Page:A Brief History of the Constitution and Government of Massachusetts (1925).pdf/115

 broadly. Thus if one wants to have a law passed increasing the number of judges petition "for legislation relating to the judiciary, as set forth in the accompanying bill or for such other legislation in relation thereto as may be deemed necessary or advisable," and your bill can then be framed or amended at will to cover the number of judges, their powers, duties or anything else. It need not even be limited to any particular court. Any legislation relating to judges would be germane to such a petition.

In the same way, if one wants a law passed increasing the stock of a street railway company or extending its franchise rights in any other manner, there is no need of stating any specific request in the petition. The bill will state specifically what you want; and if the petition merely asks for legislation relative to street railways (in the manner stated in the foregoing paragraph), then the bill can be amended or expanded at will.

There are several ways of getting proposed legislation before the two Houses. The most common is by filing with the clerk of the Senate or with the clerk of the House a petition accompanied by a bill. Another way is to have a bill introduced on leave. This means that the applicant is a member of the General Court and he asks leave to introduce the bill. It is a purely formal matter, the presiding offer merely stating the fact that the Senator from such and such a county, or that Representative so and so, asks leave to introduce the following bill, and then the clerk reads the title of the bill, the vote on granting leave being taken as a perfunctory matter during routine business at the opening of the day's session.

In the case of a petition accompanied by a bill the petition