No misconception in respect to the organization of the state, and of the functions of the various parts of its governmental machinery, is more prevalent than that the national assembly—the parliament, the congress, the legislative chambers, as the case may be—is simply, or primarily, a body for the formulation and passage of general laws for the determination of the rights and duties of the citizen body for which it acts. The enactment of public laws of this character is undoubtedly one of its functions, and, it needs scarcely be said, an exceedingly important one. That it is not its sole function, indeed, is not the one making the largest draft upon its time, is at once apparent if the attempt is made to analyse the work really done by it.