UPON THE LAW, PRIVILEGES, PROCEEDINGS AND USAGE OF PARLIAMENT. BY THOMAS ERSKINE MAY, Esq. BARRISTER AT LAW; ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT & CO. LUDGATE-STREET. MDCCCXLIV. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES SHAW LEFEVRE, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, &c. &c. &c. THIS TREATISE IS, WITH THE HIGHEST RESPECT, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. IT is the object of the following pages to describe the various functions and proceedings of Parliament in a form adapted, as well to purposes of reference, as to a methodical treatment of the subject. The well-known work of Mr. Hatsell abounds with Parliamentary learning, and, except where changes have arisen in the practice of later years, is deservedly regarded as an authority upon all the matters of which it treats. Other works have also appeared, upon particular branches of Parliamentary practice; or with an incidental rather than direct bearing upon all of them: but no general view of the proceedings of both houses of Parliament, at the present time, has yet been published; and it is in the hope of supplying some part of this acknowledged deficiency, that the present Treatise has been written. A theme so extensive has only been confined within the limits of a single volume, by excluding |