208 



DISCIPLINARY POWEK OF LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 



II. STANDING COMMITTEES. 



STANDING COMMITTEES ON LAW AND COURTS OF JUS- 

 TICE, TRADE, ETC. 



1. That two standing committees be appointed for 

 the consideration of all bills relating to law and courts 

 of justice and legal procedure, and to trade, shipping, 

 and manufactures, which may, by order of the House 

 in each case, be committed to them ; and the proced- 

 ure in such committees shall be the same as in a select 

 committee, unless the House shall otherwise order; 

 provided that strangers shall be admitted, except 

 when the committee shall order them to withdraw ; 

 provided, also, that the said committees shall be ex- 

 cluded from the operations of the standing order of 

 July 21, 1856, and the said committees shall not sit 

 while the House is sitting without the order of the 

 House; provided, also, that any notice of amendment 

 to any clause in a bill which may be committed to a 

 standing committee, given by any honorable member 

 in the House, shall stand referred to such committee ; 

 provided, also, that twenty be the quorum of such 

 standing committees. 



NOMINATION BY COMMITTEE OF SELECTION. 



2. That each of the said standing committees do 

 consist of not less than sixty or more than eighty 

 members, to be nominated by the committee of se- 

 lection, who shall have regard to the classes of bills 

 committed to such committees, to the composition of 

 the House, and to the qualifications of the members 

 selected ; and shall have power to discharge members 

 from time to time, and to appoint others in substitu- 

 tion for those so discharged. The committee of se- 

 lection shall also have power to add not more than 

 fifteen members to a standing committee in respect of 

 any bill referred to it to serve on the committee dur- 

 ing the consideration of such bill. 



APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN. 



3. That the committee of selection shall nominate a 

 chairmen's panel, to consist of not less than four nor 

 more than six members, of whom three shall be a 

 quorum, and the chairmen's panel shall appoint from 

 among themselves the chairman of each standing 

 committee, and may change the chairman so appointed 

 from time to time. 



COMMITMENT AND REPORT OF BILLS. 



4. That all bills comprised in each of the said classes 

 shall be committed to one of the said standing com- 

 mittees unless the House shall otherwise order, and, 

 when reported to the House, shall be proceeded with 

 as if they had been reported from a Committee of the 

 Whole House : provided, that the provisions of Reso- 

 lution 11 shall not apply to a bill rejected from a 

 standing committee. 



DURATION OF RESOLUTIONS. 



5. That the four preceding resolutions be standing 

 orders of the House until the end of the next session 

 of Parliament. 



THE CL6TTTBE IN FRANCE. In France the 

 cloture^ by a simple majority was not intro- 

 duced into the rules of the French Legislative 

 Assembly until after the coup d'etat of Decem- 

 ber, 1851, when parliamentary government was 

 practically abolished. Under the constitutional 

 government of Louis Philippe, the President of 

 the Chamber or House of Deputies exercised a 

 good deal of authority in directing, limiting, 

 and closing the debates, but this was derived 

 more from custom than written law. Some 

 were more overbearing in their nature and 

 usurped authority ; others were quite popular 

 with the members, and their pressure was will- 

 ingly endured. The president was always re- 



garded as a moderator, whose business it was 

 to check excessive garrulity and tediousness, but 

 some have gone so far as to act like masters 

 managing a class of pupils. President Dupin 

 became noted for his arbitrariness. He was a 

 jocose president,* and hated bores, and often 

 drove them from the tribune by sallies which 

 kept the House in a roar, and which were often 

 more witty than good-natured. A member 

 with a weak voice happening to say that he 

 hoped the whole of France would hear his 

 words, Dupin called out, "You must speak 

 louder than that, sir, if you want to be heard 

 all over France." On another occasion, M. 

 Abraham, deputy for Martinique, had ascended 

 the tribune with a large bundle of notes. Du- 

 pin's face assumed a comical air of consterna- 

 tion, and he was heard whispering in a stage 

 aside, "Come, Abraham, make a sacrifice!" 

 The House acquiesced in the use of Dupin's 

 tongue, and his influence in quickening and 

 controlling the debates was immense, but it is 

 noted that he never connived at silencing mi- 

 norities. On the contrary, so long as the Oppo- 

 sition had anything to say, he insisted that they 

 should have a patient hearing. One day a 

 member of the Extreme Left had risen to speak 

 in despite of an almost unanimous shout of 

 "Auxvoixf" ("Divide!") Dupin loudly rang 

 his bell. " I really don't understand you, gen- 

 tlemen," he said ; "you are not bound to re- 

 main in your seats as I am. If you don't wish 

 to hear the speech to which I am going to be 

 treated, you can take a stroll in the lobbies. 

 I'll send one of the ushers to tell you when the 

 speaker has finished." Again, when Berry- 

 er, the great Legitimist orator, was making a 

 fierce attack on one of Louis Philippe's minis- 

 ters, Dupin, who was an intimate friend of his, 

 though their opinions were antagonistic, ex- 

 claimed, "Monsieur Berryer, if you do not 

 moderate your tone, I shall be obliged to call 

 you to order"; but, leaning over his desk, he 

 whispered in the orator's ear, " Tape dessusf " 

 (" Pitch into him ! ") When Louis Napoleon had 

 become master of France, all the regulations 

 touching the new Corps Legislatif were framed 

 purposely to keep that body from becoming in 

 any sense a Parliament. Its members were 

 not allowed to initiate laws or resolutions; 

 they might simply speak and vote on measures 

 submitted to them by Government, and even 

 their privilege of moving amendments was re- 

 stricted by the proviso that no amendment 

 should be debated upon unless it had received 

 an imprimatur from the Council of State a 

 thing never vouchsafed in the case of Opposi- 

 tion amendments. The debates of the Corps 

 Legislatif were not public that is to say, 

 strangers were not admitted to hear them; 

 and newspapers might only publish such con- 

 densed reports of them as were supplied by the 

 official " Moniteur." Even these fetters on free 

 speech, however, were not considered enough, 

 and so the cloture was contrived as a final gag. 

 * Correspondent of the London " Times," February 16, 1S82. 





