The Second Report of the Select Committee on Procedure in
the House of Commons was issued on Tuesday. The most important of the recommendations of the Committee are :— (1) That, excepting Bills for imposing taxes, or Consolidated. Fund or Appropriation Bills, or Bills for confirming Pro-. visional Orders, all Billson being read a second time should, unless the House otherwise order, stand committed to one of the Standing Committees ; (2) that the number of Standing Committees should be not less than four, that they shall be known in future as Standing Committees A, B, C, D, and that the quorum be thirty ; (3) that the distribution of the Bills among the Standing Committees should rest with the Speaker. These recommendations, which show a distinct
approximation to the practice of the French Chamber, would, if carried out, unquestionably accelerate the despatch of public business. But, as the Times observes in an able leading article, it is by no means to be taken for granted that they will be accepted by the Government as they stand. They certainlytend to increase the power of the Ministry of the day as against the House at large, and the Government when in opposition were energetic in protesting—not without good cause, in our opinion—that the Unionist Ministry had unduly usurped that control of its business which ought to be vested in the House as a whole.
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