§ The following alterations have been made in the Sessional Index:—
§ 1. After the name of the Member who puts a Question, the name of the Minister who gives the Answer is added.
§ 2. Where a Bill is referred to a Select Committee, a list of the Members serving on the Committee is given, with any alterations since the first nomination.
§ 3. Instead of compelling the reader to refer to the volumes to find the date of the Royal Assent to a Bill, the reference has been omitted, and the date inserted.
§ 4. The history of each Bill which passes through both Houses is completed by citing the Statute in which it resulted.
§ 5. The Sessional Number of every printed Bill and reprint of a Bill as it passes through its several stages is appended to the references to the debates on it.
§ 6. Where a Select Committee is moved for, the object of that Committee is set forth in the terms of the Motion; and if granted, a list of the Members, with any subsequent alterations, is given.
§ In like manner the subject of an Address for a Royal Commission, &c. is set out at length.
§ 7. The Sessional Numbers, according to the "List of Papers for Sale," of the Returns, Reports, and "Papers presented by Command," which are subjects of Debate, are added to the references.
§ 8. The entries under the head of "Mr. Speaker" have been cast into a distinct form. Instead of a mere entry of the title of the Question during which the necessity arose for Mr. Speaker's intervention, the particular object to which that intervention is directed is given. For example, the entry under the old form; "Education—The Revised Code—Question" would give no indication that Mr. Speaker's interference was to stop reference to Debates "in another place." The entry now stands "Debate—Reference to Debates 'in another place'—Education—The Revised Code—Question." By this course, the Law and Practice of Parliament, as digested in such works as Mr. May's, will always be entered up to the latest period.
§ These improvements in the Tables of Contents and Sessional Index may frequently be made to save reference to the JOURNALS or VOTES. The Index is compiled with a view to the most rapid reference to the text of "HANSARD"—the references are therefore given in the shortest form, in order to bring the whole subject instantly under the eye. If the reader, consulting this Index, does not care to read the discussions on his subject, but desires to know the precise form in which Questions were submitted to the House, the terms of any Motion or Resolution, or Amendment, the course of the discussion and the result—and many other objects of inquiry might be suggested—if he turns to the "Contents" of the Volume indicated, and to the "page" at the right hand, he will find the full information as set forth in the MINUTES and VOTES, with many details (as, notably, of discussions in Committee) which are to be found nowhere but in "HANSARD."