XIV. A motion made must be seconded, and afterwards repeated by the Moderator, or read aloud, before it is debated; and every motion shall be reduced to writing, if the Moderator or any member require it.

XV. Any member who shall have made a motion, shall have liberty to withdraw it, with the consent of his second, before any debate has taken place thereon; but not afterwards, without the leave of the judicatory.

XVI. If a motion under debate contain several parts, any two members may have it divided, and a question taken on each part.

XVII. When various motions are made with respect to the filling of blanks, with particular numbers or times, the question shall always be first taken on the highest number and the longest time.

XVIII. Motions to lay on the table, to take up business, to adjourn, and the call for the previous question, shall be put without debate. On questions of order, postponement, or commitment, no member shall speak more than once. On all other questions, each member may speak twice, but not oftener, without express leave of the judicatory.

XIX. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received, unless to adjourn, to lay on the table, to postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a day certain, to commit, or to amend; which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are herein arranged; and the motion for adjournment shall always be in order.

XX. An amendment, and also an amendment to an amendment, may be moved on any motion; but a motion, to amend an amendment to an amendment, shall not be in order. Action on amendments shall precede action on the original motion. A substitute shall be treated as an amendment.

XXI. A distinction shall be observed between a motion to lay on the table for the present, and a motion to lay on the table unconditionally, viz.: A motion to lay on the table, for the present, shall be taken without debate; and

if carried in the affirmative, the effect shall be to place the subject on the docket, and it may be taken up and considered at any subsequent time. But a motion to lay on the table, unconditionally, shall be taken without debate; and, if carried in the affirmative, it shall not be in order to take up the subject during the same meeting of the judicatory, without a vote of reconsideration.

XXII. The previous question shall be put in this form, namely, Shall the main question be now put? It shall only be admitted when demanded by a majority of the members present; and the effect shall be to put an end to all debate and bring the body to a direct vote: First, on a motion to commit the subject under consideration (if such motion shall have been made); secondly, if the motion for commitment does not prevail, on pending amendments; and lastly, on the main question.

XXIII. A question shall not be again called up or reconsidered at the same sessions of the judicatory at which it has been decided, unless by the consent of twothirds of the members who were present at the decision; and unless the motion to reconsider be made and seconded, by persons who voted with the majority.

XXIV. A subject which has been indefinitely postponed, either by the operation of the previous question, or by a motion for indefinite postponement, shall not be again called up during the same sessions of the judicatory, unless by the consent of three-fourths of the members who were present at the decision.

XXV. Members ought not, without weighty reasons, to decline voting, as this practice might leave the decis ion of very interesting questions to a small proportion of the judicatory. Silent members, unless excused from voting, must be considered as acquiescing with the majority.

XXVI. When the Moderator has commenced taking the vote, no further debate or remark shall be admitted, unless there has evidently been a mistake, in which case the mistake shall be rectified, and the Moderator shall recommence taking the vote. If the house shall pass the

motion to "vote on a given subject at a time named," speeches shall thereafter be limited to ten minutes. Should the hour for adjournment or recess arrive during the voting, it shall be postponed to finish the vote, unless the majority shall vote to adjourn; in which case the voting shall, on the reassembling of the house, take precedence of all other business till it is finished. Under this rule "the yeas and nays" shall not be called except on the final motion to adopt as a whole. This motion to fix a time for voting shall be put without debate.

XXVII. The yeas and nays on any question shall not be recorded, unless required by one-third of the members present. If division is called for on any vote, it shall be by a rising vote without a count. If on such a rising vote the Moderator is unable to decide, or a quorum rise to second a call for "tellers," then the vote shall be taken by rising, and the count made by tellers, who shall pass through the aisles and report to the Moderator the number voting on each side.

XXVIII. No member, in the course of debate, shall be allowed to indulge in personal reflections.

XXIX. If more than one member rise to speak at the same time, the member who is most distant from the Moderator's chair shall speak first. In the discussion of all matters where the sentiment of the house is divided, it is proper that the floor should be occupied alternately by those representing the different sides of the question.

XXX. When more than three members of the judicatory shall be standing at the same time, the Moderator shall require all to take their seats, the person only excepted who may be speaking.

XXXI. Every member, when speaking, shall address himself to the Moderator, and shall treat his fellowmembers, and especially the Moderator, with decorum and respect.

XXXII. No speaker shall be interrupted, unless he be out of order; or for the purpose of correcting mistakes, or misrepresentations.

XXXIII. Without express permission, no member of a judicatory, while business is going on, shall engage in private conversation; nor shall members address one another, nor any person present, but through the Moderator.

XXXIV. It is indispensable, that members of ecclesiastical judicatories maintain great gravity and dignity while judicially convened; that they attend closely in their speeches to the subject under consideration, and avoid prolix and desultory harangues; and, when they deviate from the subject, it is the privilege of any member, and the duty of the Moderator, to call them to order. XXXV. If any member act, in any respect, in a disorderly manner, it shall be the privilege of any member, and the duty of the Moderator, to call him to order.

XXXVI. If any member consider himself aggrieved by a decision of the Moderator, it shall be his privilege to appeal to the judicatory, and the question on the appeal shall be taken without debate.

XXXVII. No member shall retire from any judicatory without the leave of the Moderator, nor withdraw from it to return home without the consent of the judicatory.

XXXVIII. All judicatories have a right to sit in private, on business, which in their judgment ought not to be matter of public speculation.

XXXIX. Besides the right to sit judicially in private, whenever they think proper to do so, all judicatories have a right to hold what are commonly called "interlocutory meetings," in which members may freely converse together, without the formalities which are usually necessary in judicial proceedings.

XL. Whenever a judicatory is about to sit in a judicial capacity, it shall be the duty of the Moderator solemnly to announce, from the chair, that the body is about to pass to the consideration of the business assigned for trial, and to enjoin on the members to recollect and regard their high character as judges of a court of Jesus Christ, and the solemn duty in which they are about to act.

XLI. In all cases before a judicatory, where there is an

accuser or prosecutor, it is expedient that there be a committee of the judicatory appointed (provided the number of members be sufficient to admit it without inconvenience), who shall be called the "Judicial Committee," and whose duty it shall be to digest and arrange all the papers, and to prescribe, under the direction of the judi catory, the whole order of proceedings. The members of this committee shall be entitled, notwithstanding their performance of this duty, to sit and vote in the cause, as members of the judicatory.

XLII. The permanent officers of a judicatory shall have the rights of corresponding members in matters touching their several offices.

XLIII. The Moderator of every judicatory above the Church Session, in finally closing its sessions, in addition to prayer, may cause to be sung, an appropriate psalm or hymn, and shall pronounce the apostolical benediction.

XLIV. Whenever a case is to be taken from an inferior judicatory to the General Assembly, the Stated Clerk of such inferior judicatory shall, at least twenty days before the meeting of the General Assembly, send a notice concerning such case to the Stated Clerk of the Assembly, who shall forthwith notify the chairman of the Permanent Judicial Commission, unless the General Assembly shall have ordered otherwise, that the services of the Commission will be needed at the approaching Assembly; but if no such notice shall be received by the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, he shall forthwith notify the chairman of the Permanent Judicial Commission that the services of the Commission will not be needed at the approaching Assembly.

NOTE. The preceding "General Rules for Judicatories," not having been submitted to the presbyteries, make no part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church. Yet the General Assembly of 1871, considering uniformity in proceedings in all the subordinate judicatories as greatly conducive to order and despatch in business, having revised and approved these rules, recommended them to all the lower judicatories of the Church for adoption.