[12 THE DOMINION PARLIAMENT. 
seventeenth day of the month of January next, so that neither 
you nor any of you on the said seventeenth day of December 
next at Our city of Ottowa to appear are to be held or 
constrained : for we do will that you and each of you, be as 
to Us, in this matter, entirely exonerated ; commanding and 
by the tenour of these presents, enjoining you and each of 
you and all others in this behalf interested that on Thurs- 
day, the seventeenth day of the month of January next at 
Our city of Ottawa aforesaid, personally be and appear for 
the despatch of business to treat, do, act, and conclude upon 
those things which in our said Parliament of Canada by the 
Common Council of our said Dominion, may by the favour 
of God be maintained. 
In testimony whereof We have caused these our Letters 
to be made Patent and the Great Seal of Canada to be 
hereunto affixed. Witness &c. 
3. The opening of Parliament. 
Proceed- 
ings in the 
Bago of When a new House of Commons is elected, the members 
assemble in their Chamber on the morning of the day men- 
tioned in the proclamation and at an hour fixed by the 
clerk, for the purpose of taking the oath and signing the 
roll. The Clerk of the Crown in Chancery attends at the 
table and delivers to the clerk of the House a roll con- 
taining the names of duly elected members. The oath of 
allegiance in the form set out in the British North America 
Act 1867, 
——— do swear that I will be faithful and bear 
true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Victoria; 
is administered by one of the clerks or the Sergeant-at- 
arms authorized for that purpose by the Governor-General. 
Hlectionof By the British North America Act 1867, section 44, the 
Speaker. House of Commons on its first assembling after a general 
I B. N. A. Act, 1867, 5. 128.