CHAPTER VI

ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE

UNDER the head of organization two distinct subjects may be legitimately treated. One is the staff of the house, and the constitution of its committees. The other is the arrangements and understandings which regulate the relations of the house to the executive government, and the relations to each other of the political parties and groups represented in the house.

In the earliest days of the house of commons, when its functions were mainly those of a petitioning body, it needed a spokesman, and some member of the house must have been selected for this purpose. The ordinary list of Speakers begins with Sir Thomas Hungerford, who held the office in the last parliament of Edward III, but there were probably others before him with similar functions. At the beginning of each parliament a member of the house of commons is elected Speaker of the house, and his tenure of office, unless terminated by resignation or death, continues during that parliament. The election is made by the house, subject to the approval

of the king, but that approval has never been withheld since Charles II objected to the appointment of Sir Edward Seymour in 1679. In the earlier days of parliament the voice of the king in the appointment of Speaker was more of a reality; he was regarded as an officer of the king and a link between the king and the house; and in the seventeenth century the conflict between his duties to the king and his duties to the house sometimes placed him in serious difficulties. The emancipation of the Speaker from the control of the king, the severance of his connection with party during his tenure of office, and the evolution of the non-partisan Speaker, armed with great powers, wielding great authority, and exercising his powers and authority in a judicial and impartial spirit, have been admirably described by Mr. Porritt in his Unreformed House of Commons. The modern Speaker is sometimes elected in the first instance by a party vote, but he is independent of party, his tenure of office is not affected by a change of ministry, and, if he desires to continue his services in a new parliament, the practice is to re-elect him, whatever party may be in power.

The Speaker is the representative and spokesman of the house in its collective capacity; he presides at meetings of the house; and he declares and interprets its law. He does not claim power to make or alter that law, merely to be its exponent. But where

precedents, rulings and the orders of the house are insufficient or uncertain guides, he has to consider what course would be most consistent with the usages, traditions and dignity of the house, and the rights and interests of its members, and on these points his advice is usually followed, and his decisions are very rarely questioned. Much, no doubt, depends on the personal character and qualities of the Speaker, his experience, his readiness, his tact, his knowledge of the ways and habits of members; but for many generations the deference habitually paid to the occupant of the chair has been the theme of admiring comment by foreign observers.

The Speaker's symbol of office is the mace, which is carried before him when he formally leaves and enters the house, and remains on the table while he occupies the chair. He has an official residence in the palace of Westminster, and an official salary which, like the salaries of judges, is not paid out of the votes but is charged on the consolidated fund and therefore cannot be questioned when the annual votes are under discussion. When he retires from office he usually receives a pension and a peerage.

Besides the Speaker, two other members of the house of commons receive salaries as officials of the house. These are the chairman and the deputy-chairman of ways and means, who ordinarily take the chair at meetings of committees of the whole house, and each of

whom can also act as deputy speaker during the temporary absence of the Speaker. They are appointed by the house at the beginning of each parliament, for the duration of that parliament. The chairman of ways and means is charged with some important duties in connection with private bills.

The house of commons has its permanent official staff, corresponding to the official staff of the departments of the executive government, the staff which constitutes the permanent civil service of the country. At the head of the staff of clerks is the clerk of the house, whose office dates from the fourteenth century. He is appointed by the king on the nomination of the prime minister, and he is entitled to hold his office for life. He and the two clerk assistants are the wigged and gowned officials who sit at the table of the house when the Speaker is in the chair, and who are collectively known as the clerks at the table. When the Speaker leaves the chair for a sitting of the committee of the whole house the clerk of the house has to vacate his seat also, and it is taken by the chairman of ways and means or his deputy. The serjeant-at-arms, who is also appointed by the king, holds an ancient office in the house and is a picturesque adjunct of its proceedings. But, besides his ceremonial functions, he has responsible duties to perform, and may be treated as representing the executive authority of the house. He sees to the

maintenance of order within the precincts of the house, regulates the admission of strangers, and, as housekeeper, looks after its domestic staff and arrangements.

The staff arrangements of the house of lords are somewhat different. The lord chancellor performs the functions assigned in the house of commons to the Speaker, but has not the same powers for maintaining order and controlling the course of debates. There is a lord chairman of committees, who presides over committees of the whole house, and who exercises considerable control over private bill legislation. The clerk of parliaments is the head of the staff of permanent clerks, signifies the assent of the king to legislation, and certifies with his own hand the accuracy of Acts when passed. The gentleman usher of the black rod, who has a yeoman usher to assist him, summons the commons when their attendance is required in the house of lords, and performs certain other functions, mostly ceremonial.

The house of commons delegates less of its work to committees than most legislatures, for, as has been previously explained, the socalled "committees of the whole house" are not committees in the ordinary sense of the term. But much work is done by many genuine committees. These include the standing committees on public bills, to which reference has been made in a previous chapter, the select committees on public bills or other