rs;[166] but, by reason of the enormous pressure of
business and, in particular, the custom which forbids the voting of
supplies for a period longer than one year, meetings are, in point of
fact, annual. A session begins ordinarily near the first of February
and continues, with brief adjournments at holiday seasons, until
August or September. It is required that the two houses shall
invariably be summoned together. Either may adjourn without the other,
and the crown can compel an adjournment of neither. A prorogation,
which brings a session to a close, and a dissolution, which brings the
existence of a parliament to an end, must be ordered for the two
houses conjointly. Both take place technically at the command of the
crown, actually upon the decision of the ministry. A prorogation is to
a specified date, and it terminates all pending business; but the
reassembling of the houses may be either postponed or hastened by
royal proclamation.

[Footnote 166: Triennial Act of December 22, 1694.]

*120. The Opening of a Parliament.*--At the beginning of a session the
members of the two houses gather first of all in their respective
chambers. The commoners are summoned thereupon to the chamber of the
Lords, where the letters patent authorizing the session are read and
the Lord Chancellor makes known the desire of the crown that the
Commons proceed with the choosing of a Speaker. The Commons withdraw
to attend to this matter, and on the next day the newly elected
official, accompanied by the members, presents himself at the bar of
the House of Lords, announces his election, and, through the Lord
Chancellor, receives the royal approbation. Having demanded and
received guarantee of the "ancient and undoubted rights and privileges
of the Commons," the Speaker and the members then retire to their own
quarters, where the necessary oaths are administered. If, as is not
unusual, the king meets Parliament in person, he goes in state, (p. 118)
probably the next day, to the House of Lords and takes his seat upon
the throne, and the Lord Chamberlain is instructed to desire the
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to _command_ the attendance once more
of the Commons. If the sovereign does not attend, the Lords
Commissioners bid the Usher to _desire_ the Commons' presence. In any
case, the commoners present themselves and the king (or, in his
absence, the Lord Chancellor) reads the Speech from the Throne, in
which is comm