the committee fhould be requested to come down to the houfe to report the bill, and if it be inconvenient to Repo him to attend, he will depute fome other member to re port it for him.

Thefe papers fhould be tied up in the following order: 1. The additional claufe and paper of amendments place in the infide of the houfe bill.-2. Petitions against the bill, (if any) upon the houfe bill.-3. Report, upon the petitions, (if no petitions next the houfe bill).-4. A printed copy of the bill, with the amendments made in it, and the blanks filled up, upon the report.-And 5. Upon the printed bill there thould be placed a flip of paper, with the name of the member who is to make the report. But note, that this printed bill is for the member, and not a part of the papers belonging to the report.

If upon the report no amendments or alterations are made which may render it neceffary that the bill should be re-committed, it is ordered to be ingroffed.

After the member has got the report, &c. he will Ingro (when he has reported it) bring to you, in the lobby, the houfe bill, with the alterations and additional claufes, (if any); this is to be taken to the ingroffing clerk's office to be ingroffed (a).

When the ingroffment is completed, it must be carefully examined, firft by the houfe bill, and then by a printed bill. This may be done by the folicitor and his clerk, or one of the committee clerks, who being more ufed to it may examine with greater correctnefs; and this is very material, for if the ingroffment is not verbatim

(a) Bills are ingroffed in the order in which they stand, but if an extra fee be paid the clerks for expedition, they will have it ingroffed (unless it be very long) by the next day. Indeed, if no alterations are expected to be made on the report, a printed bill may be examined with the houfe bill, and the ingroffment begun upon before the bill is reported, by which means the ingroffment may be laid on the table, and the bill read a third time the day after it is reported.

H

PROCEDURE like the house bill, with the amendments, the lords will
FOR INCLO- fend back the bill to be altered, which will occafion
SURE ACTS. delay.

Third reading

of the bill.

Houfe of Lords.

great

The ingroffment being examined, the ingroffing clerk will lay it, together with the breviat, on the table in the houfe of commons.

The ingroffment being laid on the table, a member must be requested to move that the bill be read a third time. Amendments are fometimes even then made to it; in which case it must be done on the motion of a member ; and if a new claufe be added, it is done by tacking a feparate piece of parchment on the ingroffment, which is called a rider. The title to the bill is then fettled, and filled up. After this, one of the members of the house is directed to carry it to the lords and defire their concurrence; and he attended by feven others (a), carries it to the bar of the House, of Lords, and there delivers it to their speaker, who comes down from his woolfack to receive it. Blac. Com. 180.

If the bill is not carried up to the lords the fame day, the ingroffment will be found in the ingroffing clerk's office. From whence it fhould be carried (with the bre viat) to the door-keeper of the Houfe of Lords, to be taken care of till a fufficient number of members can be procured to carry it into the houfe. If the member who had the care of the bill in the House of Commons cannot attend, any other member may be got to carry it up, but for this purpose there fhould regularly be a fpecial order: this however is now ufually difpenfed with. Ell. Prac. Rem, 57.

Upon the bill's paffing the commons, the door-keeper is to have fifty prints given him for the use of the

members.

Houfe of Lords.

The bill, which is now intitled an act, being brought up into the Houfe of Lords, is read a first time the fame day as a matter of course.

Ten or twelve printed bills fhould be now left with

(a) All the members therefore with whom the parties have any intereft, fhould be requested to attend the third reading, ortherwife the bill may not be taken up to the Lords the fame day on which it paffes the commons.

the clerk of the houfe, or at the parliament office in PROCEDURE Abingdon-street, for the purpose of being laid on the FOR INCLOtable, as no bill can be read a fecond time till this is sURE ACTS. done. If no oppofition be made to the bill, it will be read a fecond time on the day following, on being moved by a lord; and upon the fecond reading it may be committed for any day after the then next.

The bill being read a fecond time, the witneffes may be fworn that day or on any fubfequent day; previous to which there fhould be written the names of the witneffes on a piece of paper, which fhould be given to the affiftant clerk of the house, who will put it on the table of the Houfe of Lords. Attend with your witnesses at the houfe on the day appointed, and they will be called to the bar and fworn.

If any of the witneffes be quakers, it will be proper to. write oppofite to their names" To be affirmed."

Lord's com

There must be five lords to form a committee, and unless you request two or three peers to attend, it is not mittee.. eafy to make a committee. In preparing a bill for the chairman, the names of the witneffes fhould be written oppofite the allegations which they are to prove. But it is not neceffary to prove the notices being affixed, as was done at the commons, but only the ftate of property and confents of the proprietors (a). Bills are to be delivered to lords on the committee, as was done at the committee in the commons. Any alterations may be made at the committee on the bill, but in that cafe the bill must be fent back to the commons for their concurrence. After

the bill has paffed the committee, if the report be prepared, it may be reported the fame day, and on the day following read a third time. Ell. Prac. Rem. 45. 92. If the bill be agreed to, the lords fend a meffage by two masters in chancery, that they have agreed to the fame and the bill remains with the lords, if they have no amendments to it but if any amendment be made, fuch amendment is fent down with the bill to receive the concurrence of the commons. If the commons do not agree to the amendments, a conference ufually follows between the members deputed from each houfe; who for the moft part, fettle and adjuft the difference, but if both houses.

(a) If there be no witnefs to prove the fignature of the affenters, and the hand writing be known by any of the lords of the committee, it will be fuficient.

H 2

PROCEDURE remain inflexible, the bill is dropped. If the commons FOR INCLO agree to the amendments, the bill is fent back to the SURE ACTS. lords by one of the members, with a meffage to acquaint

them therewith. The fame forms are obferved, mutatis mutandis, when the bill begins in the Houfe of Lords. And when both houses have done with the bill it is depofited in the house of peers to wait the royal affent, Blac. Com. 184.

The royal affent may be given two ways.

Ift. In perfon; in which cafe the King coming to the house of peers in his crown and royal robes, and fending for the commons to the bar, the title of the bill is read, and the King's anfwer is declared by the clerk of the parliament in Norman French, "Soit fait come il eft defiré:" (Be it as it is defired.) Ibid. and Ell. Prac. Rem. 60.

2dly, By the ftat.33d of Hen. 8. c. 21. the King may give his affent by letters patent under his great feal, figned with his hand, and notified in his abfence to the lords fpiritual and temporal and to the commons, affembled together in the high house. And when the bill has received the royal affent in either of thefe ways, it is then and not before a flatute or act of parliament. Ibid.

An act of parliament, thus made, is the exercise of the highest authority that this kingdom acknowledges upon earth. It hath power to bind every subject in the land, and the dominions thereunto belonging; nay, even the king himself, if particularly named therein. And it cannot be altered, amended, difpenfed with, fufpended or repealed, but in the fame forms and with the fame authority of parliament: for it is a maxim in law, that it requires the fame ftrength to diffolve, as to create an obligation. Blac. Com. 185.

When the act has paffed, 50 printed copies are given to the door-keeper of the houfe of lords.

FEES.

The fees payable in the feveral offices of the houses of commons and lords in carrying private bills through parliament, amount in the whole to about 801.—viz. about 401. to the officers, &c. of each houfe. See Order H. Lords, 22d Nov. 1725. Do. Commons, 22d Feb. 1731.

APPENDIX.

ABSTRACT

OF

STAT. 41 GEO. III. CHAP, 109;

For confolidating in one Act certain Provifions usually inferted in Acts of Inclofure; and for facilitating the Mode of proving the feveral Facts ufually required at the paffing of fuch Acts.

THE

HE above ftat. having made fome little alteration in the acts, of which the fubftance is given, p. 38, &c.; it has been judged expedient to give the following abftract of its contents:

Sec. 1. enacts, That no perfon fhall act as a commiffioner under any future act for including lands, (except as far as relates to the power of figning notices of the first meeting and adminiftering on oath), until he fhall have taken the oath herein-mentioned; which oaths, and appointment of new commiffioners, to be inrolled with the award, and a copy of the inrolment admitted as evidence.

Sec. 2. Commiffioners declining to act, are to give notice of fuch intention to the other commiffioners; and no commiffioner fhall purchase any lands within any parifh in which the inclosures are to be made, for five years then next.

Sec. 3.

Commiffioners fhall inquire into the boundaries of parishes, and if not fufficiently afcertained, they fhall fix them, giving previous notice of their intention fo to do; and.commiffioners fhall caufe a, defcription of boundaries to be delivered to one of the churchwardens, &c. of the refpective parishes, and the lords of manors, or their stewards. Perfons diffatisfied may appeal to the quarter feffions. Decifion at the feffions to be final.