196 THE ROYAL CHARTER OF INCORPORATION 
DIRECT AND DECLARE, That all questions re- 
lating to any business to be transacted at any general 
meeting, and at any council, shall be decided on by a 
majority of the members present, and entitled to vote 
thereat respectively ; and that the person to be in the 
chair at every general meeting, and at every council, 
shall be the president, or if he shall be absent, or shall 
decline to take the chair, then one of the vice-presidents 
to be elected at the meeting shall take the chair; or 
if they shall be all absent, or such of them as shall be 
present shall decline to take the chair, then one of the 
other members of the council to be elected at the 
meeting shall take the chair ; and in the case of a ge- 
neral meeting, if the president, vice-presidents, and 
members of the council, shall be all absent, or such of 
them as shall be present shall decline to take the chair, 
then one of the other members of the body politic and 
corporate present to be elected at the general meeting 
shall take the chair : AND WE DO HEREBY FUR- 
THER WILL, GRANT, AND DECLARE, That 
minutes of the proceedings at every general meeting of 
the members of the said body politic and corporate, 
and at every meeting of the council, shall be entered 
in a book to be kept for that purpose, and shall be 
signed by the person in the chair at such general meet- 
ing or council, and the secretary or one of them ; and 
the book purporting to be so signed shall be evidence 
that the proceedings of which the minutes purporting 
to be so signed as aforesaid shall be entered therein 
were regular in every respect, and took place at a ge- 
neral meeting or council, as the case may be, duly held 
and convened, and that the persons or person whose 
