arranged according to the seniority of the commissions of the several judges. Sec. X. Prothonotaries, clerks of the several courts (except of the supreme court) recórders of deeds and registers of wills, shall be first elected under the amended constitution, at the election of representatives in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. Sec. XI. The appointing power shall remain as heretofore, and all officers in the appointment of the executive department shall continue in the exercise of the duties of their respective offices until the legislature shall pass such laws as may be required by the eighth section of the sixth article of the amended constitution, and until appointments shall be made under such laws; unless their commissions shall be superseded by new appointments, or shall sooner expire by their own limitations, or the said offices shall become vacant by death or resignation, and such laws shall be enacted by the first legislature under the amended constitution. Sec. XII. The first election for aldermen and justices of the peace shall be held in the year eighteen hundred and forty, at the time fixed for the election of constables. The legislature at its first session under the amended constitution shall provide for the said election and for subsequent similar elections. The aldermen and justices of the peace now in commission, or who may in the interim be appointed, shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices, until fifteen days after the day which shall be fixed by law for the issuing of new commissions, at the expiration of which time, their commissions shall expire. In testimony that the foregoing is the amended constitution of Pennsylvania, as agreed to in convention, We the officers and members of the convention have hereunto signed our names, at Philadelphia, the twenty-second day of February, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the sixty-second. Daniel Agnew Wm. Ayres JOHN SERGEANT, President. James Cornell Biddle William Brown Pierce Butler Samuel Carey Thomas S. Cunningham Wm. Darlington James Clarke John Dickey Joshua Dickerson Jacob Dillinger D. M. Farrelly. Charles Jared Ingersoll Christian Meyers Wm. Overfield Matthias Pennypacker James Madison Porter H. Gold Rogers John Morin Scott Wm. Smyth Joseph Snively Jno. B. Sterigere Jacob Stickel Ebenezer W. Sturdevant Thomas Taggart Morgan J. Thomas James Todd Thomas Weaver Jacob B. Weidman R. G. White Geo. W. Woodward James Pollock Attest, S. SHOCH, Secretary. G. L. FAUS, J. WILLIAMS, Assistant Secretaries. RULES FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF PENNSYLVANIA. Of the Duties of the Speaker. 1. He shall take the chair at the hour to which the house shall have been adjourned, and immediately call the members to order, and on the appearance of a quorum, shall cause the journal of the preceding day to be read, which may then be corrected by the House. 2. He shall preserve order and decorum, and in debate shall prevent personal reflections, and confine members to the question under discussion.— When two or more members ise at the same time, he shall name the one entitled to the floor. 3. He shall decide questions of order. An appeal from his decision shall be made by two members, or the Speaker may, in the first instance, submit the question to the House. On questions of order there shall be no debate, except on an appeal from the decision of the Speaker, or on a reference of a question by him to the house, when no member shall speak more than once, unless by leave of the house; all decisions upon questions of order shall be noted by the clerk, and placed at the end of the journal of each session, with a reference to the decision as stated in the journal. 4. While the Speaker is putting a question or addressing the house, none shall walk out of or across the house, nor in such case, or when a member is speaking, shall entertain private discourse, nor while a member is speaking, shall pass between him and the chair. 5. The Speaker shall appoint the members of standing and select committees, unless otherwise ordered by the house. 6. Acts, addresses and joint resolutions shall be signed by the Speaker, and writs, warrants and subpoenas, issued by the house, shall be signed by him, and attested by the clerk. 7. He shall have a general direction of the hall. He may name a member to perform the duties of the chair, but such substitution shall not extend beyond an adjournment.* Of the Order of Business. 8. After the reading of the journal, the order of business shall be as follows: 1st. Letters, petitions, memorials, remonstrances, and accompanying documents, may be presented and referred. 2d. Original resolutions may be offered; items * The Speaker can, under this rule, before the hour to which the house stands adjourned has arrived, name a member to perform the duties of the chair, with power to call the members to order, and preside over the deliberations. [See Journal, 1826-7, page 490; 1827-28, page 520.] |