report be engrossed for a third reading?' If
objection is made, then a majority of the
members shall decide upon the question of
engrossment, and after the engrossment of a
report is ordered, the secretary shall have the
same printed as engrossed. After any report
of a committee has passed to a third reading,
it shall not be in order to amend the same,
except by the consent of the majority of the
members elected to the Convention."
Mr. STIRLING. My motion is to suspend
the rule.
Mr. DENT. In reply to the inquiry of the
gentleman from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling)
I would say that I have very frequently
known bills to be engrossed before being read
a third time, and the amendments which have
been adopted on the second reading properly
inserted in the engrossed bill, otherwise it
would be impossible for the members of the
Legislature to know upon what they were
voting.
Mr. STIRLING. I perhaps went a little too
far in saying that it never was the case that a
bill was engrossed before being read the third
time. But it certainly is the fact that at
every session of the Legislature bills are taken
up from the clerk's desk, read the third time
and passed before they are engrossed. It has
even been the practice in many cases for bills
not to be engrossed until after the session of
the Legislature has closed. The engrossment
before the third reading is a parliamentary
fiction, I admit; but it is a fiction sustained
by the uniform legislative practice of this
State.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I desire merely to say
that I do not see that we shall expedite mat-
ters at all by suspending the rule and putting
this report upon its third reading to-day.
We have on our tables reports' of several
other committees, and can take up any one of
them and proceed with it, allowing time to
the committee on engrossment to have this
report as amended properly engrossed, and
have it printed. We can now order it to be
engrossed, and make it the special order for
some day next week.
Mr. STIRLING. It can be engrossed by the
committee after its third reading, as well as
before.
Mr. CHAMBERS, This practice of trusting
these things to a committee, or to any one, is
a very dangerous practice. There is no ad-
vantage to be gained by passing finally upon
this report to-day rather than to-morrow, or
the day after. I rise chiefly, however, to call
attention to the danger of this experiment.
In the last Convention, the one of 1850, there
was the same anxiety to hurry through the
body a portion of its work. The result was
that we had not a fair copy before us to ex-
amine, but entrusted that work to others.
And a very important portion of the Constitu-
tion, as adopted by the Convention, was left
out in the committee room, where the last re- |
vision was made. It was solemnly deter-
mined by the Convention, after full discus-
sion, that the judges of the district courts
should not hold office after reaching the age
of seventy years. But no such provision as
that is to be found in the Constitution. It
was placed in the custody of somebody, as is
now proposed, to complete the work, and
that provision was left out of the Constitu-
tion entirely. Now, let us have this report
fully and fairly engrossed and printed, so
that we can leisurely examine it, and then we
can understandingly vote upon it.
Mr. STIRLING. I made the motion, when
these rules were under consideration, that all
reports should be actually engrossed before
they were read a third time. But so far as I
was aware, the proposition seemed to meet
with some opposition on the other side of the
house. I withdrew it, however, because I
found that I had inadvertently introduced it
at a wrong stage of the discussion, I con-
cede that, as a general thing, reports ought
to be recopied before being read a third time.
I would not do otherwise, except where the
circumstances would seem to justify it. But
few amendments have been made to this re-
port, and the secretary will not have to copy
more than fifteen or twenty lines, so that
practically it will amount to the same thing
as if it was actually engrossed. I think,
therefore, we might wind up this report now.
I think that events are moving very rapidly,
and if we are not more prompt in our action
they will catch up with us.
Mr MILLER. The fifty third rule, I think,
is as much a part of our rules as is the fif-
teenth. And the fifty-third rule absolutely
requires that this report should be en-
grossed and printed before it is read the third
time. Now, to suspend that rule, the suspen-
sion must take place under the operation of
the forty-ninth rule, which requires a three-
fifths vote.
The PRESIDENT. The fifteenth rule is con-
fined exclusively to reports.
Mr. MILLER. The fifty-third rule applies to
reports also. There would seem to be a con-
flict between those two rules.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I would suggest that
those rules stand precisely as articles in our
code. Where there is a general law and a
local law, the local law applies. The fifteenth
rule is a local rule, and of course the general
rule must give way where the local rule ap-
plies.
Mr. CLARKE. If we could have this report
printed and brought in here to-day, then tile
fifteenth rule might apply. But if we cannot
have the report printed and laid before us to-
day, then I think the fifty-third rule must
apply. That rule reads—
"If objection (to the engrossment) is made,
then a majority of the members shall decide
upon the question of engrossment, and after
the engrossment of a report is ordered, the |
