CHAPTER LXV.

GENERAL ORDER OR ARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS-INTRODUCTION OF BUSINESS, BY MOTION, PETITION, &C.

§ 1. WHEN there has been no previous arrangement of the business of an assembly, the order in which the seve ral matters are to be taken up, is left to the discretion of the presiding officer, unless the assembly, on a question, shall decide to take up a particular subject. In legislative bodies, there is a settled order of business; and the utility of such an order is found also in other meetings, which are to last a considerable time, and which have before them numerous subjects to be acted upon.

§ 2. Such an arrangement of business is desirable, both for the government of the presiding officer, and for restraining individual members from calling up favorite measures out of their just turn. Although, in the absence of a settled order, the consent of the assembly might be required in order to give precedence to any such favorite measure, an established order is useful in directing the discretion of "the assembly, when it is moved to take up a particular matter to the injury of others which have a prior right to be attended to in the general order of business.

§ 3. It may be observed, in relation to a settled order of business, that the question of its necessity, and, if necessary, whether it shall be established according to some general rule, or by special orders relating to each particular subject, is to be determined by the nature and number of the matters before the meeting.

§ 4. When a meeting has been duly organized, and is open for business, any member may offer any proposition or communication which he may choose to make, consistently with the rules of the assembly. In order to do this, he must first "obtain the floor,” as it is called. This is done by rising in his place, and addressing the presiding officer by his title; as," Mr. President," or "Mr. Chairman," as the case may require. The presiding officer, hearing himself addressed, answers the call, by speaking the name of the

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member, that the assembly may take notice who it is that speaks. In legislative and other bodies representing large territories, such member is announced as the gentleman from ," naming the town or district which he represents. § 5. If two or more rise to speak nearly together, the presiding officer determines who was first up, and announces him; whereupon he proceeds, unless he voluntarily sits down and gives way to the other. If the decision of the president is not satisfactory, any member may call it in question, and have the sense of the assembly taken thereon; the question being first taken upon the name of the person announced by the president.

6. A member introducing a proposition of his own, whether by resolution or otherwise, puts it into the proper form, and moves that it be adopted by the assembly. A proposition thus moved, is called a motion; and it is so called until it has been stated by the chair, and offered to the assembly for its adoption or rejection, when it is denominated a question; and when it is adopted, it becomes the re solution, order, or vote of the assembly.

7. Motions are usually submitted in writing; and the president may refuse to receive any motion that is not in writing. Motions, however, which admit of being easily and correctly recorded by the secretary are often received, though not in writing. Or the chairman himself may, if he pleases, reduce a motion to writing before it is submitted.

8. It should here be observed that principal motions only come under this rule. Occasional or incidental motions, and motions subsidiary to, or aiding a principal motion, are not offered in writing. Of these kinds of motions, are motions to adjourn, to postpone, to lie on the table, to take the previous question, to commit a subject; that is, to refer it to a committee. But a motion to amend, when additional words are to be inserted, must, if required, be in writing. These motions will be more particularly considered hereafter. (Chap. LXVIII.)

§ 9. A motion, to be entitled to the notice of the presiding officer, must have the approval of at least one member besides the person making it; which approval is expressed by his rising and saying that he seconds the motion. It is generally deemed inexpedient to take up time in considering a question which none but the mover regards with favor.

§ 10. When a motion has been seconded, it is stated by the president to the meeting. It then becomes a question for the decision of the meeting; and it is then, and not before, in order for any member to speak to it, or to make any other motion for the disposal of it.

§ 11. Communications, as memorials, petitions, remonstrances, from persons not members, are presented by members, as no person but a member has a right to speak to the assembly. A member presenting a petition, should be able to state the substance of it, and also prepared to say, if questioned, that it is written in proper and respectful language.

§ 12. According to the regular form, on presenting or of fering a petition, a motion to receive it must be made and seconded, and a question put, whether it shall be received. In practice, however, the formality of a vote is generally dispensed with; and if no objection to its being received is made, the president takes it for granted that there is none. The petition is then brought up to the table, read by the clerk, and disposed of by the assembly. In legis lative bodies, the mass of petitions are not even read on their reception, but are referred to the committees on the subjects to which the petitions relate. Other communica tions than petitions from persons not members, take a similar course.

CHAPTER LXVI.

MOTIONS FOR THE PREVIOUS QUESTION; FOR POSTPONEMENT; TO LIE ON THE TABLE; TO COMMIT.

§ 1. WHEN a question before an assembly is deemed useless or inexpedient, or is thought to have been sufficiently discussed, any member may stop the debate by moving the previous question; which is, Shall the main question be now put? If the question is decided in the affirmative, the main question is to be put immediately, without any further debate

§ 2. But the effect of a decision in the negative, is not everywhere the same. In some legislative bodies, the decision that the main question shall not be now put, is regarded as a determination that it shall not be put at any time during the present sitting; leaving the debate to continue through the same, unless the question shall be sooner disposed of. In the house of representatives, a negative vote on the previous question, has the contrary effect; that of stopping the debate for the day.

§ 3. To understand how it has come, that a negative decision should operate to suppress debate on a main question, when it is the object of an affirmative vote to effect a similar result, it is necessary to refer to the original use of the previous question. It is said to have been introduced in England, in 1604. It was then, Shall the main question be put? and a determination in the negative suppressed the main question for the whole session; for, if it could not be put at all, there was no use in continuing the discussion.

§ 4. But the previous question was afterward altered to its present form: Shall the main question be now put? and a decision in the negative, namely, that it shall not be now put, is to decide that it shall not be put that day. Hence, as the main question can not be put that day, or at the present sitting, the debate must be suspended during the same time.

§ 5. In the assembly of New York, and perhaps in some other legislative bodies, if the previous question is negatived; that is, if the main question can not be now put, the main question remains under debate. If the previous question is ordered, and if there are any pending amendments which have been adopted in committee of the whole, and not acted on in the house, the question is taken upon such amendments in their order, and without further debate or amendment, before the main question is put. In other bodies, all pending amendments are cut off and lost by taking the main question.

§ 6. In England, the object of the mover of the previous question, is to obtain a negative decision; because, although the effect would be, strictly, and according to its original intention, to suppress the main question for the day, it has, by parliamentary usage, come to be a disposal of the main question altogether, without a rote upon it; whereas, in this

country, the object of the mover of the previous question, is to get a vote in the affirmative, with the view, not of suppressing the main question entirely, but of suppressing debate, either altogether, as in some assemblies, or, as in others, for the present time only. The effect of an affirmative decision is the same in both countries, namely, the putting of the main question immediately.

§ 7. When it is desired to suppress a main question for the whole session without having it come to a vote, the preferable course is, to move that the question be postponed indefinitely; which is a postponement without fixing a day for resuming the consideration of the question. This quashes the proposition for that session.

§ 8. When a question is before an assembly, which is deemed proper to be acted upon, but on which members are not prepared to act, either from want of information, or because something more pressing claims present attention, a motion is made to postpone the subject to some future day within the session; or, if it is not thought proper to fix upon a day certain, the proper motion is, that the mat ter lie on the table. It may then be called up at any time when it is convenient to consider it. Such motion is sometimes intended to make a final disposal of a subject; as such will be the effect, if it should not afterward be called up.

§ 9. If a proposition is so imperfect in its form as to need. more amendment than can be conveniently made by the assembly, a motion is made to commit it; that is, to refer it to a committee for amendment; which committee may be the standing committee having similar subjects in charge, or a select committee appointed for this special purpose.

§ 10. But if the proposition is well digested, and seems to need but few and simple amendments, and especially if these are of leading consequence, the assembly itself proceeds to consider and amend the proposition. The modes of amendment are so various, and the different motions to amend so numerous, as to require a separate chapter for their consideration.