of ninety members; and a house composed of representatives, chosen for two years, from each state in proportion to their respective populations (excluding Indians not taxed) based on an apportionment made from time to time, each state being entitled to one member for every thirty thousand inhabitants.15 The present membership of the national house of representatives is three hundred and fifty-seven, with the addition of one delegate from each of the territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, who have seats in the house, and the right of debating, but not of voting.

55. The executive power is vested in a president, who, together with the vice-president, is chosen by electors appointed in such manner in each state as its legislature may direct, every four years, each state being entitled to as many electors as it has senators and representatives, the electors being appointed by the people by voting a general ticket throughout each state."""

56. The judicial power is vested in a supreme court and such inferior courts as may be established by congress from time to time, the judges receiving their appointment from the president by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and holding their offices by the tenure of good behavior."

The

The various states are representative democracies. legislative functions are vested in two separate bodies, differently constituted, a senate and a house of representatives, whose concurrence is required to the passage of laws, and a qualified veto is generally allowed to the governor, the executive power of each state, who is chosen by direct vote of the people.

57. A municipal corporation is an incorporated city, town, or borough; a body politic specially chartered by the state or organized under a general legislative act, for the purpose of local government subsidiary to that of the state,

156 Const. U. S.. Art. I, Sec. 3.

158 Const. U. S., Art. III, Sec. 1.

157 Const. U. S., Art. II, Sec. 1, Cls. 1 and 2.

160

159

and having subordinate and local powers of legislation.' In England, it is a similar body which has acquired governmental powers and privileges by prescription. Being the creature of the law by which it is chartered or organized, a municipal corporation can act only in the manner provided by its organic law, and if its agents fail to observe the forms and methods prescribed by that law in any substantial particular, their acts are not the acts of the municipality."

In the exercise of all its duties, including those most strictly local or internal, a municipal corporation is but a department of the state. It may act through its mayor, or its legislative department, by whatever name called, its superintendent of streets, commissioner of highways, or board of public works, provided the act be within the province committed to its charge. It is immaterial by what means these several officers are placed in their position - whether they are elected by the people of the municipality, or appointed by the president or a governor."

162

THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT

58. In England, the supreme power is divided into two branches, the one legislative, the parliament consisting of the king, lords, and commons; and the other executive, consisting of the king alone.""

The constituent parts of a parliament are, the king's majesty, sitting in his royal political capacity, and the three estates of the realm, the lords spiritual, and the lords temporal (who sit together with the king in one house), and the commons, who sit by themselves in another; and the king and these three estates, together, form the great corporation or body politic of the kingdom, of which the king is head, leader, and end. For, upon their coming together, the king meets them either in person or by representation, without which there can be no beginning of a parliament; and he alone has the power of dissolving them.'

15919 Wall. (U. S.) 475 (1873). 1601 Salk. (Eng.) 183 (1698).

161 16 Blatchf. (U. S.) 193 (1879)..

164

59. Legislative. - The house of lords consists of twenty-six lords spiritual (archbishops and bishops) and five hundred and thirty-four lords temporal; but the number is liable to vary. Although the lords spiritual are, in the eye of the law, a distinct estate from the lords temporal, and are so distinguished in most of the acts of parliament, yet, in practice, they are usually blended together under the one name of the lords; they intermix in their votes, and the majority of such intermixture joins both estates.

The lords temporal consist of all the peers of the realm (the bishops not being in strictness held to be such, but merely lords of parliament), by whatever title of nobility distinguished-dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, or barons. Some of these sit by descent as do all ancient peers; some by creation, as do all new-made ones; others by election. Their number is indefinite, and may be increased at will by the power of the crown.

The house of commons consists of all such men of property in the kingdom as have not seats in the house of lords, every one of whom has a voice in parliament. It is composed of six hundred and seventy members elected by the people; four hundred and ninety-five from England and Wales, seventy-two from Scotland, and one hundred and three from Ireland.1

60. Executive. - The crown cannot begin of itself any alterations in the present established law; but it may approve or disapprove of the alterations suggested and consented to by the two houses. Therefore, the legislature cannot abridge the executive power of any rights which it has by law, without its own consent; since the law must perpetually stand as it now does, unless all the powers will agree to alter it, and herein consists the unique character of the English government, that all the parts of it form a mutual check upon each other. In the legislature, the people are a check upon the nobility, and the nobility a check upon the people, by the mutual privilege of rejecting what the other has resolved; while the king is a check

1651 Black. Comm. 158

upon both, which preserves the executive power from encroachments, and this very executive power is again checked and kept within due bounds by the two houses. Thus, every branch of civil polity supports and is supported, regulates and is regulated, by the rest; for the two houses naturally drawing in two directions of opposite interest, and the prerogative in another still different from them both, mutually keep each other from exceeding their proper limits; while the whole is prevented from separation and artificially connected together by the mixed nature of the crown, which is a part of the legislative, and the sole executive magistrate.

THE DOMINION OF CANADA

61. The confederation of the North American dependencies of Great Britain, under the name of the Dominion of Canada, was consummated in 1867, by an act of the imperial parliament, at the instance and request of the different provinces, including Upper and Lower Canada (under the names of Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, to which have since been added Prince Edward's Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia.'

166

The act under which this confederation was established, called the British North American Act, contains the provisions of a written constitution, under which the executive government and authority is declared to be vested in the sovereign of Great Britain, whose powers are deputed to a governor-general, nominated by the imperial government, but whose salary is paid by the dominion.

The form of government is modeled after that of Great Britain. The governor-general acts under the guidance of a council, nominally selected by himself, but which must be able to command the support of a majority of that branch of parliament which represents the suffrages of the electors.

The parliament consists of a senate and house of commons, the former numbering from seventy-two to seventyeight members, appointed for life. The house of commons

166 Bouv. Law Dict.

consists of over two hundred members, distributed about as follows: Ontario, ninety-two; Quebec, sixty-five; Nova Scotia, twenty; New Brunswick, fourteen; Manitoba, seven; British Columbia, six; Prince Edward's Island, five.17

The privileges, immunities, and powers of the senate and house of commons are within the control of the parliament of Canada, that is, of the three united branches, the king (governor-general), senate, and commons.

Each of the provinces has also a separate parliamentary organization for the administration of local affairs, with a lieutenant-governor for each, appointed for a term of five years by the governor-general in council.

COURTS

168

62. A court is a tribunal for the public administration of justice; a body of the government to which the administration of justice is delegated. It is constituted by the presence of a judge or judges, a clerk to record and attest the actions or proceedings and the decisions of the tribunal, attorneys and counsel to present and manage the business, and ministerial officers to execute its covenants and preserve order during its sessions, or sittings, which are held at times and places fixed by law.

The words judge and court are frequently used as convertible terms, but properly speaking this is incorrect. The judge is a constituent part of the organization, but he is not the court. Nor is the court room the court, nor the jury room, nor the petit jury. The court is the totality of the constituent parts. It consists of the entire judicial organization for the trial of causes, and it is immediately present whenever and wherever-from the opening to the adjournment of the sitting-these constituent parts are actually performing the functions devolving upon them by law.**

A court term is a definite and fixed term, prescribed by law for the administration of judicial duties, within which

=

167 Stat. of Can. (1892), p. 62.

168 18 Mo. 570 (1853); 130 Ill. 114 (1889).

169 18 Civ. Proc. R. (N. Y.) 230 (1890);

19 Cal. 170 (1861).