A full account of parliamentary procedure would be impossible here. Some points have been touched on above, a few others may be briefly noted.
Each House has power to make its own orders, supplementing or modifying its cus tomary rules of practice. A standing order continues in force until repealed. Other orders may be made for a particular session, for a more limited period, or for a particular oc casion.
In the House of Commons any question of the law or practice of the House is decided, as a point of order, by the speaker, or, in com mittee, by the chairman.
In the House of Commons, government business has precedence at most sittings, and Thursdays are usually devoted to committee of supply. Private members' bills have prec edence on Fridays, and private members' motions have precedence, during part of the session, between 8.15 and 11 on the evenings of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The quorum of the House of Commons, and of a committee of the whole House, is 40, in cluding the speaker or chairman. (In the House of Lords the quorum is 3).
A matter requiring the decision of the House or of a committee is decided by means of a question put from the chair on a motion proposed by a member.
If the opinion of the speaker or chairman as to the decision of a question is challenged, he allows two minutes to elapse, in order to enable members to assemble, and then puts the question again. If his opinion is again challenged he directs the (ayes) to go to the right and the (noes) to the left, and appoints two tellers for each. The 'ayes) and (noes) then pass through their respective division lob bies, on each side of the House, their names are taken down by the division clerks, and they are counted by the tellers, who announce the result at the table of the House.
If a debate on a question is unduly pro tracted, it can be terminated by means of what is called the closure, the procedure on which is as follows : A member rising in his place may claim to move °That the question be now put,') and, unless it appears to the chair that the motion is an abuse of the rules of the House, or an infringement of the rights of the House, this preliminary question must be put forth with, and, if it is carried, the main question is put forthwith and decided without amendment or debate. But a motion for the closure can not be carried unless it appears on a division that not less than 100 members voted in the majority in its support. The result is to leave
to the chair discretion as to the time and cir cumstances in which closure should, with pro priety, be granted.
The speaker and chairman are also clothed with powers for checking irrelevance, prolixity, repetition and obstruction, for preventing the abuse of dilatory motions, and for maintaining order and decorum. If a member is guilty of grossly disorderly conduct, the speaker or the chairman of a committee of the whole House can order him, to withdraw from the House.
speaker or by the chairman of a committee of the whole House, and the House can, on motion made, make an order suspending him from the service of the House for the rest of the session. Orders of this kind, when made by the House, or by the speaker or chairman, are enforced if necessary by the sergeant-at-arms with such assistance as may be required. In the case of grave disorder arising in the House, the speaker may, if he thinks it necessary, adjourn the House without question put, or suspend the sitting.
The Parliament at Westminster is not only the oldest, but the mother of all existing Par liaments. Those who framed the constitution of the United States took the British constitu tion as their model, but studied it through the spectacles of Montesquieu, and thus brought about that separation between the executive and the legislative powers which makes such an essential difference between the British House of Commons and the .American Congress. English parliamentary procedure has made the tour of the world. The rules adopted by the French assembly after the Restoration were based on a sketch of English parliamentary pro cedure supplied to Mirabeau by Dumont. The influence of English practice, derived either di rectly or through the medium of France, can be traced in the procedure of all Continental legis latures. Thomas Jefferson, when President of the United States, drew up for the use of Con gress a manual consisting largely of extracts English parliamentary precedents, and Jefferson's Manual is still an authoritative work. Every legislature of a British colony conforms to the rules, forms, usages and practices of the British House of Commons, except so far as they have been locally modified. Of all parlia mentary institutions throughout the world the Parliament at Westminster remains the arche type.