conferees of the House asking it are to leave the papers with the conferees of the other; and in one case where they refused to receive them they were left on the table in the conference chamber. Ib., 271, 317, 323, 354; 10 Grey, 146.

NOTE. Several instances have arisen in the Senate where a conference has been asked immediately upon the passage of a House bill with amendments, and before the House had come to a disagreeing vote upon the Senate amendments. See Senate Journal, second session, Forty-second Congress, pages 851 and 1003; Senate Journal, third session, Forty-fifth Congress, page 433; Senate Journal, first session, Forty-eighth Congress, pages 628 and 643. See also Congressional Record, vol. 15, part 4, pages 3975 and 4100 (first session, Fortyeighth Congress), where the principle involved was discussed.

After a free conference, the usage is to proceed with freeconferences, and not to return again to a conference. 3 Hats., 270; 9 Grey, 229.

After a conference is denied, a free conference may be asked. 1 Grey, 45.

When a conference is asked, the subject of it must be expressed, or the conference not agreed to. Ord. H. Com., 89; 1 Grey, 425; 7 Grey, 31. They are sometimes asked to inquire concerning an offense or default of a member of the other House. 6 Grey, 181; 1 Chand., 304. Or the failure of the other House to present to the King a bill passed by both Houses. 8 Grey, 302. Or on information received, and relating to the safety of the nation. 10 Grey, 171. Or when the methods of Parliament are thought by the one House to have been departed from by the other, a conference is asked to come to a right understanding thereon.. 10 Grey, 148. So when an unparliamentary message has been sent, instead of answering it they ask a conference. 3 Grey, 155. Formerly an address or articles of impeachment, or a bill with amendments, or a vote of the House, or concurrence in a vote, or a message from the King, were sometimes communicated by way of conference. 6 Grey, 128, 300, 387; 7 Grey, 80; 8 Grey, 210, 255; 1 Tonbuck's

Deb., 278; 10 Grey, 293; 1 Chan., 49, 287. But this is not the modern practice. 8 Grey, 255.

A conference has been asked after the first reading of a bill. 1 Grey, 194. This is a singular instance.

NOTE.-See Senate Rule XXVII.

SEC. XLVII.

MESSAGES

Messages between the Houses are to be sent only while both Houses are sitting. 3 Hats., 15. They are received during a debate without adjourning the debate. 3 Hats., 22.

In the Senate the messengers are introduced in any state of business, except (1) while a question is being put; (2) while the yeas and nays are being called; (3) while the ballots are being counted. The first case is short; the second and third are cases where any interruption might occasion errors difficult to be corrected. So arranged June 15, 1798. NOTE.-See Senate Rule XXVIII.

In the House of Representatives, as in Parliament, if the House be in committee when a messenger attends, the Speaker takes the chair to receive the message, and then quits it to return into committee, without any question or interruption. 4 Grey, 226.

Messengers are not saluted by the members, but by the Speaker for the House. 2 Grey, 253, 274.

If messengers commit an error in delivering their message, they may be admitted or called in to correct their message. 4 Grey, 41. Accordingly, March 13, 1800, the Senate having made two amendments to a bill from the House of Representatives, their Secretary, by mistake, delivered one only; which, being inadmissible by itself, that House disagreed, and notified the Senate of their disagreement. This produced a discovery of the mistake. The Secretary was sent to the other House to correct his mistake, the correction was received, and the two amendments acted on de novo.

As soon as the messenger who has brought bills from the other House has retired, the Speaker holds the bills in his hand and acquaints the House that "the other House have by their messenger sent certain bills," and then reads their titles and delivers them to the Clerk, to be safely kept till they shall be called for to be read. Hakew., 178.

It is not the usage for one House to inform the other by what numbers a bill is passed. 10 Grey, 150. Yet they have sometimes recommended a bill, as of great importance, to the consideration of the House to which it is sent. 3 Hats., 25. Nor when they have rejected a bill from the other House do they give notice of it; but it passes sub silentio, to prevent unbecoming altercations. 1 Blackst., 183.

But in Congress the rejection is notified by message to the House in which the bill originated.

A question is never asked by the one House of the other by way of message, but only at a conference; for this is an interrogatory, not a message. 3 Grey, 151, 181.

When a bill is sent by one House to the other and is neglected, they may send a message to remind them of it. 3 Hats., 25; 5 Grey, 154. But if it be mere inattention it is better to have it done informally by communications between the Speakers or members of the two Houses.

Where the subject of a message is of a nature that it can properly be communicated to both Houses of Parliament, it is expected that this communication should be made to both on the same day. But where a message was accompanied with an original declaration, signed by the party to which the message referred, its being sent to one House was not noticed by the other, because the declaration, being original, could not possibly be sent to both Houses at the same time. 2 Hats., 260, 261, 262.

The King having sent original letters to the Commons, afterwards desires they may be returned, that he may communicate them to the Lords. 1 Chan., 303.

The House which has received a bill and passed it may present it for the King's assent, and ought to do it, though they have not by message notified to the other their passage of it. Yet the notifying by message is a form which ought to be observed between the two Houses from motives of respect and good understanding. 2 Hats., 242. Were the bill to be withheld from being presented to the King, it would be an infringement of the rules of Parliament. Ib.

When a bill has passed both Houses of Congress, the House last acting on it notifies its passage to the other, and delivers the bill to the Joint Committee of Enrollment, who see that it is truly enrolled in parchment. When the bill is enrolled, it is not to be written in paragraphs, but solidly, and all of a piece, that the blanks between the paragraphs may not give room for forgery. 9 Grey, 143. It is then put into the hands. of the Clerk of the House of Representatives to have it signed by the Speaker. The Clerk then brings it by way of message to the Senate to be signed by their President. The Secretary of the Senate returns it to the Committee of Enrollment, who present it to the President of the United States. If he approve, he signs, and deposits it among the rolls in the office of the Secretary of State, and notifies by message the House in which it originated that he has approved and signed it; of which that House informs the other by message. If the President disapproves, he is to return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated; who are to enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the President's objections to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days

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(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law. Constitution, I, 7.

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States, and, before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him; or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Constitution, I, 7.

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy. Constitution, I, 5. NOTE.-See Senate Rule IV.

If a question is interrupted by a vote to adjourn, or to proceed to the orders of the day, the original question is never printed in the journal, it never having been a vote, nor introductory to any vote; but when suppressed by the previous question, the first question must be stated, in order to introduce and make intelligible the second. 2 Hats., 83.

So, also, when a question is postponed, adjourned, or laid on the table, the original question, though not yet a vote, must be expressed in the journals, because it makes part of the vote of postponement, adjournment, or laying it on the table.

Where amendments are made to a question, those amendments are not printed in the journals, separated from the question; but only the question as finally agreed to by the House. The rule of entering in the journals only what the House has agreed to, is founded in great prudence and good sense, as there may be many questions proposed which it