1

4

subject of the order; or, the order may be discharged altogether, and renewed in part; 2 or renewed with additional matter;3 or renewed in a modified, amended,5 enlarged,6 or restricted,7 form. In like manner, when the members appointed to bring in a bill have been instructed to make a particular provision therein, the order for the instructions may be discharged, and other members appointed to prepare and bring in a bill as to that matter.8

9

2090. When it is desired to have the subject of a bill, for which leave has been granted, made into two, the course is to make a supplementary order, that the gentlemen appointed to bring in the bill, have leave to bring in a bill or bills, or to discharge the order, and renew it for a bill or bills; 10 and, on the other hand, when it is desired to unite into one two bills, which different sets of members or committees have been appointed to prepare and bring in, the course is to direct the two, or to authorize them, if they see fit, tỏ meet and prepare one bill for the purposes of both.11

SECTION II. COMMITTEE TO PREPARE AND BRING IN A BILL.

2091. It has already been stated, that a committee may not only be appointed to examine and report upon a matter referred to it, but, at the same time, also, it may be authorized to prepare and bring in a bill relative to the subject so referred. Where this course is pursued, the power of the house, to decide upon the expediency or propriety of a bill relative to the subject in question, is delegated, in the first instance, and for the time being, to the committee; and the committee is furthermore charged with the duty of preparing and bringing in a bill, if they should think proper. It is not infrequent, also, after the house has resolved upon a bill, or at the same time that it resolves upon a bill,12 to order, the appointment of a committee, in the usual manner, to prepare and bring it in. When this is the case, the committee is appointed in some one of the usual modes; the members named are called a com

1 Comm. Jour. XXXVI. 884, 889.

2 Comm. Jour. XXXVII. 40; Same, XLI.

809; Same, XLII. 706.

8 Comm. Jour. XXXVII. 125, 166.

4 Comm. Jour. XXXVIII. 900, 1048; Same,

XLI. 877, 913; Same, XLIII. 302.

7 Comm. Jour. XL. 852; Same, XLIII. 271; Same, XLIV. 369, 423.

8 Comm. Jour. XXXI. 199; Same, XXXV. 762.

9 Comm. Jour. LVII. 233.

10 Hans. (1), II. 128; Parl. Reg. LXII. 200;

5 Comm. Jour. XXXIV. 203; Same, XLII. Comm. Jour. LIX. 189, 206.

696.

6 Comm. Jour. XXXVIII. 514; Same, XLII. 751; Same, XLIII. 159.

11 Comm. Jour. XIII. 865, 866; Same, XIX. 361.

12 Comm. Jour. IX. 297.

mittee; they have such of the usual powers of a committee, -as to time of meeting, quorum, etc., as may be deemed necessary, conferred on them;1 and, when a bill is presented in pursuance of such authority, it purports to come from the committee.2 It is of course necessary, when a committee is appointed for the purpose of preparing a bill, that the members should act in the form of a committee, and not individually; and, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that a committee for this purpose may be instructed in reference to the duties of their appointment, in the same manner as other committees. Committees, as we have seen, having no power, as incidental to their appointment, to report any thing more than their own opinion, concerning the subject referred to them, and not any act of legislation, for the consideration of the house to which they belong, however strongly they may be impressed with its necessity or propriety; this power being conferred on them in particular instances, and occasionally, either on the appointment of the committee, or afterwards; it has now come to be the general practice in our legislative assemblies to provide, by a standing rule, that all committees, whether permanent or occasional, may report by "bill or bills or otherwise." In these cases, therefore, committees may report, at once, as embodying their opinion, a bill or other act of legislation, which is entitled to be received and considered, in the same manner as if presented to the house by its special order. This power has sometimes been assumed.

CHAPTER FIFTH.

OF THE PREPARATION OR DRAWING AND THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A BILL.

2092. A bill, when introduced into the house, should be as nearly as possible in that form, in which, if agreed to at all, it may receive the sanction of the house; or, in which, if not immediately acceptable, it may most readily be amended, so as at last to be brought into the requisite form. This is the purpose in view in all the proceedings which have thus far been described. But these

1 Comm. Jour. XII. 12, 359, 484, 583.

2 Comm. Jour. IX. 314.

proceedings are only directory. It remains for the members selected to prepare the bill to execute the will of the house, so far as it has been made known. The drawing of a bill,- setting aside its importance as regards the character of the law which it may ultimately become, is a matter of no trifling concern, with reference to its passing. It has been truly observed, that, "When a bill is hastily brought in, it generally requires mature deliberation, and many amendments in its progress through the two houses, which always take up a great deal of time: Whereas, when it is maturely considered, and fully concerted, before being brought in, the first draught of the bill is generally so perfect, that it requires but few amendments; and the rapidity of its progress always bears a proportion to the maturity of its first concoction." 1

2093. In order to render the subsequent proceedings intelligible, it will be necessary to state and describe the several parts of à statute, considered in a parliamentary sense, that is, with reference to their form only. The different parts, of which a statute may consist, and most of which are essential to its existence, are, 1, the title; 2, the preamble; 3, the statement of the enacting authority; 4, the purview or body of the act, divided into its separate clauses; 5, the provisos; 6, the schedules; and, 7, the date or day of its receiving the royal assent. Of these different parts, which may, properly enough, be found in every statute, the third and fourth only are indispensable. The title may be prefixed, if omitted; the preamble is frequently dispensed with; there is often no occasion for a proviso, or a schedule; and a date may be supplied; but without an enacting clause and a subject-matter there can be no statute; and neither of these is of any force or validity as a statute without the other.

SECTION I. TITLE.

2094. The title of an act is the short statement prefixed to it of the purpose or object which it has in view. In a legal sense, "it is true, that the title of an act of parliament is no part of the law or enacting part, no more than the title of a book is part of the book; for the title is not the law, but the name or description. given to it by the makers."2 In a parliamentary sense, however, the title, though a formal, is nevertheless an essential and impor

1 By Sir Charles Wager, Comm. Deb. XI. 116, 117.

2 By Holt, C. J. Wills v. Wilkins, Mod. Rep. VI. 62.

tant, part of a bill. It is usually indicated by the member or members, by whom the bill is drawn and presented; but, if a bill is introduced without any title, one may be put to it by the clerk of the house in which it is presented.

2095. The description of a bill, in the order by which leave is given to introduce it, is considered as indicating the title of the bill; so far, at least, that when a bill is pending, an order cannot properly be made for leave to present another with the same title; though the title may be so general in its terms, that different and even contradictory provisions might be comprehended under it.1 The title should consequently be as precise as the nature of the subject will admit; and, in the house of commons, there are standing orders, with reference to certain classes of bills, which require that the precise duration of every new temporary law should be expressed in the title, and that in bills for the revival or continuance of acts, the title should enumerate the several acts to be revived or continued, by the year, chapter, and day of passing.2

2096. The title of the bill presented must agree with the description of the bill in the order of leave. Thus, where leave was given to prepare and bring in a bill to amend an act with reference to the time of commencing certain prosecutions therein directed to be brought, and a bill was presented to amend the said act (but without specifying in what particulars) notice was taken that the title of the bill presented did not agree with the order of leave, and the bill was thereupon withdrawn.3

2097. In the house of commons, the title, by which a bill is introduced and read, remains the title through the whole proceedings, and is not susceptible of alteration or amendment, until the bill has passed; unless the house should direct that one bill should be divided into two, or that two should be combined in one, in which case, a corresponding change must necessarily be made in the title. When a bill has passed in the commons, the title is read by the speaker, and a question put, "that this be the title of the bill." The title may then be amended, if necessary, or so altered, as to make it conformable to amendments, to which the bill may have been subjected since its introduction. In the house of lords, the original title of a bill may be amended at any stage at which amendments are admissible.4

2098. It is a consequence of the practice of the house of com

1 Parl. Reg. LVI. 130.

3 Comm. Jour. XLVIII. 242, 340.

2 Comm. Jour. LIII. 84, 85.

4 May, 365.

mons not to change the title of a bill, until after it has passed, that, when a bill is referred to a committee,, the committee cannot, without special instruction for the purpose, make any amendment, alteration, or addition, which is not within the title; the authority of the committee being restricted to proceeding upon a bill with that title.1

2099. The title of a bill has been deemed of so much importance, in some of the States, that it has been made in them the subject of constitutional enactment. Thus, the constitutions of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, and California, provide, generally, that no law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title; that of Texas, that no law shall pass containing any matter different from what is expressed in its title; those of New York, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin, contain the same restrictions confined to private or local laws; and those of Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana, Ohio, and California, provide also, that no law shall be revised, or amended, by reference to its title merely, but the act revised, or the section amended, shall be reënacted and published at length. The constitution of New Jersey contains a statement of the reason on which its provision as above is founded, namely, to avoid the improper influences which may result from intermixing in one and the same act, such things as have no proper relation to each other; and the constitution of Indiana declares, that if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof.

SECTION II. PREAMBLE.

2100. The preamble of an act is the recital, by way of introduction, or inducement to the enacting part, of the reasons on which the enactment is founded. The preamble of a public statute recites the inconveniences which it proposes to remedy,- as, that doubts exist as to what the law is, or that some form of offence has been of frequent occurrence which it is necessary to punish with additional severity; or the advantages which it proposes to effect, -as that it is expedient to revise, consolidate, and bring into one, all the statutes relating to a given subject. The reasons, upon which a public statute is passed, are not generally of such a nature that

1 May, 358.