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8
Parliamentary Procedure.

numerous rules, the student cannot fail to be convinced that the system is well adapted to the purpose of guiding deliberation.

Parliamentary law is not firmly fixed, but is in continual process of development by acceptance of new usages which experience has shown to be desirable; when such usages are generally recognized as good, by having received the approval of many deliberative assemblies, they take their place as a part of the system. When a rule has been generally superceded by the adoption of another rule on the subject, the old rule ceases to be a part of the common law and the new rule takes its place. Therefore, the term “Parliamentary law” should be applied only to those rules which are in present use, or have been generally adopted by deliberative assemblies.

While the rules adopted and used by the House of Representatives are recognized authority in legislative bodies of the country, yet because it is so large a body, its business so complicated, and the supremacy of party so strong, its laws cannot always