and in 1899 a further
amendment instituted a system of proportional representation.
Otherwise, the instrument stands to-day virtually as it was put into
operation in 1831. It need hardly be remarked that, in Belgium as
elsewhere, the written constitution does not by any means contain the
whole of the actually operative political system. Numerous aspects of
parliamentarism, and of other well-established governmental forms and
practices, depend for their sanction upon the conventions, rather than
upon the law, of the constitution; but they are none the less real and
enduring.

*589. Content and Amendment.*--The written constitution of Belgium, like
that of Holland, is comprehensive in scope. It comprises an extended
bill of rights; a detailed definition of the framework of the national
executive, legislative, and judicial departments; special provisions
relating to finance and the army; and an enumeration of the principles
underlying the provincial and communal administration. It contains a
total of 139 articles, of which eight, being temporary in character,
are inoperative. The process of amendment is identical with that which
prevails in Holland. Upon declaration by the legislative chambers to
the effect that a specified amendment is desirable, the chambers are
_ipso facto_ dissolved. If the chambers thereupon elected approve the
proposition by a two-thirds vote, and the sovereign accords it his
sanction, it is declared adopted.[746]

[Footnote 746: Art. 131. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, I., 146. The text of the
constitution of Belgium, in English translation, is
printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 126-148,
and in the _Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science_, May, 1896,
Supplement (translation by J. M. Vincent). French
texts of the constitution and of important laws
will be found in F. Larcier, Code politique et
administratif de la Belgique (2d ed., Brussels,
1893). The standard commentary is J. J. Thonissen,
La constitution belge (3d ed., Brussels, 1879).
Works of value relating to the amendments of
1893-1894 are C. Thiebault et A. Henry, Commentaire
legislatif des articles revises de la constitution