5th. That there shall be two terms yearly in each of said counties for the dispatch of judicial business, in which the Judge of the Court of Appeals for the district in which the Court shall sit shall preside, so that each Court shall be held by three Judges, except in cases of illness or other necessary absence. 6th. That the Orphans' Courts shall be abolished. 7th. That a separate judicial system for the city of Baltimore, shall be established. Which was adopted. On motion of Mr. Hebb, It was ordered to be entered on the Journal that Albert C. Greene is absent from his seat to-day in consequence of attendance upon official duties as Director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. Mr. Valliant submitted the following order: Ordered, That when this Convention adjourns to-day, it adjourn to meet on Wednesday next, at 12 o'clock, and that the members be allowed pay for only three of the days intervening between to-day and the day herein indicated for the re-assembling of the Convention ; On motion of Mr. Hebb, The order was laid on the table. On motion of Mr. Thurston, He was excused from serving as a member of the Committee on Militia. Mr. Abbott submitted the following order: Ordered, That the President of this Convention be requested to use all the power that is or may be vested in him to secure the attendance of members to both the sittings of the Convention and meetings of the respective Committees ; On motion of Mr. Jones, of Somerset, The order was laid on the table. Mr. Hebb submitted the following order : Ordered, That the President of the Convention be requested to appoint two additional members on the Committee on Basis of Representation, the Committee on Legislative Department, and the Committee on Elective Franchise and Qualification of Voters; Which was adopted. On motion of Mr. Nyman, It was ordered to be entered on the Journal that Mr. Dellinger, of Washington county, is absent from his post to-day in attendance, at Washington city, on official business. Mr. Sneary submitted the following order: Ordered, That the Committee on the Tenure, Duties and Compensation of all civil offices not embraced in the duties of the Standing Committees, inquire into the expediency of abolishing the office of Commissioners of Public Works; Which was adopted. Mr. Kennard, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the following report: Which was read and ordered to be printed. REPORT: The Committee appointed to prepare Rules for the Convention beg leave respectfully to make the following report: CONVENTION. Rule 1. The Convention shall not sit with closed doors, and in no case shall the Hall, where it may be holding its sittings, be cleared of spectators, except in cases of disorder. THE DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT. Rule 2. The President shall take the Chair every day precisely at the hour to which the Convention stands adjourned; shall immediately call the members to order and after Divine service has been performed, on the appearance of a quorum, shall cause the Journal of the preceding day to be read. Rule 3. The President shall preserve decorum and order; may speak to points of order in preference to other members; shall decide questions of order, (unless the yeas and nays be required,) subject to an appeal to the House by any two members, (in which appeal no member shall speak more than once, unless by leave of the Convention,) and he may vote on every question, except on an appeal from the decision of the Chair on a question of order. Rule 4. The President shall examine and correct the Journal before it is read; he shall have a general direction of the Hall; he shall have a right to name, from time to time, any member to perform the duties of the Chair, but such substitution shall not extend beyond a term of days; he shall appoint all Committees, unless otherwise directed by the Convention. Rule 5. No person shall be admitted within the bar of the Convention but members of the Executive and Judiciary departments, members of the General Assembly, and such other persons as may be invited by the President. Rule 6. The President (or Chairman of the Committee of the Whole) may order the Lobby to be cleared in case of disorder. ORDER OF BUSINESS. Rule 7.-Section 1. The Secretary shall read the Journal of the preceding day; after the reading thereof, the Journal may be corrected, unless one member objects. In case of such objection, a majority of the members present shall be required to make the desired correction. Sec. 2. The presentation and disposition of petitions, memorials or other papers. Sec. 3. Orders and resolutions. Sec. 4. Reports of Standing Committees. Sec. 5. Reports of Select Committees. Sec. 6. Reports of Committees on their second reading. Sec. 9. The order of the day. PETITIONS, MEMORIALS, ORDERS AND RESOLU TIONS. Rule 8. Petitions, memorials, orders, resolutions and other papers, when presented, must be endorsed with the name of the member by whom they are presented. Rule 9. All orders submitted to the Convention (after being read) may be acted upon immediately, postponed or otherwise disposed of, as a majority of the members present may direct. Rule 10. Any subject matter before the Convention awaiting consideration may, on motion, (if a majority of the Convention so determine,) be fixed as the order of the day at such time as may be directed under the provisions of these Rules. Rule 11. All orders, resolutions and reports, or other matter, after being submitted to the Convention, (when not fixed for a day certain,) shall be rated under the head of "deferred or unfinished business," and shall come up for consideration in the order of time in which they were presented. ORDER OF THE DAY. Rule 12. The Order of the Day shall not be so fixed in point of time as to exclude the business of the Convention in the order and divisions prescribed under these Rules, but shall be fixed so that one hour, at least, from the time of the meeting of the Convention shall precede it for the transaction of other business. When the time arrives for the Order of the Day to be taken up, it shall have preference over all other business except the unfinished business in which the Convention was engaged at the preceding adjournment, under a previous assignment as the order of the day. Rule 13. Every subject matter proposed to be considered in the Convention shall be introduced by motion for leave, by an order of the Convention, or on the report of a Committee, and in either of the two cases first mentioned, a Committee to prepare the same shall be appointed, unless the same subject matter is embraced in the duties assigned to one or more of the Standing Committees. Rule 14. Every Committee, reporting any Conventional business for the consideration of the Convention embracing provisions for the Constitution, shall submit its reports (whether in the form of a majority or minority report) in articles, and without being accompanied by a written report, assigning reasons and arguments sustaining the same. Rule 15. Every report from a Committee, containing articles or sections proposed to be made a part of the Constitution, shall receive three readings in the Convention, on three different days of the session previous to its adoption, unless a majority of the members elected to the Convention otherwise determine; the first of which readings shall be by the title. only, unless a majority of the Convention shall otherwise. order. Rule 16. Every resolution shall be read on two several days, with an intermission of one day at least, during which time it shall be on the table for the perusal of members, unless on very urgent occasions, the Convention by special order, twothirds of the members present agreeing, dispense with the Rule, which order shall be entered on the Journal. Rule 17. No resolution shall have a second reading, or a report a third reading, until every member in the city who has not been excused by the Convention for indisposition, or a necessary attendance on public business, shall be called upon to attend, if required, by three members. But calls of the Convention shall be made is required by seven members, at any time, when a subject is under consideration. Rule 18. All resolutions which have been once read, and are entitled to a second reading, and all reports which have been onee or twice read, and are entitled to a second or third reading by the Rules of the Convention, shall be arranged every morning agreeably to seniority by the Secretary, placed on the President's desk, taken up by him in due order, the date of their last reading announced, and read a second or third time, although no motion for a second or third reading may have been made. Rule 19. All reports from Committees containing clauses proposed to be made part of the Constitution, shall be entered on the Journal, and also printed in form similar to bills. COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. Rule 20. The Convention shall be resolved into a Standing Committee of the Whole, if required by nine members, which Committee may originate articles or clauses to be embodied in the Constitution. Reports of Committees containing clauses proposed to be embodied in the Constitution on their third reading, and resolutions on their second reading shall, if required by seven members, be committed to a Committee of the Whole. Rule 21. In forming a Committee of the Whole, the President of the Convention shall leave his Chair, and a Chairman to preside in Committee shall be appointed by the President. Rule 22. Upon reports of Committees, resolutions or other matters committed to a Committee of the Whole, the same shall be first read throughout by the Secretary, and then again read and considered by clauses. The body of the report, resolution, or other matter, shall not be defaced or interlined, but all amendments noting the page and line shall be duly entered by the Secretary on separate paper, as the same shall be agreed to by the Committee, and so reported to Convention. After report, the report, resolution, or other matter shall again be subject to be debated and amended by clauses. Rule 23. The Secretary shall keep a Journal of the proceedings which take place in Convention of the Whole, and the same shall be printed separately and appended after the Journal of the proceedings of the day's session. |