Page:Bourinots Rules of Order 1918.djvu/10

 PREFACE TO THE AUTHOR'S LARGER MANUAL

INCE the publication of the author's large work on Parliamentary Procedure some years ago, he has been in constant receipt of enquiries on various points of order that have arisen from time to time in municipal and other meetings, and has consequently seen the practical necessity that exists for a relatively short treatise that is directly adapted to the special wants of municipal councils, public meetings and conventions, religious conferences, sharcholders' and directors' meetings, and societies in general. Such a treatise will necessarily supplement the large work just mentioned, which is exclusively devoted to parliamentary procedure and government, and to which reference can be made in those complicated and difficult cases which can alone be treated in such elaborate books. In the practice of many societies and public bodies in this country some confusion appears to exist with reference to the true meaning and object of "the previous question," and of such motions as "to lay on the table," "to