[429] People _v._ Ruggles, 8 Johns (N. Y.), 290. The exemption from taxation of property belonging to religious bodies (corporations) is not because of any fundamental right of such bodies to exemption, but because of the will of the legislature. It is a matter of policy. [430] The winning of these and other fundamental rights is largely the subject of English constitutional history. [431] So expressed in many State constitutions, as Pennsylvania, 1873, i., 7. [432] A right fully established at the trial of the Seven Bishops, 1688. [433] United States _v._ Cruikshank, 92 U. S., 542 (1875). [434] West _v._ Cabell, 153 U. S., 78; Weeks _v._ U. S., 232 U. S., 383; _Ex parte_ Milligan, 4 Wallace, 2; U. S. _v._ Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co., 236 U. S., 318; U. S. _v._ Boyd, 116 U. S., 616 (the leading case), and Cotting _v._ Kansas City Stock Yards Co., 183 U. S., 79 (1901). [435] Paul _v._ Virginia, 8 Wallace, 168 (1808); Blake _v._ McClung, 172 U. S., 239 (1898); Lockner _v._ New York, 198 U. S., 45 (1905). [436] The rights of the person, and his or her rights of property are the essential subject of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments. Similar provisions are included in the Bills of Rights in the State constitutions. [437] Corfield _v._ Coryell, 4 Washington C. C., 371; Slaughter House Cases 16 Wallace, 36. [438] This act of sovereignty is so rare as almost to be unknown. In America the act takes the form of an amendment to the Constitution. [439] The forty-eight States have had, in the aggregate, some one hundred and twenty-five constitutions, and to these have been added some three hundred amendments (1776–1917). The federal Constitution has been amended seventeen times (1787–1913). [440] Downes _v._ Bidwell, 182 U. S., 244 (1901). [441] Pfeiffer _v._ Board of Education of the City of Detroit, 77 N. W. Rep., 250 (1898). [442] Reynolds _v._ United States, 89 U. S., 145 (1878). [443] Boyd _v._ United States, 116 U. S., 616 (1886). (Important historical data given in this case.) [444] Robertson _v._ Baldwin, 165 U. S., 275 (1897). [445] Cooley, _Constitutional Limitations_, 353; _Ex parte_ Wall, 107 U. S., 265 (1883). Murray’s Lessee _v._ The Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, 18 Howard, 272 (1855), considered the leading case. [446] Hurtado _v._ California, 110 U. S., 516 (1884). [447] Yick Wo _v._ Hopkins (San Francisco Laundry Cases), 118 U. S., 356 (1886). [448] Pembina Mining Company _v._ Pennsylvania, 125 U. S., 181 (1888). Barbier _v._ Connolly, 113 U. S., 27 (1885). Holden _v._ Hardy, 169 U. S., 366 (1898). But an act making it a criminal offense to employ a female in any clothing factory more than forty-eight hours in any one week violates the Fourteenth Amendment as violating the right of contract and being class legislation: Ritchie _v._ State, 155 Illinois, 98 (1895). [449] Dent _v._ West Virginia, 129 U. S., 114 (1889). And cases cited.