See also rulings of Speaker Randall, 1st session 46th Congress, Journal, pp. 1361, 1435; of Speaker Keifer, 1st session 47th Congress, p. 1644, and by Speaker Carlisle, Journal, pp. 1, 49.

There are numerous instances of one house passing a bill of the other, with amendments, and at the same time asking for a conference with the other house thereon. Until the 1st session 49th Congress there was no instance on record of a refusal on the part of either house to grant a conference requested by the other. In that case it was decided by Speaker Carlisle that in the absence of joint rules on the subject, it was competent for the House to refer the request of the Senate to a committee, and that where a conference was asked by the Senate on its amendments to a bill of the House there must be a disagreement by the House upon said amendments before said request could be considered as a privileged question.Journal, 1, 49, p. 2293. He also decided (1, 49, p. 2457) that in the case of a Senate bill passed by the House with amend ments to which the Senate disagreed and asked a conference thereon, the bill had reached the stage of actual disagreement between the two houses, and held that a motion to insist on the House amendments and agree to the conference asked was a privileged motion. Under the long established practice of both houses, all questions relating to existing or proposed conferences are held to be highly privileged, and it is probable that conferences will keep pace with the steady growth of Congressional representation and legislation. For this reason, and also the further reason that there are no joint rules regulating conferences, additional precedents touching this subject are added to those of former editions.

The presentation of reports of committees of conference shall always be in order, except when the Journal is being read, while the roll is being called, or the House is dividing on any proposition. And there shall accompany every such report a detailed statement sufficiently explicit to inform the House what effect such amendments or propositions will have upon the measures to which they relate.-RULE XXIX.

Until the adoption of the foregoing rule in the revision of the rules (2d session 46th Congress) there was no rule of the House

in regard to conference reports, although under the practice they were classed as "privileged questions."

The presentation of a conference report takes precedence of a motion to adjourn.-Journal, 1, 51, p. 822. Also of a privileged question.-Journal, 1, 51, p. 1082. A conference report when submitted retains its privileged character until disposed of, but is subject after presen'ation to a motion to adjourn (whenever that motion is in order).—Journal, 1, 51, p. 904. A conference report takes precedence of a privileged question.Journal, 1, 51, p. 1082. A conference report is more highly privileged than a contested election case.-Record, 2, 50, p. 2106, February 20, 1889.

"It is on the occasion of amendments between the houses that conferences are usually asked; but they may be asked in all cases of difference of opinion between the two houses on matters depending between them."-Manual, p. 175. A conference committee, under the usage, consists of three members of the Senate and three members of the House. There is no rule of the House (or Senate) fixing the number of conferrees or prescribing the manner of their appointment. In the House the Speaker, as a matter of practice, had usually appointed the conferrees, and until the present Congress, there was no rule on the subject. In the Senate an order is specifically made that the presiding officer shall appoint conferrees. The report of a conference committee must be signed by a majority of the members of each house composing the said committee, and in the House must be accompanied by a "detailed statement” explanatory thereof, as required by RULE XIX, which see.

A committee of conference is not a heterogeneous body acting as one committee, but two committees, each of which acts by a majority.-Journal, 1, 30, p. 1283; 15 Cong. Globe, 1179.

The usual course of proceeding previous to a conference is for one house to disagree to the other's amendment, and for the amending house to insist upon its amendment and ask a conference.-Journal, 1, 35, pp. 711, 933, 1062. But it sometimes happens, near the close of the session, that one house disagrees to the other's amendment and thereupon asks a conference.-Journal, 1, 3, pp. 221, 222; 2, 35, p. 564. (See Senate Journal, 2, 42, p. 850, II. R. 1; Ibid., p. 1003, H. R. 2705; and

3, 45, p. 433, H. R. 6471.) See also proceedings in the Senate (H. R. 2228), 1, 48, Cong. Record, vol. 67, pp. 3974, 3975, 3976, and 4098, 4099, 1004, and 4101. A conference sometimes takes place after one house has adhered.-Journal, 1, 3, pp. 281, 283; 2, 3, p. 254; 1, 34, pp. 1600, 1602; 1, 35, pp. 604, 615, 620; Senate Journal, January 20, 1834; Manual, p. 176.

"In the ordinary parliamentary course there are two free conferences at least before an adherence."-Manual, p. 176. There are sometimes three and even four conferences before a matter of difference is disposed of.-Journal, 1, 34, pp. 943, 1600; 1, 35, p. 1136.

A separate vote can not be taken on the different propositions in a conference report; it must be adopted or rejected as a whole.-Cong. Globe, 1, 39, p. 4287.

In the case of disagreeing votes between the two houses, the House may either recede, insist and ask a conference, or adhere, and motions for such purposes take precedence in that order. (See Manual, p. 136; Journal, 1, 23, p. 229; 1, 34, pp. 1516, 1518.)

Though the previous question may be pending on a motion to insist or to adhere, a motion to recede, which removes the disagreement between the houses and passes the bill, may be made, but is not debatable.

Under the rule, reports of conference committees may be received at any time (except when the rules are suspended), even during the pendency of a motion to adjourn, or to adjourn over, and may interrupt a member who is on the floor speaking.

A member of a conference committee who may be absent on the business of the committee is, according to the practice, understood to be absent by leave of the House, but that does not permit him to have his vote recorded unless present when his name is called.

Where a conference committee is unable to agree, that fact is reported, and another committee is usually asked for and appointed.-Journals, 1, 31, p. 1681; 1, 34, pp. 919, 838, 1516, 1518; 3, 34, p. 663; 1, 35, p. 1118.

When a conference committee reports a disagreement, it is usual to recognize one of the conferrees-usually the one making 9504-23

the report-for any motion respecting it he desires to make.— Journal 1, 38; p. 892.

So, too, when a report is disagreed to, another conference usually takes place.-Journals, 2, 27, p. 1248; 3, 34, pp. 653, 655; 1, 35, pp. 1105, 1106.

The report of a committee of conference can not be amended or altered as that of another committee may be.-Manual, p. 176; Journal Senate, May 24, 1796.

Such has been the uniform practice in the House. be adopted or rejected in its entirety.

It must

It is in order for a conference committee to report a substitute bill for an original bill, and a substitute therefor proposed by the other house; where two separate bills have thus been referred to a conference committee, it is in order to take either or propose a new bill embracing parts of either. The committee has a right to report any bill that is germane to the bills referred to them.-Journal, 2, 38, p. 414, and Globe, March 3, 1865, p. 1402. The journal entry does not give, as it should, the ground of the point of order or the ruling thereon, and the omission is supplied from the Globe.

The report of a committee of conference can not be laid on the table. Speaker Blaine, having decided that a conference report could not be laid on the table, requested Mr. George F. Hoar to take an appeal in order to obtain the sense of the House on the question, and on division the decision was sustained by yeas, 93; nays, 25.—Journal, 2, 42, p. 1129.

Since then there have been several decisions to the same effect, and it is now the settled practice of the House that the report of a conference committee can not be laid on the table.

The committee may report agreement as to some of the matters of difference, but unable to agree as to others.-Journal, 1, 29, p. 1302. There are numerous instances of a partial agreement in the later practice of the House, especially on general appropriation bills.

In such cases the Senate amendments undisposed of are before the House for consideration. Usually motions are made either to concur with an amendment, to concur, to non-concur and ask a further conference, or to non-concur and have precedence in the order above stated.

It has become a well-settled principle of parliamentary practice in both houses of Congress to instruct its conferrees, but only in cases of a previous disagreement on some particular item or items. This is upon the theory that there should be at least one "free" conference at which all differences between the two houses may be harmonized, and, as a matter of course, instructions are only in order when the subject-matter on which instructions are proposed is before the House. See Journal, 2, 44, p. 650; 2, 45, p. 1345; 2, 46, p. on H. R. 6185; 1, 49, pp. 2319-2320-2354.

As under common parliamentary law and practice instructions may be given to a select or standing committee, or even to a committee of the whole, it would seem that instructions to conferrees on the part of the House on a particular subject or subjects were fully authorized, as a "conference committee" is, like a "select committee," appointed for a particular purpose.

This view was expressed by Speaker Colfax in a ruling made in the first session Thirty-eighth Congress. See Journal, p. 327, and Cong. Globe of March 1, 1864.

The committee of conference on the bill of the House (H. R. 122) to increase the internal revenue, and for other purposes, having reported on the 1st of March, 1864, their inability to agree, Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, offered the following resolution, viz:

Resolved, That the House insist upon its disagreement to the Senate amendments to House bill No. 122, and that the House request of the Senate another committee of conference on the said bill; and it is hereby declared to be the judgment of this House that in an adjustment of the differerences between the two houses on the said bill there should be an additional duty of not less than 20 nor more than 40 cents per gallon imposed on spirits on hand for sale.-Congressional Globe, page 892, part 1, first session Thirty-eighth Congress.

A question of order being raised, the decision of the Speaker (Mr. Colfax) was as follows:

The SPEAKER. The Chair holds that the House of Representatives has the power to instruct any committee which it authorizes to be appointed. It is a judicious check upon the power of the Speaker in appointing committees. They have a right to instruct a committee of conference as they have a right to instruct a standing or a select committee. The gentleman from Illinois moves this himself as a resolution. It seems, however, sus