Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/85

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§ 35]
UNDEBATABLE QUESTIONS.
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decorum or transgressions of the rules of speaking, or to the priority of business.

Objection to the Consideration of a Question [§ 15].

To Lie on the Table, or to Take from the Table [§ 19].

The Previous Question [§ 20].

To Reconsider [§ 27] a question which is itself undebatable.

Questions relating to Reading of Papers [§ 16], or Withdrawing a Motion [§ 17], or Suspending the Rules [§ 18], or extending the limits of debate [§ 34], or limiting or closing debate [§ 37], or granting leave to continue his speech to one who has been guilty of indecorum in debate [§ 36].

The motion to postpone to a certain time, [§ 21] allows of but very limited debate, which must be confined to the propriety of the postponement. When an amendment is before the assembly the main question cannot be debated excepting so far as it is necessarily involved in the amendment. But the following motions open to discussion the entire merits of the main question:

To Commit [§ 22].

To Postpone Indefinitely [§ 24].

To Reconsider a debatable question [§ 27}.

The distinction between debate and making suggestions or asking a question should always be kept in view, and, when the latter will assist