Till a speaker is elected, the clerk acts as speaker, standing and pointing to members as they rise to speak. and then sitting down. If only one candidate be proposed for the office. the motion, after being seconded, is supported by an influential member, gener ally the lender of the house of commons; and the member proposed, having expressed his sense of the honor meant to lie conferred on him, is called by the house to the chair, 10 which he is led by his proposer and seconder. If another member be proposed and seconded, a debate ensues; and at its close, the clerk puts the question, that the member first proposed "do take the chair of the house as speaker." If the house divide, lie directs one party to go into the right lobby, and the other into the left, and appoints two tellers for each. If the majority be in favor of the member first proposed, he is led to the chair; if not, a similar question being put regarding the other member, and answered in the affirmative, he is conducted to the chair. The speaker-elect expresses his thanks for the honor conferred on him, and takes his seat; on which the mace is laid on the table, where it is always placed during the sitting of the house with the speaker in the chair. Ile is then congratulated by seine leading member, and the house adjourns. The next day the speaker-elect, on the arrival of black rod, proceeds with the commons to the house of lot cis, where his election is approved by the lord chancellor. He then l:;ys claim, on behalf of the commons, to their ancient rights and privileges, which being confirmed, he retires with the commons from the liar. Nearly the same forms are observed on the election of a new speaker when a vacancy occurs by death or resigna tion in the course of the session.
The members of both houses then take the oath prescribed Icy law. See ()Ault, AB JURATION. El the upper house the lord chancellor first takes the oath singly at the table. The clerk of the crown delivers a certificate of the return of the Scottish representative peers, and garter king-at-arms the roll of the lords temporal, after which ty lords pros ent take and subscribe the oath. Peers who have been newly created by letters.patent. present their patents to the lord chancellor, are introduced in their robes between two other iieers of their own dignity, preceded by black rod and garter, and conducted to their places. The wine ceremony is observed in the ease of peers who have received a will of summons—a formality necessary when a member of the lower house succeeds to a. peerage; otherwise his s does not become vacant. A, bishop is introduced by two other bishops, without the formalities observed with temporal lords. Peers by descent have a right to take their seats without introduction; peers by special ]imitation in remainder have to be introduced. In the commons, the speaker first subscribes the oath, standing on the upper step of the chair. and is followed by the other members. Mem bers on Itching the oath are introduced by the clerk of the house to the speaker. Mem bers returned on new writs in the course of the session, after taking the oath, are intro duced between two members. They must bring a certificate of their return from the clerk of the crown. On the demise,of the crown, the oaths must he taken anew in both houses.
When the greater part of the members of both hearses have been sworn, the causes of calling the parliament are declared by the sovereign either in person or by commission. In the former case, the queen proceeds in state to the house of lords, and commands black rod to let the commons know "that it is her majesty's pleasure that they attend her immediately in this house." Black rod proceeds to the house of commons, and form ally commands their attendance, on which the speaker and the commons go up to the bar of the house of lords, and the queen reads her speech, which is delivered to her by the lord chancellor kneeling on one knee. Of late years the practice has been revived of the lord chancellor reading the royal speech in the queen's presence. When parlia
ment is opened by commission, the sovereign not being personally present, the lord chan cellor reads the royal speech to both houses. Immediately after the royal speech is read, thd house is adjourned during pleasure; but both houses are resumed in the afternoon, for the purpose of voting an address in answer to the speech from the throne. In each house it is common to begin business by reading some bill pro forma, in order to assert the right of deliberating without reference to the immediate cause of summons. The royal speech is then read, and an address moved in answer to it. Two members in each house are chosen by the ministry to move and second the address. The preparation of the address is referred to a select committee; it is twice read, maybe amended, and when finally agreed on, it is ordered to be presented to her majesty.
Adjournment, Prorogation, and Dissolution.—Adjournment of parliament is but the continuance of the session from one day to another. Either house may adjourn sep arately op its own authority, with this restriction, introduced by act 39 and 40 Geo. III. c. 14, that the sovereign, with advice of the privy council, may issue a proclamation appointirg parliament to meet within not less than 14 days, notwithstanding an adjourn ment beyond that period. On reassembling, the house can again bike up business which was left unfinished. A prorogation differs from an adjournment in this respect that it not merely suspends all business, but quashes all proceedings pending at the time, except impeachments by the commons, and appeals and writs of error in the lords. William III. prorogued parliament from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23, 1689, in order to renew the bill of rights, regarding which a difference had arisen between the two houses that was fatal to its progress. It being a rule that a bill of the same substance cannot be introduced twice in the same session, a prorogation has sometimes been resorted to, to enable a second bill to be brought in. Parliament can only be prorogued by the sovereign; and this may be done by having her command signified in her presence by the lord chancel lor to both houses, by writ under the great seal, by commission, or by proclamation. Tin recently. a proclamation for the prorogation of parliament from the day to which it stood summoned or prorogued to another day, was followed by a writ or commission; but by 30 and 31 Viet. the royal proclamation alone prorogues parliament, except at the l• Parliament conies to an end by dissolution. This dissolution may be by the will of the sovereign expressed in person or by her representatives. Having been first prorogued, it is dissolved by a royal proclamation, and by the same instrument it is declared that the chancellor of Great Britain and chancellor of Ireland have been respectively ordered to issue out writs for calling a new parliament. By 6 Anne c. 37, a parliament was deter mined six months after the demise of the crown; but by the reform act of 1867, the parliament in being at any future demise of the crown shall not he determined by Welt demise, but shall continue as long as it would otherwise have continued unless dissolved by the crown. Were the power of distolving the parliament not vested in the executive, there would be a danger of its becoming permanent and encroaching on the royal author ity, so as to destroy the balance of the constitution. An example of this danger is shown in the long parliament, to which Charles I. conceded that it should not be dis solved till such time as it dissolved itself. If the houses of parliament encroach on the executive, or act factiously or injudiciously, the crown may, by a dissolution, bring their proceedings to an end, and appeal to the people by sending the members of the house of commons to give an account of their conduct to their constituents.