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4. Where a committee merely reports facts and the result of deliberations, without any specific recommendation or proposition, the report should terminate with, "Resolved, that this committee be discharged from the farther consideration of the subject."

5. When a report consists of a series of resolutions on distinct subjects, the President puts the question on each separately, and but once. If the resolutions are on the same subject, and he puts the question on each separately, afterward it may be necessary to put it upon them as a whole. The reason is, that such changes may have been introduced by amending some of the resolutions as to make the series unacceptable. When there is a preamble, the natural order of beginning at the beginning is reversed, in acting on the report: the resolutions must first be voted on, and then the preamble. The reason is, that such changes may be made in the former, as to make alterations necessary for conforming the latter.

SEC. XI.-MINORITY REPORTS.

1. If a committee is not unanimous in opinion, the minority may place their views before the assembly in the form of a separate report. Af

ter the reading of the majority report, a member moves that it be laid on the table, or that action on it be postponed, in order to hear the minority report. If the motion prevails, as generally it will, the report of the minority will be read. The purpose for which the majority report was laid on the table or postponed having been served, that report, without farther motion, is before the assembly for consideration. It may be adopted with or without amendment, or the minority report may be substituted for it; or the whole matter may be recommitted, or referred to a new committee.

2. A committee should labor to come to agreement: division frustrates in part the object of its appointment. Whenever a committee is divided in reporting, the following are the appropriate terms: "The undersigned, a majority of the committee on etc., beg leave to submit the following report," etc. And, "The undersigned, a minority of the committee," etc.

SEC. XII.-SUBSIDIARY MOTIONS.

1. As a general rule, the proposition first moved should be first put. But this rule gives way to certain forms of subsidiary questions which have been invented to enable an assembly

to modify a proposition before acting on it, or to delay it, or to suppress it.

2. A proposition may strike an assembly in various ways:

(1) It may appear to be inexpedient to entertain it, or come to a direct vote on its merits. For this purpose the motion for indefinite postponement serves.

(2) It may not be unacceptable, but information is wanted, or something more pressing claims the present time. This gives occasion for the motion to lie on the table, or to postpone to a given time.

(3) The proposition may have merit, but it is in such a crude state that a large assembly cannot conveniently reduce it to a shape for action. It may be referred to a committee.

(4) The proposition, though good in the main, may be redundant or defective in certain particulars, which can be easily remedied. The assembly, keeping the proposition before it, proceeds to make the desired changes by amendment.

3. While primary and also secondary propositions are under consideration, questions may arise that are incidental to them:

(1) Exception may be taken to the manner

or order of proceeding. This raises a question of order.

(2) At any stage of the proceedings it may be thought necessary to have a document read that bears upon the case. Hence the motion to

read papers.

(3) The mover of a proposition may have changed his mind, or see cause to withdraw it from before the assembly, after it has been voted on. He asks leave to withdraw his motion. (4) A rule of order may forbid the assembly from disposing of matter in hand, as it desires, at the time. A motion is necessary to suspend the rule.

(5) The assembly, weary of debate and impatient of farther delay, desires to come to a vote at once. For this purpose the previous question is used.

4. Incidental questions must be decided before those, whether principal or secondary, which give rise to them.

5. Circumstances may occur making it imperative to attend to certain matters in preference to all others. To meet such cases, forms of question have been invented, which, because they are paramount, are called privileged questions:

(1) The comfort or safety of the assembly

may be involved; it may be intruded upon by strangers, or disturbed by difficulties among its own members; or the rights of individual members may be infringed. Hence, motions relating to privileges must be entertained and settled before other business can proceed.

(2) A motion to take up a subject to which the assembly has pledged itself by a previous vote, gives rise to the orders of the day.

(3) An assembly may be exhausted by long attention to business, and need a method by which to obtain relief. A motion to adjourn is paramount; for otherwise, it may be kept sitting against its will, and indefinitely.

6. Of motions that can supersede principal motions, there are three classes:

1. Secondary.-Indefinite postponement; laying on the table; commitment; postponement to a given time; amendment or substitute.

2. Incidental.—Question of order; reading papers; withdrawal of a motion; suspension of a rule; previous question.

3. Privileged.-Adjournment; rights and safety; orders of the day.

SEC. XIII.-SECONDARY QUESTIONS.

These are five, and may serve to suppress, postpone, or modify a proposition.

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