Page:Bourinots Rules of Order 1918.djvu/19

 they do exist they should necessarily govern all assemblies that have a permanent code of rules or by-laws for their guidance.

3. Special rules necessary in certain cases.—Every assembly of the character previously described in general terms, will, of necessity, have its own rules adapted to its peculiar organization and requirements, just as parliament itself has its special orders governing its hours of meeting, its order of business and such other matters as are essentially of detail. But each and all should be, and are in fact, governed by those old rules which regulate debate, the making and putting of motions, the introduction and passage of bills, the procedure of committees of the whole and of select committees, and, in short, such other proceedings of parliament as are well calculated to ensure calm deliberation, full discussion and sound legislation.

The proceedings of deliberative, legislative and '^ther public bodies—that is to say, of those bodies which have a complicated and elaborate procedure compared with the simple regulations of primary assemblies and meetings—are governed by statutory enactments as well as by ordinary rules of parliamentary usage. The parliament and the legislatures of Canada, municipal councils, public companies, religious conferences, courts and synods, and the more important societies of the country at large, are all, in certain essential particulars, governed by the rules of their respective constitutions or charters of existence. These statutory enactments