The Committee of the Whole in the Reign of James I

The origin of the English committee of the whole has evoked much conjecture from historian and political scientist alike, but no conscientious scholar has as yet found the subject worthy of exhaustive study. A scrutiny of the parliamentary sources for the period by the present writer shows, however, what the difficulties are. The meagreness of the records, especially for the sessions of 1604 and 1610, render a thorough examination of the problem almost impossible. In Professor Notestein's The Winning of the Initiative by the House of Commons, we find the best treatment of the committee of the whole house. But the discussion is short and fails to satisfy the more curious student of parliamentary procedure. Professor Notestein tells us that, about 1607, “there appeared, rather accidentally, the Committee of the Whole House, a Committee at its beginnings so little different from the ‘General Committee’ of late Elizabethan days that its appearance excited little comment…. By 1610 it was becoming customary to refer many matters to it; by 1614 the House went into such a Committee on the least occasion; by 1621 there were four several Committees of the Whole House, which met on different afternoons, and the House went often into Committee in the afternoon about any matter in hand.” All this is undoubtedly true, but that authority is unable to assign any definite reason for the development of this practice and spends most of his time discussing the effects, which are undoubtedly more important to the historian. The problem of origins remains, however, unanswered.