LEGISLATURE. That body of citizens in any State or nation, or part thereof, which specifically empowered to make, alter, and repeal the laws. In some countries, however, the power of the legislature is more or less restricted by what is known as the organic law of those coun tries. In ancient systems of government. legisla tures were not well developed, though in Athens there was an assembly known as the Ecelesia, and in Rome there were various councils, which exer cised many of the functions which belong to a modern legislature. In the later Roman Empire the chief source of legislation was the Emperor. In the Germanic tribes there were councils, which all freemen could attend. and these survived for a long time in some cases, as for example the Witenagemot (q.v.) among the Anglo-Saxons. though its powers- were curtailed. Likewise the origin of the Spanish Cortes has been traced to the early Middle Ages, but in general, legislative power ultimately rested during the Middle Ages in the King or the feudal noble. In the Holy Roman Empire, the imperial Diet possessed a shadow of legislative authority. Of the medheval legislatures, the English Parliament is of the most importance. because it was the only one to attain a complete development. It developed out of the Saxon tVitenagemot and its successor the Norman Royal Council. "Until the thirteenth cen tury, however, it represented only the higher nobility and clergy and possessed little or no independent authority. During the reign of Henry III, members from the counties and towns representing the gentry and the burghers were admitted. and, in the struggles which followed over the arbitrary exactions of the King, Parlia ment, as the new body now came to be called, gained increasing power and finally took over from the King the greater part of the legislative authority hitherto exercised by him. It first asserted the right to raise taxes, then to the purposes for which they were to he expended. then to inquire into the abuses of the adminis tration and impeaeh the King's responsible minis ters for misconduct. Next it asserted the right to share with the King the law-making power, and to give its resolutions precedence in author ity over royal ordinances, and finally it sneccedecl in establishing its right to freedom from inter ference from the royal authority and the right to determine upon the qualifications and elections of its own members.
In the English dominions in America legisla tures modeled upon the Parliament of the mother country came to be established in every colony. At the time of the adoption of the National Con stitution these bodies were bicameral in form in all the States except Georgia and Pennsyl vania, the Lower House everywhere being an exclusively popular body. From the first there
was a clear-cut distinction between legislative, executive, and judicial powers, and the early constitutions almost without exception expressly required that each set of functions should be exercised by a separate and independent organ oc government. The only legislative power left to the Governor was the right to veto bills and recommend the enactment of laws which seemed to him wise and needful.
At the end of the eighteenth century the po litical reformers on the European Continent looked to the institutions of England for their in spiration, so that during the course of the nine teenth century most of the countries of Conti nental Europe adopted written constitutions of government providing for legislative bodies, par tially representative at least. and vested with the greater part of the legislative power and often modeled closely upon the English Parliament. In seine of the Continental States, particularly France, Germany, and Italy, the chief executive still has a large ordinance power which is not only used to fill in the details of legislative acts, but even to supplement them in some cases. Such ordinances, however, are always subject to altera tion or repeal by the statutes. So far as the general principles of legislative organization and procedure are concerned, it may he said that the European and American States have pretty nearly reached a consensus of opinion. In all the countries of America and Europe where legisla-' tire bodies exist, except in some of the Balkan and Central American States, the bicameral sys tem has been adopted as having substantial ad vantages over the old three-chambered bodies of estates, on the one hand, and the simrle-cliam hered legislatures on the other. There is also substantial agreement that the lower houses shall be popular bodies and consequently vested with the initiation of financial and revenue measures. With this exception the two houses everywhere enjoy substantial equality of powers in legisla tion. It is a general principle, however, that the upper houses shall also be vested with certain ad ministrative or judicial functions such as the trial of impeachments preferred h,v the lower houses, the ratification of treaties, the confirma tion of appointments to office. the issue of admin istrative regulations. etc. Similar distinctions in favor of the upper houses exist in the case of the local legislatures of the United States.