Introduction to the procedure of the house of commons

The second edition of this book was written and in print by 1937, but owing to the delays imposed by the war was not published until 1946; thus, although there was some revision of the text between those two dates, it is now more than twenty years since that edition was originally drafted. The reprint of 1950 did not alter the text in any way, beyond inserting footnote references to a new appendix which set forth the main changes made in the Standing Orders since the end of the war, and beyond citing the Standing Orders by their new numbers; it was not even possible to alter the numerous references to May's Parliamentary Practice so as to conform to the fifteenth edition of that work, which, although then in the course of preparation, was not published until later. In my note on the reprint of 1950 I expressed the view that revision of the text should in any case await the appearance of the fifteenth edition of May; but the unusually rapid exhaustion of that edition, and the putting in hand of preparations for the sixteenth, gave further ground for delay. All these facts have contrived to make the present edition of this book long overdue.