§. 154. If the legislative, or any part of it, be of representatives, chosen
for that time by the people, which afterwards return into the ordinary state of
subjects, and have no share in the legislative but upon a new choice, this
power of choosing must also be exercised by the people, either at certain
appointed seasons, or else when they are summoned to it; and, in this latter
case, the power of convoking the legislative is ordinarily placed in the
executive, and has one of these two limitations in respect of time: — that
either the original constitution requires their assembling and acting at
certain intervals; and then the executive power does nothing but ministerially
issue directions for their electing and assembling according to due forms; or
else it is left to his prudence to call them by new elections when the
occasions or exigencies of the public require the amendment of old or making of
new laws, or the redress or prevention of any inconveniencies that lie on or
threaten the people.
