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L'Etat de Californie, Recueil de Faits observés en 1877–1878, sur l'Education publique, la Presse, le Mouvement intellectuel, les Mœurs, le Gouvernement, le Climat, les Ressources. Par M. LEON DONNAT. Paris: Librairie Ch. Delagrave. 16mo, pp. 325.

Canada under the Administration of the Earl of Dufferin. By George STEWART, Jr. Toronto, Canada: Rose-Belford Publishing Co. 8vo, pp. 696. The Great Slighted Fortune. By J. D. BELL. New York: T. Y. Crowell. 12mo, pp. 452.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., including the Tour to the Hebrides. By JAMES BOSWELL. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 12mo, pp. 689. The Studio Arts. By ELIZABETH WINTHROP JOHNSON. Holt & Co. 24mo, pp. 161.

New York: Henry

Astronomy. By R. S. BALL, LL. D., F. R. S. Specially revised for America by SIMON NEWCOMB, LL. D. 24mo, pp. 154.

An Essay on Free Trade. By RICHARD HAWLEY. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 16mo, pp. 63.

ELAINE GOODALE, DORA READ 16mo, pp. 253.

Apple-Blossoms: Voices of Two Children. GOODALE. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer's Story. By ANNA KATHARIne Green. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 16mo, pp. 475.

Select Poems. By HARVEY RICE. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 16mo, pp. 174. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, with Special Reference to Ministers and Students. By JOHN PETer Lange, D. D. Translated from the German, and edited, with Additions, Original and Selected, by PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D. Vol. XI., of the Old Testament, containing the Prophet Isaiah. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 8vo, pp. 741.

Discussions in Church Polity. By CHARLES HODGE, D. D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 8vo, pp. 532.

Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society. Vol. III. The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn. Brooklyn, N. Y.: published by the

Society. 8vo, pp. 209.

Roderick Hume: The Story of a New York Teacher. By C. W. BARdeen. Syracuse, N. Y.: Davis, Bardeen & Co. 24mo, pp. 295.

The Training of Children. BY FLORENCE BAYARD LOCKWOOD. Philadelphia: Edward Stern & Co. 16mo, pp. 41.

Le Christ: Sept Discours.

liez et Cie. 8vo, pp. 256.

Par ERNEST NAVILLE. Geneva: A. Cherbu

Meg: A Pastoral and Other Poems. By ZADEL BARNES GUSTAFSON. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 16mo, pp. 280.

Change: The Whisper of the Sphinx. By WILLIAM LEIGHTON. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo, pp. 143.

Cupid and the Sphinx. By HARFORD FLEMMING. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 8vo, pp. 179.

The Old House Altered. By George C. MasoN. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 16mo, pp. 434.

Investigation of Electoral Frauds. A Letter from CLARKSON N. POTTER. New York: Russell Brothers. 8vo, pp. 23.

American Decisions, containing all the Cases of General Value and Authority decided in the Courts of the Several States, from the Earliest Issue of the State Reports to the Year 1869. Compiled and annotated by JOHN PROFFATT, LL. B. Vol. V. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co. 8vo, pp. 777.

English Literature. By T. ARNOLD. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 24mo, pp. 185.

Jean Téterol's Idea. From the French of VICTOR CHERBULIEZ. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 16mo, pp. 319.

Medea: A Tragedy. By GRILLPARZER. Translated by F. W. THURSton, B. A., and SIDNEY A. WITTMANN. London: James Nisbet & Co. 16mo, pp. 122.

Socialism. By ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D. D. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. 12mo, pp. 111.

The Dinner Year-Book. By MARION HARLAND. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 12mo, pp. 713.

The Blessed Bees.

16mo, pp. 169.

By JOHN ALLEN. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The Art of Flower-Painting. By Mrs. WILLIAM DUFFIELD. Edited by SUSAN N. CARTER. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 16mo, pp. 46.

A Face Illumined. By E. P. ROE. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 12mo, pp. 658.

The Reign of God not "the Reign of Law: A New Way (and yet very old) to decide the Debate between "Science" and Religious Faith. By THOMAS SCOTT BACON. Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers. 16mo, pp. 400. The Germ Theories of Infectious Diseases. London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox. 12mo, pp. 74. Pretty Polly Pemberton. By FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 24mo, pp. 213.

By JOHN DRYSdale, M. D.

Lindsay's Luck. By FRANCES Hodgson BurnETT. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 24mo, pp. 154.

Kathleen Mavourneen. By FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 24mo, pp. 216.

The Normans in Europe. By the Rev. A. H. JOHNSON, M. A. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 16mo, pp. 273.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCLXVII.

FEBRUARY, 1879.

I.

THE CONDUCT OF BUSINESS IN CONGRESS.

THERE are few subjects of equal public interest concerning which so much misunderstanding prevails among well-informed people as the course of business in the national House of Representatives. Most persons think that their representative can at any time, if he choose, rise in his place and demand the attention of the House to a speech on any subject which may interest him or his constituents, and compel the body to record its opinion on any bill or resolution he sees fit to introduce. This is far from being true. The House of Representatives is governed by a complicated and artificial system of rules, so difficult to be understood that many able men of great national fame go through long terms of service without professing to comprehend it. It is not my purpose to write a treatise on this complex arrangement. I wish only to call attention to the operation of a few parts of the mechanism which seem to me to require alteration, and to show how they tend to diminish the authority, weight, and dignity of the House, and how they have deprived that illustrious body of the equality with the Senate which the framers of the Constitution contemplated.

The representatives of the large States in the Convention of 1787 contended earnestly for the apportionment of representation. among the States in both branches according to numbers. The representatives of the small States demanded equality of representation in the Senate. This difference seemed for a long time inca

VOL. CXXVIII.-No. 267.

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pable of adjustment, and nearly caused the Convention to break up without accomplishing its purpose. The difficulty was compromised by the appointment of a committee of one from each State, whose report was adopted with some modification. The large States yielded the equality of representation in the Senate, but demanded and secured for the House the sole power of originating bills for raising revenue. The clause as reported was as follows:

All bills for raising or appropriating money, and for fixing the salaries of the officers of the Government of the United States, shall originate in the first branch of the Legislature, and shall not be altered or amended by the second branch; and no money shall be drawn from the public treasury but in pursuance of appropriations to be originated in the first branch.

In the second branch, each State shall have an equal vote.

The clause as to revenue bills was adopted in this form :

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills.

It will be observed that, while the Convention voted to confine the power of originating bills for raising revenue to the House, it with equal distinctness voted not to extend this prohibition to bills for appropriating money. The system so established differs from the Constitution of England in three essential particulars: In England, no appropriation for a public purpose can be introduced in the House of Commons without a previous request from the Crown; no money bill can be amended by the Lords; and the exclusive prerogative of the Commons extends to all bills for raising or appropriating money. So jealous are the Commons of this prerogative, that the Lords rarely attempt to make any but verbal alterations in money bills, in which the sense or intention is not affected ; and, when the Commons accept these, they make special entries on their journals recording the character and object of the amendments, and their reasons for agreeing to them.

There is no historical evidence that anybody in the Convention gave much consideration to the effect of these changes from the English system upon the value of the prerogative. The better opinion was, that the importance of the privilege, as asserted by the English Commons, was very much exaggerated, and that American experience in those States whose constitutions contained a like provision had shown that it was without advantage, and was a fruitful source of wrangling between the two Houses. Mr. Madison

said: "I confess I see nothing of concession in it. The originating money bills is no concession on the part of the smaller States, for, if seven States in the second branch should want such a bill, their interest in the first branch will prevail to bring it forward. It is nothing more than a nominal privilege."

This is one of the few subjects upon which General Washington's vote is recorded: "He disapproved, and till now voted against, the exclusive privilege. He gave up his judgment," he said, "because it was not of very material weight with him, and was made an essential point with others, who, if disappointed, might be less content in other points of real weight."

Similar views were expressed by many of the most eminent members. Three of the larger States, to whom this privilege was offered as a concession, by way of equivalent for the equality of the small States in the Senate, voted against it as an independent proposition. Mr. Hallam, in his "Constitutional History," expresses a similar opinion as to the exaggeration by the House of Commons of the importance of their exclusive privilege. If this view was sound when the scheme was to deny all power of amendment to the Senate, it has infinitely greater weight after the power of amendment has been yielded. The pocket of the Englishman is protected against lavish expenditure by the fact that no sixpence of his money can be granted for a public purpose that has not first been asked for by the Crown, on the advice of a responsible and accountable minister, and because none of his possessions can be made the subject of tax, excise, or duty, unless the proposal come from his own representative. The assent of the sovereign and the Lords is only needed to give the force of law to what is the gift of the free will of the Commons.

To the system established by our Constitution, widely departing as it did from the methods by which the unwritten constitutional law of England keeps the power of the purse in the hands of her Majesty's faithful Commons, two important additions have been made by construction. It should be stated that, whenever a question has arisen between the two branches in regard to the construction of this clause in the Constitution, the House of Representatives has invariably had its own way. It was said by Mr. Webster, in the Senate, in 1833: "The constitutional question must be regarded as important, but it was one which could not be settled by the Senate. It was purely a question of privilege, and the decision of it belonged alone to the House."