[Footnote 6:  Bryce, American Commonwealth, vol. i. pp. 243, 415.]

[Sidenote:  Abnormal development of the state constitution, encroaching upon the province of the legislature.] [Sidenote:  The Swiss “Referendum” 196] Before pursuing this subject, we may observe that American state constitutions have altered very much in character since the first part of the present century.  The earlier constitutions were confined to a general outline of the organization of the government.  They did not undertake to make the laws, but to prescribe the conditions under which laws might be made and executed.  Recent state constitutions enter more and more boldly upon the general work of legislation.  For example, in some states they specify what kinds of property shall be exempt from seizure for debt, they make regulations as to railroad freight-charges, they prescribe sundry details of practice in the courts, or they forbid the sale of intoxicating liquors.  Until recently such subjects would have been left to the legislatures, no one would have thought of putting them into a constitution.  The motive in so doing is a wish to put certain laws into such a shape that it will be difficult to repeal them.  What a legislature sees fit to enact this year it may see fit to repeal next year.  But amending a state constitution is a slow and cumbrous process.  An amendment may be originated in the legislature, where it must secure more than a mere majority—­perhaps a three fifths or two thirds vote—­in order to pass; in some states it must be adopted by two successive legislatures, perhaps by two thirds of one and three fourths of the next; in some states not more than one amendment can be brought before the same legislature; in some it is provided that amendments must not be submitted to the people oftener than once in five years; and so on.  After the amendment has at length made its way through the legislature, it must be ratified by a vote of the people at the next general election.  Another way to get a constitution amended is to call a convention for that purpose.  In order to call a convention, it is usually necessary to obtain a two thirds vote in the legislature; but in some states the legislature is required at stated intervals to submit to the people the question of holding such a convention, as in New Hampshire every seven years; in Iowa, every ten years; in Michigan, every sixteen years; in New York, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia, every twenty years.[7] A convention is a representative body elected by the people to meet at some specified time and place for some specified purpose, and its existence ends with the accomplishment of that purpose.  It is in this occasional character that the convention differs from an ordinary legislative assembly.  With such elaborate checks against hasty action, it is to be presumed that if a law can be once embodied in a state constitution, it will be likely to have some permanence.  Moreover, a direct vote by the people gives a weightier sanction to a