Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Much experience in conducting the business of Masonic bodies, or in seeing it conducted by others, has convinced me that a treatise which should, in perspicuous language, pre scribe the rules for the government of Lodges, Chapters, or any other assemblies of Masons in their Masonic character, could not fail, if properly executed, to be of service to the Craft. It is evident that when one is, for the first time, called to preside over a Lodge of Freemasons, he must come to the performance of that important duty, either with no knowl edge whatever of the rules of order that govern the proceed ings of deliberative bodies, or with a familiarity with those rules only that are exclusively derived from the ordinary parliamentary law.