154 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

House of Lords., the Speaker having been summoned thither;
a number of Members of the Commons stand at the doors
and watch, and, if the Bill has been hotly contested, shout their
emotions as it becomes law.

A Public Bill may also be introduced, by a Member holding

no Government position; it is then called a Private Member's

Bill Should such a Bill involve expenditure, it cannot proceed

beyond Second Reading, unless a financial resolution is moved

by a Minister. If this rule were not kept, every Member would

be tempted to bring forward Bills which would cause money

to be spent in his own constituency, and the House would be

the scene of a continual scramble for public funds. The Private

Member must draft his Bill himself, or employ an expert; then

he may try to introduce it by joining in the Ballot for time on a

Friday. He may learn that his Bill is to be say, the second on

the Order Paper for a Friday early in the Session—only to

find that the first Bill on the Paper provokes so long a debate

that there is no time for his own, or that the House, bored by

the earlier Bill, is counted out. Alternatively, the Private Member

may introduce his .Bill on another day at 3.45, under the Ten

Minutes' Rule: he makes a short speech in its favour and another

short speech is made against. If the House agrees, the Bill can

go forward for Second Reading. But the pressure of Government

business, which takes at least three-quarters of the available

time, makes it impossible that a Private Member's Bill will

become law unless it is unopposed, or the Government sees

that there is a strong feeling in its favour, and makes room in

the time-table. Here lie two" serious defects of Commons

procedure: the Private Member feds that he has little scope

for expressing his own ideas; and much of the time that Private

Members do have is wasted discussing Bills which have no

chance of becoming law.

'The House has also to consider many Private Bills, the usual
purpose of which is to allow some Company or Local Authority
to proceed with a building, or railway, or works of some kind