6 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Jan. 2,

legislation pass only such laws as will promote the public
good, and thus redound to our credit.

Rules of order properly framed, and properly observed,
tend to assist not to impede business, and in a body where
legislation is impartially conducted, there the rules are most
strictly observed. Where efforts are made to take up busi-
ness out of its regular course, by suspensions of rules and
other devices known to those familiar with parliamentary
law, there is always much time wasted, and the modest and
retiring member will frequently find those hills, in which he
feels a deep interest, kept in the back ground, and probably
at the end of the session referred to some future General As-
sembly, when, by a strict adherence to the rules of order, he
might, at an early stage of the session, have had the measure
acted upon. So great had this evil become, that those who
framed the Constitution under which we are called together,
to remedy the complaint, have engrafted a provision therein
that no reading of a bill shall take place, more than once in
any one day, unless two-thirds of the members elected shall
so decide by yeas and nays—(Art. 3, sec. 2*7.) The members
will, therefore, perceive the time that must necessarily be
consumed, in taking up a bill out of its regular course, the
formality and vote required heing even greater than is re-
quired on the passage of the bill; and therefore I throw out
the suggestion, at this early stage of our proceedings, that
all things be done decently and in order. I would not have
the members suppose that emergencies will not arise, in
which bills should be passed at once, but on those occasions,
which will probably not occur with frequency, the requisite
number of fifty-eight votes may be obtained for the purpose.

Many subjects which have engrossed the greatest share of
the attention of legislative bodies have, by our Constitution,
been almost entirely withdrawn from our action, and we are
directed at this session to pass general laws, which will be
submitted to us, upon the subject of corporations, after which
time we are precluded, under the penalty of the act being
declared void, from passing any special act of incorporation,
the subject matter of which is embraced in a general law.
The time and labor thus saved to our body will be a great
gain, as nearly one-fourth of the laws heretofore passed, for
the last quarter of a century, have been charters of an
ephemeral character, a large portion of which have never
been heard of after their passage. The time spent upon
this subject can now be more profitably employed.

In conclusion, gentlemen, although I gratefully appre-
ciate the compliment paid me, I would be still more gratified
if at the end of the session I could return to ray constituents
and point to a reduction of the expenses of government, a
flourishing treasury, and reduced taxation, as the result of
our labors this winter.