CLOSURE (often needlessly cloture, the same word in French), the European substitute for the American °previous question": the power of shutting off debate when the speaker or the majority think it has exhausted legiti mate argument and is used for mere obstruc tion. As the equity of neither deciding power can be guaranteed, it is also a possible weapon of mere °gag-law"; but it has shown itself to be the only method in which parliamentary institutions can be worked. In Congress the •previous question" has existed in the House for many years, but because of its smaller size the Senate did not consider such a rule neces sary until the closing hours of the 64th Con gress, which terminated 4 March 1917. The filibustering tactics of the °little group of wil ful men" had prevented the passage of the armed ship bill prior to adjournment, where fore on 8 March 1917 the special session of the Senate passed a closure rule making possible the limitation of debate. The rule provides: "That if at any time a motion signed by sixteen Senators to bring to a close the debate upon any pending measure is presented to the Senate the presiding officer shall at once state the motion to the Senate and one hour after the Senate meets on the following calendar day but one, he shall lay the motion before the Senate and direct that the secretary call the roll and upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the presiding officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea and nay vote the question: Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a dose?' "And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by a two-thirds vote of those voting, then said measure shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.
"Thereafter no Senator shall be entitled to speak in all more than one hour on the pending measure, the amendments thereto and motions affecting the same, and it shall be the duty of the presiding officer to keep the time of each Senator who speaks. Except by unanimous consent no amendment shall be in order after the vote to bring the debate to a close, unless the same has been presented and read prior to that time. No dilatory motion, or dilatory amendment, or amendment not germane, shall be in order. Points of order, including questions of relevancy and appeals from the de cision of the presiding officer, shall be decided without debate." In the British Parliament no such rule ex isted till 1882, debate being unlimited; and the fairness of its members, and their unity of feeling as Englishmen, had prevented any serious ill results. But about 1872 Isaac Butt,
the leader of the Irish Home Rule party, began the policy, carried on after his death by Par nell, of putting a stop to all legislation on Eng lish subjects until all Irish demands had been granted, by talking against time, making irrele vant motions calling for divisions on every motion, etc. For many years Parliament strug gled under this, extremely loath to tie down the immemorial freedom of debate, but was finally forced to act, and in 1882 passed a °closurep rule, which allowed the speaker, on request of 40 members, to pronounce debate closed .and call for a vote. In 1902 the present rule was adopted, providing that upon the proposal of a question a member might move that the ques tion be put and if the rules be not abused by such a motion and the rights of the minority be not infringed, then the question should be put at once and decided without further debate or amendment. In 1887, in order to shut off debate on the Irish Crimes Act, he House of Commons, owing to the ineffectiveness of the closure rule, employed a measure known as the °guillotine Debate on only four out of the 20 clauses had consumed 27 days, wherefore a motion was adopted providing that at the end of the following week the chairman, without further debate, should put the questions necessary to end the committee stage. Because of its severity, the procedure became known as the °guillotine? In 1893, in connection with the Home Rule Bill, °closure by compartments" was adopted, under which debate on certain clauses should cease on a specified date, debate on certain other clauses should cease on another specified date, arid in this way to the end of the measure under discussion. The French cloture dates from Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1851. See PREVIOUS QUESTION; PARLIAMENTARY LAW ; LEGISCATIVE BODIES, RULES GOVERNING. Consult Cushing, L. S., Practice of Legislative Assemblies' (Philadelphia 1907); Hinds, A. C., 'Digest and Manual of the Rules and Practice of the House of Representatives' (Washington 1908) ; Lowell, A. L., 'The Gov ernment of England' (rev. ed., New York 1912) ; May, Sir T. E., 'A Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usages of Parlia ment' (12th ed., London 1917).