and in either case shall require a further sum, it shall be the duty of such committee, having such matter in charge, to submit the fact to the City Council for instructions, accompanied with a detailed statement in print, of the cause or causes which have created the necessity for such application, and the object for which the same is needed. And no contract shall be made or expenditure authorized in either case, unless by a specific vote of the City Council, first making the necessary provision for the payment resulting therefrom; and no debt shall be created, or transfer from one special appropriation to another be made, until such report or statement shall have been submitted to the City Council by the Committee requiring the same.

SECT. 9. Joint Standing Committees shall cause records to be kept of their proceedings in books provided by the city for that purpose. The Committee from neither branch of the City Council shall act by separate consultations; and no report shall be received unless agreed to in committee actually assembled.

SECT. 10. It shall be the duty of every Joint Committee to whom any subject may be specially referred to report thereon within four weeks, or to ask for further time.

* Committees not only have not the right to make expenditures for any purpose beyond the amount which has been previously appropriated for it; but they have not the right to expend the appropriation, or any part of it even, unless that right is first conferred upon them by the body from which they are appointed. JOHN P. HEALY, City Solicitor.

December, 1858.

SECT. 11. All reports and other papers submitted to the City Council shall be written in a fair hand, and no report or indorsement of any kind shall be made on the reports, memorials or other papers referred to the Committee of either branch. All reports shall be signed by the writers thereof, unless otherwise directed by the Committee; and the Clerk of Committees shall make copies of any papers to be reported by the Committees, at the request of the respective Chairman thereof.

SECT. 12. No Chairman of any Committee shall audit or approve any bill or account against the city for any supplies or services which shall not have been ordered or authorized by the Committee, nor shall he approve for payment any bill or account, except by vote of the Committee.

SECT. 13. No bills shall be approved by the Committee on Accounts for refreshments or carriage-hire furnished to any member of the City Government, unless said bills are approved by the Chairman of a Standing or Special Committee of the City Council, or either branch thereof, duly authorized by vote of such Committee; in which cases, said bills shall be paid from the appropriation to which they are incident; and the Committee on Accounts shall not pass any bill, unless it is approved, as provided in this and the preceding section.

SECT. 14. All bills for refreshments or carriagehire, incurred more than three months previous to the date of their presentation, shall go before the City Council for approval.

RULES AND ORDERS

OF THE

COMMON COUNCIL.

DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT.

SECTION 1. The President shall take the chair precisely at the hour to which the Council shall have adjourned. He shall call the members to order; and, on the appearance of a quorum, shall proceed to business, unless the reading of the minutes of the preceding meeting shall be called for by some member.

SECT. 2. He shall preserve decorum and order; may speak to points of order in preference to other members; and shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the Council, by motion regularly seconded, and no other business shall be in order till the question on the appeal shall have been decided.

SECT. 3. He shall declare all votes; but, if any member rises to doubt a vote, the President shall cause a return of the members voting in the affirmative and in the negative, without further debate on the question.

SECT. 4. He shall rise to address the Council, or to put a question; but may read sitting.

SECT. 5. In all cases the President may vote.

SECT. 6. When the Council shall determine to go into a Committee of the Whole, the President shall appoint the member who shall take the Chair. The President may at any other time call any other member to the Chair, but said substitution shall not continue beyond an adjournment.

SECT. 7. On all questions and motions whatsoever, the President shall take the sense of the Council by yeas and nays, provided one-fifth of the members present shall so require.

SECT. 8. The President shall propound all questions in the order in which they are moved, unless the subsequent motion shall be previous in its nature, except that in the naming sums and fixing times, the largest sum and longest time shall be put first.

SECT. 9. After a motion is stated or read by the President, it shall be deemed to be in possession of the Council, and shall be disposed of by vote; but the mover may withdraw it at any time before a decision or amendment.

SECT. 10. When a question is under debate, the president shall receive no motion but to adjourn, to lay on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to commit, to amend, or to postpone indefinitely, - which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they stand arranged; and a motion to strike out the enacting clause of an Ordinance shall be equivalent to a motion to postpone indefinitely.

SECT. 11. The President shall consider a motion

to adjourn as always in order, except upon an immediate repetition; and that motion, and the motion to lay on the table, or to take up from the table, or to take the previous question, shall be decided without debate.

SECT. 12. He shall put the previous question in the following form: "Shall the main question be now put?" and all debate upon the main question shall be suspended until the previous question shall be decided. After the adoption of the previous question, the sense of the Council shall forthwith be taken upon amendments reported by a Committee, upon all pending amendments, and then upon the main question.

SECT. 13. All incidental questions of order, arising after a motion is made for the previous question, shall be decided without debate, except on an appeal; and on such an appeal, no member shall be allowed to speak more than once without leave of the Council.

SECT. 14. When two or more members happen to rise at once, the President shall name the member who is first to speak.

SECT. 15. All Committees shall be appointed and announced by the President, unless otherwise provided for, or specially directed by the Council.

RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND DECORUM OF MEMBERS.

SECT. 16. In the absence of the President, the senior member present shall call the Council to order, and preside until a President pro tempore shall be