of Anne no specific appointment was made of a committee for hearing appeals 
or for any other generic purpose, but by a process of institutional inertia the 
Committee of the Whole of the previous reign continued to function. 25 Upon 
the accession of the next ruler, George I, in 1714 a definite Order in Council 
was issued appointing a Committee of the Whole for Channel Islands affairs, 
for hearing plantation appeals, and for other matters referred to such a committee 
28 This order was repeated when George II assumed the crown in 1727 
and later reissued when the existent Privy Council was dissolved and a new 
one named. 27 A similar double creation occurred in 1760 when the third 
George mounted the throne. 28 
This Committee of the Whole, which for convenience' sake we shall refer 
to as the Committee or the Lords Committee, was thus the center of conciliar 
activity—whether the matter was domestic or related to dominions outside the 
realm. Few select temporary committees are to be found in the eighteenth 
century. The most important committee of this nature was the Committee to 
consider the Irish Bills, appointed periodically after 1709. 29 But even this select 
temporary committee tended to merge with the dominant Committee of the 
Whole. 30 Although the work of the latter was extremely diverse, in only one 
case was the device of a subcommittee employed. 31 This lack of parturition 
(compare Schlesinger, 28 Pol. Science Quart., 
439-40) and Privy Councilors sitting on appeals 
from the Bishop of London's colonial 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction (see 2 Pub. Col. Soc. 
Mass. [1913], 381, 386). 
25 See 2 Turner, op. cit., 382, for evidence 
thereof. 
28 It was ordered "that the whole Privy 
Council or any three or more of them be, and 
hereby are appointed a Committee for the 
affairs of Jersey and Guernsey, hearing of 
appeals from the plantations, and other matters 
that shall be referred to them, and that they 
proceed to hear and examine such causes as 
have been referred to Committees of the 
Council by her late Majesty and report the 
same with their opinions thereupon to this 
Board" (PC 2/85/89, Oct. 1, 1714). 
27 Some confusion exists as to the exact wording 
of this order. A copy of July 9 (PC 
2/90/29) followed the 1714 order closely, 
but substituted "determine" for the "examine" 
of the earlier order. Another copy of the same 
date (PC 2/90/34) reverted to the "examine" 
form. On September 20 the order was repeated 
in the "examine" form, but in constituting 
the Committee the phrase "or more" 
following "three" was omitted (PC 2/90/121). 
But this compositional alteration went unnoticed 
in conciliar practice. The reissuance 
of the order on September 20 was rendered 
necessary by the dissolution of the existing 
Privy Council and the appointment of new 
councilors; see 5 APC, Col., p. 687. 
28 The language of the October 27, 1760, 
order was in terms of "three or more" (PC 
2/108/13), but the "or more" phrase was 
omitted from the March 17, 1761, order 
issued following the dissolution of the existent 
Privy Council and the naming of a new one 
(PC 2/108/252). But again conciliar practice 
made no recognition of the limitation. 
29 After 1731 these committees were appointed 
at two-year intervals, usually in November of 
the odd-numbered years. See for example PC 
2/94/305, PC 2/95/420, PC 2/97/20, PC 
2/98/57. Membership of these committees 
varied from fourteen (PC 2/82/347) to thirtyseven 
(PC 2/121/339). The average number 
was about twenty-four. 
30 See inter alia PC 2/109/153; PC 2/101/ 
474; PC 2/103/534; PC 2/105/114, 632; PC 
2/106/23, 71; cf. 2 Turner, op. cit., 389-90. 
31 On August 3, 1738, the Committee referred 
the papers relating to the establishment 
of 3 civil government at Gibraltar to a ccm-