place, as is usual, from Friday until Monday, leave is given to committees to sit on Saturday.1 ARTICLE II. As to the Place of Meeting. 1900. The place for the assembling and sitting of a committee, is always fixed by the house; and the members cannot meet elsewhere as a committee. But it sometimes happens that a committee, in the prosecution of its business, finds it necessary to meet at some other place; as, where there is occasion to examine records, or other things not conveniently susceptible of removal; and, in such cases, unless the committee has been previously authorized to adjourn from place to place, it must obtain the special leave of the house for that purpose.2 In our legislative assemblies it is not usual to fix upon the place, any more than the time, for the first meeting of a committee. The committee meets at the place specified in the call; and it is presumed that it may adjourn from place to place, without the special leave of the house in the prosecution of the duties of its appointment. ARTICLE III. As to sending for Persons, Papers, and Records. 1901. When the object, or one of the objects, of a select committee, is the investigation of facts, it may, without any express authority for the purpose, examine all witnesses that may appear, and all papers that may be brought before it, and all records to which it can obtain access in the prosecution of its inquiries; but without express authority a committee cannot compel the attendance of witnesses, or the production of papers; and hence, whenever it is deemed necessary in the first instance, or becomes so afterwards, leave is given to a committee "to send for persons, papers, and records.” 1902. By virtue of this authority, any witness may be summoned, by an order signed by the chairman, to appear before the committee, and to bring with him all such documents as he may be directed to bring for the use of the committee. Any neglect or disobedience of the summons will be reported to the house, and the offender will be dealt with in the same manner as for a similar contempt to the house itself. The proceedings relating to the sum 1 May, 237; Parl. Reg. LXIII. 613; Hans. (1), XXXVI. 1309. 2 Romilly, 304, note 1. May, 299. moning, and compelling the attendance of witnesses, are treated of in another place. 1903. Obedience is as much due to the summons of the committee as to the order of the house; and the proceedings of parties in obeying it will be equally justifiable, and they will themselves be equally entitled to protection, as if they were acting in obedience to a warrant from the speaker. Thus, where a select committee, appointed to investigate certain complaints respecting the prison of Lincoln Castle, with power to send for persons, papers, and records, having found it necessary to examine witnesses who were on the spot during the transactions in question, and entertaining doubts whether the warrant which they might issue to the sheriff, directing him to bring up the bodies of those under his charge, would be sufficient to protect him against actions of escape, thought it proper to suspend all further proceedings, until they could obtain advice and assistance from the house, and made a special report accordingly:- the house entertaining no doubt, recommitted the report.1 ARTICLE IV. As to Reporting from Time to Time. 1904. In the ordinary course of proceedings, it is the duty of a committee to make its report, when it has gone through with and completed its business. It is sometimes convenient, however, that a committee should be authorized to report from time to time, especially where a committee is engaged in an examination of witnesses, whose evidence is to be laid before the house. In such cases, the committee is to exercise its discretion, as to reporting from day to day, or from time to time, and as to the best division of the evidence for the purpose of reporting it to the house.2 This authority gives power to a committee to report not only upon the subject originally referred to it, or upon the general subject of its appointment, but also upon matters occasionally referred to it.3 1 Hans. (1), XXIII. 883. 2 Hans. (3), XXXIII. 190. 3 J. of H. 21st Cong. 2d Sess. 413; Same, 27th Cong. 1st Sess. 204, 206; Same, 30th Cong. 1st Sess. 1288; Same, 31st Cong. 2d Sess. 267, 394; Same, 32d Cong. 1st Sess. 195, 196. SECTION II. OF THE POWERS OF COMMITTEES AS TO THE SUBJECTS REFERRED TO THEM. 1905. The functions of select committees, in reference to the subjects referred to them, are exceedingly various. The most common authority conferred on them is expressed in the usual form of the order for the reference of a petition to a select committee, namely: "that the said petition be referred to the consideration of a committee, and that they do examine the matter thereof, and report the same, with their opinion thereon," (or "as it shall appear to them,) to the house." The appropriate functions of the standing committees, if not indicated by their names merely, are usually set out at length in the rules and orders for their appointment. 1906. The rules, relating to the power of committees, in respect to the subject-matter referred to them, are two:- I. A committee is not at liberty to entertain any proposition, or go into any inquiry, which does not come within the direct purposes for which the committee is appointed, as expressed or clearly implied in the authority conferred upon it, or which is not grounded upon some paper which is referred to the consideration of the committee.1 II. When a subject is referred to a committee, to consider the matter thereof, and to report its opinion thereupon to the house, the committee is authorized to recommend any measure connected with and growing out of the subject so referred.2 1907. These rules are founded in the clear and indisputable principle of parliamentary law, that a committee is bound by, and is not at liberty to depart from, the order of reference; a principle, which is essential to the regular despatch of business; for, if it were admitted, that what the house entertained, in one instance, and referred to a committee, was so far controllable by that committee, that it was at liberty to disobey the order of reference, all business would be at an end; and, as often as circumstances should afford a pretence, the proceedings of the house would be involved in endless confusion and contests with itself.3 1 Parl. Reg. XXII. 258. See also J. of H. 2 Parl. Reg. LX. 391, 395, 396. CHAPTER FOURTH. FORMS OF PROCEEDINGS IN SELECT COMMITTEES. 1908. Committees are regarded as portions of the house, limited in their inquiries by the extent of the authority given them; but governed in their proceedings by the same rules, which prevail in the house,1 and which continue in full operation in every select committee.2 It is upon this principle, that the practice appears to be founded, of consulting the speaker, in reference to points of order and the forms of proceeding, by select committees. 1909. I. A select committee is presided over by a chairman appointed by itself, who has and exercises, within the limited authority conferred on the committee, the same powers and duties as the speaker of the house. It is attended by a clerk, and, if necessary, by a shorthand writer appointed by the clerk of the house, to which the committee belongs, and it keeps minutes of its proceedings. 1910. It is competent, of course, for a legislative assembly to fix upon the member of a committee who shall act as chairman; and this is in fact done in all our legislative bodies, by a long continued usage, sanctioned to a greater or less extent by a special rule or order in each assembly; and subject to the right of the committee when assembled and organized, to choose a chairman for itself. Committees with us are appointed in three principal ways. When chosen by ballot, members are arranged according to the number of votes; when appointed by the speaker the order in which they are named is the order of arrangement, and when chosen by oral suffrage, they are arranged in the order of the votes given for each. When the number of votes given for two or more is equal, those members are usually arranged in the order in which they happen to be voted for. The first-named member of a committee acts as its chairman; the second-named, in the absence of the first takes the chair of the committee, and so on to the last. If any member of the committee is excused by the house from further service thereon, or in any way ceases to be a member, his place is supplied in the 1 Hans. (3), XXXII. 501, 502, 503, 504. 2 Hans. (2), XI. 912, 914. same manner in which he was originally appointed; and such new member becomes the chairman, if he takes the chairman's place, unless otherwise ordered by the house. 1911. II. A committee cannot proceed to business, unless the requisite number to constitute the committee is present. This number is fixed by the house, in reference to each particular case; if not so fixed, it would be necessary for all the members of the committee to attend.1 Three are generally a quorum in committees of the upper house; in the commons, the usual number is five; sometimes, however, three, and occasionally seven, or any other number which the house may direct. On two occasions, in the house of commons, where the investigations partook of a judicial character, the house named a quorum of five, but, at the same time, directed the committee to report the absence of any member, on two consecutive days.2 When the quorum of a committee is not fixed by the house, it is understood with us that a majority of a committee constitutes a quorum for proceeding.3 1912. If after proceeding to business, the number of members present should be reduced below the quorum, or if any member should leave the room, where there was no number fixed for the quorum, the business of the committee would not necessarily be interrupted, unless notice should be taken by a member that the requisite number was not present. But no question could be decided by a vote, without a quorum; as, in that case, the irregularity appearing on the minutes would be obvious. In these particulars the practice is the same as in the house. 1913. III. In the prosecution of the business referred to them, committees proceed by motions, resolutions, and votes; and, in all their proceedings, with certain exceptions, which will be presently mentioned, the rules by which they are governed are absolutely the same with those by which the house is governed in analogous proceedings. 1914. The exceptions to the rule are, that, in committees, a member may speak more than once to the same question; 4 that a committee has no authority to punish one of its members or other person, for any offence committed against it, as by disorderly words or contemptuous conduct, as, for example, when a witness refuses to testify, or prevaricates, but can only report such offence to the house for its animadversion; and that, in practice, it is not 1. Scobel, 47, 48. 2 May, 298. 3 Jefferson's Manual, Sec. XXVI. 1 |