GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS 



591 



a new Constitution was adopted. Since that 

 year numerous amendments nave been made, 

 but all of minor importance. To amend the Cali- 

 fornia Constitution it is necessary only to secure 

 a two-thirds majority in each branch of the 

 Legislature, and a simple majority vote for the 

 amendments at the next popular election. 

 II H- State Legislature is composed of the 

 Senate, a body of forty members, elected for 



of four years half the number being 

 elected each two years and the Assembly, 

 eighty members, elected for two years. The 

 qualifications for eligibility to the Senate or 

 Assembly are citizenship of the State for three 



ind residence in the district for one year. 

 Neither house of the Legislature possesses any 

 advantage over the other in originating legisla- 

 tion. Certain of the governor's appointments 

 must be submitted to the Senate for approval. 

 In impeachment cases the Assembly brings the 

 impeachment, and it is tried by the Senate. 

 The present Constitution contains numerous 

 specific prohibitions of local and special laws, 

 - forbidding them in all cases where a 

 general law can be made applicable. In 1870 



\vas adopted a complete set of codes 

 political, civil, civil procedure, and penal 

 and these have been subject to amendment at 

 each session of the Legislature. At the session 

 of 1905 the penal code and code of civil pro- 

 cedure were revised. The term of office of 

 the governor is four years. He possesses 

 supreme executive authority, issues all com- 

 missions, is commander-in-chief of the army 

 and navy, and is charged with responsibility to 

 that all laws are faithfully executed. All 



boards and commissions, with two or 

 three exceptions, are filled by his appointment, 

 the concurrence of the Senate being required 



sin instances, and in others not. He is 

 empowered to grant pardons, but where a 

 person has been more than once convicted 

 there is required the assent of a majority 

 of tin- ju-tices of the Supreme Court. The 

 d with authority to call the 



it ure together in extraordinary session. 

 During sessions of the Legislature the governor 



>-to any bill which has passed, and it does 



ome law unless it again passes, and by a 

 two- thirds vote in each house. Besides the 

 ir" vernor and secretary of state the other 

 uliir i.ils are the lieutenant-governor, who is 



MI: oiiirer of the Senate, the State con- 

 troller, tin- attorney-general, the State treas- 

 yor- general, who is also 



irof the land olhce. the su|>erintendent 

 of puMic iii-tnirtiiin, and the State printer. 

 Th most important State boards and com- 

 missions are: The board of education 

 board of regents of the university, appointed 

 for terms of sixteen year 



board of prison directors, appointed by 

 the governor for terms of ten y.-ars and having 



control of the penitentiaries; the State 

 board of equalization, elected at gener 



md dealing with the assessment of prop- 

 for revenue purposes; the railroad com- 



M. elected and vested with auth< 

 regulate railroad charges: the bank commis- 

 'atc board of health, the insurance 



commission, and the commission of public 

 works, the State board of charities and cor- 

 rections, board of agriculture, and the com- 

 mission in lunacy. The last-named, which is 

 an ex-oflicio commission made up of State 



] officers, controls the .hospitals for the insane. 

 California is divided into fifty-seven counties, 

 one of which San Francisco has a com- 

 bined county and city government; the other 

 fifty-six have county governments distinct from 

 the government of the cities and towns which 

 they contain. County governments are created 



! by the Legislature by general act. In each 

 county government the legislative authority is 

 vested in a board of supervisors of five mem- 

 bers elected from districts. The other county 

 officers, with few exceptions, are also elective. 

 City charters are framed by boards of free- 

 holders elected for that purpose; are submitted 

 to the voters of the cities for which they are 

 framed, and must afterwards be ratified by the 



1 Legislature. Towns are incorporated by vote 



I of their inhabitants under a general municipal 

 corporations act, providing Tor six different 

 classes of corporations, according to population. 

 Canada. The Dominion of Canada origi- 

 nally consisted of the two provinces of Canada 

 Upper and Lower Nova Scotia an< I 

 Brunswick, but the "British North American 

 Act," which was passed in 1867, not only pro- 

 vided for the consolidation of these provinces, 

 but made provision for the admission of British 

 Columbia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest 

 Territories and Newfoundland, a privilege of 

 which Newfoundland alone has not availed her- 

 self. In accordance with this act of consolidation 

 the Constitution of the Dominion is "similar in 

 principle to that of the United Kingdom," and, 

 while the executive authority is vested in the 

 British Sovereign, the legislative power* of the 

 Dominion is exercised by a Parliament of two 

 Houses the Senate and the House of Com- 

 mons. Each province forming the Dominion 

 has a separate Parliament and administration, 

 a lieutenant-governor being at the head of all 

 provincial bodies. The Senate of the Dominion 

 is composed of eighty-one members, who have 

 been nominated for life. Each must be at lea^t 

 30 years of age. a born or naturalized sub- 

 ject and possessed of $4.000 worth of proper! v 

 in the province from which lie was appointed. 

 The 213 members of the House are elected by 

 the vote of their constituencies, the electors of 

 which arc qualified by the act of each provincial 

 assembly. The Speaker of the Senate ami 

 House each receives a salary of $4,000, while 

 each member of the two houses is granted a 

 session allowance of SI..MMI. with ten cents per 



In cases of absence, 



except for sickness, the sum of $8 per diem is 

 deducted. The < ;..veni..r General, who receives 

 a salary of $50,000 I*T annum, is appointed 

 by the Federal (iovernment for a term of five 

 md he is assisted in his functions by a 

 council composed of fourteen heads of depart- 

 ments, each of whom receives a salary of $7,000 

 nn. except the Premier, who has a salary 

 of $8,000 per annum. The heads of departments 

 are as foil. 



1. /Vernier and Pretident of the Council. 



