PETITIONS.

51

Presenting petitions.
Reading and receiving petitions.
Presenting reports by Standing and Select Committees.
Motions.

After the routine business come Questions, Notices of
Motion, Private Bills, Government Orders, and Public Bills
but the order in which these matters are taken varies. On
Tuesdays and Fridays Government Notices and Orders take
precedence, on Wednesdays and Thursdays Questions have
the first place, whilst on Mondays the House first considers
Private Bills.
On presenting a petition the member having charge Petitions.
of it is allowed to state the parties from whom it comes
the number of signatures attached to it, and the material
 allegations it contains. He is not allowed to read
it, though he may have that done by the clerk at the
table. He must endorse his name on it and is answerable
for its not containing any objectionable matter’. The
petition is taken charge of by one of the clerks and after
passing through the Journals’ office, where it is examined
so as to see that it is framed in accordance with the rules
of the House, it is two days after presentation brought to
the table to be read and received. Any member may
oppose the reception of the petition.
By consent of the whole House a petition may be received
 when it is presented, but this course is only adopted
in an urgent case, or where it is advisable to refer it at
once to a Committee®
The House, following the practice of the English House Petitions
of Commons? refuses to receive any petition involving directly forMoney
a grant of money, unless it is first recommended by the
Crown*. This does not apply to petitions which are expressed

L Com. S. O. 8486.
3 May, 613.

2 Burinot, p. 269.
¢ Can. Com. J. 1867—8, 297.