tions, and (for Ireland) divorce bills.1 Bills of the local and personal class have for many years past been treated differently from public bills. They are brought in, as it is expressed, on petition, and not on motion. Notice is required to be given of such a bill by advertisement nearly three months before the usual date of the meeting of Parliament, and copies must be deposited some weeks before the opening of the session. The second reading is usually granted as a matter of course; and after second reading, instead of being, like a public bill, considered in committee of the whole House, it goes (if opposed) to a private bill committee consisting (usually) of four members, who take evidence regarding it from the promoters and opponents, and hear counsel argue for and against its preamble and its clauses. In fact, the proceedings on private bills are to some extent of a judicial nature, although of course the committee must have regard to considerations of policy.

Pecuniary claims against the Government are in England not raised by way of private bill. They are presented in the courts by a proceeding called a petition of right, the Crown allowing itself to be sued by one of its subjects.

In America no such difference of treatment as the above exists between public and private bills; all are dealt with in substantially the same way by the usual legislative methods. A bill of a purely local or personal nature gets its second reading as a matter of course, like a bill of general application, is similarly referred to the appropriate committee (which may hear evidence regarding it, but does not hear counsel), is considered and if necessary amended by the committee, is, if time permits, reported back to the House, and there takes its chance among the jostling crowd of other bills, Fridays, however, being specially set apart for the consideration of private business. There is a calendar of private bills, and those which get a place early upon it have a chance of passing. A great many are unopposed, and can be hurried through "by unanimous consent."

Private bills are in America even more multifarious in their contents, as well as incomparably more numerous, than in England, although they do not include the vast mass of bills for the creation

1 The official distinction in the yearly editions of the Statutes is into Public General Acts, Public Acts of a local character (which include Provisional Order Acts), and Local Acts, and Private Acts. But in ordinary speech, those measures which are brought in at the instance of particular persons for a local purpose are called private.

or regulation of various public undertakings within a particular State, since these would fall within the province of the State legislature. They include three classes practically unknown in England, pension bills, which propose to grant a pension to some person (usually a soldier or his widow), bills for satisfying some claim of an individual against the Federal Government, and bills for dispensing in particular cases with a variety of administrative statutes. Matters which would in England be naturally left to be dealt with at the discretion of the executive are thus assumed by the legislature, which is (for reasons that will appear in later chapters) more anxious to narrow the sphere of the executive than are the ruling legislatures of European countries. I subjoin from the private bills of the session of 1880-81 some instances showing how wide is the range of congressional interference.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Read twice, referred to the Committee on Invalid Pensions, and ordered to be printed.

1

2

3

Mr. Murch introduced the following bill:

A BILL

For the relief of James E. Gott.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress Assembled.

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, Authorized and directed to increase the pension of James E. Gott, late a member of Company A, Fourteenth Regiment, 6 Maine Volunteers, to twenty-four dollars per month.

5

Read twice, referred to the Committee on War Claims, and ordered to be printed.

A BILL

For the relief of the heirs of George W. Hayes.

Be it enacted, etc.

That the proper accounting officer of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to the heirs of George W. Hayes, of North Carolina, the sum of four hundred and fifty dollars, for three mules furnished the United States Army in eighteen hundred and sixtyfour, for which they hold proper vouchers.

Read twice, referred to the Committee on Commerce, and ordered to be printed.

A BILL

To establish a fog-bell or fog-bell buoy on Graham Shoals, in the Straits of Mackinaw, and State of Michigan.

Be it enacted, etc.

That the Secretary of War be authorized and directed to establish and maintain a fog-bell or fog-bell buoy on Graham Shoals, so called, in the Straits of Mackinaw, in the State of Michigan.

Read twice, and referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs.

A BILL

For the relief of Thomas G. Corbin.

Be it enacted, etc.

That the President of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to restore Thomas G. Corbin, now a captain on the retired list of the Navy, to the active list, and to take rank next after Commodore J. W. A. Nicholson, with restitution, from December twelfth, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, of the difference of pay between that of a commodore on the active list, on "waiting orders" pay, and that of a captain retired on half-pay, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Read twice, referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Robinson introduced the following joint resolution:

JOINT RESOLUTION

Authorizing the remission or refunding of duty on a painted-glass window from London, England, for All Souls' Church, in Washington, District of Columbia.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled.

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to remit or refund, as the case may be, the duties paid or accruing upon a painted-glass window from London, England, for All Souls' Church, in Washington, District of Columbia, imported, or to be imported into Baltimore, Maryland, or other port.

NOTE (B) TO CHAPTER XVI

THE LOBBY

"The Lobby" is the name given in America to persons, not being members of a legislature, who undertake to influence its members, and thereby to secure the passing of bills. The term includes both those who, since they hang about the chamber, and make a regular profession of working upon members, are called "lobbyists," and those persons who on any particular occasion may come up to advocate, by argument or solicitation, any particular measure in which they happen to be interested. The name, therefore, does not necessarily impute any improper motive or conduct, though it is commonly used in what Bentham calls a dyslogistic sense.

The causes which have produced lobbying are easily explained. Every legislative body has wide powers of affecting the interests and fortunes of private individuals, both for good and for evil. It entertains in every session some public bills, and of course many more private (i.e. local or personal) bills, which individuals are interested in supporting or resisting. Such, for instance, are public bills imposing customs duties or regulating the manufacture or sale of particular articles (e.g. intoxicants, explosives), and private bills establishing railroad or other companies, or granting public franchises, or (in State legislatures) altering the areas of local government, or varying the taxing or borrowing powers of municipalities. When such bills are before a legislature, the promoters and the opponents naturally seek to represent their respective views, and to enforce them upon the members with whom the decision rests. So far there is nothing wrong, for advocacy of this kind is needed in order to bring the facts fairly before the legislature.

Now both in America and in England it has been found necessary, owing to the multitude of bills and the difficulty of discussing them in a large body, to refer private bills to committees for investigation; and the legislature has in both countries formed the habit of accepting generally, though not invariably, the decisions of a committee upon the bills it has dealt with. America has, however, gone farther than England, for Congress refers all public bills as well as private bills to committees. And whereas in England private bills are dealt with by a semi-judicial procedure, the promoters and

opponents appearing by professional agents and barristers, in America no such procedure has been created, either in Congress or in the State legislatures, and private bills are handled much like public ones. Moreover, the range of private bills is wider in America than in England, in respect that they are used to obtain the satisfaction of claims by private persons against the Government, whereas in England such claims would either be brought before a law-court in the form of a Petition of Right, or, though this rarely happens, be urged upon the executive by a motion made in Parliament.

We see, therefore, that in the United States

All business goes before committees, not only private bills but public bills, often involving great pecuniary interests.

To give a bill a fair chance of passing, the committee must be induced to report in favour of it.

The committees have no quasi-judicial rules of procedure, but inquire into and amend bills in their uncontrolled discretion, upon such evidence or other statements as they choose to admit or use.

Bills are advocated before committees by persons not belonging

to any recognized and legally regulated body.

The committees, both in the State legislatures and in the Federal House of Representatives, are largely composed of new men, unused to the exercise of the powers entrusted to them.

It results from the foregoing state of facts that the efforts of the promoters and opponents of a bill will be concentrated upon the committee to which the bill has been referred; and that when the interests affected are large it will be worth while to employ every possible engine of influence. Such influence can be better applied by those who have skill and a tact matured by experience; for it is no easy matter to know how to handle a committee collectively and its members individually. Accordingly, a class of persons springs up whose profession it is to influence committees for or against bills. There is nothing necessarily illegitimate in doing so. As Mr. Spofford remarks:

"What is known as lobbying by no means implies in all cases the use of money to affect legislation. This corruption is frequently wholly absent in cases where the lobby is most industrious, numerous, persistent, and successful. A measure which it is desired to pass into law, for the benefit of certain interests represented, may be urged upon members of the legislative body in every form of