pences of their Department, to give an account of the employment of the fums defined for that purpose, and to mention the abufes which may have crept into the different parts of the Governmeur.

VI. No Miniles, in or out of place, can be criminally profecuted for any tranfaction of his Administration without a decree of the Legiflative Body.

CHAPTER 111 OF THE EXERCISE OF
THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

SECTION I. Powers and Functions of the

Legiative National Affembly.

1. The Conflitution delegates exclufively to the Legislative Body the powers and functions following:

1. To propofe and decree laws: the King only can invite the Legiflative Body to take an object into.confideration.

2. To fix the public expences.

3. To eftablifh the public contributions, to determine the nature of them, the amount of each fort, and the mode of collection.

4. To make the diftribution of them among the feveral Departments of the kingdom, to watch over the application, and to demand an account of it.

5. To decree the creation or fuppreffion of public offices.

6. To determine the quality, the impresfion, and the denomination, of money.

7. To permit or prohibit the introduction of foreign troops into the French territories, and of foreign naval forces into the ports of this kingdom.

8. To vote annually, on the King's propofition, the number of men and ships of which the fea and land forces thall be compoted; the pay and the number of each rank; the rules of adminion and promotion; the forms of inrolment and difcharge; the formation of naval equipments; the admiffion of foreign troops or naval forces in the French fervice; and the pensions to troops on being difbanded.

9. To regulate the administration and the alienation of the national domains.

10. To profecute before the High National Court the Minifters and principal agents of the Executive Power on their refponfibility;

To accufe and profecute, before the fame Court, those who fhall be charged with any offence or confpiracy against the general fafety of the State or the Conftitution.

11. To establish the rules according to which marks of honour, or decorations merely perional, fhall be granted to thofe who have done fervice to the State.

12. The Legifiative Body has the fole right of decreeing pofthumous honours to the memory of great men.

11. War cannot be refolved on but by a decree of the National Affembly, palled on the formal and neceffary propofition of the King, and fanctioned by him:

In cafe of hoftilities, imminent or com-
GENT. MAC. Supplement, 1751.

menced, of an ally to be fupported, or a right to be maintained by force of arms, the King fhall give notification without deby to the Legislative Body, with an expian, tien f the reafons:

If the Legislative Body decide that war ought not to be made, the King fhall inftanth; take measures to prevent or put a ftop to hoftilities, the Minilters being refponfible for all delay:

If the Legislative Body find that the hofli. lities commenced are a culpable aggreffion on the part of Minifters, or any other agent of the Executive Power, the author of the aggreffion thall be profecuted criminally:'

During the whole course of war, the Legiflative Body may require the King to negotite peace; and the King is bound to yield to this requifition:

On the immediate conclufion of war, the Legiflative Body fhall fix the time within which the troops, levied above the peace establishment, fhall be difcharged, and the army reduced to its ordinary etablishment.

III. It belongs to the Legiflative Body to ratify treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce; and no treaty fhall have effect but by this ratification.

IV. The Legiflative Body has the right of determining the place of its fittings, of continuing them as long as it fhall think neceffary, and of adjourning; at the commencement of each reign, if it is not fitting, it fhall be bound to meet without delay:

It has the right of police in the place of its fitting, and to fuch extent around it as fhall be determined:

It has the right of difcipline over its Members; but it can pronounce no heavier punifhment than cenfure, arreft for eight days, or imprisonment for three :

It has the right of difpofing, for its fafety, and the respect that is due to it, of the forces which shall be established, by its confent, in the city where it fhall hold its fittings.

V. The Executive Power cannot march, or quarter, or itation, any troops of the line, except on the requifition, or by the authority, within 30,000 toifes of the Legislative Body, of that body.

SECTION 11.

Holding of the Sittings, and Form of deliberating.

I. The deliberations of the Legiflative Pody fhall be public, and the minutes of the fittings shall be printed.

11. The Legislative Body may, however, on any occafion, form itself into a General Committee;

Fifty members fhall have a right to de

mand it:

During the continuance of the General Committee, the affiftants fhall retire, the chair of the Prefident thall be vacant, order fhall be maintained by the Vice President :

The decree cannot be paffed except in a public fitting.

III. No

1202

New Conflitution of the French Government.

III. No Legislative act can be debated and decreed except in the following form:

IV. The plan of a decree fhall be read thrice, at three intervals, the fhorteft of which cannot be less than eight days:

V. The difcullion shall be open after every reading; nevertheless, after the first or fecond reading, the Legislative Body may declare that there is reafon for adjournment, or that there is no room for deliberation; in this laft cafe the plan of the decree may be introduced again in the fame fellion:

VI. After the third reading, the Prefident fhall be bound to propofe to their deliberation; and the Legislative Body fhall decide, whether they are qualified to pafs a definitive decree, or would rather chufe to poftpone their decifion, in order to gather more am. ple information on the fubject:

VII. The Legislative Body cannot deliberate if the fitting do not confift of at least 200 members; and no decree shall be made, except by the abfolute majority of votes:

VIII. No plan of a law which, after having been fubmitted to difcuffion, fhall have been rejected after the third reading, can again be introduced the fame feffion :

IX. The preamble of every definitive decree fhall announce, ft. the dates of thofe three fittings at which the plan of the decree was read; 2d. the decree by which it fhall have been appointed after the third reading to decide definitively:

X. The King fall refuse his fanction to the decrees whofe preamble fhall not atteft the obfervance of the above forms; if any of thofe decrees be fanétioned, the Minifters fhall neither put to it the feal, nor promulgate it; and their refpontibility in this refpect thell continue fix years;

XI. Excepting from thefe regulations, decrees recognized, and declared urgent by a previous deliberation of the Legislative Body; but they may be modified, or revoked, in the courfe of the fame teilion.

SECTION II. Of the Royal Sanction.

1. The decrees of the Legiflative Body are prefented to the King, who may refute them his allent.

II. In the cafe of a refufal of the Royal Aflent, that refufal is only fufpenfive. When the two following Legiflatures fhall fucceffely prefent the fame decree in the fame terms in which it was originally conceived, the King fhall be deemed to have given his fanction.

HII. The affent of the King is expreffed to each decree by the following formula, figned by the King: "The King contents, and will cause it to be executed."

The fulpenve refufal is thus expreffed:
The King will examine."

IV. The King is bound to exprefs his affent or refufal to each decree within two months after it shall have been prefented; after that period his filence is deemed a refufal.

V. No decree to which the King has re

[Suppl.

fufed his affent can be prefented to him by the fame Legislature.

VI. The Legislative Body cannot infert in decrees relative to the establishment or continuation of impofts, any regulation foreign to that fubject; nor present, at the fame time, for fanction, other decrees as infeparable.

VII. The decrees fanctioned by the King, and those which have been prefented to him by three fucceffive Legiflatures, alone have the force, and bear the name and title, of laws;

VIII. Exempting however from fanétion thofe acts of the Legislative Body which relate to its Constitution as a deliberating Affembly;

Its interior police;

The verification of the powers of the members prefent;

The injunctions to absent members, The Convocation of the Primary Affemblies in cafe of delay;

The exercife of Conftitutional Superintendence over the Administrators;

Questions of eligibility or the validity of elections;

Exempting likewife from fanction acts relative to the refponfibility of Minifters, and all decrees importing that there is ground of accufation.

SECTION IV. Connexion of the Legislative

Body with the King.

1. When the Legiflative Body is definitively conftituted, it thall fend a deputation to inform the King. The King may every year open the feffion, and propofe the ob jects, which, during its continuance, he thinks ought to be taken into confideration; this form, however, is not to be confidered as neceffary to the activity of the Legislative Body.

II. When the Legislative Body wishes to adjourn longer than fifteen days, it is bound to inform the King, by a deputation, at leaft eht days previous to the adjournment.

1. Fight days at least before the end of each fettion, the Legiflative Body thall fend a deputation to the King, to announce to him the day on which it propofes to terminate its fittings. The King may come in order to close the feflion.

IV. If the King find it of importance to the welfare of the State that the fetion be continued, or that the adjournment be put off, or take place only for a fhorter time, he may fend a mettage to this effect, on which the Legislative Body is bound to deliberate.

V. The King fhall convoke the Legisla tive Body, during the interval of its felhon, as often as the intereft of the State shall appear to him to require it, as well as in those cases which the Legiflative Body fhall have forefeen and determined previoas to their adjournment.

VI. Whenever the King fhall vifit the place of meeting of the Legislative Body, hẹ thall be received and conducted back by a

deputation;

deputation; he cannot be accompanied into the inner part of the hall by any except Minifters.

VII. The Prefident can in no cafe form part of a deputation.

VIII. The Legislative Pody shall cense to be a deliberating body whilt the King thail be present.

IX. The acts of correfpondence of the King with the Legitive Body fhall be always counterfigned by a Minifter.

X. The Minifters of the King fhall have admition into the Legiflative National Affembly; they fhall have a particular place; they shall be heard on all the fubjects on which they demand a hearing, and as often as they shall be called upon to give explana

CHAPTER IV. OF THE EXERCISE OF
THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

1. The Supreme Executive Power refides exclufively in the hands of the King.

The King is the Supreme Head of the General Adminiftration of the kingdom; the care of watching over the maintenance of public order and tranquillity is entruited to him.

The King is the Supreme Head of the land

V. The Executive Power is bound to fend the laws to the Administrative Kodies and Courts of Juftice, to fee that they are fo fent, and to anfwer for it to the Legislative Body.

VI. The Executive Power cannot make any law, not even provitional, but merely proclamations, conformable to the laws, to ordain or enforce the execution.

SECTION II. G the Interior
Adminiftration.

I. There is in each department a Superior Administration, and in each diftrict a Subordinate Administration.

11. The Adminiftrators have no character of reprefentation.

The agents are chofen for a time by the people to exercife, under their fuperintendence, and the authority of the law the admi niftrative functions.

III. They can affume no authority over judicial

1204

New Conflitution of the French Government.

judicial proceedings, or over military difpofitions and operations.

IV. It belongs to the Legislative Power to determine the extent and the rules of their functions.

V. The King has the right of annulling fuch acts of the Administrators of Department as are contrary to the law, or the orders tranfmitted to them.

He may, in cafe of obftinate difobedience, or of their endangering, by their acts, the filety or peace of the publick, fufpend them from their functions.

VI. The Adminiftrators of Department have alfo the right of annuiling the acts of Sub-adminiftrators of District contrary to the laws or decrees of Adminiftrators of Department, ce to the orders which the latter fhall have given or tranfmitted. They may Likewife, in cafe of an obitinate difobedience on the part of the Sub-administrators, or if the latter endanger, by their acts, the public fafety or tranquillity, fufpend them from their functions, with the referve of inform1g the King, who may remove or confirm the fufpenfion.

VII. The King, if the Adminiftrators of Department shall not use the power which is delegated to them in the article above, may directly annul the acts of Sub-adminiftrators, and fufpend them in the fame cafes.

VIII. Whenever the King fhall pronounce or confirm the fufpenfion of Adminiftrators, or Sub-administrators, he fhall inform the Legiflative Body.

This Body may either remove or confirm the fufpenfion, or even diffolve the culpable Administration; and, if there be ground, remit all the Adminiftrators, or fome of them, to the Criminal Tribunals, or enforce against them the Decree of Accufation.

SECTION III. f Exterior Connexions.

1. The King alone can interfere in Foreign Political Connexions, conduct Negoti ations, make preparations of war proportioned to thofe of the neighbouring States, diftribute the land and fea forces as he fhall judge moft fuitable, and regulate their direction in cafe of war.

II. Every Declaration of War fhall be made in thefe terms: "By the King of the French, in the name of the Nation"

III. it belongs to the King to refolve and fign, with all Foreign Powers, all Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce, and other Conventions which he shall judge necoffry for the welfare of the state, with a referve for the ratification of the Legiflative Body.

CHAPTER V. Of the Judicial Power. 1. The Judicial Power can in no cafe be exercifed either by the Legulative Body or the King.

11. Justice fball be gratuitoutly rendered by judges chien for a time by the people, inftituted by Letters Patent of the King, and

o cannot be depofed, except from a for

[Suppl.

feiture duly judged, or fufpended, except from an accufation admitted.

II. The Tribunals cannot either interfere in the exercife of the Legiflative Power, or fufpend the execution of the laws, or undertake the administrative functions, or cite before them the adminiftrators on account of their functions.

IV. No Citizens can be withdrawn from the Judges whom the law aligns to them by any commiffion, or by any other attributions or evocations than thofe which are determined by thel.w.

V. The orders flued for executing the judgements of the Tribunals thall be conceived in these terms:

"N. (the name of the King), by the Grace of God, and by the Constitutional Law of the State, King of the French, to all prefent and to come, greeting: The Tribunal of has patfed the following judgement:"

[Here fhall follow a copy of the judgement.]

"We charge and enjoin all Officers, upon the prefent demand, to put the fame judgement into execution, to our Committioners of the Tribunals to enforce the fame, and to all the Commanders and Officers of the Public Force to be aflitting with their force, when it shall be legally required: In witnefs of which, the prefent judgement has been fealed and figned by the Prefident of the Tribunal, and by the Regifter."

The

VI. There shall be one or more Judges of Peace in the cantons and in the cities. number thall be determined by the Legislative

Power.

VII. It belongs to the Legislative Power to regulate the diftricts of Tribunals, and the number of Judges of which each Tribunal thall be compofed.

VIII. In criminal matters no Citizen can be judged except on an accufation received by Jurors, or decreed by the Legillative Body in the cafes in which it belongs to it to profecute the accufation.

After the accufation fhall be admitted, the fact thall be examined, and declared by the Jurors:

The accufer fhall have the privilege of rejecting twenty:

The Jurors who declare the fact shall not be fewer than twelve:

The application of the law fhall be made by all the Judges:

The procefs thall be public:

No man, acquitted by a legal Jury, can be apprehended or accufed on account of the fame fact.

IX. For the whole kingdom there thall be one Tribunal of Appeal, establimbed near the Legiflative Body. Its functions shall be to pronounce,

On appeals from the judgement of the
Tribunals;

On appeals from the judgement of one
Tribunal