are sometimes mixed up with greater ones in these Constitutions is a provision that no tax shall be imposed on any citizen for the privilege of taking oysters, but the sale of oysters may be taxed.

No debt shall be incurred by the State except to meet casual deficits, to redeem previous liabilities, to repress insurrection, or to defend the State in time of war (rather wide and elastic provisions); and every debt incurred must be accompanied by provision for a sinking fund.

Payments of debts incurred by the usurping authorities during the war is strictly forbidden. The credit of the State is not to be granted to any person or corporation. The State is not to subscribe to any company, nor to be a party to any work of internal improvement, nor to engage in carrying on any such work.

The homestead privilege extends to the value of $2,000 of real or personal property, but this shall not interfere with sale of the property in virtue of a mortgage. The Legislature is to pass laws regarding the setting apart and holding homesteads in future.

ILLINOIS.

The Constitution of Illinois is supposed to be a model of modern wisdom. Some distinguished Englishmen have, I believe, taken part in moulding it to its present shape, and much philosophy and learning have been bestowed on it.

Under the original Constitution of 1818 every adult white male had the suffrage, but blacks were excluded both from the suffrage and from the militia.

Under the amended Constitution of 1848 the Legislature was authorised to make laws to prohibit persons of colour from immigrating into the State.

It was not till 1870 that all colour distinctions were abolished.

By the original Constitution, sect. 16 of every township (that is, one mile square) was set apart for education, and a whole township was granted for the support of a seminary of higher learning. The United States also agreed to set apart for education 5 per cent. of the price of all public lands sold within the limits of the State.

The present Constitution is that of 1870. It is rather long, but I append all the essential parts of it, omitting only those which are not of general interest and importance. It may, I think, be of interest to my readers to see the most improved form of an American State Constitution. It commences with a Bill of Rights, laying down general principles in a modernised form; but as in their general effect these are not radically different from the Virginian Bill of Rights, which I have already given, I omit this part of the Illinois Constitution. For the rest I leave it to speak for itself:

CONSTITUTION OF 1870.

Adopted in Convention May 13, 1870; ratified by the people July 2, 1870; in force August 8, 1870.

PREAMBLE.-We, the people of the State of Illinois-grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political, and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavours to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations-in order to form a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State of Illinois.

ARTICLE III.

DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS.

The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments-the legislative, executive, and judicial; and no person, or collection of persons, being one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.

ARTICLE IV.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

§ 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives, both to be elected by the people.

ELECTION.

§ 2. An election for members of the general assembly shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year of our Lord 1870, and every two years thereafter, in each county, at such places therein as may be provided by law. When vacancies occur in either house, the governor, or person exercising the powers of governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

ELIGIBILITY.

§ 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, or a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years. No person shall be a senator or representative who shall not be a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have been for five years a resident of this state, and for two years next preceding his election a resident within the territory forming the district from which he is elected. No judge or clerk of any court, secretary of state, attorney-general, state's attorney, recorder, sheriff, or collector of public revenue, member of either house of congress, or person holding any lucrative office under the United States or this state, or any foreign government, shall have a seat in the general assembly Provided, that appointments in the militia, and the offices of notary public and justice of the peace, shall not be considered lucrative. Nor shall any person, holding any office of honour or profit under any foreign government, or under the government of the United States (except postmasters whose annual compensation does not exceed the sum of $300), hold any office of honour or profit under the authority of this State.

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§ 4. No person who has been, or hereafter shall be, convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, nor any person who has been or may be a collector or holder of public moneys, who shall not have accounted for and paid over, according to law, all such moneys due from him, shall be eligible to the general assembly, or to any office of profit or trust in this state.

APPORTIONMENT-SENATORIAL.

§ 6. The general assembly shall apportion the state every ten years, beginning with the year 1871, by dividing the population of the state, as ascertained by the federal census, by the number 51, and the quotient shall be the ratio of representation in the

senate. The state shall be divided into 51 senatorial districts, each of which shall elect one senator, whose term of office shall be four years. The senators elected in the year of our Lord 1872, in districts bearing odd numbers, shall vacate their offices at the end of two years, and those elected in districts bearing even numbers, at the end of four years; and vacancies occurring by the expiration of term, shall be filled by the election of senators for the full term. Senatorial districts shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory, bounded by county lines, and contain, as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants; but no district shall contain less than four-fifths of the senatorial ratio. Counties containing not less than the ratio and threefourths, may be divided into separate districts, and shall be entitled to two senators, and to one additional senator for each number of inhabitants equal to the ratio contained by such counties in excess of twice the number of said ratio.

MINORITY REPRESENTATION.

§§ 7 and 8. The house of representatives shall consist of three times the number of the members of the senate, and the term of office shall be two years. Three representatives shall be elected in each senatorial district at the general election in the year of our Lord 1872, and every two years thereafter. In all elections of representatives aforesaid, each qualified voter may cast as many votes for one candidate as there are representatives to be elected, or may distribute the same, or equal parts thereof, among the candidates, as he shall see fit; and the candidates highest in votes shall be declared elected.

TIME OF MEETING AND GENERAL RULES.

9. The sessions of the general assembly shall commence at twelve o'clock noon, on the Wednesday next after the first Monday in January, in the year next ensuing the election of members thereof, and at no other time, unless as provided by this constitution. A majority of the members elected to each house shall constitute a quorum. Each house shall determine the rules of its proceedings, and be the judge of the election returns and qualifications of its members; shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president to preside when the lieutenant-governor shall not attend as president or shall act as governor. The secretary of state shall call the house of representatives to order at the opening of each new assembly, and

preside over it until a temporary presiding officer thereof shall have been chosen and shall have taken his seat. No member shall be expelled by either house except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to that house, and no member shall be twice expelled for the same offence. Each house may punish, by imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect to the house by disorderly or contemptuous behaviour in its presence. But no such imprisonment shall extend beyond twenty-four hours at one time, unless the person shall persist in such disorderly or contemptuous behaviour.

§ 10. The doors of each house, and of committees of the whole, shall be kept open, except in such cases as, in the opinion of the house, require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, or to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be published. In the senate at the request of two members, and in the house at the request of five members, the yeas and nays shall be taken on any question, and entered upon the journal. Any two members of either house shall have liberty to dissent from and protest, in respectful language, against any act or resolution which they think injurious to the public or to any individual, and have the reasons of their dissent entered upon the journals.

STYLE OF LAWS AND PASSAGE OF BILLS.

§ 11. The style of the laws of this state shall be: "Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly."

§ 12. Bills may originate in either house, but may be altered, amended or rejected by the other; and on the final passage of all bills, the vote shall be by yeas and nays, upon each bill separately, and shall be entered upon the journal; and no bill shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each house.

§ 13. Every bill shall be read at large on three different days, in each house; and the bill and all amendments thereto shall be printed before the vote is taken on its final passage; and every bill, having passed both houses, shall be signed by the speakers. thereof. No act hereafter passed shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. But if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be so expressed; and no law shall be revived or amended