by this Grand Lodge, immediately on their adoption, shall be forwarded to this Grand Lodge for its approval.

COURSE OF BUSINESS.

1. The Presiding Officer having taken his station, the officers and members shall take their appropriate seats, and at the sound of the Gavil, there shall be general silence.

2. The Grand Lodge shall be opened in due form.

3. The roll of Officers and Representatives shall be called.

4. Certificates shall be received and referred to the proper standing committee for immediate action.

5. The Side Degrees, and the Grand Lodge Degree shall be conferred upon duly qualified applicants.

6. The minutes shall be read and disposed of.

7. Reports of Grand Officers shall be read and referred to the appropriate standing committees.

8. Communications shall be read, and such as are not merely formal, shall be referred to the proper standing committee.

9. Appeals shall be presented and referred to the proper standing

committee.

10. The Subordinate Lodges shall be called in their order, and each may, through its Representative or Representatives, present any business, which shall be referred to the appropriate standing committees. 11. The standing committees shall report in their order.

12. Special committees shall report.

13. Unfinished and new business shall come up.

14. The Grand Lodge shall be closed in due form.

RULES OF ORDER.

1. The Minutes may be confirmed in part, and the remainder shall be referred to the head of unfinished business.

2. No motion shall be open to debate until it has been seconded, and reduced to writing, and stated by the Chair.

3. Every member, when he offers a motion or speaks, shall rise and respectfully address the Chair.

4. Members shall always confine themselves, while speaking, to the

question before the Grand Lodge, avoiding personalities and indecorous language as well as reflections upon the constituted authorities of the Order, and of this Grand Lodge.

5. Should a member be called to order while speaking, he shall resume his seat until the question of order shall be decided, when if the decision be in his favor he may proceed again.

6. Should two or more members rise about the same time, the Presiding Officer shall determine which is entitled to the floor.

7. No member shall speak more than twice on the same subject, except by unanimous permission of the Grand Lodge.

8. Any member may call for a division of the question, when the same will admit thereof.

9. When a blank is to be filled, the question shall be first taken on the highest sum or number, and the longest or latest time proposed, and so down, but in other cases, the consideration of amendments shall begin with the last and end with the first.

10. When a question is before the Grand Lodge, no motion shall be received unless it be to adjourn, to refer, the previous question, to lay on the table, to postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a certain time or to amend, and the motions enumerated shall take precedence, in the order of enumeration.

The first four shall be decided without debate.

11. When a motion or resolution has been once negatived, or indefinitely postponed, it shall not be again brought before the Grand Lodge, at the same session, but a motion to reconsider the action of the Grand Lodge thereon, shall nevertheless be in order, under the rule hereinafter laid down.

12. A call for the previous question must be sanctioned by a majority of the members present, which shall be ascertained thus: The Presiding Officer shall ask: "Is the Grand Lodge ready for the main question?" And if a majority of the members present rise in answer, the question shall be immediately taken on the original proposition with the amendments already adopted.

13. Before putting a question, except under the provision of Rule 12, the Presiding Officer shall ask: "Is the Grand Lodge ready for the question?" and if no member shall rise to speak, the question shall be put.

14. After the Presiding Officer has risen to put a question, and while he is addressing the Grand Lodge, no member of the Grand Lodge

shall attempt to speak, walk out of, or across the room, or hold private conversation.

15. No member shall be excused from voting or serving on committees, except by a vote of the Grand Lodge.

16. Except when the Laws of the Grand Lodge provide otherwise, all questions shall be decided by a majority of votes.

17. Should the decision of a question be doubtful, the Presiding Of ficer may, of his own motion, or on the call of any member, order a division of the Grand Lodge.

18. On the call of one-fifth of the members present, the yeas and nays shall be ordered and recorded.

19. Motions to re-consider must be made and seconded by members who voted with the majority. Such motions must be made at the same meeting with the decision objected to, or at the next meeting thereaf ter, and the vote on the re-consideration, shall be final.

20. Members, when speaking of other members, shall use their appropriate designations, according to standing in the Grand Lodge.

21. The decision of points of order shall be originally with the Presiding Officer, but any member may appeal from such decision of the Grand Lodge, and the question shall then be: "Is the decision of the Chair, the judgment of the Grand Lodge?" which shall be determined without debate.

VISITING BROTHERS.

Form for examination of Visiting Brothers, as prescribed by the Grand Lodge of the United States, at its Annual Communication holden at Baltimore, September, 1844.-Ordered to be printed by the Grand Lodge of Michigan, for the information of the Lodges under its jurisdiction.

"When a visiting brother presents himself at the door of a Lodge, it is his duty to hand his card to the Guardian, that it may be placed in possession of the Lodge. If the Lodge be satisfied of its authenticity, they will thereupon appoint a committee of three members, all of whom must have received the Scarlet Degree, to proceed to the ante-room and examine the visiting brother. One member of this committee must be the Noble Grand himself, or his Vice, or sitting Past-Grand, or some other brother known to be in possession of the T. P. W., whose especial duty it shall be, first, to obtain the said T. P. W., privately from the visiter, whose duty it shall be to commence by letters. This preliminary being settled, the committee will then proceed to examine the visiter in the degree in which the Lodge is open, and will report their judgment to the Lodge. If the visiter be received, he will work his way in."

This was modified by the following resolution adopted at the Session of the G. L. U. S., held Sept., 1846: (See Journal G. L. for 1846, p. 308.)

"Resolved, That when a visiting brother shall have proven himself entitled to admission, in the mode pointed out in the Report of the Committee on the state of the Order, found on p. 86 of the Journal of the G. L. of U. S. for 1844, he shall be introduced to the Lodge by the examining committee."