02/12/04

1983.  If any public business should arise in the commons, in which the house is concerned, as if the house should be summoned to attend the queen or lords commissioners in the house of cures, or if the time has arrived for holding a conference with the lords, the speaker resumes the chair at once, without any report from the committee. 

1984.  So, also, if any sudden disorder should occur, By which the honor and dignity of the house are likely to be affected, the speaker would be justified in resuming the chair immediately, without waiting for the ordinary forms.  The following is an instance of this proceeding which occurred in one of the parliaments of Charles II. To during the speakership of Sir Edward Seymour.  “On the 10th May, 1675, a serious disturbance for rose in a grand committee, which bloodshed was threatened; when it is related that 'the speaker very opportunely and prudently rising from his seat near the bar, in a resolute and slow pace, made his three respects through the crowd, and took the chair.’ The mace having been forcibly laid on the table, all the disorder ceased, and the gentleman went to their places.  The speaker being sat spoke to this purpose: ‘That to bring the house into order again, he took the chair, though not according to order.’ No other entry appears in the journal than that ‘Mr. Speaker resumed the chair;’ but the same report adds, that though ‘some gentleman excepted against his coming into the chair, the doing it was generally approved as the only expedient to suppress the disorder.’

1985.  A similar case has occurred more recently in the house of commons. “On the 27 February, 1810, a member who, for disorderly conduct, had been ordered into custody, returned into the house during the sitting of a committee, in a very violent and disorderly matter; upon which Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and ordered the sergeant to do his duty.  When the member had been removed by the sergeant, the house again resolved itself into the committee.”