Thirtieth District-Isle of Wight, Southampton, and Nansemond-William Shands.

Thirty-second District-Caroline, Hanover, and King William-Henry T. Wickham.

Thirty-fourth District-King George, Richmond, Westmoreland, Lancaster, and Northumberland-C. Harding Walker.

Thirty-sixth District-Elizabeth City, York, Warwick, and Newport NewsSaxon W. Holt.

Thirty-eighth District-Richmond city-A. C. Harman.

To the Honorable, the Clerk of the Senate:

SIR:

RICHMOND, VA., January 13, 1904.

I have the honor to communicate that at a special election held on the 29th day of December, 1903, Hon. J. Lawrence Campbell was elected to represent the Twenty-second Senatorial District of Virginia, composed of the counties of Bedford and Rockbridge and the city of Buena Vista, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. Calloway Brown, as will appear by the certified statement of votes on file in this office, as ascertained and determined by the Board of State Canvassers at their meeting held on the fourth day of January, 1904. Very respectfully,

D. Q. EGGLESTON, Secretary of the Commonwealth.

The roll was then called, and the following Senators responded to their names:

Messrs. Anderson, Barksdale, Bryant, Byars, Campbell, Chapman, Ford, Fulton, Garrett, Greear, Gunter, A. C. Harman, J. N. Harman, Hobbs, Holt, Keezell, Machen, Mann, Massie, McIlwaine, Noel, Opie, Patteson, Phlegar, Rison, Sadler, Sale, Sears, Shackelford, Shands, St. Clair, Tavenner, Thomas, Turner, Walker, Wallace, and Wickham-36.

A quorum being presnt, the following Senators, having previously filed in the office of the Clerk of the Senate certificates of their election, came forward, and the Clerk administered to each of them the oath prescribed by law:

Messrs. Campbell, Fulton, Greear, A. C. Harman, Holt, Keezell, Machen, Mann, Noel, Patteson, Phlegar, Rison, Sadler, Shands, Tavenner, Thomas, Turner, Walker, and Wickham-19.

On motion of Mr. WICKHAM,

Resolved, That the rules for the government of the Senate shall be the rules adopted at the session 1901-1902:

I.

ATTENDANCE AND ADJOURNMENT.

1. No member shall absent himself from the service of the Senate without leave, unless he is sick or unable to attend.

2. A majority of Senators shall be necessary to proceed to business; five may adjourn, and nine may order a call of the Senate, send for absentees, and make any order for their censure or discharge. On a call of the Senate, the doors shall not be closed against any Senator until his name shall have been once enrolled.

3. When the Senate adjourns each day every Senator shall keep his seat until the President leaves his seat.

II.

THE PRESIDENT.

4. If any question be put upon a bill or resolution, the President shall state the same without argument.

5. The President may call any Senator to the chair, who shall exercise its functions for the time; but no Senator. by virtue of such appointment, shall preside for a longer period than three days.

6. At the commencement of each session the Senate shall elect four pages, who shall receive for their services two dollars per day each.

III.

THE CLERK.

7. The Clerk of the Senate shall not suffer any records or papers to be taken from the table or out of his custody by any person except a chairman of a committee; but he may deliver any bills or papers, directed to be printed, to the Superintendent of Public Printing, or to any Senator, on taking his receipt for the same.

8. The Journal of the Senate shall be daily drawn up by the Clerk, and shall be read the succeeding day; it shall be printed under the supervision of the Clerk and delivered to the Senators without delay.

9. The Clerk of the Senate shall appoint a first assistant clerk, a Journal clerk, a reading clerk, and four committee clerks, not more than one of whom shall be appointed from the same congressional district. The clerks so appointed shall remain in the Capitol during the sessions of the Senate, and the committee clerks shall be assigned by the Clerk for duty with the various standing committees, and shall perform any duties that the other committees may require, when not employed by their respective committees; and the Clerk of the Senate may also require said clerks, when not employed by the standing committees, to assist in engrossing bills or aid him in the Senate chamber when necessary. The said clerks shall be removable by the Clerk of the Senate or by the committee of which they are clerks.

10. Before reading each bill, the Clerk shall announce whether it is the first, second or third time of the reading of the bill.

11. The Clerks of the Senate and House of Delegates may interchange messages at such time between the hour of adjournment and that of meeting on the following day, as that the said messages may be read immediately after the orders of the day.

12. The Clerk of the Senate shall, at each session, have printed and bound with the manual and rules, etc., the Constitution of Virginia for the use of the Senators.

IV.

SERGEANT-AT-ARMS AND DOOPKEEPER.

13. No Senator shall be taken into custody by the Sergeant-at-Arms on any complaint or breach of privileges until the matter is examined by the Committee of Privileges and Elections and reported to the Senate, unless by order of the Senate.

14. It shall be the duty of the Doorkeeper of the Senate to preserve, in

chronological or numerical order, a copy of every printed document distrbuted in the Senate, and to deliver the same at the close of the session to the Clerk of the Senate, whose duty it shall be to have them bound and preserved in his office for the use of this body.

15. In order to prevent interruption of the business of the Senate, the Doorkeeper shall be constantly at his post during the sessions of the Senate, and shall admit within the chamber no person except officers of the government of this and any other State and of the United States; members and exmembers of Congress and House of Delegates; their officers; ex-members of the Senate of Virginia; ministers of the gospel and reporters of the proceedings of the Senate; but ladies and their escorts may be assigned privileged seats. It shall be the duty of the Doorkeeper to show all persons not entitled to privileged seats to the gallery. It shall be his duty, when any person desires an interview with a Senator or the President, or the Clerk of the Senate, to send a messenger to him, and such person may be admitted to one of the privilegel seats, if so invited by either of them. And the President of the Senate shall, moreover, be permitted to invite to a seat near the chair any person he may deem worthy of such distinction.

V.

COMMITTEES.

16. At the commencement of each session the following committees shall be elected:

I. A Committee of Privileges and Elections, to consist of not less than seven nor more than ten Senators.

II. A Committee of Courts of Justice, to consist of not less than seven nor more than eleven Senators.

III. A Committee on General Laws, to consist of not less than seven nor more than eleven Senators.

IV. A Committee on Roads and Internal Navigaton, to consist of not less than seven nor more than thirteen Senators.

V. A Committee on Finance and Banks, to consist of not less than seven nor more than thirteen Senators.

VI. A Committee on Public Institutions and Education, to consist of not less than seven nor more than thirteen Senators.

VII. A Committee on County, City, and Town Organization, to consist of not less than seven nor more than ten Senators.

VIII. A Committee on Agriculture, Mining, and Manufacturing, to consist of not less than seven nor more than ten Senators.

IX. A Committee on Fish and Game, to consist of not less than seven nor more than ten Senators.

X. A Committee on Enrolled Bills, to consist of not less than seven nor more than nine Senators.

The following committees shall consist of three Senators, viz:

To examine the office of Clerk of the Senate.

On Rules.

On the Library.

On Executive Expenditures.

To examine the office of Register of the Land Office.

To examine the Bonds of Public Officers.

On the Public Printing.

There shall also be appointed by the Senate five members to serve upon the joint standing committees shall be elected by the Senate, unless the two members to serve upon the joint standing Auditing Committee.

17. The regular standing committees of the Senate and its members upon the joint standing committees shall be elected by the Senate, unless the Senate direct otherwise, and the Senator first named shall be the chairman, unless the committee direct otherwise. The majority of any committee shall constitute a quorum.

18. The several committees shall, in all cases, report whether other cases

1

comprised within the principal of the matter referred may arise; and if a bill be ordered, it shall provide for all such cases; and upon any matter referred, the committee shall have power to report by bill.

19. Select committees shall consist of not less than three nor more than nine Senators, unless the Senate direct otherwise.

20. The Committee of Privileges and Elections shall examine the oaths taken by each Senator and the certificate of election furnished by the proper officer, and report thereon to the Senate.

The Committee of Privileges and Elections shall report in all cases of privileges or contested elections the principles and reasons on which their resolutions are founded.

21. The Committee on Courts of Justice shall take into consideration such petitions and matters or things touching wrongs and remedies and judicial proceedings concerning the same as shall be presented or may come in question and be referred to them by the Senate, and report thereon, together with such propositions relative thereto as to them shall seem expedient.

22. To the Committee on General Laws shall be referred all resolutions and bills concerning the militia, private claims, propositions, and grievances, and other matters of a general nature not properly referable to any other standing committee.

23. The Committee on Roads and Internal Navigation shall take into consideration all such petitions and matters or things relating to highways, public roads, railways, canals, and waterways as shall be presented or may come in question and be referred to them by the Senate, and report thereon, together with such propositions relative thereto as to them shall seem expedient.

24. The Committee on Finance and Banks shall, at each session, examine into the indebtedness of the Commonwealth, the revenues and expenditures of the preceding year, and prepare an estimate of the expense of the succeeding year, and make such report thereon as they may deem proper, and shall also examine into the state and matter of administration of the literary fund, and make such report thereon as they may deem proper.

25. To the Committee on Public Institutions and Education shall be referred all bills and resolutions concerning education, the penitentiary, lunatic asylums, the institution for the deaf and dumb and blind, the armory and other public property at the seat of government. And it shall be the duty of the said committee to examine at each session into the condition of the penitentiary, and make such report thereon as they may deem proper. Neither said committee nor a sub-committee thereof shall visit any public institution outside the city of Richmond without leave of the Senate first authorized and obtained.

26. To the Committee on County, City, and Town Organization shall be referred all bills, resolutions, and petitions concerning the formation of any new county, or the organization of any city or town.

27. To the Committee on Agriculture, Mining, and Manufacturing, shall be referred all bills, resolutions, and petitions concerning agriculture, manufacturing, and mining, commerce, and the mechanic arts, and also all matters relating to the department of labor.

28. To the Committee on Fish and Game shall be referred all bills, resolutions, and petitions concerning the oyster industry of the State, surveys of the public waters of the State affecting said industry, and all matters relative to fish and game.

29. The committee to examine the Clerk's office shall see that all papers belonging thereto are properly filed, labelled, and put away in the presses, and that the books belonging to the office are chronologically arranged, and shall make an annual report thereof to the Senate.

30. The President of the Senate, the President pro tempore, and chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections shall constitute a standing Committee on Rules, to whom all resolutions amending or altering the rules of the Senate shall be referred; and said committee shall report such amendments to said rules as in their judgment are necessary and proper.

VI.

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

31. After reading the Journal, one hour, to be called the "morning hour," shall be devoted as follows:

I. To dispose of communications from the House of Delegates and the Executive.

II. To receive reports from standing committees (for which purpose they shall be called by the Clerk).

III. To receive reports from select committees.

IV. To receive resolutions,, petitions, and bills, on leave.

32. At the expiration of the morning hour the Senate shall proceed to the consideration of the calendar, as follows:

I. The unfinished business of the preceding day.

II. Bills and resolutions in the order in which they stand on the calendar. 33. When a bill or resolution of the House of Delegates is passed or rejected by the Senate it shall remain under the control of the Senate for the space of two days, and the fact of the passage or rejection, with the bill or resolution, shall then be communicated to the House of Delegates, unless otherwise ordered.

34. All bills or other business originating in the Senate shall be dispatched in the order in which they are introduced, and all bills and resolutions sent from the House of Delegates shall be dispatched in the order in which they are sent, unless in either case the Senate direct otherwise.

35. No law shall be enacted except by bill. Every bill, upon its introduction, shall be referred to the appropriate committee, and no bill shall become a law until it has been

First: Referred to a committee of the Senate, considered by such committee in session, and reported;

Second: Printed by the house in which it originated prior to its passage; Third: Read at length on three different calendar days in each house; and, Fourth: A yea and nay vote has been taken in each house upon its final passage, the names of the members voting for and against entered on the Journal, and a majority of those voting, which shall include at least twofifths of the members élected to each house, has been recorded in the affirmative.

And only in the manner required in sub-division four of this section shall an amendment to a bill by the House of Delegates be concurred in by the Senate, or a conference report be adopted by the Senate, or a committee discharged from the consideration of a bill for the Senate to consider the same as if reported; provided that the printing and reading, or either, required in sub-divisions two and three of this section, may be dispensed with in a bill to codify the laws of the State, and in any case of emergency by a vote of four-fifths of the members voting, taken by the yeas and nays, the names of the members voting for and against entered on the Journal; and provided further, that no bill which creates or establishes a new office, or which creates, continues, or revives a debt or charge, or makes, continues, or revives any appropriation of public or trust money, or property, or releases, discharges, or commutes any claim or demand of the State, or which imposes, continues, or revives a tax, shall be passed except by the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected to the Senate, the vote to be by the yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against entered on the Journal. Every law imposing, continuing, or reviving a tax shall specifically state such tax, and no law shall be construed as so stating such tax where it requires a reference to any other law or any other tax. The presiding officer of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate, in open session, sign every bill that has been passed by both houses and duly enrolled. Immediately before this is done, all other business being suspended, the title of the bill shall be publicly read. The fact of signing shall be entered on the Journal. Before reference to a committee, any special, pri