in which case the body shall decide by vote whether they are his or not. If they are voted to be his, or if he acknowledge them, he must justify them satisfactorily, explain the use of them, or apologize. If the offended member still persists, and is not satisfied, the sense of the body may be taken, during which both members must withdraw. But when business has intervened, or any member spoken after the offensive words, they cannot be taken down.

18: Disorderly words spoken in committee must be written down, as in the main body; but the committee can only report them to the latter for its action.

19. Blasphemous or seditious words, or words reflecting on the religious belief of members, or on religion generally, are not in order.

20. No member can be present when any thing which concerns himself is debating, much less to vote upon it; nor is any member to speak to the merit of it until he withdraws. Nevertheless, he may be heard upon it, before he withdraws.

21. No member is to come into the place of meeting, or remain there with his head covered, nor put on his hat while there.

22. A question of order may be adjourned for a time, to look into precedents.

23. When a member is called to order, he shall sit down at once, unless permitted to explain. If the body be appealed to, it shall decide the question without debate; if there be no appeal, the decision of the chair shall be submitted to. If the decision be in favor of the member, he shall be allowed to proceed; if against him, he shall not proceed without the leave of the body; and the body may, if it think proper, proceed to censure him.

24. All decisions of the presiding officer are liable to be reversed, altered, or amended by the body.

XXX. Adjourninents and Recesses.

An adjournment is the closing of a session for the day, to be resumed on another day; on which day the regu lar routine of business is commenced anew, except when superseded by a special order.

A recess is a suspension of business from one hour of a day to another hour of the same day; at which hour business is taken up at the point where it was left, unless a special order takes its place.

A motion to adjourn cannot be amended, by adding the day and hour. It must be put simply that this body do now adjourn; and, if carried in the affirmative, it is adjourned to the next sitting day, or without day, as the case may be. But any special time of adjournment may be fixed by a previous resolution.

If a question be put for adjournment, it is no adjournment till so pronounced by the chair. And it is a breach of courtesy for a member to leave his place until the chair has pronounced on the question of adjourn

ment.

XXXI. Suspension of Rules.

By unanimous consent any rule of order may be suspended in part or whole; but the object of suspending the rule must be stated in the motion, and when that object has failed or been attained, the rule regains its former force.

XXXII. Force of Words.

Throughout these rules, whenever the word "body" or "main body" has been used, it means the society, club, association, or other organized body to which the rules are made to apply.

PART V I.

OF WRITTEN BUSINESS.

BESIDES the usual records of deliberative or organized bodies, there are other matters of public business which require to be written. And as these are chiefly the formal opinions of parties, or the results of specific investigation, a particular attention to form is necessary. The principal matters to be committed to writing are resolutions and reports.

I. Of Resolutions.

A written resolution is the formal record of opinion upon one or more subjects, expressed by a body of men. As in almost every species of written composition, the language should be simple, terse, and forcible. A very frequent fault of resolutions is their wordings.

A resolution may or may not be prefaced by a preamble. If it be so constructed, the preamble should set forth briefly the cause of the resolution which is to follow. This preamble is usually commenced with the word "Whereas."

After this comes the resolution, or resolutions-which commence with the word " Resolved."

A good resolution-one that is pithy and forcible-requires some care in its composition. Unless the writer be a very experienced one, he had better avoid all figures

of rhetoric, and confine himself to a plain statement of the opinion he wishes to convey.

As example is always useful, we will take a subject, and show the preferable form of a preamble and resolution upon it.

We will suppose that a party majority in the legislature passes a registry law, which is not approved by the opposite party, and a public meeting of members of the latter desire to condemn it. The following preamble and resolutions may be suggested:

"Whereas, It is proper for the people, in their public assemblages, to express their views of the conduct of those in office, and to award to the latter their approval or censure; and

"Whereas, The late legislature of this State have passed an oppressive registry bill, odious in its principles, and burdensome in its details; therefore,

"Resolved, That the act referred to meets our unqualified disapproval and decided condemnation; that we will spare no efforts to promote its abrogation; and that we will vote for no candidate for senate or assembly who is not pledged to its speedy repeal."

Now, the above is not more wordy than such resolu tions usually are, yet it can be easily simplified.

It is unnecessary to aver that it is proper for the people to express their views on official conduct," in their public assemblages," since it is their right to do that also in other places. The rest of the first paragraph is a mere repetition. And, finally, the whole is a matter generally admitted, and, therefore, not the subject of affirmation. The preamble had better begin with the second paragraph. But that contains useless words also. Any thing which is oppressive is apt to be odious in