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In each House a motion for an Address to the King for his “most gracious Speech” is submitted on behalf of the Government. The proposer and seconder of the Address in each House are in uniform or full dress. This is the only occasion, be it noted, when a Member, whether of the Peerage or of the Commons, is permitted to appear in Parliament otherwise than in civilian clothes, a rule which, probably in the history of Parliament, was suspended only during the Great War, when many Members wore khaki. The uniforms of the Militia or Yeomanry are much affected, and, failing the commission to wear them, Court costume or levee dress is the rule. Another order, which prohibits Members of either House from “carrying a lethal weapon,” is also suspended for the occasion in favour of the sword of the soldier or courtier. There is, however, one instance of the Address having been seconded by a Member who wore no costume of ceremony. That was when Charles Fenwick, the Labour representative, who at the opening of the first session of the Liberal Parliament of 1893-95 discharged that function in his ordinary everyday clothes.
In March 1894 the same Liberal Administration being in office—save that Lord Rosebery had succeeded Gladstone as Premier—an amendment to the Address moved by Labouchere, Member for Northampton, hostile to the House of Lords, was carried against the Government by the narrow majority of two—147 votes to 145. It declared “that the power now enjoyed by persons not elected to Parliament by the possessors of the parliamentary franchise to prevent Bills being submitted to your Majesty for your Royal approval shall cease,” and expressed the hope that “if it be necessary your Majesty will, with and by the advice of your responsible Ministers, use the powers vested in your Majesty to secure the passing of this much-needed reform.” The method suggested by Labouchere was the creation of 500 peers who would be willing to carry through the House of Lords a Bill for the abolition of that Chamber and themselves. Sir William Harcourt, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, declined to treat the reverse as a vote of censure, or to add the amendment to the Address. “The Address in answer to the Speech from the Throne,” said he, “is a proceeding for which her Majesty’s Government make themselves responsible—responsible as the representatives of the majority in the House of Commons from whom that Address proceeds. I think that is a clear constitutional principle which nobody will be disposed to dispute. The Government could not present to the Sovereign in a formal manner a document of which they are not prepared to accept the entire and immediate responsibility.” He concluded by inviting the House to negative the amended Address, and to adopt a new Address, which simply assured her Majesty “that the measures recommended to our consideration shall receive our most careful attention.” This motion was seconded by John Morley.
The fact that neither of these Ministers wore Court dress or uniform led that humourist, Colonel Saunderson, Member for North Armagh, to indulge in a characteristic joke. Rising to a point of order, he asked the Speaker whether it was not contrary to the immemorial practice of the House for the mover of the Address to appear without the uniform befitting his rank? If, he continued, the Speaker should answer that question in the affirmative, he would move the adjournment of the House for twenty minutes, so as to give the Chancellor of the Exchequer an opportunity of arraying himself in garments suitable to the occasion. The Speaker took no notice of the question, for, of course, it was not seriously intended. What Colonel Saunderson wanted was a laugh, and that he got in the fullest measure. The incident, unprecedented in parliamentary history, ended with the unanimous adoption of the new Address.
Another strange thing happened in relation to the Speech from the Throne at the opening of a new session on February 12, 1918. I was in the Reporters’ Gallery of the House of Lords when the Lord Chancellor read the Speech at the reassembling of the House after the opening ceremony by the King. As he was reading the document, Lord Curzon, Leader of the House, handed him a slip of paper. The Lord Chancellor then said that the following passage had been accidentally omitted from the printed copy of the King’s Speech, which was supplied to him and distributed to their lordships:
I have summoned representatives of my Dominions and of my Indian Empire to a further session of the Imperial War Cabinet in order that I may again receive their advice on questions of moment affecting the common interests of the Empire.
It had also been omitted, by some oversight, from the copy of the Speech given by the Lord Chancellor to the King to read from the Throne. Attention was called to the matter in the House of Commons. The Member for Carlisle, Mr. Denman, pointed out that this paragraph was to be found in the Lords’ record of the King’s Speech, but not in the record of the King’s Speech printed in the Votes and Proceedings of the Commons. He thought it desirable that the records of both Houses as to what was actually contained in the King’s Speech should be identical. The Speaker, Mr. Lowther, said the hon. Member seemed to want him to put into the mouth of the King words which his Majesty did not use—a remark that was received with laughter. He explained that the copy of the Speech which he had read to the Commons had been supplied to him by the Home Secretary, and he assumed it to be accurate. It was brought to his notice afterwards that the copy of the Speech which he had read did not correspond with the copy which had been read by the King, and therefore he caused the official record to be amended so as to correspond exactly with the actual Speech which his Majesty had read from the Throne.