rough the employment of committees. As early
as the period of Elizabeth the reference of a bill, after its second
reading, to a select committee was an established practice, and in the
reign of Charles I. it became not uncommon to refer measures to
committees of the whole house. The committees of the House to-day may
be grouped in five categories: (1) the Committee of the Whole; (2)
select committees on public bills; (3) sessional committees; (4)
standing committees on public bills; and (5) committees on private
bills. Until 1907 a public bill, after its second reading, went
normally to the Committee of the Whole; since the date mentioned, it
goes there only if the House so determines. The Committee of the Whole
is simply the House of Commons, presided over by the Chairman of
Committees in the place of the Speaker, and acting under rules of
procedure which permit virtually unrestricted discussion and in other
ways lend themselves to the free consideration of the details of a
measure. When the subject in hand relates to the providing of revenue
the body is known, technically, as the Committee of Ways and Means;
when to appropriations, it is styled the Committee of the Whole on
Supply, or simply the Committee of Supply.

*129. Select and Sessional Committees.*--Select committees (p. 124)
consist, as a rule, of fifteen members and are constituted to
investigate and report upon specific subjects or measures. It is
through them that the House collects evidence, examines witnesses, and
otherwise obtains the information required for intelligent
legislation. After a select committee has fulfilled the immediate
purpose for which it was constituted it passes out of existence. Each
such committee chooses its chairman, and each keeps detailed records
of its proceedings, which are included, along with its formal report,
in the published parliamentary papers of the session. The members may
be elected by the House, but in practice the appointment of some or
all is left to the Committee of Selection, which itself consists of
eleven members chosen by the House at the beginning of each session.
This Committee of Selection, which appoints members not only of select
committees but also of standing committees and of committees on
private and local bills, is made up after conference between the
leaders of the Government and of the Opposition; and the committees
whose members it designates are always so constituted that they
contain