from the Danish Constitution (" Grundlov") of the 28th July, 1866, paragraphs 61 and 66, and from the Regulations of proceedings ("Forretningsorden") of the Landsthing and Folkething.

In these extracts will be found all the Rules which regulate the taking of divisions in the Danish Parliament.

I would particularly beg to draw your Lordship's attention to paragraph 61 of the "Grundlov," according to which the Chambers cannot arrive at a decision unless over half of the Members are present and partake in the voting, and also to the clause 29 of the "Forretningsorden" of the Landsthing, according to which either the Chairman or a certain number of Members may call for the closure.

Paragraph 39 of the Landsthing's Regulations, and paragraph 38 of the Folkething's, set forth how votes are taken.

In the ten years (1890-1901) the Landsthing has on the average held 112 sittings yearly and the Folkething 70. The time occupied in a single sitting varies from halfan-hour to four and a-half hours. In the Landsthing, however, the time seldom exceeds three hours. Sometimes a Chamber may sit twice in one day, that is in the forenoon, and again in the evening from 7 to 11 P.M., but then this is reckoned as two sittings.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ARTHUR HERBERT.

Inclosure in No. 3.

Regulations respecting the Procedure of the Lundsthing, as approved November 28, 1866, including the accepted Amendments of June 24 and 29, 1881, as well as of February 24, 1888.

(Translation.)

29. SHOULD the President consider that proceedings are being unduly protracted he has the power of calling for the closure which is voted by the Thing without a division; twelve Members may call for a division on the question of closure. The names of these Members must be entered in the Minutes.

33. Every Member is bound to comply with the President's ruling with regard to the maintenance of order.

Should a Member be called to order twice during the same sitting, the President has the power to propose to the Thing to suspend him during the entire sitting. Should a more general disorder arise, it is incumbent on the President to suspend the sitting for a time, or, if necessary, to suspend it altogether.

39. The President is authorized to declare a Resolution carried and to dispense with a division in all cases where he has reason to believe that the House is unanimous (with the exception, however, of the final passing of a Bill or of other independent proposals), so long as no Member calls for a division.

A division, as a rule, takes place by each Member rising from his place or remaining seated, and must always consist of a count and recount, the votes being counted by the Secretary.

Should the Speaker, after having received the Secretary's report, be in doubt as to the result of the division, or should it appear that in the division there has not been a necessary quorum, or that the majority for or against the measure on which the House has divided does not exceed four, the division is performed by reading over the names of the Members.

Twelve Members have the right of calling for this method of procedure at the beginning of the count.

Vote by ballot takes place when twenty Members call for it. The names of the Members who call for vote by reading over or by ballot must be entered in the Minutes.

44. In certain cases of expediency the above Regulations may be infringed at the proposal of the President or of twelve Members, as long as they are not based on a Law of the Constitution, should three-quarters of the voting Members be unanimous in that respect.

Procedure of the Folkething, as accepted May 2, 1867, March 28, 1871, March 6, 1874, June 24, 1881, October 20, 1888, and February 1, 1889, including Amendments.

31. Every Member is bound to comply with the President's ruling respecting the maintenance of order. Should a Member be called to order twice during the same. sitting the Thing can, at the proposal of the President, suspend him during the whole sitting. Should a general disorder arise, it is incumbent on the President to suspend the sitting for a time, or, if necessary, to suspend it altogether.

33. Should the President consider that proceedings are being unduly protracted, he can call for the closure, which is passed by the Thing without discussion.

Fifteen Members can call for a division on the question of closure. The names of these Members must be entered in the Minutes.

35. The Thing is unable to pass any Resolution unless over one-half of the Members are present and take part in the ballot. A Resolution is passed when a greater number of Members have voted for it than against it, with the exception of the case referred to in section 44.*

38. The President has the right to declare a Resolution carried, and to dispense with a division, in all cases where he has reason to believe that the House is unanimous, with the exception, however, of the final passing of a Bill or of any other independent proposal, should no Member insist on a division. A division takes place by the Members who are scated in their appointed places rising from their seats; it consists of a count and recount, the votes being counted by the Secretary; but the President can call for a division by calling over of names either immediately, or after the division, according to the usual manner, has taken place when the result in the Secretary's report seems to him to be doubtful; twelve Members at the beginning of the division can send in a written ' demand to the effect that one or more points should be voted by the cailing over of names. In divisions of this kind the names of the Members are read out in alphabetical order.

After the names have been read once, and no more Members having reported themselves in answer to the President's challenge, which follows immediately after the names are read, the President declares the reading over to be finished.

Division by ballot takes place if twenty-five members send in a written request to that effect, at the beginning of the division; twenty-five other Members can, however, by standing up, demand the decision of the Landsthing.

The names of the Members who demand calling over of names or division by ballot are inscribed in the Minutes.

Extract from the Constitution of Denmark of June 5, 1849, and July 28, 1866.

61. Neither of the Things can pass any Resolution unless over half of the members are present, and take part in the voting.

66. Each of the Things lays down the immediate regulations with regard to the procedure of business and the maintenance of order.

FRANCE.

No. 4.

Sir E. Monson to the Marquess of Lansdowne.-(Received August 13.)

My Lord, Paris, August 12, 1901. IN accordance with the desire expressed in your Lordship's Circular despatch of the 2nd instant, I have the honour to transmit herewith a Report upon the methods of taking divisions which obtain in the Chambers of the French Legislative Assembly. ·

* See Section 44 of the Landsthing Regulations.

Information as to the number of days of sitting in the course of the year, and as to the time occupied in a single sitting, is also appended.

I have, &c.

EDMUND MONSON,

(Signed)

Inclosure in No. 4.

Memorandum by Mr. Lister on the Methods, &c., in the Chambers of the French Legislative Assembly.

THE methods of voting followed in the Chamber of Deputies are:

1. "Par assis et levé," the Deputies for the adoption of the measure rising from their seats this corresponds to our show of hands.

2. By public ballot ("scrutin public”).

The result of the vote "par assis et levé" is determined by the President and his Secretaries. Should they be doubtful as to the result, the vote is taken again.

The vote by "scrutin public " is obligatory:

(1.) After two doubtful votes "par assis et levé.”

(2.) In the case of all Bills having reference to loans or to taxation.

(3.) On the request of twenty Deputies, addressed in writing to the President of the Chamber, or if demanded viva voce by a Deputy after a doubtful vote " levé."

par assis et It is the method almost invariably followed in any division of importance, and is as follows:

The President requests the Deputies to take their seats. Each Deputy has two voting tickets on which his'name is written, one white and one blue, the former being "Aye," the latter "No." The ushers, one of whom is allotted to each section of the Chamber, then take round urns into which each Deputy drops his voting ticket. When all the votes have thus been collected, the President declares the ballot closed. The urns are taken to the tribune, where the votes are counted by the Secretaries and the result proclaimed by the President.

At the request of forty Members the public ballot may take place at the tribune. In this case each Deputy advances to the tribune and receives from one of the Secretaries a small wooden marble (“ boule de contrôle "); he then drops his voting ticket into one urn placed on the tribune, and his "boule de contrôle" into another urn, which stands on the Secretaries' bureau.

The remaining formalities are performed as in the first instance.

Occasionally, to insure greater accuracy, the votes are collected by roll-call ("appel nominal"), each Deputy advancing to the tribune as his name is called by one of the Secretaries of the Chamber.

In the event of there being a difference of thirty or less between the "Ayes" and the "Noes," and in order to obviate any possibility of Deputies having dropped more than one voting ticket into the urn, the Secretaries have recourse to a system known as the "pointage" or registration of the votes, which consists of marking on a list the names of all the Deputies who have voted, and then comparing these lists with the number of votes recorded.

The system employed in the Senate for taking divisions is precisely the same as in the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber of Deputies sits on an average from 110 to 130 days in the year. In 1899 there were 114 sittings; in 1900, 152; but the increase is to be accounted for by the fact that during the months of November and December there were frequent sittings in the morning as well as in the afternoon. Roughly speaking, 500 sittings may be reckoned for every legislative period of four years, making an average of 125 sittings a year. The usual length of a sitting is four or five hours, from 2 to 6.30 or 7 P.M.; and I have remarked that the Deputies invariably showed signs of astonishment, not unmingled with disgust, on the relatively rare occasions on which their Parliamentary duties have necessitated their putting off their dinner. The Senate sits on an average ninety times in one year, and the length of their sittings is much the same as that of the Chamber of Deputies. (Signed) REGINALD LISTER.

Paris, August 12, 1901.

GERMANY.

No. 5.

My Lord,

Mr. Buchanan to the Marquess of Lansdowne.-(Received December 13.)

Berlin, December 10, 1901. I HAVE the honour to transmit a Memorandum giving details of the regulations for divisions in the Reichstag and Landtag, and statistics respecting the number of days and hours of the sittings, which Mr. Grahame has drawn up at my request from information supplied to him by the bureau of the Reichstag, which is now in Session. Should any additional information of interest respecting the questions contained in your Lordship's Circular on this subject of the 2nd of August last be furnished by the Imperial Government, I shall not fail to communicate it to your Lordship without delay.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

GEORGE W. BUCHANAN.

Inclosure in No. 5.

Memorandum by Mr. Grahame on the Method of taking Votes in the Reichstag, and Duration of the Sessions, &c.

THE question is read out immediately before the voting takes place.

If, on his attention being called to the matter, the President of the Reichstag or one of the Secretaries on duty (these are also Members of the House), has a doubt as to whether a quorum* of Members is present, the names of the Members have to be called out. If the President, on the other hand, declares that no Member of the bureau is in doubt as to the question of a quorum being present or not, no further action is taken.

The actual voting takes place by the Members standing up or sitting down. If the result is in any way doubtful in the eyes of the President or any of the Secretaries, the process is reversed, viz., those who before stood up retain their seats, and vice versa. It may here be pointed out that the seats of the Members of the House are arranged in a half-circle which rises towards the back, round the tribunes on which sit the President and the Secretaries of the bureau of the House. The Bundesrath and the Members of the Executive sit on a raised platform, right and left from the President's tribune, and facing the half-circle where the body of the Members sit.

If a decisive result cannot be established by the means stated above, the House is counted out in the following manner: The President calls upon the Members to leave the House; the doors are then closed, with the exception of one on the east and one on the west side, at each of which two Secretaries place themselves. At a signal given by the President with a bell, the Members who wish to vote in the affirmative enter by the door on the east side, on the right of the bureau, and those who vote the contrary from the west side; the Secretaries stationed at the doors meanwhile count out aloud the numbers of the Members who pass before them.

The President then declares the division to be at an end, and orders the doors to be opened again. No voting is allowable after the votes have been given in the above fashion, except those of the President and the officiating Secretaries who give their votes publicly. The President then announces the result.

A motion can be brought in for voting by calling out the names; this must be done at the close of the discussion, but before the President calls upon the Members to proceed to vote in the other ways mentioned. The motion must be supported by fifty Members. The roll of names of all Members is read over, and then the letters of the alphabet are called out in order to afford opportunity for votes to be given which may have been omitted during the call over of names. When this is finished the President declares the voting to be closed.

* A quorum consists of an absolute majority of the whole House (397 members).

In any division except in the case of voting by a call over of the names, a Member has the right to give his vote, which at the last moment he wishes to give against that of the majority, in writing to the bureau, and to request that it be inserted in the steno. graphic report; no preliminary notice of this is given to the House.

The Regulations for the Landtag are in the main identical with those for the Reichstag; no stipulations are, however, laid down for ascertaining whether a quorum is present in this House, and no voting by call over is permissible when a motion for adjournment is brought forward.

The Session usually begins in November, and lasts to the middle of the following summer; in 1900 the Reichstag Session opened on the 14th November, and closed on the 15th May of this year, extending over a total of 183 days. Of this total, however, there were 87 days when the Reichstag did not meet, so that in all there were only 96 sittings of the whole House ("Plenarsitzungen ").

Sessions in other years, which may be taken as typical, extended over 155, 157, and 171 days, with 86, 84, and 99 working days respectively.

The usual hours of a sitting are from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M., but these are constantly either shortened or lengthened. An average of the length of a sitting of the whole House in the Session of 1900-1901 shows 4 hours 9 minutes. In the Sessions of other typical years the average was approximately 3 hours 50 minutes. In the Session 1900-1901 the total number of hours devoted to sittings of the whole House amounted to 398 hours 34 minutes.

The Reichstag does not go into Committee as does the House of Commons. The amount of Committee work in connection with the passing of Bills is difficult to compute, Members frequently attending meetings before and after the sitting of the House each day, and even during an adjournment. It is not unusual for Members to prolong their Committee after the daily sitting of the House has opened, and to be obliged to hurriedly interrupt their deliberations in order to make up a quorum of the House before a division is taken.

My Lord,

No. 6.

Mr. Buchanan to the Marquess of Lansdowne.-(Received December 15.)]

Berlin, December 13, 1901. WITH reference to my despatch of the 10th instant on the subject of divisions in the Reichstag and Prussian Landtag, I have the honour to inclose, extracted from papers now placed at my disposal by the Imperial Foreign Office, some information supplementary to that contained in Mr. Grahame's Memorandum on this subject. The only other point in these papers which may be of interest to your Lordship consists in a reference to an electric invention designed by the great firm of Siemens and Halske with a view to shortening the process of recording votes and taking divisions in a Legislative Assembly. During the Session of 1869-1870 a motion was introduced in the Prussian Lower House by Count Frankenberg and his associates in favour of establishing this system, called the "Voting Telegraph," in the House, and a Commission was charged with an examination of the matter. The House, after some discussion, decided against the motion, partly because no pressing need existed for shortening the divisions to the extent contemplated in this scheme, and partly on account of the advantages of a personal and oral process of voting; but there were no practical objections made to the machine.

The time for taking the votes of the total number of Members of the Lower House would, according to this scheme, occupy about one to two minutes. Each Member was to have at his place a handle to turn to right or left as he wished to vote "Yes" or "No," and this handle was only capable of being turned by the Member to whom the seat belonged, each Member being provided with a special key, without which the mechanism would not work.