All amendments that can be adopted or rejected must consist of words that can be inserted, or struck out, or struck out and inserted. Thus, if it is proposed to amend a paper by inserting certain words, and the motion prevails, those words cannot afterward be amended, because they have been agreed to in that form; so, if it be moved to strike out certain words, and the amendment is rejected, those words cannot afterward be amended, because the vote against striking them out is equivalent to a vote agreeing to them as they stand. In like manner, if it be proposed to amend a paper by inserting certain words, and the amendment is rejected, those words cannot be moved again, for they have been disagreed to by a vote; so also, if it is proposed to amend by striking out certain words, and the amendment prevails, those words cannot be restored, because they have been disagreed to by a vote.

While it is true that when it is proposed to strike out certain words, and the motion fails, these words, or a part of them, cannot be struck out afterward; it is still true that it is in order to move to strike out all of those words with others, or a part of them with others, provided the connection is such as to make distinct propositions from the former. In like manner, while it will not be in order to insert again the words, or a part of them, struck out by amendment, it will be admissible to move to insert again the same words with others, or a part of the same words with others, provided the coherence is such as to make distinct propo sitions from the former.

(7) The motion to strike out and insert is a

combination of the other two methods of amendment, and is not divisible. When decided in the negative, it cannot be renewed; but it may be moved to strike out and―

(a) Insert nothing; or,

(b) Insert other words; or,

(c) Insert the same, with other words; or, (d) Insert a part of the same words with others; or,

(e) Strike out the same words with others, and insert the same; or,

(f) Strike out a part of the same words with others, and insert the same; or,

(g) Strike out other words, and insert the

same; or,

(h) Insert the same words without striking out any thing.

(8) If errors are detected in the minutes of a previous day's proceedings, they may be corrected by motions to amend in any of the ways indicated above. But members are limited to motions to correct. They may not propose amendments that do not correspond to the facts of the case. The question is not, what ought the assembly to have done, but what it did in fact do. In moving to amend the Journal, therefore,

members are to act in the character of witnesses, rather than of legislators.

(9) The useful character of amendment gives it a privilege of attaching itself to secondary, as well as to principal, motions. It is in order to amend a motion to commit, by proposing a different committee or adding instructions; or to amend a motion to postpone to a given day, by proposing another day. In like manner, an amendment to an amendment of a principal motion, is admissible. But this piling up of motions can go no farther. It is not in order to amend an amendment to an amendment. To avoid embarrassment, a limit must be fixed; and usage has fixed it after an amendment to an amendment. If the assembly should be dissatisfied with the pending amendment to the amendment, the remedy is to vote it down, and then bring forward what is desired in its stead: in this form it becomes the amendment to the amendment.

When an amendment is pending, motions to amend must be limited exclusively to it: the only motions in order are to add words to it, to strike words out of it, and to strike words out of it and insert others. It will not be in order, therefore, when a motion to amend a paragraph is pending, to move as an amendment to the amendment to alter the words of another paragraph,

or to strike out the whole paragraph proposed to be changed. The reason is, while there may be many questions before an assembly at the same time, there is but one that can engage its attention. All the others are temporarily held in suspense. The question before the house is the pending amendment.

(10) No motion or proposition on a subject different from that under consideration, should ever be entertained by way of amendment.

(11) One proposition may be substituted for another, when the substitute covers the whole matter of the original; and this may be done by moving to strike out all after Resolved, in the original, and to insert the substitute.

There cannot be a substitute for a substitute; and Bishop Hedding in the chair, May 23, 1844, decided that an amendment to a substitute was not in order. The General Conference acquiesced in the decision. (Debates, p. 100.)

SEC. XIV. INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS.

These also must be settled before the questions out of which they arise, and so take precedence of principal and secondary propositions.

I.-Questions of Order.

(1) When a point of order is raised, it ar

rests all other business, and should be promptly decided. After which, the business pending, unless disposed of by the decision, should be resumed at the point where it was suspended.

(2) The presiding officer is charged with maintaining the rules of order, and any member has the right to insist on this being done. Questions of order, therefore, may be raised in two ways:

(a) The presiding officer, in the conduct of business, applies a rule of order to a case pending. Among the members there is a difference of opinion as to the correctness of his interpretation or application. The ruling of the chair is dissented from, and any two members may take an appeal to the house. The question then is, "Shall the decision of the chair stand as the decision of the house?"

(b) Or, a member, addressing himself to the President, says, "I rise to a point of order." He is requested to state it; and any one having the floor, yields for the time. When the point is made, the chair decides it. If no objection is offered, the decision governs the proceedings. If there be dissatisfaction, an appeal from the decision of the chair may be taken to the house, whose decision is final.