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The legislative power of the commonwealth is vested in a General

Assembly consisting of a Senate and House of Delegates.

LEGISLATIVE POWER is the power to legislate or make LAWS, hence the General Assembly is the LEGISLATURE of Virginia. COMMONWEALTH, which means COMMON WELL-BEING, or common good, is a name sometimes given to a State or country which has a republican form of government—that is, a government in which the people are the supreme power, and in which all the people have common (that is, equal) interests and common rights. CONSISTING means formed or made up of.

A DELEGATE is a person appointed or elected by others to do business for them as their representative. The members of the House of Delegates are elected by the people of the State to represent and act for them in the business of making laws.

The Senate.

Number. There are forty Senators, from thirty-nine senatorial districts. The Lieutenant-Governor is the presiding officer.

Elected. By the people; one-half being chosen every two years

until the general election in 1907. At that time, and every four

years thereafter, the entire senate will be chosen at one time for

a term of four years.

Qualifications. A Senator must be an actual resident of the district for which he is elected; must be legally qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly; must hold no salaried office under the State government.

Powers. Shall select its own officers; choose from its own body, in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor, or when he exercises the office of Governor, a president PRO TEMPORE; confirms or rejects nominations; has sole power to try impeachment.

SENATORIAL DISTRICTS are the districts into which a State is divided for the election of senators. There are thirty-nine districts in Virginia, and each of them elects one senator, except the district formed of Richmond and the County of Henrico, which elects two. PRESIDING OFFICER is a person who PRESIDES or acts as president or chairman in any assembly or meeting.

A candidate for the Senate must be LEGALLY QUALIFIED TO VOTE for members of the General Assembly. This means that he must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of Virginia for two years, and have the other legal qualifications of voters as required by the Constitution.

PRO TEMPORE is a Latin phrase meaning FOR THE TIME—that is, for a short time or temporarily. The Senate elects one of its own members to preside PRO TEMPORE if the lieutenant-governor happen to be absent, or when he is called upon to act as governor. (See under Powers and Duties of governor, page 28.) The Senate has the power to CONFIRM OR REJECT NOMINATIONS. Many public officers of the State are appointed by the governor, but when he nominates or NAMES a person for a public office he sends the nomination to the Senate, and it may confirm—that is, approve of—the nomination, or it may reject it. If it should reject the nomination, the person nominated is not appointed.

IMPEACHMENT means a charge of dishonesty or serious neglect of duty made against a public official. In an impeachment it is the House of Delegates which must make the charge and act as prosecutor, but it is the Senate which must try the case and pass sentence on the accused, if proved guilty.

House of Delegates.

Number. Composed of one hundred members apportioned by statute among the counties and cities of the State.

Elected. By the people for two years.

Qualifications. Same as for Senators.

Powers. Elects its own Speaker and all other officers; impeaches State officers, and prosecutes them before the Senate. The Clerk of the House of Delegates is also Keeper of the Rolls.

Apportioned means divided or distributed or allotted. A statute is any law, but the word is most commonly understood to mean a law made by a legislature representing the people. The number of delegates appointed to the counties and cities—that is, the number which each is entitled to elect—is decided by statute in proportion to the number of inhabitants.

The chairman of the House of Delegates is called the speaker. The same title is given to the presiding officer of the lower house in nearly every legislature in English-speaking countries.

The rolls are the statutes in written form as passed by the Assembly. A law when proposed in the Assembly is called a bill. To become a statute a bill must be voted on and have a majority three times in the House of Delegates and three times in the Senate and be signed by the governor. Then it is an act, or a Statute, or a law. The copy signed by the governor is an engrossed or written copy, and the official copies of the laws so engrossed are the rolls, and are preserved by the keeper of the rolls, who is the clerk of the House of Delegates.

General Assembly. (Senate and House jointly.)

Sessions. Biennial. Beginning the second Wednesday in January of every even year, and continuing sixty days. The session may be extended not exceeding thirty days. It may be convened in special session by the Governor.

The Senate and House of Delegates jointly—that is, both together —are called the General Assembly. Sessions means sittings or meetings for business, and biennial means happening once every two years. The General Assembly meets once every two years, and it does business for sixty days. If the business necessary to be done require more time, the session may be extended—that is, lengthened—thirty days. A special session is a session convened— that is, called to meet—for some special or particular business. The governor may convene such a session whenever he thinks it necessary.

Powers. General powers of legislation under the constitution. Elects U. S. Senators, County and City Electoral Boards, Auditor of Public Accounts, Second Auditor, Register of the Land Office, Superintendent of Public Printing, the Judges of the Commonwealth; decides contests in the election of Governor and Lieutenant- Governor; confirms or rejects nominations of certain officers made by the Governor, the State Board of Education, etc.

Powers means what the General Assembly has power to do. Legislation is the making of laws. The Assembly has powers of general legislation under the constitution—that is, of making all such laws as the constitution directs or does not forbid. (Explanations are given later on as to the boards and officers mentioned here which the General Assembly has power to elect.)

Contests—that is, disputes or differences—may occur in the election of governor and lieutenant-governor. There may be contests as to counting of votes or as to the qualifications of candidates. Such contests are decided by the General Assembly.

Membership. Each house settles its own rules of proceeding; is judge of the election, qualification, and returns of its members. Members are not subject to arrest under any civil process during the session of the General Assembly, nor for fifteen days next before the convening, and after the termination of each session; are privileged from arrest in all cases during the session, except for treason, felony, perjury, breach of the peace, or a contempt of court of a criminal nature.

What is meant by each house being judge of the election, qualification, and returns of its members is, that it can decide whether the members are legally elected and qualified. Returns are the particulars as to names of candidates and the number of votes cast for each, which the election judges are required to make up after the close of the poll on election day. The qualifications necessary for a member of either house are as follows: he must be twenty-one years of age or over, and a voter of the State of Virginia, and he must reside in the district for which he is elected.

Civil process is a law-proceeding in a case where no crime is charged, but such as for the recovering of a debt or for the settlement of a difference relating to business matters. Perjury is the crime of wilfully making a false oath. When a person appears as a witness in a court of law he has to take an oath that he will tell the truth. If after taking such oath he tells what he knows to be untrue, he is guilty of perjury.

A breach of the peace is any act of violence which causes public disturbance, such as one person assaulting another and thereby causing a quarrel or riot.

Contempt of court is disobedience to the orders or decrees or rules of a court of law. Insult or violence to a judge in court would he criminal contempt.

Salaries. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates, each, $400; and the other members, each, $240 for attendance and service at each regular session; at all extra sessions, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates shall receive, each, $240, and the other members, each, $120. Members are entitled to mileage.

In addition to his salary each member of the Assembly receives ten cents per mile for expenses of traveling to and from the sessions of the Assembly. This allowance is called mileage.

Bills may originate in either of the two houses. No bill shall become a law until it has been read on three different days in each house except by a vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house.

Every bill which shall have passed the Senate and House of Delegates shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor; if he approve, he shall sign it and it is then a law, but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it originated; who shall proceed to reconsider it. If after such consideration two-thirds of the members present shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent to the other house, by which it shall be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of all the members present, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the objections of the Governor.

He may also veto any particular item of an appropriation bill, but this item may also be passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of both houses.

If any bill shall not be returned by the Governor within five days after it shall have been presented to him, it shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it.

A bill is a draft or statement of a proposed law. A bill may originate in either house—that is, it may be first proposed in either the Seriate or House of Delegates. Any senator or delegate who wishes to have a new law made must first put it in writing. Then he himself introduces or proposes it in the house of which he is a member, or it may be introduced by a committee.

A committee is a number of persons, usually not a large number, appointed by a legislature or other body to take charge of and attend to some particular business. The members of the House of Delegates and of the Senate are divided into committees, and some special subject or business is entrusted to each. For example, in the Senate there are committees on Privileges and Elections, Public Institutions and Education, and many other subjects; and in the House of Delegates there are committees on Courts of Justice, Schools and Colleges, and other subjects.

Usually proposals for new laws are referred for consideration to the committee having charge of the subject or business to which the proposed law relates. Committees in the Senate are elected by the senators themselves; committees in the House of Delegates are appointed by the speaker.

When a new law or bill is introduced it is either proposed by a committee, or by some member and given for consideration to a committee. In order to pass, it must be read three times on three different days (once each day) in the house in which it originates.

The first reading is the formal placing or presenting of the bill before the house. At the second reading the bill is discussed, and any member who wishes to say anything for or against it is at liberty to do so.

Amendments may also be proposed at the second reading. An amendment is an alteration or a change in the wording or matter of a bill. After an amendment is discussed the house votes upon it, and if a majority is for it, the change is made in the bill.

When all amendments are discussed and voted on, a vote is taken on the bill as a whole, and if a majority of the members vote for it, it is read a second time.

It is then engrossed, or written out, by the clerk of the house, and read a third time, after which a vote is again taken, and if there is a majority for it, it passes the house.

When the bill is passed in the house in which it originated, it is taken to the other house by the sergeant-at-arms. There it goes through the same forms of reading and discussion, and if it be read three times and have a majority in its favor it is passed. It is then enrolled, after which it is signed by the presiding officer in each house, and when this is done it is sent to the governor for his signature.

The sergeant-at-arms is an officer whose duty it is to preserve order in the chamber where the sessions of either house are held, to distribute among the members any papers or documents they may require, and in general to perform such services as are necessary for the proper transaction of business. Each house has its own sergeant-at-arms.

(For enrolling, see under House of Delegates, page 19.) The requirements with regard to a bill after it is sent to the governor are stated in the text above. (For the veto power of the governor, see page 28.)