Excerpt from A Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament To such an extent has this process been carried, that the hundreds of years which measure the existence of the House of Commons until the year 1888, did not occasion more changes in the orders and practice of the house, than have been effected during the ten years which have elapsed since the publication of the ninth edition of this book. An attempt to engraft into a treatise framed on the easy-going lines of 1844 the complex procedure of 1893, without some alteration of structure, proved, consequently, of no avail. To the chapters, in the ninth edition, which treat of the proposal of motions, and amendments, the conduct of bills, or the rules of debate, a chapter has been added on the method and order in the transaction of business in Parliament,1 dealing separately with certain customary occurrences in the daily routine of Parliament, which were formerly considered in connection with those matters of practice on which the procedure of the House is founded. Such, for instance, is the custom of putting questions to ministers at the outset of each day's sitting. This practice has reached such a formidable dimension, provoking an almost equally formidable crop of rulings from the Chair, that if treated, following the author's arrangement, as a matter of debate, the pages devoted to questions would largely interrupt the consideration of that subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.