Extract from the minutes of the City Council.

“The Council then received the following communication from the , to wit:

Gentlemen of the City Council, Aldermen, and Councillors:—

I have carefully selected and prepared the following “Rules of order of the City Council of the City of ,” and present them for your adoption, to wit,—

1st. The Mayor, or President pro tempore, shall take the chair and organize the council, within thirty minutes after the arrival of the hour to which it shall have been adjourned, and while presiding, shall restrain all conversation irrelevant to the business then under consideration.

2nd. The Mayor having taken the chair, and a quorum (which shall consist of a majority of the entire council) being present, the council shall be opened by prayer, after which the journal of the preceding meeting shall be read by the Recorder, to the end that any mistake may be corrected that shall have been made in the entries; after which no alteration of the journal shall be permitted. without the unanimous consent of the members present.

3d. The Mayor shall decide all questions of order—subject, nevertheless, to an appeal to the council, by any member.

4th. When the question is taken on any subject under consideration, the Mayor shall call on the members in the affirmative to say, aye,—those in the negative to say, no—and he shall declare the result. When doubts arise on the decision, he may call on the members voting to rise, or take the yeas and nays—the yeas and nays, likewise, may be taken on the call of any four members.

5th. The Mayor shall have a right to vote on all occasions; and when his vote renders the division equal, the question shall be lost.

6th. The Mayor shall sign his name to all acts, addresses, and resolutions of the council.

7th. The council shall elect a Vice- [p. 683]