Chapter II
Article 100. The Judicial power of the Supreme Court and the lower National-Tribunals, shall extend to all cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of the Nation with the reserve made in clause 11 of Article 67, and by treaties with foreign nations; to all cases affecting ambassadors, public Ministers and foreign Consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the Nation shall be party; to controversies between two or more Provinces; between a Province and the citizens of another; between the citizens of different Provinces; and between a Province or its citizens, against a foreign State or citizen.
Article 101. In these cases the Supreme Court shall exercise an appelate jurisdiction according to such rules and exceptions as Congress may prescribe; but in all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers and foreign consuls, or those in which a Province shall be a party, it shall exercise original and exclusive jurisdiction.
Article 102. The trial of all ordinary crimes except in cases of impeachment, shall terminate by jury, so soon as this institution be established in the Republic. These trials shall be held in the same Province where the crimes shall have been committed, but when not committed within the frontiers of the Nation, but against International Law, Congress shall determine by a special law the place where the trial shall take effect.
Article 103. Treason against the Nation shall only consist in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Congress shall fix by a special law the punishment of treason; but it cannot go beyond the person of the criminal, and no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood to relatives of any grade whatever.
Article 104. The Provinces keep all the powers not delegated by this Constitution to the Federal Government, and those which were expressly reserved by special compacts at the time of their incorporation.
Article 105. They create their own local institutions and are governed by these. They elect their own Governors, their Legislators and other Provincial functionaries, without intervention from the Federal Government.
Article 106. Each Province shall make its own Constitution in conformity with the dispositions of Article 5.
Article 107. The Provinces with the consent of Congress can celebrate contracts among themselves for the purposes of administering justice and promoting economical interests and works of common utility, and also, can pass protective laws for the purpose with their own resources, of promoting manufactures, immigration, the building of railways and canals, the peopling of their lands, the introduction and establishment of new industries, the import of foreign-capital and the exploration of their rivers.
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Article 108. The Provinces cannot exercise any powers delegated to the Nation. They cannot celebrate compacts of a political character, nor make laws on commerce or internal or external navigation; nor establish Provincial Custom-Houses, nor coin money, nor establish Banks of emission, without authority of Congress; nor make civil, commercial, penal or mining Codes after Congress shall have sanctioned those provided for in this Constitution; nor pass laws upon citizenship or naturalization; bankruptcy, counterfeiting money or public State-documents; nor lay tonnage dues; nor arm vessels of war or raise armies, save in the case of foreign invasion, or of a danger so imminent that it admits of no delay, and then an account thereof must be immediately given to the Federal Government; or name or receive foreign agents; or admit new religious orders.
Article 109. No Province can declare or make war to another Province. Its complaints must be submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice and be settled by it. Hostilities de facto are acts of civil-war and qualified as seditious and tumultuous, which the General Government must repress and suffocate according to law.
Article 110. The Provincial Governors are the natural agents of the Federal Government to cause the fulfilment of the laws of the Nation.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1880-1891.
----------CONSTITUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE. Introduced in 1867.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867, and 1866-1887.
CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1830-1884.
CONSTITUTION OF BOLIVIA.
See PERU: A. D. 1825-1826, and 1826-1876.
----------End----------
CONSTITUTION OF BRAZIL.
The following text of the Constitution of the United States of Brazil, adopted February 24, 1891, is taken from a translation published in Bulletin No. 7 of the Bureau of American Republics, Washington:
We, the representatives of the Brazilian people, united in constitutional congress, to organize a free and democratic regime, do establish, decree and promulgate the following constitution of the Republic of the United States of Brazil:
Article 1. The Brazilian nation, adopting as a form of government the Federal Republic proclaimed November 15, 1889, constitutes itself, by the perpetual and indissoluble union of its former provinces, the United States of Brazil.
Article 2. Each of the former provinces shall constitute a State, and the former municipal district shall form the Federal District, continuing to be the capital of the Union until the following article shall be carried in to effect.
Article 3. In the center there is allotted as the property of the Union a zone of 14,400 square kilometres, which in due time shall be laid off for the establishment of the future federal capital. Sole paragraph.--After the change of site of the capital, the present Federal District shall constitute a State.
Article 4. The States shall have the right to incorporate themselves one with another, sub-divide themselves, dismember themselves to join with others or form new States, with the consent of the respective local legislatures in two successive annual sessions and the approval of the national Congress.
Article 5. It shall be the duty of each State to provide, at its own expense, for the necessities of its government and administration; but the Union shall extend assistance to any State which, in case of public calamity, shall demand it.
Article 6. The Federal Government shall not interfere in matters pertaining peculiarly to the States, save: (1) To repel foreign invasion, or the invasion of one State by another. (2) To maintain the federative republican form of government. (3) To reestablish order and tranquillity in the States at the request of the respective governments. (4) To assure the execution of the laws and federal decrees.
Article 7. It is the exclusive prerogative of the Union to decree: (1) Duties on imports from foreign countries. (2) Duties of entry, departure, and stay of vessels; the coasting trade for national articles being free of duties, as well as for foreign merchandise that has already paid an import duty. (3) Stamp duties, save the restrictions imposed by article 9, §1. No.1. (4) Postal and federal telegraphic taxes. §1. The Union alone shall have the power: (1) To establish banks of emission. (2) To create and maintain custom-houses. §2. The taxes decreed by the Union shall be uniform for all the States. §3. The laws of the Union and the acts and decisions of its authorities shall be executed throughout the country by federal officials, except that the enforcement of the former may be committed to the governments of the States, with the consent of the said States.
Article 8. The Federal Government is forbidden to make distinctions and preferences in favor of the ports of any of the States against those of others.
Article 9. The States alone are competent to decree taxes: (1) On the exportation of merchandise of their own production. (2) On landed property. (3) On the transmission of property. (4) On industries and professions. § 1. The States also have the exclusive right to decree: (1) Stamp duties on instruments emanating from their respective governments and business of their internal economy. (2) Contributions touching their own telegraphs and postal service. § 2. The products of the other States are exempt from imposts in the State whence they are exported. §3. It is lawful for a State to levy duties on imports of foreign goods only when intended for consumption in its own territory; but it shall, in such case, cover into the federal treasury the amount of duties collected. §4. The right is reserved to the States of establishing telegraph lines between the different points of their own territory, and between these and those of other States not served by federal lines; but the Union may take possession of them when the general welfare shall require.
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Article 10. The several States are prohibited from taxing the federal property or revenue, or anything in the service of the Union, and vice versa.
Article 11. It is forbidden to the States, as well as to the Unions: (1) To impose duties on the products of the other States, or of foreign countries, in transit through the territory of any State, or from one State to another, as also on the vehicles, whether by land or water, by which they are transported. (2) To establish, aid, or embarrass the exercise of religious worship. (3) To enact ex post facto laws.
Article 12. In addition to the sources of revenue set forth in articles 7 and 9, it shall be lawful for the Union, as well as for the States, cumulatively or otherwise, to create any others whatsoever which may not be in contravention of the terms of articles 7, 9, and 11, § 1.
Article 13. The right or the Union and of the States to legislate in regard to railways and navigation of internal waters shall be regulated by federal law. Sole paragraph.--The coastwise trade shall be carried on in national vessels.
Article 14. The land and naval forces are permanent national institutions, intended for the defense of the country from foreign attack and the maintenance of the laws of the land. Within the limits of the law, the armed forces are from their nature held to obedience, each rank to its superior, and bound to support all constitutional institutions.
Article 15. The legislative, executive, and judicial powers are organs of the national sovereignty, harmonious and independent among themselves.
Article 16. The legislative power is vested in the national Congress, with the sanction of the President of the Republic. § 1. The national Congress is composed of two branches, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. § 2. The elections for senators and for deputies shall be held simultaneously throughout the country. § 3. No person shall be senator and deputy at the same time.
Article 17. The Congress shall assemble in the federal capital on the 3d day of May of each year, unless some other day shall be fixed by law, without being convoked, and shall continue in session 4 months from the date of the opening, and may be prorogued, adjourned, or convoked in extraordinary session. § 1. The Congress alone shall have the power to deliberate on the prorogation or extension of its session. § 2. Each legislature shall last for 3 years. § 3. The governor of any State in which there shall be a vacancy in the representation, including the case of resignation, shall order a new election to be held at once.
Article 18. The Chamber and the Senate shall hold their sessions apart and in public, unless otherwise resolved by a majority vote, and shall deliberate only when, in each of the chambers, there shall be present an absolute majority of its members. Sole paragraph.--To each of the chambers shall belong the right to verify and recognize the powers of its members, to choose its own presiding officers, to organize its internal government, to regulate the service of its own police rules, and to choose its own secretaries.
Article 19. The deputies and senators can not be held to account for their opinions, expressions, and votes in the discharge of their mandate.
Article 20. Deputies and senators, from the time of receiving their certificate of election until a new election, can not be arrested or proceeded against criminally without the permission of their respective chambers, except in the case of a flagrant crime, in which bail is inadmissible. In such case, the prosecution being carried to exclusive decision, the prosecuting authority shall send the court records to the respective chamber for its decision on the prosecution of the charge, unless the accused shall prefer immediate judgment.
Article 21. The members of the two chambers, on taking their seats, shall take a formal obligation, in public session, to perform their duties faithfully.
Article 22. During the sessions the senators and deputies shall receive an equal pecuniary salary and mileage, which shall be fixed by Congress at the end of each session for the following one.
Article 23. No member of the Congress, from the time of his election, can make contracts with the executive power or receive from it any paid commission or employment. § 1. Exceptions to this prohibition are: (1) Diplomatic missions. (2) Commissions or military commands. (3) Advancement in rank and legal promotion.
§ 2. No deputy or senator, however, can accept an appointment for any mission, commission, or command mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding paragraph, without the consent of the chamber to which he belongs, when such acceptance would prevent the exercise of his legislative duties, except in case of war or such as involve the honor or integrity of the nation.
Article 24. No deputy or senator can be president or form part of a directory of any bank, company, or enterprise which enjoys the favors of the Federal Government defined in and by law. Sole paragraph.--Nonobservance of the provisions of the foregoing article by any deputy or senator shall involve the loss of his seat.
Article 25. The legislative commission shall be incompatible with the exercise of any other functions during the sessions.
Article 26. The conditions for eligibility to the national Congress are: (1) To be in possession of the rights of Brazilian citizenship and to be registered as a voter. (2) For the Chamber, to have been for more than 4 years a Brazilian citizen; and for the Senate, for more than 6 years. This provision does not include those citizens referred to in No.4, article 69.
Article 27. The Congress shall by special legislation declare the cases of electoral incompetency.
Article 28. The Chamber of Deputies shall be composed of the representatives of the people, elected by the States and the Federal District by direct suffrage, the representation of the minority being guarantied.
§ 1. The number of the deputies shall be fixed by law in such a way as not to exceed one for each 70,000 inhabitants, and that there shall not be less than four for each State. § 2. To this end the Federal Government shall at once order a census to be taken of the population of the Republic, which shall be revised every 10 years.
Article 29. To the Chamber belongs the initiative in the adjournment of the legislative sessions and in all legislation in regard to taxation, to the determination of the size of the army and navy, in the discussion of propositions from the executive power, and in the decision to proceed or not in charges against the President of the Republic under the terms of article 53, and against the ministers of state in crimes connected with those of the said President.
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Article 30. The Senate shall be composed of citizens eligible under the terms of article 26 and more than 35 years of age, to the number of three senators for each State and three for the Federal District, chosen in the same manner as the deputies.
Article 31. The mandate of a senator shall continue for 9 years, and one-third of the Senate shall be renewed every 3 years. Sole paragraph.--A senator elected in place of another shall exercise his mandate during the remainder of the term of the latter.
Article 32. The Vice President of the Republic shall be the president of the Senate, where he shall vote only in case of tie, and shall be replaced in case of absence or impediment by the vice president of that body.
Article 33. The Senate alone shall have the power to try and sentence the President of the Republic and the other federal officers designated by the constitution, under the conditions and in the manner which it prescribes. § 1. The Senate, when sitting as a tribunal of justice, shall be presided over by the president of the federal supreme court. § 2. It shall not pass sentence of condemnation unless two-thirds of its members be present. § 3. It shall not impose other penalties than the loss of office and prohibition from holding any other, without prejudice to the action of ordinary justice against the condemned.
Article 34. The national Congress shall have exclusive power: (1) To estimate the revenue, and fix the expenditures of the Federal Government annually, and take account of the receipts and expenditures of each financial budget. (2) To authorize the executive to contract loans and make other operations of credit. (3) To legislate in regard to the public debt and furnish means for its payment. (4) To control the collection and disposition of the national revenue. (5) To regulate international commerce, as well as that of the States with each other and with the Federal District; to establish and regulate the collection of customs duties in the ports, create or abolish warehouses of deposit. (6) To legislate in regard to navigation of rivers running through more than one State, or through foreign territory. (7) To determine the weight, value, inscription, type, and denomination of the currency. (8) To create banks of emission, legislate in regard to this emission and to tax it. (9) To fix the standard of weights and measures. (10) To determine definitely the boundaries of the States between each other, those of the Federal District, and those of the national territory with the adjoining nations. (11) To authorize the Government to declare war, if there be no recourse to arbitration or in case of failure of this, and to make peace. (12) To decide definitively in regard to treaties and conventions with foreign nations. (13) To remove the capital of the Union. (14) To extend aid to the States in the case referred to in article 5. (15) To legislate in regard to federal postal and telegraph service. (16) To adopt the necessary measures for the protection of the frontiers. (17) To fix every year the number of the land and naval forces. (18) To make laws for the organization of the army and navy. (19) To grant or refuse to foreign forces passage through the territory of the country to carry on military operations. (20) To mobilize and make use of the national guard or local militia in the cases designated by the Constitution. (21) To declare a state of siege at one or more points in the national territory, in the emergency of an attack by foreign forces, or internal disturbance, and to approve or suspend the state of siege proclaimed by the executive power or its responsible agents in the absence of the Congress. (22) To regulate the conditions and methods of elections for federal offices throughout the country. (23) To legislate upon the civil, criminal, and commercial laws and legal procedures of the federal judiciary. (24) To establish uniform naturalization laws. (25) To create and abolish federal public offices, to fix the duties of the same, and designate their salaries. (26) To organize the federal judiciary according to the terms of article 55 and the succeeding, section 3. (27) To grant amnesty. (28) To commute and pardon penalties imposed upon federal officers for offenses arising from their responsibility. (29) To make laws regarding Government lands and mines. (30) To legislate in regard to the municipal organization of the Federal District, as well as to the police, the superior instruction and other services which in the capital may be reserved for the Government of the Union. (31) To govern by special legislation those points of the territory of the Republic needed for the establishment of arsenals, other establishments or institutions for federal uses. (32) To settle cases of extradition between the States. (33) To enact such laws and resolutions as may be necessary for the exercise of the powers belonging to the Union. (34) To enact the organic laws necessary for the complete execution of the requirements of the Constitution. (35) To prorogue and adjourn its own sessions.
Article 35. It shall belong likewise to the Congress, but not exclusively: (1) To watch over the Constitution and the laws, and provide for necessities of a federal character. (2) To promote in the country the development of literature, the arts, and sciences, together with immigration, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, without privileges such as would obstruct the action of the local governments. (3) To create institutions of higher instruction and of high school education in the States. (4) To provide for high school instruction in the Federal District.
Article 36. Save the exceptions named in article 27, all bills may originate, indifferently, in the Chamber or in the Senate, and may be introduced by any of their members.
Article 37. A bill, after being passed in one of the chambers, shall be submitted to the other, and, if the latter shall approve the same, it shall send it to the executive, who, if he approve it, shall sanction and promulgate it. § 1. If, however, the President of the Republic shall consider it unconstitutional, or contrary to the good of the nation, he shall refuse his sanction to the same within 10 working days, counted from that on which he received it (the bill), and shall return it, within the same period, to the chamber in which it originated, with his reasons for his refusal. § 2. The failure of the executive to signify his disapproval within the above-named 10 days shall be considered as an approval, and in case his sanction be refused after the close of the session of the Congress, the President shall make public his reasons therefor.
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§ 3. The bill sent back to the chamber where it originated shall be discussed and voted upon by call of names, and shall be considered as passed if it obtain two-thirds of the votes of the members present; and, in this case, it shall be sent to the other chamber, whence, if it receive the same majority, it shall return, as a law, to the executive to be formally promulgated. § 4. The sanction and promulgation shall be effected in the following forms: (1) "The national Congress enacts and I sanction the following law (or resolution)." (2) "The national Congress enacts and I promulgate the following law (or resolution)."
Article 38. If the law be not promulgated by the President of the Republic within 48 hours, in the cases provided for in §§ 2 and 3 of the preceding article, the president of the Senate, or the vice president, if the former shall not do so in the same space of time, shall promulgate it, making use of the following formula: "I, president (or vice president) of the Senate, make known to whomsoever these presents may come, that the national Congress enacts and promulgates the following law (or resolution)."
Article. 39. A bill from one chamber, amended in the other, shall return to the former, which, if it accept the amendments, shall send it, changed to conform with the same, to the executive. § 1. In the contrary case, it shall go back to the amending chamber, where the alterations shall be considered as approved, if they receive the vote of two-thirds of the members present; in the latter case, the bill shall return to the chamber where it originated, and there the amendments can be rejected only by a two-thirds vote. § 2. If the alterations be rejected by such vote, the bill shall be submitted without them to the approval of the executive.
Article 40. Bills finally rejected or not approved, shall not be presented again in the same legislative session.
Article 41. The executive power shall be exercised by the President of the United States of Brazil, as elective chief of the nation. § 1. The Vice President, elected simultaneously with the President, shall serve in place of the latter in case of impediment and succeed him in case of vacancy in the Presidency. § 2. In case of impediment or vacancy in the Vice Presidency, the following officers, in the order named, shall be called to the Presidency: The vice president of the Senate, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the president of the federal supreme court. § 3. The following are the conditions of eligibility to the Presidency or Vice Presidency of the Republic: (1) Must be a native of Brazil. (2) Must be in the exercise of political rights. (3) Must be more than 35 years of age.
Article 42. In case of vacancy from any cause in the Presidency or Vice Presidency before the expiration of the first 2 years of the Presidential term, a new election shall be held.
Article 43. The President shall hold his office during 4 years, and is not eligible for reelection for the next succeeding term. § 1. The Vice President who shall fill the Presidency during the last year of the Presidential term shall not be eligible to the Presidency for the next term of that office. § 2. On the same day on which his Presidential term shall cease the President shall, without fail, cease to exercise the functions of his office, and the newly elected President shall at once succeed him. § 3. If the latter should be hindered or should fail to do so, the succession shall be effected in accordance with §§ 1 and 2 of article 41. § 4. The first Presidential term shall expire on the 15th of November, 1894.
Article 44. On taking possession of his office, the President, in a session of the Congress, or, if it be not assembled, before the federal supreme court, shall pronounce the following affirmation: "I promise to maintain the federal Constitution and comply with its provisions with perfect loyalty, to promote the general welfare of the Republic, to observe its laws, and support the union, integrity, and independence of the nation."
Article 45. The President and Vice President shall not leave the national territory without the permission of the Congress, under penalty of loss of office.
Article 46. The President and Vice President shall receive the salary fixed by the Congress in the preceding Presidential term.
Article 47. The President and Vice President shall be chosen by direct suffrage of the nation and an absolute majority of the votes. § 1. The election shall take place on the first day of March in the last year of the Presidential term, and the counting of the votes cast at the different precincts shall at once be made in the respective capitals of the States and in the federal capital. The Congress shall make the count at its first session of the same year, with any number of members present. § 2. If none of those voted for shall have received an absolute majority, the Congress shall elect, by a majority of votes of those present, one of the two who, in the direct election, shall have received the highest number of votes. In case of a tie the older shall be considered elected. § 3. The manner of the election and of the counting of the votes shall be regulated by ordinary legislation. § 4. The relatives, both by consanguinity and by marriage, in the first and second degrees, of the President and Vice President shall be ineligible for the offices of President and Vice President, provided the said officials are in office at the time of the election or have left the office even 6 months before.
Article 48. To the President of the Republic shall belong the exclusive right to-- (1) Sanction, promulgate, and make public the laws and resolutions of the Congress; issue decrees, instructions, and regulations for their faithful execution. (2) Choose and dismiss at will the cabinet officers. (3) Exercise or appoint some one to exercise supreme command over the land and naval forces of the United States of Brazil, as well as over the local police, when called to arms for the internal or external defense of the Union. (4) Govern and distribute, under the laws of the Congress, according to the necessities of the National Government, the land and naval forces. (5) Dispose of the offices, both military and civil, of a federal character, with the exceptions specified in the Constitution. (6) Pardon crimes and commute penalties for offenses subject to federal jurisdiction, save in the cases mentioned in article 34, No. 28, and article 52, § 2. (7) Declare war and make peace, under the provisions of article 34, No. 11. (8) Declare war at once in case of foreign invasion or aggression.
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(9) Give an annual statement to the national Congress of the condition of the country, with a recommendation of pressing provisions and reforms, through a message, which he shall send to the secretary of the Senate on the day of the opening of the legislative session. (10) Convoke the Congress in extra session. (11) Appoint the federal judges when proposed by the supreme court. (12) Appoint the members of the federal supreme court and ministers of the diplomatic corps, with the approval of the senate; and, in the absence of the Congress, appoint them in commission until considered by the senate. (13) Appoint the other members of the diplomatic corps and consular agents. (14) Maintain relations with foreign states. (15) Declare, directly, or through his responsible agents, a state of siege at any point of the national territory, in case of foreign aggression or serious internal disturbance. (Article 6, No.3; article 34, No. 21; and article 80.) (16) Set on foot international negotiations, celebrate agreements, conventions, and treaties, always ad referendum to the Congress, and approve those made by the States in conformity with article 65, submitting them when necessary to the authority of the Congress.
Article 49. The President of the Republic shall be assisted by the ministers of state (cabinet officers), agents of his confidence, who sign the acts and preside over their respective departments into which the federal administration is divided.
Article 50. The cabinet ministers shall not exercise any other employment or function of a public nature, be eligible to the Presidency or Vice Presidency of the Union, or be elected deputy or senator. Sole paragraph.--Any deputy or senator, who shall accept the position of cabinet minister, shall lose his seat in the respective chamber, and a new election shall at once be held, in which he shall not be voted for.
Article 51. The cabinet ministers shall not appear at the sessions of the Congress, and shall communicate with that body in writing only or by personal conference with the committees of the chambers. The annual report of the ministers shall be addressed to the President of the Republic, and distributed to all the members of the Congress.
Article 52. The cabinet ministers shall not be responsible to the Congress or to the courts for advice given to the President of the Republic. § 1. They shall be responsible, nevertheless, with respect to their acts, for crimes defined in the law. § 2. For common crimes and those for which they are responsible they shall be prosecuted and tried by the federal supreme court, and for those committed jointly with the President of the Republic, by the authority competent to judge this latter.
Article 53. The President of the United States of Brazil shall be brought to trial and judgment, after the Chamber of Deputies shall have decided that he should be tried on the charges made against him, in the federal supreme court, in the case of common crimes, and in those of responsibility, in the Senate. Sole paragraph.--As soon as it shall be decided to try him on the charges brought, the President shall be suspended in the exercise of the duties of his office.
Article 54. Crimes of responsibility on the part of the President of the Republic are such as are directed against-- (1) The political existence of the Union. (2) The Constitution and the form of the Federal Government. (3) The free exercise of the political powers. (4) The legal enjoyment and exercise of political or individual rights. (5) The internal security of the country. (6) The purity of the administration. (7) The constitutional keeping and use of the public funds. (8) The financial legislation enacted by the Congress. § 1. These offenses shall be defined in a special law. § 2. Another law shall provide for the charges, the trial, and the judgment. § 3. Both these laws shall be enacted in the first session of the first Congress.
Article 55. The judicial power of the Union shall be lodged in a federal supreme court, sitting in the capital of the Republic, and as many inferior federal courts and tribunals, distributed through the country, as the Congress shall create.
Article 56. The federal supreme court shall be composed of fifteen justices, appointed under the provisions of article 48, No. 12, from among the oldest thirty citizens of well-known knowledge and reputation who may be eligible to the Senate.
Article 57. The federal justices shall hold office for life, being removable solely by judicial sentence. § 1. Their salaries shall be fixed by law of the Congress, and can not be diminished. § 2. The Senate shall try the members of the federal supreme court for crimes of responsibility, and this latter the lower federal judges.
Article 58. The federal courts shall choose their presidents from among their own members, and shall organize their respective clerical corps. § 1. In these corps the appointment and dismissal of the respective clerks, as well as the filling of the judicial offices in the respective judicial districts, shall belong to the presidents of the respective courts. § 2. The President of the Republic shall appoint from among the members of the federal supreme court the attorney-general of the Republic, whose duties shall be defined by law.
Article 59. To the federal supreme court shall belong the duty of-- (1) Trying and judging by original and exclusive jurisdiction-- (a) The President of the Republic for common crimes, and the cabinet ministers in the cases specified in article 52. (b) The ministers of the diplomatic corps for common crimes and those of responsibility. (c) Cases and disputes between the States and the Union, or between the States one with another. (d) Disputes and claims between foreign states and the Union, or between foreign nations and the States. (e) Conflicts between the federal courts one with another, or between these and those of the States, as well as those between the courts of one State and those of another. (2) Deciding, on appeal, questions pronounced upon by the lower federal courts and tribunals, as well as those mentioned in § 1 of the present article and in article 60. (3) Reviewing the proceedings of finished trials, under the provisions of article 81. § 1. Decisions of State courts in last appeal can be carried to the federal supreme court-- (a) When the validity or application of the federal laws or treaties is called in question and the decision of the State court shall be against the same. (b) When the validity of laws or acts of the governments of the States in respect to the Constitution or of the federal laws is contested and the State court shall have decided in favor of the validity of the acts or laws in question. § 2. In the cases which involve the application of the laws of the States, the federal court shall consult the jurisprudence of the local tribunals, and vice versa, the State court shall consider that of the federal tribunals when the interpretation of the laws of the Union is involved.
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Article 60. It shall belong to the federal courts to decide-- (a) Cases in which the plaintiff or the defendant shall rest the case on some provision of the federal Constitution. (b) All suits brought against the Government of the Union or the national treasury based on constitutional provisions, on the laws and regulations of the executive power, or on contracts made with the said Government. (c) Suits arising from compensations, claims, indemnification of damages, or any others whatsoever brought by the Government of the Union against private individuals, and vice versa. (d) Litigations between a State and the citizens of another, or between citizens of different States having differences in their laws. (e) Suits between foreign states and Brazilian citizens. (f) Actions begun by foreigners, and based either on contracts with the Federal Government or on conventions or treaties of the Union with other nations. (g) Questions of maritime law and navigation, whether on the sea or on the rivers and lakes of the country. (h) Questions of international law, whether criminal or civil. (i) Political crimes. § 1. Congress is forbidden to commit any part of the federal jurisdiction to the State courts. § 2. Sentences and orders of the federal judges will be executed by federal court officers, and the local police shall assist them when called upon by the same.
Article 61. The decisions of the State courts or tribunals in matters within their competence shall put an end to the suits and questions, except as to (1) habeas corpus, or (2) effects of a foreigner deceased in cases not provided for by convention or treaty. In such cases there shall be voluntary recourse to the federal supreme court.
Article 62. The State courts shall not have the power to intervene in questions submitted to the federal tribunals, or to annul, alter, or suspend the sentences or orders of these latter; and, reciprocally, the federal judiciary can not interfere in questions submitted to the State courts, or annul, alter, or suspend their decisions or orders, except in the cases provided in this Constitution.
Article 63. Each State shall be governed by the constitution and laws which it shall adopt, respect being observed for the constitutional principles of the Union.
Article 64. The unexplored mines and wild lands lying within the States shall belong to these States respectively; and to the Union only as much territory as may be necessary for the defense of the frontiers, for fortifications, military works, and federal railways. Sole paragraph.--The national properties, not necessary for the service of the Union, shall pass to the domain of the States in whose territory they may be situated.
Article 65. The States shall have the right to-- (1) Conclude agreements and conventions among themselves, if such be not of a political character. (Article 48, No. 16.) (2) Exercise in general any and every power or right not denied expressly by the Constitution, or implicitly in its express terms.
Article 66. It is forbidden to the States to-- (1) Refuse to recognize public documents of the Union, or of any of the States, of a legislative, administrative, or judicial character. (2) Reject the currency or notes issued by banks, which circulate by act of the Federal Government. (3) Make or declare war, one with another, or make reprisals. (4) Refuse the extradition of criminals demanded by the justice of other States, or of the Federal District, in conformity with the laws of Congress which relate to this subject. (Article 41, No. 32.)
Article 67. Save the restrictions specified in the Constitution, and the federal laws, the Federal District shall be governed directly by the municipal authorities. Sole paragraph.--Expenses of a local character in the capital of the Republic must be provided for exclusively by the municipal authorities.
Article 68. The States shall organize themselves in such a manner as to assure the autonomy of the municipalities in everything that concerns their peculiar interests.
Article 69. The following shall be Brazilian citizens: (1) Natives of Brazil, though of foreign parentage (father), provided he be not in the service of his nation. (2) Sons of a Brazilian father, and illegitimate sons of a Brazilian mother, born in foreign parts, if they take up their residence (domicile) in the republic. (3) Sons of a Brazilian father who may be in another country in the service of the Republic, although they do not make their domicile in Brazil. (4) Foreigners, who, being in Brazil on the 15th of November, 1889, shall not declare, within 6 months from the time when the Constitution enters into force, their desire to preserve their original nationality. (5) Foreigners who possess property (real estate) in Brazil and are married to Brazilian women, or have Brazilian children, provided they reside in Brazil, unless they shall declare their intention of not changing their nationality. (6) Foreigners naturalized in any other way.
Article 70. Citizens of more than 21 years of age, and registered according to law, shall be electors. § 1. The following shall not be registered as electors for federal or State elections: (1) Beggars. (2) Persons ignorant of the alphabet. (3) Soldiers on pay, except alumni of the military schools of higher instruction. (4) Members of monastic orders, companies, congregations, or communities of whatsoever denomination, who are subject to vows of obedience, rule, or statute, which implies the surrender of individual liberty. § 2. Citizens who can not be registered shall not be eligible.
Article 71. The rights of the Brazilian citizen can be suspended or lost only in the following cases: § 1. The rights may be suspended-- (a) For physical or moral incapacity. (b) For criminal conviction, during the operation of the sentence. § 2. They may be lost-- (a) By naturalization in a foreign country. (b) By acceptance of employment or pension from a foreign power, without permission of the federal executive. § 3. The means of reacquiring lost rights of the Brazilian citizen shall be specified by federal law.
Article 72. The Constitution secures to Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country the inviolability of their rights touching individual liberty, and security, and property, in the following terms: § 1. No person shall be forced to do, or leave undone, anything whatever, except by virtue of law. § 2. Before the law all persons are equal. The Republic does not recognize privileges of birth, or titles of nobility, and abolishes all existing honorary orders, with all their prerogatives and decorations, as well as all hereditary and conciliar titles. {524} § 3. All persons and religious professions may exercise, publicly and freely, the right of worship, and may associate themselves for that purpose, acquire property, observance being had to the provisions of the common law. § 4. The Republic recognizes only the civil marriage, the celebration of which shall be gratuitous. § 5. The cemeteries shall be secular in character, and be managed by the municipal authorities, being free to all religious sects for the exercise of their respective rites as regards their members, provided they do not offend public morals or the laws. § 6. The instruction given in the public institutions shall be secular. § 7. No sect or church shall receive official aid, nor be dependent on, nor connected with, the Government of the Union, or of the States. § 8. All persons have the right of free association and assembly, without arms; and the police force shall not intervene, except to maintain the public order. § 9. Any person whatsoever shall have the right to address, by petition, the public powers, denounce abuses of the authorities, and appeal to the responsibility of the accused. § 10. In time of peace any person may, without passport, enter or leave the territory of the Republic, with his fortune and goods, whenever and however he may choose. § 11. The house is the inviolable asylum of the person; no one can enter it at night without the consent of the inhabitant, except to aid the victims of a crime or disaster; nor by day, unless in the cases and in the form prescribed by law. § 12. The expression of opinion shall be free, in respect to whatever subject, through the press or through the tribune, without subjection to censorship, each one being responsible for the abuses he may commit, in the cases and in the form prescribed by law. Anonymous publications are forbidden. § 13. Cases of flagrante delicto alone excepted, no arrest shall be made, unless after declaration of the charge (save in cases determined by law), and by written order of the competent authorities. § 14. No person shall be kept in prison without charge formally made, save the exceptions mentioned in the law, or taken to prison, or detained there, if he give bail, in cases where such is lawful. § 15. No person shall be condemned, except by competent authority, and in virtue of law already existing and in the form prescribed by it. § 16. The law shall secure to the accused the fullest defense by all the recourses and means essential to the same, including the notice of the charge, delivered to the prisoner within 24 hours and signed by the proper authority along with the names of the accusers and witnesses. § 17. The rights of property are maintained in all their plenitude, and no disappropriation shall be made, except from necessity or public utility, and indemnity shall, in such cases, be made beforehand. Mines belong to the owners of the soil, under the limitations to be established by the law to encourage the development of this branch of industry. § 18. Correspondence under seal is inviolable. § 19. No penalty shall extend beyond the person of the delinquent. § 20. The penalty of the galleys is abolished, as also judicial banishment. § 21. The death penalty is abolished, except in the cases under military law in time of war. § 22. The habeas corpus shall always be granted when the individual suffers violence or compulsion, through illegality or abuse of power, or considers himself in imminent danger of the same. § 23. There shall be no privileged tribunal, except in such cases as, from their nature, belong to special courts. § 24. The free exercise of any profession, moral, intellectual, or industrial, is guarantied. § 25. Industrial inventions belong to their authors, to whom the law will grant a temporary privilege, or to whom the Congress will give a reasonable premium, when it is desirable to make the invention public property. § 26. To authors of literary and artistic works is guarantied the exclusive right of reproducing them through the press or by any other mechanical process, and their heirs shall enjoy the same right during the space of time determined by the law. § 27. The law shall also secure the rights of property in trade-marks. § 28. No Brazilian can be deprived of his civil and political rights on account of religious belief or duty, nor be exempted from the performance of any civic duty. § 29. Those who shall claim exemption from any burden imposed by the laws of the Republic on its citizens, on account of religious belief, or who shall accept any foreign decoration or title of nobility, shall lose all their political rights. § 30. No tax of any kind shall be collected except in virtue of a law authorizing the same. § 31. The institution of trial by jury is maintained.
Article 73. Public offices, civil or military, are accessible to all Brazilian citizens, always observing the conditions of particular capacity fixed by the law; but the accumulation of remunerations is forbidden.
Article 74. Commissions, offices, and positions not subject to removal are guarantied in all their plenitude.
Article 75. Only such public officials as have become infirm in the service of the nation shall be retired on pay.
Article 76. Officers of the army and navy shall lose their commissions only in case of condemnation to more than 2 years in prison, pronounced in judgment by the competent tribunals.
Article 77. There shall be a special court for the trial of military offenses committed by soldiers or marines. § 1. This court shall be composed of a supreme military tribunal, whose members shall hold their seats for life, and of the councils necessary for the formulation of the charge and the judgment of the crimes. § 2. The organization and powers of the supreme military tribunal shall be determined by law.
Article 78. The enumeration of the rights and guaranties expressed in the Constitution does not exclude other guaranties and rights, not enumerated, but resulting from the form of government established and principles settled by said Constitution.
Article 79. The citizen vested with the functions of either of these three federal powers shall not exercise those of another.
Article 80. Any part of the territory of the Union may be declared in state of siege, and the constitutional guaranties suspended for a determined period, whenever the security of the Republic so demands in case of foreign aggression or intestine disturbance. (Article 34, No. 21.) § 1. The power to execute the above provision may, if the Congress be not in session and the country be in imminent peril, be used by the federal executive. (Article 48, No. 15.) § 2. In the exercise of this power, during the state of siege, the executive shall be restricted to the following measures of repression against persons: {525} (1) To their detention in a place not allotted to persons accused of common crimes. (2) To banishment to other parts of the national territory. § 3. As soon as the Congress shall have assembled, the President of the Republic shall make a report to that body of the exceptional measures which may have been taken. § 4. The authorities who shall have ordered such measures shall be responsible for any abuses that may have been committed.
Article 81. In criminal cases, trials concluded may be reviewed at any time, in favor of the condemned parties, by the federal supreme court, for the purpose of correcting or of confirming the sentence. § 1. The law shall determine the cases and the form of such revision, which may be asked for by the condemned, by anyone of the people, or by the attorney-general of the Republic, ex officio. § 2. In such revision the penalties imposed by the sentence reviewed can not be increased. § 3. The provisions of the present article are applicable to military trials.
Article 82. Public officers shall be strictly responsible for the abuses and omissions that occur in the exercise of the duties of their offices, as well as for the indulgences and negligences for which they do not hold their subordinates responsible. Sole paragraph.--They shall all be bound by formal obligation, on taking possession of their offices, to discharge the lawful duties of the same.
Article 83. Until revoked, the laws of the ancien regime shall remain in force, in as far as they are not, explicitly or implicitly, contrary to the system of government established by the Constitution, and to the principles laid down in the same.
Article 84. The federal government guaranties the payment of the public debt, both internal and foreign.
Article 85. The officers of the line and of the annexed classes of the navy shall have the same commissions and advantage as those of the army of corresponding rank.
Article 86. Every Brazilian shall be bound to military service in defense of the country and the Constitution, as provided by the federal laws.
Article 87. The federal army shall be made up of contingents which the states and the Federal District are bound to furnish, constituted in conformity with the annual law regulating the number of the forces. § 1. The general organization of the army shall be determined by a federal law, in accordance with No. 18 of article 34. § 2. The Union shall have charge of the military instruction of the troops and of the higher military instruction. § 3. Compulsory recruiting for military purposes is abolished. § 4. The army and navy shall be made up by volunteering without bounties, or, if this means be not sufficient, by lot previously determined. The crews for the navy shall be made up from the naval school, the schools of marine apprentices, and the merchant marine, by means of lot.
Article 88. In no case, either directly or indirectly, alone or in alliance with another nation, shall the United States of Brazil engage in a war of conquest.
Article 89. A tribunal of accounts shall be instituted for the auditing of the receipt and expense accounts and examining into their legality before their presentation to the Congress. The members of this tribunal shall be appointed by the President of the Republic, with the approval of the Senate, and can lose their seats only by sentence.
Article 90. The Constitution may be amended, at the initiative of the national Congress, or of the legislatures of the States. § 1. An amendment shall be considered as proposed, when, having been presented by one-fourth, at least, of the members of either house of the Congress, it shall have been accepted in three readings (discussions) by two-thirds of the votes in both houses of the Congress, or when it shall have been asked for by two-thirds of the States represented, each one by a majority of the votes of its legislature, said votes to be taken in the course of 1 year. § 2. The proposed amendment shall be considered approved, if, in the following year, after three discussions, it shall have been adopted by a majority of two-thirds of the votes in the two houses of the Congress. § 3. The amendment adopted shall be published with the signatures of the presidents and clerks of the two chambers, and be incorporated into the Constitution as a part of the same. § 4. No project having a tendency to abolish the federative republican form, or the equal representation of the States in the Senate, shall be admitted for consideration in the Congress.
Article 91. This Constitution, after approval, shall be promulgated by the president of the Congress and signed by the members of the same.
Temporary Provisions.
Article I. After the promulgation of this Constitution, the Congress, in joint assembly, shall choose consecutively, by an absolute majority of votes in the first balloting, and, if no candidate shall receive such, by a plurality in the second balloting, the President and Vice President of the United States of Brazil. § 1. This election shall be in two distinct ballotings, for the President and Vice President respectively, the ballots for President being taken and counted, in the first place, and afterwards for Vice President. § 2. The President and Vice President, thus elected, shall occupy the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the Republic during the first Presidential term. § 3. For said election there shall be no incompatibilities admitted. § 4. As soon as said election shall be concluded, the Congress shall consider as terminated its mission in joint session and, separating into Chamber and Senate, shall enter upon the exercise of its functions as defined by law, on the 15th of June of the present year, and can not in any case be dissolved. § 5. In the first year of the first legislature, among its preparatory measures, the Senate shall designate the first and second third of its members, whose term of office shall cease at the end of the first and second 3-year terms. § 6. The discrimination shall be made in three lists, corresponding to the three classes, allotting to them the senators of each State and of the Federal District according to the number of votes received by them respectively, so as to allot to the third for the last 3 years the one receiving the highest number of votes in the Federal District and in each State, and to the other two-thirds the remaining two names in the order of the number of votes received by them respectively. § 7. In case of tie, the oldest shall be preferred, and if the ages are equal, the choice shall be made by lot.
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Article 2. The State which, by the end of the year 1892, shall not have adopted its constitution, shall, by act of the federal legislative power, be placed under that of one of the other States, which it shall judge most suitable, until the State thus subjected to said constitution, shall amend it in the manner provided in the same.
Article 3. As fast as the States shall be organized, the Federal Government shall deliver to them the administration of the services which belong to them, and shall settle the responsibility of the federal administration in all that relates to said services and to the payment of the respective officials.
Article 4. While, during the period of organization of their services, the States shall be engaged in regulating their expenses, the Federal Government shall, for this purpose, open special credits to them, under conditions determined by the Congress.
Article 5. In the States which shall become organized the classification of the revenues established in the Constitution shall enter into force.
Article 6. In the first appointments for the federal magistracy and for that of the States, the preference shall be given to the justices and magistrates of the higher courts of the greatest note. Such as are not admitted into the new organization of the judiciary, and have served 30 years, shall be retired on full pay. Those who have served for less than 30 years shall continue to receive their salaries until they shall be employed, or retired with pay corresponding to their length of service. The payment of salaries of magistrates retired or set aside shall be made by the Federal Government.
Article 7. To D. Pedro de Alcantara, ex-Emperor of Brazil, a pension is granted, to run from the 15th of November, 1889, sufficient to guaranty him a decent subsistence during his lifetime. The Congress, at its first session, shall fix the amount of said pension.
Article 8. The Federal Government shall acquire for the nation the house in which Dr. Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães died, and shall have placed on it a memorial slab in memory of that great patriot, the founder of the Republic. Sole paragraph.--The widow of the said Dr. Benjamin Constant shall have, during her lifetime, the usufruct of the said house. We order, then, all the authorities to whom the recognition and execution of this Constitution belongs, to execute it and have it executed and observed faithfully and fully in all its provisions. Let the same be published and observed throughout the territory of the nation.
Hall of the sessions of the National Constitutional Congress, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the year 1891, and the third of the Republic.
See BRAZIL: 1889-1891.
----------CONSTITUTION OF BRAZIL: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. For an account of the main features of this singular constitution,
See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1877-1880.
----------CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1774. The Quebec Act.
See CANADA: A. D. 1763-1774.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1791. The Constitutional Act.
See CANADA: A. D. 1791.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1840. The Union Act.
See CANADA: A. D. 1840-1867.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1867. The British North America Act.
The history of the Confederation of the provinces of British North America, forming the Dominion of Canada, is given briefly under CANADA: A. D. 1867. The following is the text of the Act of the Parliament of Great Britain by which the Confederation was formed and its constitution established:
An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof; and for purposes connected therewith. 29TH MARCH, 1867.
WHEREAS the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally united into one Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom: And whereas such a Union would conduce to the welfare of the Provinces and promote the interests of the British Empire; And whereas on the establishment of the Union by authority of Parliament it is expedient, not only that the Constitution of the Legislative Authority in the Dominion be provided for, but also that the nature of the Executive Government therein be declared: And whereas it is expedient that provision be made for the eventual admission into the Union of other parts of British North America: Be it therefore enacted and declared by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1. This Act may be cited as The British North America Act, 1867. 2. The provisions of this Act referring to Her Majesty the Queen extend also to the heirs and successors of Her Majesty, Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being more than six months after the passing of this Act, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be one Dominion under the name of Canada; and on and after that day those three Provinces shall form and be one Dominion under that name accordingly. 4. The subsequent provisions of this Act shall, unless it is otherwise expressed or implied, commence and have effect on and after the Union, that is to say, on and after the day appointed for the Union taking effect in the Queen's Proclamation; and in the same provisions, unless it is otherwise expressed or implied, the name Canada shall be taken to mean Canada as constituted under this Act.
5. Canada shall be divided into four Provinces, named Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
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6. The parts of the Province of Canada (as it exists at the passing of this Act) which formerly constituted respectively the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada shall be deemed to be severed, and shall form two separate Provinces. The part which formerly constituted the Province of Upper Canada shall constitute the Province of Ontario; and the part which formerly constituted the Province of Lower Canada shall constitute the Province of Quebec.
7. The Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall have the same limits as at the passing of this Act.
8. In the general census of the population of Canada, which is hereby required to be taken in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and in every tenth year thereafter, the respective populations of the four Provinces shall be distinguished.
9. The Executive Government and authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen.
10. The provisions of this Act referring to the Governor General extend and apply to the Governor General for the time being of Canada, or other the Chief Executive Officer or Administrator, for the time being carrying on the Government of Canada on behalf and in the name of the Queen, by whatever title he is designated.
11. There shall be a Council to aid and advise in the Government of Canada, to be styled the Queen's Privy Council for Canada; and the persons who are to be members of that Council shall be from time to time chosen and summoned by the Governor General and sworn in as Privy Councillors, and members thereof may be from time to time removed by the Governor General.
12. All powers, authorities, and functions which under any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, are at the Union vested in or exerciseable by the respective Governors or Lieutenant Governors of those Provinces, with the advice, or with the advice and consent, of the respective Executive Councils thereof, or in conjunction with those Councils, or with any number of members thereof, or by those Governors or Lieutenant Governors individually, shall, as far as the same continue in existence and capable of being exercised after the Union in relation to the Government of Canada, be vested in and exerciseable by the Governor General, with the advice or with the advice and consent of or in conjunction with the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, or any members thereof, or by the Governor General individually, as the case requires, subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) to be abolished or altered by the Parliament of Canada.
13. The provisions of this Act referring to the Governor General in Council shall be construed as referring to the Governor General acting by and with the advice of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
14. It shall be lawful for the Queen, if Her Majesty thinks fit, to authorize the Governor General from time to time to appoint any person or any persons, jointly or severally, to be his Deputy or Deputies within any part or parts of Canada, and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the Governor General such of the powers, authorities, and functions of the Governor General as the Governor General deems it necessary and expedient to assign to him or them, subject to any limitations or directions expressed or given by the Queen; but the appointment of such a Deputy or Deputies shall not affect the exercise by the Governor General himself of any power, authority or function.
15. The Command-in-Chief of the Land and Naval Militia, and of all Naval and Military Forces, of and in Canada, is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen.
16. Until the Queen otherwise directs, the seat of Government of Canada shall be Ottawa.
17. There shall be one Parliament for Canada, consisting of the Queen, an Upper House styled the Senate, and the House of Commons.
18. The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and by the members thereof.
19. The Parliament of Canada shall be called together not later than six months after the Union.
20. There shall be a Session of the Parliament of Canada once at least in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the last sitting of the Parliament in one Session and its first sitting in the next Session.
21. The Senate shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, consist of seventy-two members, who shall be styled Senators.
22. In relation to the constitution of the Senate, Canada shall be deemed to consist of three divisions--1. Ontario; 2. Quebec; 3. The Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; which three divisions shall (subject to the provisions of this Act) be equally represented in the Senate as follows: Ontario by twenty-four Senators; Quebec by twenty-four Senators; and the Maritime Provinces by twenty-four Senators, twelve thereof representing Nova Scotia, and twelve thereof representing New Brunswick. In the case of Quebec each of the twenty-four Senators representing that Province shall be appointed for one of the twenty-four Electoral Divisions of Lower Canada specified in Schedule A. to chapter one of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada.
23. The qualification of a Senator shall be as follows: (l) He shall be of the full age of thirty years: (2) He shall be either a natural born subject of the Queen, or a subject of the Queen naturalized by an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of one of the Provinces of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, before the Union, or of the Parliament of Canada after the Union: (3) He shall be legally or equitably seised as of freehold for his own use and benefit of lands or tenements held in free and common socage, or seised or possessed for his own use and benefit of lands or tenements held in franc-alleu or in roture, within the Province for which he is appointed, of the value of four thousand dollars, over and above all rents, dues, debts, charges, mortgages, and incumbrances due or payable out of or charged on or affecting the same: {528} (4) His real and personal property shall be together worth $4,000 over and above his debts and liabilities: (5) He shall be resident in the Province for which he is appointed: (6) In the case of Quebec he shall have his real property qualification in the Electoral Division for which he is appointed, or shall be resident in that Division.
24. The Governor General shall from time to time, in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon qualified persons to the Senate; and, subject to the provisions of this Act, every person so summoned shall become and be a member of the Senate and a Senator.
25. Such persons shall be first summoned to the Senate as the Queen by warrant under Her Majesty's Royal Sign Manual thinks fit to approve, and their names shall be inserted in the Queen's Proclamation of Union.
26. If at any time on the recommendation of the Governor General the Queen thinks fit to direct that three or six members be added to the Senate, the Governor General may by summons to three or six qualified persons (as the case may be), representing equally the three divisions of Canada, add to the Senate accordingly.
27. In case of such addition being at any time made the Governor General shall not summon any person to the Senate, except on a further like direction by the Queen on the like recommendation, until each of the three divisions of Canada is represented by twenty-four Senators and no more.
28. The number of Senators shall not at any time exceed seventy-eight.
29. A Senator shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, hold his place in the Senate for life.
30. A Senator may by writing under his hand addressed to the Governor General resign his place in the Senate, and thereupon the same shall be vacant.
31. The place of a Senator shall become vacant in any of the following cases: (1) If for two consecutive Sessions of the Parliament he fails to give his attendance in the Senate: (2) If he takes an oath or makes a declaration or acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or does an act whereby he becomes a subject or citizen, or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power: (3) If he is adjudged bankrupt or insolvent, or applies for the benefit of any law relating to insolvent debtors, or becomes a public defaulter: (4) If he is attainted of treason or convicted of felony or of any infamous crime: (5) If he ceases to be qualified in respect of property or of residence; provided, that a Senator shall not be deemed to have ceased to be qualified in respect of residence by reason only of his residing at the seat of the Government of Canada while holding an office under that Government requiring his presence there.
32. When a vacancy happens in the Senate by resignation, death, or otherwise, the Governor General shall by summons to a fit and qualified person fill the vacancy.
33. If any question arises respecting the qualification of a Senator or a vacancy in the Senate the same shall be heard and determined by the Senate.
34. The Governor General may from time to time, by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, appoint a Senator to be Speaker of the Senate, and may remove him and appoint another in his stead.
35. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the presence of at least fifteen Senators, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the exercise of its powers.
36. Questions arising in the Senate shall be decided by a majority of voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a vote, and when the voices are equal the decision shall be deemed to be in the negative.
37. The House of Commons shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, consist of one hundred and eighty-one members, of whom eighty-two shall be elected for Ontario, sixty-five for Quebec, nineteen for Nova Scotia, and fifteen for New Brunswick.
38. The Governor General shall from time to time, in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon and call together the House of Commons.
39. A Senator shall not be capable of being elected or of sitting or voting as a member of the House of Commons.
40. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall, for the purposes of the election of members to serve in the House of Commons, be divided into Electoral Districts as follows:-- (1) Ontario shall be divided into the Counties, Ridings of Counties, Cities, parts of Cities, and Towns enumerated in the first Schedule to this Act, each whereof shall be an Electoral District, each such District as numbered in that Schedule being entitled to return one member. (2) Quebec shall be divided into sixty-five Electoral Districts, composed of the sixty-five Electoral Divisions into which Lower Canada is at the passing of this Act divided under chapter two of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, chapter seventy-five of the Consolidated Statutes for Lower Canada, and the Act of the Province of Canada of the twenty-third year of the Queen, chapter one, or any other Act amending the same in force at the Union, so that each such Electoral Division shall be for the purposes of this Act an Electoral District entitled to return one member. (3) Each of the eighteen Counties of Nova Scotia shall be an Electoral District. The County of Halifax shall be entitled to return two members, and each of the other Counties one member. (4) Each of the fourteen Counties into which New Brunswick is divided, including the City and County of St. John, shall be an Electoral District; the City of St. John shall also be a separate Electoral District. Each of those fifteen Electoral Districts shall be entitled to return one member.
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41. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, all laws in force in the several Provinces at the Union relative to the following matters or any of them, namely,--the qualifications and disqualifications of persons to be elected or to sit or vote as members of the House of Assembly or Legislative Assembly in the several Provinces, the voters at elections of such members, the oaths to be taken by voters, the returning officers, their powers and duties, the proceedings at elections, the periods during which elections may be continued, the trial of controverted elections, and proceedings incident thereto, the vacating of seats of members, and the execution of new writs in case of seats vacated otherwise than by dissolution,--shall respectively apply to elections of members to serve in the House of Commons for the same several Provinces. Provided that, until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, at any election for a Member of the House of Commons for the District of Algoma, in addition to persons qualified by the law of the Province of Canada to vote, every male British subject aged twenty-one years or upwards, being a householder, shall have a vote.
42. For the first election of members to serve in the House of Commons the Governor General shall cause writs to be issued by such person, in such form, and addressed to such returning officers as he thinks fit. The person issuing writs under this section shall have the like powers as are possessed at the Union by the officers charged with the issuing of writs for the election of members to serve in the respective House of Assembly or Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick; and the Returning Officers to whom writs are directed under this section shall have the like powers as are possessed at the Union by the officers charged with the returning of writs for the election of members to serve in the same respective House of Assembly or Legislative Assembly.
43. In case a vacancy in the representation in the House of Commons of any Electoral District happens before the meeting of the Parliament, or after the meeting of the Parliament before provision is made by the Parliament in this behalf, the provisions of the last foregoing section of this Act shall extend and apply to the issuing and returning of a writ in respect of such vacant District.
44. The House of Commons on its first assembling after a general election shall proceed with all practicable speed to elect one of its members to be Speaker.
45. In case of a vacancy happening in the office of Speaker by death, resignation or otherwise, the House of Commons shall with all practicable speed proceed to elect another of its members to be Speaker.
46. The Speaker shall preside at all meetings of the House of Commons.
47. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, in case of the absence for any reason of the Speaker from the chair of the House of Commons for a period of forty-eight consecutive hours, the House may elect another of its members to act as Speaker, and the member so elected shall during the continuance of such absence of the Speaker have and execute all the powers, privileges, and duties of Speaker.
48. The presence of at least twenty members of the House of Commons shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the House for the exercise of its powers, and for that purpose the Speaker shall be reckoned as a member.
49. Questions arising in the House of Commons shall be decided by a majority of voices other than that of the Speaker, and when the voices are equal, but not otherwise, the Speaker shall have a vote.
50. Every House of Commons shall continue for five years from the day of the return of the writs for choosing the House (subject to be sooner dissolved by the Governor General), and no longer.
51. On the completion of the census in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and of each subsequent decennial census, the representation of the four Provinces shall be re-adjusted by such authority, in such manner and from such time as the Parliament of Canada from time to time provides, subject and according to the following rules:-- (1) Quebec shall have the fixed number of sixty-five members: (2) There shall be assigned to each of the other Provinces such a number of members as will bear the same proportion to the number of its population (ascertained at such census) as the number sixty-five bears to the number of the population of Quebec (so ascertained): (3) In the computation of the number of members for a Province a fractional part not exceeding one-half of the whole number requisite for entitling the Province to a member shall be disregarded; but a fractional part exceeding one-half of that number shall be equivalent to the whole number: (4) On any such re-adjustment the number of members for a Province shall not be reduced unless the proportion which the number of the population of the Province bore to the number of the aggregate population of Canada at the then last preceding re-adjustment of the number of members for the Province is ascertained at the then latest census to be diminished by one-twentieth part or upwards: (5) Such re-adjustment shall not take effect until the termination of the then existing Parliament.
52. The number of members of the House of Commons may be from time to time increased by the Parliament of Canada, provided the proportionate representation of the Provinces prescribed by this Act is not thereby disturbed.
53. Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue, or for imposing any tax or impost, shall originate in the House of Commons.
54. It shall not be lawful for the House of Commons to adopt or pass any vote, resolution, address, or bill for the appropriation of any part of the public revenue, or of any tax or impost, to any purpose that has not been first recommended to that House by message of the Governor General in the Session in which such vote, resolution, address, or bill is proposed.
55. Where a bill passed by the Houses of the Parliament is presented to the Governor General for the Queen's assent, he shall declare according to his discretion, but subject to the provisions of this Act and to Her Majesty's instructions, either that he assents thereto in the Queen's name, or that he withholds the Queen's assent, or that he reserves the bill for the signification of the Queen's pleasure.
56. Where the Governor General assents to a bill in the Queen's name, he shall by the first convenient opportunity send an authentic copy of the Act to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and if the Queen in Council within two years after receipt thereof by the Secretary of State thinks fit to disallow the Act, such disallowance (with a certificate of the Secretary of State of the day on which the Act was received by him) being signified by the Governor General, by speech or message to each of the Houses of the Parliament, or by proclamation, shall annul the Act from and after the day of such signification.
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57. A bill reserved for the signification of the Queen's pleasure shall not have any force unless and until within two years from the day on which it was presented to the Governor General for the Queen's assent, the Governor General signifies, by speech or message to each of the Houses of the Parliament or by proclamation, that it has received the assent of the Queen in Council. An entry of every such speech, message, or proclamation shall be made in the Journal of each House, and a duplicate thereof duly attested shall be delivered to the proper officer to be kept among the Records of Canada.
58. For each Province there shall be an officer, styled the Lieutenant Governor, appointed by the Governor General in Council by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada.
59. A Lieutenant Governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor General; but any Lieutenant Governor appointed after the commencement of the first Session of the Parliament of Canada shall not be removable within five years from his appointment, except for cause assigned, which shall be communicated to him in writing within one month after the order for his removal is made, and shall be communicated by message to the Senate and to the House of Commons within one week thereafter if the Parliament is then sitting, and if not then within one week after the commencement of the next Session of the Parliament.
60. The salaries of the Lieutenant Governors shall be fixed and provided by the Parliament of Canada.
61. Every Lieutenant Governor shall, before assuming the duties of his office, make and subscribe before the Governor General, or' some person authorized by him, oaths of allegiance and office similar to those taken by the Governor General.
62. The provisions of this Act referring to the Lieutenant Governor extend and apply to the Lieutenant Governor for the time being of each Province or other the chief executive officer or administrator for the time being carrying on the government of the Province, by whatever title he is designated.
63. The Executive Council of Ontario and of Quebec shall be composed of such persons as the Lieutenant Governor from to time thinks fit, and in the first instance of the following officers, namely:--The Attorney-General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, with in Quebec the Speaker of the Legislative Council and the Solicitor General.
64. The Constitution of the Executive Authority in each of the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, continue as it exists at the Union until altered under the authority of this Act.
65. All powers, authorities, and functions which under any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, were or are before or at the Union vested in or exerciseable by the respective Governors or Lieutenant Governors of those Provinces, with the advice, or with the advice and consent, of the respective Executive Councils thereof, or in conjunction with those Councils, or with any number of members thereof, or by those Governors or Lieutenant Governors individually, shall, as far as the same are capable of being exercised after the Union in relation to the Government of Ontario and Quebec, respectively, be vested in, and shall or may be exercised by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and Quebec respectively, with the advice or with the advice and consent of or in conjunction with the respective Executive Councils, or any members thereof, or by the Lieutenant Governor individually, as the case requires, subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), to be abolished or altered by the respective Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec.
66. The provisions of this Act, referring to the Lieutenant Governor in Council shall be construed as referring to the Lieutenant Governor of the Province acting by and with the advice of the Executive Council thereof.
67. The Governor General in Council may from time to time appoint an administrator to execute the office and functions of Lieutenant Governor during his absence, illness, or other inability.
68. Unless and until the Executive Government of any Province otherwise directs with respect to the Province, the seats of Government of the Provinces shall be as follows, namely,--of Ontario, the City of Toronto; of Quebec, the City of Quebec; of Nova Scotia, the City of Halifax; and of New Brunswick, the City of Fredericton.
69. There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of one House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
70. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario shall be composed of eighty-two members, to be elected to represent the eighty-two Electoral Districts set forth in the first Schedule to this Act.
71. There shall be a Legislature for Quebec consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of two Houses, styled the Legislative Council of Quebec and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.
72. The Legislative Council of Quebec shall be composed of twenty-four members, to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, one being appointed to represent each of the twenty-four Electoral Divisions of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, and each holding office for the term of his life, unless the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides under the provisions of this Act.
73. The qualifications of the Legislative Councillors of Quebec shall be the same as those of the Senators for Quebec.
74. The place of a Legislative Councillor of Quebec shall become vacant in the cases, 'mutatis mutandis' in which the place of Senator becomes vacant.
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75. When a vacancy happens in the Legislative Council of Quebec, by resignation, death, or otherwise, the Lieutenant Governor, in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, shall appoint a fit and qualified person to fill the vacancy.
76. If any question arises respecting the qualification of a Legislative Councillor of Quebec, or a vacancy in the Legislative Council of Quebec, the same shall be heard and determined by the Legislative Council.
77. The Lieutenant Governor may from time to time, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, appoint a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec to be Speaker thereof, and may remove him and appoint another in his stead.
78. Until the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides, the presence of at least ten members of the Legislative Council, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to constitute a meeting for the exercise of its powers.
79. Questions arising in the Legislative Council of Quebec shall be decided by a majority of voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a vote, and when the voices are equal the decision shall be deemed to be in the negative.
80. The Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall be composed of sixty-five members, to be elected to represent the sixty-five Electoral Divisions or Districts of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, subject to alteration thereof by the Legislature of Quebec: Provided that it shall not be lawful to present to the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec for assent any bill for altering the limits of any of the Electoral Divisions or Districts mentioned in the second Schedule to this Act, unless the second and third readings of such bill have been passed in the Legislative Assembly with the concurrence of the majority of the members representing all those Electoral Divisions or Districts, and the assent shall not be given to such bills unless an address has been presented by the Legislative Assembly to the Lieutenant Governor stating that it has been so passed.
81. The Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec respectively shall be called together not later than six months after the Union.
82. The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and of Quebec shall from time to time, in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of the Province, summon and call together the Legislative Assembly of the Province.
83. Until the Legislature of Ontario or of Quebec otherwise provides, a person accepting or holding in Ontario or in Quebec any office, commission, or employment, permanent or temporary, at the nomination of the Lieutenant Governor, to which an annual salary, or any fee, allowance, emolument, or profit of any kind or amount whatever from the Province is attached, shall not be eligible as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the respective Province, nor shall he sit or vote as such; but nothing in this section shall make ineligible any person being a member of the Executive Council of the respective Province, or holding any of the following offices, that is to say, the offices of Attorney-General, Secretary and Registrar of the Province, Treasurer of the Province, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works and, in Quebec, Solicitor-General, or shall disqualify him to sit or vote in the House for which he is elected, provided he is elected while holding such office.
84. Until the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec respectively otherwise provide, all laws which at the Union are in force in those Provinces respectively, relative to the following matters, or any of them, namely,--the qualifications and disqualifications of persons to be elected or to sit or vote as members of the Assembly of Canada, the qualifications or disqualifications of voters, the oaths to be taken by voters, the Returning Officers, their powers and duties, the proceedings at elections, the periods during which such elections may be continued, and the trial of controverted elections and the proceedings incident thereto, the vacating of the seats of members and the issuing and execution of new writs in case of seats vacated otherwise than by dissolution, shall respectively apply to elections of members to serve in the respective Legislative Assemblies of Ontario and Quebec. Provided that until the Legislature of Ontario otherwise provides, at any election for a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the District of Algoma, in addition to persons qualified by the law of the Province of Canada to vote, every male British subject, aged twenty-one years or upwards, being a householder, shall have a vote.
85. Every Legislative Assembly of Ontario and every Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall continue for four years from the day of the return of the writs for choosing the same (subject nevertheless to either the Legislative Assembly of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Quebec being sooner dissolved by the Lieutenant Governor of the Province), and no longer.
86. There shall be a session of the Legislature of Ontario and of that of Quebec once at least in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the last sitting of the Legislature in each Province in one session and its first sitting in the next session.
87. The following provisions of this Act respecting the House of Commons of Canada, shall extend and apply to the Legislative Assemblies of Ontario and Quebec, that is to say,--the provisions relating to the election of a Speaker originally and on vacancies, the duties of the Speaker, the absence of the Speaker, the quorum, and the mode of voting, as if those provisions were here re-enacted and made applicable in terms to each such Legislative Assembly.
88. The constitution of the Legislature of each of the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, continue as it exists at the Union until altered under the authority of this Act; and the House of Assembly of New Brunswick existing at the passing of this Act shall, unless sooner dissolved, continue for the period for which it was elected.
89. Each of the Lieutenant Governors of Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia shall cause writs to be issued for the first election of members of the Legislative Assembly thereof in such form and by such person as he thinks fit, and at such time and addressed to such Returning Officer as the Governor General directs, and so that the first election of member of Assembly for any Electoral District or any subdivision thereof shall be held at the same time and at the same places as the election for a member to serve in the House of Commons of Canada for that Electoral District.
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90. The following provisions of this Act respecting the Parliament of Canada, namely,--the provisions relating to appropriation and tax bills, the recommendation of money votes, the assent to bills, the disallowance of Acts. and the signification of pleasure on bills reserved,--shall extend and apply to the Legislatures of the several Provinces as if those provisions were here re-enacted and made applicable in terms to the respective Provinces and the Legislatures thereof, with the substitution of the Lieutenant Governor of the Province for the Governor General, of the Governor General for the Queen and for a Secretary of State, of one year for two years, and of the Province for Canada.
91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons, to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Canada, in relation to all matters not coming within the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces; and for greater certainty, but not so as to restrict the generality of the foregoing terms of this section, it is hereby declared that (notwithstanding anything in this Act) the exclusive legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada extends to all matters coming within the classes of subjects next hereinafter enumerated, that is to say,-- 1. The Public Debt and Property. 2. The regulation of Trade and Commerce. 3. The raising of money by any mode or system of Taxation. 4. The borrowing of money on the public credit. 5. Postal service. 6. The Census and Statistics. 7. Militia, Military and Naval Service, and Defence. 8. The fixing of and providing for the salaries and allowances of civil and other officers of the Government of Canada. 9. Beacons, Buoys, Lighthouses, and Sable Island. 10. Navigation and Shipping. 11. Quarantine and the establishment and maintenance of Marine Hospitals. 12. Sea coast and inland Fisheries. 13. Ferries between a Province and any British or Foreign country, or between two Provinces. 14. Currency and Coinage. 15. Banking, incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money. 16. Savings Banks. 17. Weights and Measures. 18. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes. 19. Interest. 20. Legal tender. 21. Bankruptcy and Insolvency. 22. Patents of invention and discovery. 23. Copyrights. 24. Indians, and lands reserved for the Indians. 25. Naturalization and Aliens. 26. Marriage and Divorce. 27. The Criminal Law, except the Constitution of Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal Matters. 28. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Penitentiaries. 29. Such classes of subjects as are expressly excepted in the enumeration of the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces. And any matter coming within any of the classes of subjects enumerated in this section shall not be deemed to come within the class of matters of a local or private nature comprised in the enumeration of the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces.
92. In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to matters coming within the classes of subjects next hereinafter enumerated; that is to say,-- 1. The amendment from time to time, notwithstanding anything in this Act, of the Constitution of the Province, except as regards the office of Lieutenant Governor. 2. Direct Taxation within the Province in order to the raising of a Revenue for Provincial purposes. 3. The borrowing of money on the sole credit of the Province. 4. The establishment and tenure of Provincial offices and the appointment and payment of Provincial officers. 5. The management and sale of the Public Lands belonging to the Province and of the timber and wood thereon. 6. The establishment, maintenance, and management of public and reformatory prisons in and for the Province. 7. The establishment, maintenance, and management of hospitals, asylums, charities, and eleemosynary institutions in and for the Province, other than marine hospitals. 8. Municipal institutions in the Province. 9. Shop, saloon, tavern, auctioneer, and other licenses in order to the raising of a revenue for Provincial, local, or municipal purposes. 10. Local works and undertakings other than such as are of the following classes, a. Lines of steam or other ships, railways, canals, telegraphs, and other works and undertakings connecting the Province with any other or others of the Provinces, or extending beyond the limits of the Province: b. Lines of steamships between the Province and any British or foreign country. c. Such works as, although wholly situate within the Province, are before or after their execution declared by the Parliament of Canada to be for the general advantage of Canada or for the advantage of two or more of the Provinces. 11. The incorporation of companies with Provincial objects. 12. The solemnization of marriage in the Province. 13. Property and civil rights in the Province. 14. The administration of justice in the Province, including the constitution, maintenance, and organization of Provincial Courts, both of civil and of criminal jurisdiction, and including procedure in Civil matters in those Courts. 15. The imposition of punishment by fine, penalty, or imprisonment for enforcing any law of the Province made in relation to any matter coming within any of the classes of subjects enumerated in this section. 16. Generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the Province.
93. In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to education, subject and according to the following provisions: (1) Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to denominational schools which any class of persons have by law in the Province at the Union. (2) All the powers, privileges, and duties at the Union by law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the separate schools and school trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic subjects shall be and the same are hereby extended to the dissentient schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic subjects in Quebec. (3) Where in any Province a system of separate or dissentient schools exists by law at the Union or is thereafter, established by the Legislature of the Province, an appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or decision of any Provincial authority affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to education: {533} (4) In case any such Provincial law as from time to time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due execution of the provisions of this section is not made, or in case any decision of the Governor General in Council on any appeal under this section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial authority in that behalf, then find in every such case, and as far only as the circumstances of each case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial laws for the due execution of the provisions of this section and of any decision of the Governor General in Council under this section.
94. Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the Parliament of Canada may make provision for the uniformity of all or any of the laws relative to property and civil rights in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and of the procedure of all or any of the Courts in those three Provinces; and from and after the passing of any Act in that behalf the power of the Parliament of Canada to make laws in relation to any matter comprised in any such Act shall, notwithstanding anything in this Act, be unrestricted; but any Act of the Parliament of Canada making provision for such uniformity shall not have effect in any Province unless and until it is adopted and enacted as law by the Legislature thereof.
95. In each Province the Legislature may make laws in relation to Agriculture in the Province, and to Immigration into the Province; and it is hereby declared that the Parliament of Canada may from time to time make laws in relation to Agriculture in all or any of the Provinces, and to Immigration into all or any of the Provinces; and any law of the Legislature of a Province relative to Agriculture or to Immigration shall have effect in and for the Province as long and as far only as it is not repugnant to any Act of the Parliament of Canada.
96. The Governor General shall appoint the Judges of the Superior, District, and County Courts in each Province, except those of the Courts of Probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
97. Until the laws relative to property and civil rights in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the procedure of the Courts in those Provinces, are made uniform, the Judges of the Courts of those Provinces appointed by the Governor General shall be selected from the respective Bars of those Provinces.
98. The Judges of the Courts of Quebec shall be selected from the Bar of that Province.
99. The Judges of the Superior Courts shall hold office during good behaviour, but shall be removable by the Governor General on address of the Senate and House of Commons.
100. The salaries, allowances, and pensions of the Judges of the Superior, District, and County Courts (except the Courts of Probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), and of the Admiralty Courts in cases where the Judges thereof are for the time being paid by salary, shall be fixed and provided by the Parliament of Canada.
101. The Parliament of Canada may, notwithstanding anything in this Act, from time to time, provide for the constitution, maintenance, and organization of a general Court of Appeal for Canada, and for the establishment of any additional Courts for the better administration of the Laws of Canada.
102. All duties and revenues over which the respective Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick before and at the Union had and have power of appropriation, except such portions thereof as are by this Act reserved to the respective Legislatures of the Provinces, or are raised by them in accordance with the special powers conferred on them by this Act, shall form one Consolidated Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the public service of Canada in the manner and subject to the charges in this Act provided.
103. The Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada shall be permanently charged with the costs, charges, and expenses incident to the collection, management, and receipt thereof, and the same shall form the first charge thereon, subject to be reviewed and audited in such manner as shall be ordered by the Governor General in Council until the Parliament otherwise provides.
104. The annual interest of the public debts of the several Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick at the Union shall form the second charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada.
105. Unless altered by the Parliament of Canada, the salary of the Governor General shall be ten thousand pounds sterling money of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, and the same shall form the third charge thereon.
106. Subject to the several payments by this Act charged on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, the same shall be appropriated by the Parliament of Canada for the public service.
107. All stocks, cash, banker's balances, and securities for money belonging to each Province at the time of the Union, except as in this Act mentioned, shall be the property of Canada, and shall be taken in reduction of the amount of the respective debts of the Provinces at the Union.
108. The public works and property of each Province, enumerated in the third schedule to this Act, shall be the property of Canada.
109. All lands, mines, minerals, and royalties belonging to the several Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at the Union, and all sums then due or payable for such lands, mines, minerals, or royalties, shall belong to the several Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in which the same are situate or arise, subject to any trusts existing in respect thereof, and to any interest other than that of the Province in the same.
110. All assets connected with such portions of the public debt of each Province as are assumed by that Province shall belong to that Province.
111. Canada shall be liable for the debts and liabilities of each Province existing at the Union.
112. Ontario and Quebec conjointly shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which the debt of the Province of Canada exceeds at the Union sixty-two million five hundred thousand dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.
113. The assets enumerated in the fourth Schedule to this Act belonging at the Union to the Province of Canada shall be the property of Ontario and Quebec conjointly.
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114. Nova Scotia shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which its public debt exceeds at the Union eight million dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.
115. New Brunswick shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which its public debt exceeds at the Union seven million dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.
116. In case the public debt of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick do not at the Union amount to eight million dollars and seven million dollars respectively, they shall respectively receive by half-yearly payments in advance from the Government of Canada interest at five per centum per annum on the difference between the actual amounts of their respective debts and such stipulated amounts.
117. The several provinces shall retain all their respective public property not otherwise disposed of in this Act, subject to the right of Canada to assume any lands or public property required for fortifications or for the defence of the country.
118. The following sums shall be paid yearly by Canada to the several Provinces for the support of their Governments and Legislatures: Ontario, eighty thousand dollars; Quebec, seventy thousand dollars; Nova Scotia, sixty thousand dollars; New Brunswick, fifty thousand dollars; [total] two hundred and sixty thousand dollars; and an annual grant in aid of each Province shall be made, equal to eighty cents per head, of the population us ascertained by the census of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the case of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by each subsequent decennial census until the population of each of those two Provinces amounts to four hundred thousand souls, at which rate such grant shall thereafter remain. Such grant shall be in full Settlement of all future demands on Canada, and shall be paid half-yearly in advance to each Province; but the Government of Canada shall deduct from such grants, as against any Province, all sums chargeable as interest on the Public Debt of that Province in excess of the several amounts stipulated in this Act.
119. New Brunswick shall receive by half-yearly payments in advance from Canada, for the period of ten years from the Union, an additional allowance of sixty-three thousand dollars per annum; but as long as the Public Debt of that Province remains under seven million dollars a deduction equal to the interest at five per centum per annum on such deficiency shall be made from that allowance of sixty-three thousand dollars.
120. All payments to be made under this Act, or in discharge of liabilities created under any Act of the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick respectively, and assumed by Canada, shall, until the Parliament of Canada otherwise directs, be made in such form and manner as may from time to time be ordered by the Governor General in Council.
121. All articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of anyone of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces.
122. The Customs and Excise Laws of each Province shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, continue in force until altered by the Parliament of Canada.
123. Where Customs duties are, at the Union, leviable on any goods, wares or merchandises in any two Provinces, those goods, wares and merchandises may, from and after the Union, be imported from one of those Provinces into the other of them on proof of payment of the Customs duty leviable thereon in the Province of exportation, and on payment of such further amount (if any) of Customs duty as is leviable thereon in the Province of importation.
124. Nothing in this Act shall affect the right of New Brunswick to levy the lumber dues provided in chapter fifteen, of title three, of the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, or in any Act amending that act before or after the Union, and not increasing the amount of such dues; but the lumber of any of the Provinces other than New Brunswick stall not be subjected to such dues.
125. No lands or property belonging to Canada or any Province shall be liable to taxation.
126. Such portions of the duties and revenues over which the respective Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick had before the Union power of appropriation as are by this Act reserved to the respective Governments or Legislatures of the Provinces, and all duties and revenues raised by them in accordance with the special powers conferred upon them by this act, shall in each Province form one Consolidated Revenue Fund to be appropriated for the public service of the Province.
127. If any person being at the passing of this Act a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, to whom a place in the Senate is offered, does not within thirty days thereafter, by writing under his hand, addressed to the Governor General of the Province of Canada, or to the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick (as the case may be), accept the same, he shall be deemed to have declined the same; and any person who, being at the passing of this Act a member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, accepts a place in the Senate, shall thereby vacate his seat in such Legislative Council.
128. Every member of the Senate or House of Commons of Canada shall before taking his seat therein, take and subscribe before the Governor General or some person authorized by him, and every member of a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly of any Province shall before taking his seat therein, take and subscribe before the Lieutenant Governor of the Province, or some person authorized by him, the oath of allegiance contained in the fifth Schedule to this Act; and every member of the Senate of Canada and every member of the Legislative Council of Quebec shall also, before taking his seat therein, take and subscribe before the Governor General, or some person authorized by him, the declaration of qualification contained in the same Schedule.
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129. Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all laws in force in Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick at the Union, and all courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and all legal commissions, powers and authorities, and all officers, judicial, administrative, and ministerial, existing therein at the Union, shall continue in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick respectively, as if the Union had not been made, subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as are enacted by or exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), to be repealed, abolished or altered by the Parliament of Canada, or by the Legislature of the respective Province, according to the authority of the Parliament or of that Legislature under this Act.
130. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, all officers of the several Provinces having duties to discharge in relation to matters other than those coming within the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces shall be officers of Canada, and shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices under the same liabilities, responsibilities and penalties as if the Union had not been made.
131. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the Governor General in Council may from time to time appoint such officers as the Governor General in Council deems necessary or proper for the effectual execution of this Act.
132. The Parliament and Government of Canada shall have all powers necessary or proper for performing the obligations of Canada or of any Province thereof, as part of the British Empire towards foreign countries, arising under treaties between the Empire and such foreign countries.
133. Either the English or the French language may be used by any person in the debates of the Houses of Parliament of Canada and of the Houses of the Legislature of Quebec; and both those languages shall be used in the respective records and journals of those Houses; and either of those languages may be used by any person or in any pleading or process in or issuing from any Court of Canada established under this Act, and in or from all or any of the Courts of Quebec. The Acts of the Parliament of Canada and of the Legislature of Quebec shall be printed and published in both those languages.
134. Until the Legislature of Ontario or of Quebec otherwise provides, the Lieutenant Governors of Ontario and Que bee may each appoint under the Great Seal of the Province the following officers, to hold office during pleasure, that is to say,--the Attorney General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, and, in the case of Quebec, the Solicitor General; and may, by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council from time to time prescribe the duties of those officers and of the several departments over which they shall preside or to which they shall belong, and of the officers and clerks thereof; and may also appoint other and additional officers to hold office during pleasure, and may from time to time prescribe the duties of those officers, and of the several departments over which they shall preside or to which they shall belong, and of the officers and clerks thereof.
130. Until the Legislature of Ontario or Quebec otherwise provides, all rights, powers, duties, functions, responsibilities or authorities at the passing of this Act vested in or imposed on the Attorney General, Solicitor General, Secretary and Registrar of the Province of Canada, Minister of Finance, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Commissioner of Public Works, and Minister of Agriculture and Receiver General, by any law, statute or ordinance of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, and not repugnant to this Act, shall be vested in or imposed on any officer to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor for the discharge of the same or any of them; and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works shall perform the duties and functions of the office of Minister of Agriculture at the passing of this Act imposed by the law of the Province of Canada as well as those of the Commissioner of Public Works.
136. Until altered by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, the Great Seals of Ontario and Quebec respectively, shall be the same or of the same design, as those used in the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada respectively before their Union as the Province of Canada.
137. The words "and from thence to the end of the then next ensuing Session of the Legislature," or words to the same effect, used in any temporary Act of the Province of Canada not expired before the Union, shall be construed to extend and apply to the next Session of Parliament of Canada, if the subject matter of the Act is within the powers of the same as defined by this Act, or to the next Sessions of the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec respectively, if the subject matter of the Act is within the powers of the same as defined by this Act.
138. From and after the Union, the use of the words "Upper Canada," instead of "Ontario," or "Lower Canada" instead of "Quebec," in any deed, writ, process, pleading, document, matter or thing, shall not invalidate the same.
139. Any Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Province of Canada, issued before the Union to take effect at a time which is subsequent to the Union, whether relating to that Province or to Upper Canada, or to Lower Canada, and the several matters and things therein proclaimed shall be and continue of like force and effect as if the Union had not been made.
140. Any proclamation which is authorized by any Act of the Legislature of the Province of Canada to be issued under the Great Seal of the Province of Canada, whether relating to that Province or to Upper Canada, or to Lower Canada, and which is not issued before the Union, may be issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario or of Quebec, as its subject matter requires, under the Great Seal thereof; and from and after the issue of such Proclamation the same and the several matters and things therein proclaimed shall be and continue of the like force and effect in Ontario or Quebec as if the Union had not been made.
141. The Penitentiary of the Province of Canada shall, until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, be and continue the Penitentiary of Ontario and of Quebec.
142. The division and adjustment of the debts, credits, liabilities, properties and assets of Upper Canada and Lower Canada shall be referred to the arbitrament of three arbitrators, one chosen by the Government of Ontario, one by the Government of Quebec, and one by the Government of Canada; and the selection of the Arbitrators shall not be made until the Parliament of Canada and the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec have met; and the arbitrator chosen by the Government of Canada shall not be a resident either in Ontario or in Quebec.
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143. The Governor General in Council may from time to time order that such and so many of the records, books, and documents of the Province of Canada as he thinks fit shall be appropriated and delivered either to Ontario or to Quebec, and the same shall henceforth be the property of that Province: and any copy thereof or extract therefrom, duly certified by the officer having charge of the original thereof shall be admitted as evidence.
144. The Lieutenant Governor of Quebec may from time to time, by Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Province, to take effect from a day to be appointed therein, constitute townships in those parts of the Province of Quebec in which townships are not then already constituted, and fix the metes and bounds thereof.
145. Inasmuch as the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have joined in a declaration that the construction of the Intercolonial Railway is essential to the consolidation of the Union of British North America, and to the assent thereto of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and have consequently agreed that provision should be made for its immediate construction by the Government of Canada: Therefore, in order to give effect to that agreement, it shall be the duty of the Government and Parliament of Canada to provide for the commencement, within six months after the Union, of a railway connecting the River St. Lawrence with the City of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and for the construction thereof without intermission, and the completion thereof with all practicable speed.
146. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, on Addresses from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada, and from the Houses of the respective Legislatures of the Colonies or Provinces of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, to admit those Colonies or Provinces, or any of them, into the Union, and on Address from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada to admit Rupert's Land and the North-western Territory, or either of them, into the Union, on such terms and conditions in each case as are in the Addresses expressed and as the Queen thinks fit to approve, subject to the provisions of this Act, and the provisions of any Order in Council in that behalf shall have effect as if they had been enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
147. In case of the admission of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, or either of them, each shall be entitled to a representation in the Senate of Canada of four members, and (notwithstanding anything in this Act) in case of the admission of Newfoundland the normal number of Senators shall be seventy-six and their maximum number shall be eighty-two; but Prince Edward Island when admitted shall be deemed to be comprised in the third of the three divisions into which Canada is, in relation to the constitution of the Senate, divided by this Act, and accordingly, after the admission of Prince Edward Island, whether Newfoundland is admitted or not, the representation of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Senate shall, as vacancies occur, be reduced from twelve to ten members respectively; and the representation of each of those Provinces shall not be increased at any time beyond ten, except under the provisions of this Act for the appointment of three or six additional Senators under the direction of the Queen.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1871. British North America Act, 1871.
An Act respecting the Establishment of Provinces in the Dominion of Canada. [29TH JUNE, 1871.]
WHEREAS doubts have been entertained respecting the powers of the Parliament of Canada to establish Provinces in territories admitted, or which may hereafter be admitted, into the Dominion of Canada, and to provide for the representation of such Provinces in the said Parliament, and it is expedient to remove such doubts, and to vest such powers in the said Parliament: Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as The British North America Act, 1871.
2. The Parliament of Canada may from time to time establish new Provinces in any territories forming for the time being part of the Dominion of Canada, but not included in any Province thereof, and may, at the time of such establishment, make provision for the constitution and administration of any such Province, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order and good government of such Province, and for its representation in the said Parliament.
3. The Parliament of Canada may from time to time, with the consent of the Legislature of any Province of the said Dominion, increase, diminish, or otherwise alter the limits of such Province, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed to by the said Legislature, and may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the effect and operation of any such increase or diminution or alteration of territory in relation to any Province affected thereby.
4. The Parliament of Canada may from time to time make provision for the administration, peace, order, and good government of any territory not for the time being included in any Province.
5. The following Acts passed by the said Parliament of Canada, and intituled respectively: "An Act for the temporary government of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory when united with Canada;" and "An Act to amend and continue the Act thirty-two and thirty-three Victoria, chapter three, and to establish and provide for the government of the Province of Manitoba," shall be and be deemed to have been valid and effectual for all purposes whatsoever from the date at which they respectively received the assent, in the Queen's name, of the Governor General of the said Dominion of Canada.
6. Except as provided by the third section of this Act, it shall not be competent for the Parliament of Canada to alter the provisions of the last mentioned Act of the said Parliament in so far as it relates to the Province of Manitoba, or of any other Act hereafter establishing new Provinces in the said Dominion, subject always to the right of the Legislature of the Province of Manitoba to alter from time to time the provisions of any law respecting the qualification of electors and members of the Legislative Assembly, and to make laws respecting elections in the said Province.
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CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D. 1875. Parliament of Canada Act, 1875.
An Act to remove certain doubts with respect to the powers of the Parliament of Canada, under Section 18 of the British North America Act, 1867. [19TH JULY, 1875.]
WHEREAS by section 18 of The British North America Act, 1867, it is provided as follows:-
"The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that the same shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the members thereof." And whereas doubts have arisen with regard to the power of defining by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, in pursuance of the said section, the said privileges, powers or immunities; and it is expedient to remove such doubts: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
1. Section 18 of The British North America Act, 1867, is hereby repealed, without prejudice to anything done under that section, and the following section shall be substituted for the section so repealed:--The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that any Act of the Parliament of Canada defining such privileges, immunities and powers shall not confer any privileges, immunities, or powers exceeding those at the passing of such Act held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the members thereof.
2. The Act of the Parliament of Canada passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter twenty-four, intituled An Act to provide for oaths to witnesses being administered in certain cases for the purposes of either House of Parliament, shall be deemed to be valid, and to have been valid as from the date at which the royal assent was given thereto by the Governor General of the Dominion of Canada.
3. This Act may be cited as The Parliament of Canada Act, 1875.
CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: A. D, 1886. British North America Act, 1886.
An Act respecting the Representation in the Parliament of Canada of Territories which for the time being form part of the Dominion of Canada, but are not included in any Province. [25TH JUNE, 1886.]
WHEREAS it is expedient to empower the Parliament of Canada to provide for the representation in the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, or either of them, of any territory which for the time being forms part of the Dominion of Canada, but is not included in any Province: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's. Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--
1. The Parliament of Canada may from time to time make provision for the representation in the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, or in either of them, of any territories which for the time being form part of the Dominion of Canada, but are not included in any Province thereof.
2. Any Act passed by the Parliament of Canada before the passing of this Act for the purpose mentioned in this Act shall, if not disallowed by the Queen, be, and shall be deemed to have been, valid and effectual from the date at which it received the assent, in Her Majesty's name, of the Governor-General of Canada. It is hereby declared that any Act passed by the Parliament of Canada, whether before or after the passing of this Act, for the purpose mentioned in this Act, or in The British North America Act, 1871, has effect, notwithstanding anything in The British North America Act, 1867, and the number of Senators or the number of Members of the House of Commons specified in the last-mentioned Act is increased by the number of Senators or of Members, as the case may be, provided by any such Act of the Parliament of Canada for the representation of any provinces or territories of Canada.
3. This Act maybe cited as The British North America Act, 1886. This Act and The British North America Act, 1867, and The British North America Act, 1871, shall be construed together, and may be cited together as The British North America Acts, 1861 to 1886.
----------CONSTITUTION OF CANADA: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF (OR FOR) THE CAROLINAS (Locke's).
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1669-1693.
CONSTITUTION OF CHILE.
See CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884, and 1885-1891.
CONSTITUTION OF CLEISTHENES.
See ATHENS: B. C. 510-507.
CONSTITUTION OF COLOMBIA.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1830-1886, and 1885-1891.
CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).
CONSTITUTION OF CONNECTICUT (1639--the Fundamental Agreement of New Haven).
See CONNECTICUT; A. D. 1636-1639, and 1639.
CONSTITUTION OF DENMARK.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (DENMARK-ICELAND): A. D. 1849-1874.
CONSTITUTION OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, or the United Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.
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CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND.
"Our English Constitution was never made, in the sense in which the Constitutions of many other countries have been made. There never was any moment when Englishmen drew out their political system in the shape of a formal document, whether as the carrying out of any abstract political theories or as the imitation of the past or present system of any other nation. There are indeed certain great political documents, each of which forms a landmark in our political history. There is the Great Charter [see ENGLAND: A. D. 1215], the Petition of Rights [ENGLAND: A. D. 1625-1628, and 1628], the Bill of Rights [ENGLAND: A. D. 1689 (October)]. But not one of these gave itself out as the enactment of anything new. All claimed to set forth, with new strength, it might be, and with new clearness, those rights of Englishmen which were already old. ... The life and soul of English law has ever been precedent; we have always held that whatever our fathers once did their sons have a right to do again."
_E. A. Freeman, The Growth of the English Constitution, chapter 2._
"It is, in the first place, necessary to have a clear understanding of what we mean when we talk about 'the English Constitution.' Few terms in our language have been more laxly employed. ... Still, the term, 'the English Constitution' is susceptible of full and accurate explanation: though it may not be easy to set it lucidly forth, without first investigating the archaeology of our history, rather more deeply than may suit hasty talkers and superficial thinkers. ... Some furious Jacobins, at the close of the last century, used to clamour that there was no such thing as the English Constitution, because it could not be produced in full written form, like that of the United States. ... But an impartial and earnest investigator may still satisfy himself that England has a constitution, and that there is ample cause why she should cherish it. And by this it is meant that he will recognise and admire, in the history, the laws and the institutions of England, certain great leading principles, which have existed from the earliest period of our nationality down to the present time; expanding and adapting themselves to the progress of society and civilization, advancing and varying in development, but still essentially the same in substance and spirit. These great primeval and enduring principles are the principles of the English Constitution. And we are not obliged to learn them from imperfect evidences or precarious speculation; for they are imperishably recorded in the Great Charter, and in Charters and Statutes connected with and confirmatory of Magna Charta [see ENGLAND: A. D. 1215]. ... These great primeval and enduring principles of our Constitution are as follows: The government of the country by an hereditary sovereign, ruling with limited powers, and bound to summon and consult a parliament of the whole realm, comprising hereditary peers and elective representatives of the commons. That without the sanction of parliament no tax of any kind can be imposed; and no law can be made, repealed, or altered. That no man be arbitrarily fined or imprisoned, that no man's property or liberties be impaired, and that no man be in any way punished, except after a lawful trial. Trial by jury. That justice shall not be sold or delayed. These great constitutional principles can all be proved, either by express terms or by fair implication, from Magna Carta, and its ... supplement [the statute 'Confirmatio Cartarum ']. Their vigorous development was aided and attested in many subsequent statutes, especially in the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights. ... Lord Chatham called these three 'The Bible of the English Constitution,' to which appeal is to be made on every grave political question."
E. S. Creasy, Rise and Progress of the English Constitution, chapter 1.
"The fact that our constitution has to be collected from statutes, from legal decisions, from observation of the course of conduct of the business of politics; that much of what is written is of a negative sort, stating what the Crown and its ministers cannot do; that there is no part of it which an omnipotent Parliament may not change at will; all this is a puzzle not only to foreign jurists who are prepared to say, with De Tocqueville, that the English constitution does not exist, but to ourselves who are prepared to maintain that it is a monument, if only we can find it, of political sagacity. Those who praise it call it flexible; those who criticise it unstable."
_Sir W. R. Anson, The Law and Custom of the Constitution, part 1, page 35._
ALSO IN: William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development.
_H. Hallam, Constitutional History of England: Henry VII. to George II._
T. E. May, Constitutional History of England, 1760-1860.
R. Gneist, History of the English Constitution.
E. Fischel, The English Constitution.
W. Bagehot, The English Constitution.
E. Boutmy, The English Constitution.
See, also, PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH, and CABINET, THE ENGLISH.
----------CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1791. The Constitution accepted by Louis XVI.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1791, and 1791 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (or the Year One). The Jacobin Constitution.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (or the Year Three). The Constitution of the Directory.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1799. The Constitution of the Consulate.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1814. The Constitution of the Restoration.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1848. The Constitution of the Second Republic.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1848 (APRIL-DECEMBER).
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1852.- The Constitution of the Second Empire.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1851-1852.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889. The Constitution of the Third Republic.
The circumstances of the framing and adoption in 1875 of the Constitution of the Third Republic will be found narrated under FRANCE: A. D. 1871-1876.
The following is the text of the organic law of 1875, with the later amendatory and supplemental enactments, down to July 17, 1889, as translated and edited, with an historical introduction, by Mr. Charles F. A. Currier, and published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1893. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the President of the Academy, Professor Edmund J. James:
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CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1875. Law on the Organization of the Public Powers. February 25.
ARTICLE 1. The legislative power is exercised by two assemblies: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies is elected by universal suffrage, under the conditions determined by the electoral law.
[Footnote: See law of November 30, 1875, infra.]
The composition, the method of election, and the powers of the Senate shall be regulated by a special law.
[Footnote: See laws of February 24, and August 2, 1875, infra.]
ARTICLE 2. The President of the Republic is chosen by an absolute majority of votes of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in National Assembly. He is elected for seven years. He is re-eligible.
ARTICLE 3. The President of the Republic has the initiative of the laws, concurrently with the members of the two Chambers. He promulgates the laws when they have been voted by the two Chambers; he looks after and secures their execution. He has the right of pardon; amnesty can be granted by law only. He disposes of the armed force. He appoints to all civil and military positions. He presides over national festivals; envoys and ambassadors of foreign powers are accredited to him. Every act of the President of the Republic must be countersigned by a Minister.
ARTICLE 4. As vacancies occur on and after the promulgation of the present law, the President of the Republic appoints, in the Council of Ministers, the Councilors of State in ordinary service. The Councilors of State thus chosen may be dismissed only by decree rendered in the Council of Ministers. The Councilors of State chosen by virtue of the law of May 24, 1872, cannot, before the expiration of their powers, be dismissed except in the manner determined by that law. After the dissolution of the National Assembly, revocation may be pronounced only by resolution of the Senate.
ARTICLE 5. The President of the Republic may, with the advice of the Senate, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the legal expiration of its term. [In that case the electoral colleges are summoned for new elections within the space of three months.]
[Footnote: Amended by constitutional law of August 14, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 6. The Ministers are jointly and severally ('solidairement') responsible to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and individually for their personal acts. The President of the Republic is responsible in case of high treason only.
[Footnote: See ARTICLE 12, law of July 16, 1875, infra.]
ARTICLE 7. In case of vacancy by death or for any other reason, the two Chambers assembled together proceed at once to the election of a new President. In the meantime the Council of Ministers is invested with the executive power.
[Footnote: See ARTICLES. 3 and 11, law of July 16, 1875, infra.]
ARTICLE 8. The Chambers shall have the right by separate resolutions, taken in each by an absolute majority of votes, either upon their own initiative or upon the request of the President of the Republic, to declare a revision of the Constitutional Laws necessary. After each of the two Chambers shall have come to this decision, they shall meet together in National Assembly to proceed with the revision. The acts effecting revision of the constitutional laws, in whole or in part, must be by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly. [During the continuance, however, of the powers conferred by the law of November 20, 1873, upon Marshal de MacMahon, this revision can take place only upon the initiative of the President of the Republic.]
[Footnote: Amended by constitutional law of August 14, 1884, infra.]
[ARTICLE 9. The seat of the Executive Power and of the two Chambers is at Versailles.]
[Footnote: Repealed by constitutional law of June 21, 1879, infra.]
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1875. Law on the Organization of the Senate. February 24.
[Footnote: By the constitutional law of August 14, 1884, it was provided that Articles 1 to 7 of this law should no longer have a constitutional character; and they were repealed by the law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
[ARTICLE 1. The Senate consists of three hundred members: Two hundred and twenty-five elected by the departments and colonies, and seventy-five elected by the National Assembly.]
[ARTICLE 2. The departments of the Seine and Nord elect each five senators. The following departments elect four senators each: Seine-Inférieure, Pas-dc-Calais, Gironde, Rhône, Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord. The following departments elect three senators each: Loire-Inférieure, Saône-et-Loire, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-et-Oise, Isère, Puy-de-Dôme, Somme, Bouches-du-Rhône, Aisne, Loire, Manche, Maine-et-Loire, Morbihan, Dordogne, Haute-Garonne, Charente-Inférieure, Calvados, Sarthe, Hérault, Basses-Pyrénées, Gard, Aveyron, Vendée, Orne, Oise, Vosges, Allier. All the other departments elect two senators each. The following elect one senator each: The Territory of Belfort, the three departments of Algeria, the four colonies: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion and the French Indies.]
[ARTICLE 3. No one can be senator unless he is a French citizen, forty years of age at least, and enjoying civil and political rights.]
[ARTICLE 4. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected by an absolute majority and by 'scrutin de liste', by a college meeting at the capital of the department or colony and composed: (1) of the deputies; (2) of the general councilors; (3) of the arrondissement councilors; (4) of delegates elected, one by each municipal council, from among the voters of the commune. In the French Indies the members of the colonial council or of the local councils are substituted for the general councilors, arrondissement councilors and delegates from the municipal councils. They vote at the capital of each district.]
[ARTICLE 5. The senators chosen by the Assembly are elected by 'scrutin de liste' and by an absolute majority of votes.]
[ARTICLE 6. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected for nine years and renewable by thirds every three years. At the beginning of the first session the departments shall be divided into three series containing an equal number of senators each. It shall be determined by lot which series shall be renewed at the expiration of the first and second triennial periods.]
[ARTICLE 7. The senators elected by the Assembly are irremovable. Vacancies by death, by resignation, or for any other reason, shall, within the space of two months, be filled by the Senate itself.]
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ARTICLE 8. The Senate has, concurrently with the Chamber of Deputies, the initiative and passing of laws. Money bills, however, must first be introduced in, and passed by the Chamber of Deputies.
ARTICLE 9. The Senate may be constituted a Court of Justice to judge either the President of the Republic or the Ministers, and to take cognizance of attacks made upon the safety of the State.
ARTICLE 10. Elections to the Senate shall take place one month before the time fixed by the National Assembly for its own dissolution. The Senate shall organize and enter upon its duties the same day that the National Assembly is dissolved.
ARTICLE 11. The present law shall be promulgated only after the passage of the law on the public powers.
[Footnote: i. e., the law of February 25, 1875, supra.]
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE; 1875. Law on the Relations of the Public Powers. July 16.
ARTICLE 1. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies shall assemble each year the second Tuesday of January, unless convened earlier by the President of the Republic. The two Chambers continue in session at least five months each year. The sessions of each begin and end at the same time. [On the Sunday following the opening of the session, public prayers shall be addressed to God in the churches and temples, to invoke His aid in the labors of the Chambers.]
[Footnote: Repealed by law of August 14, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 2. The President of the Republic pronounces the closure of the session. He may convene the Chambers in extra session. He must convene them if, during the recess, an absolute majority of the members of each Chamber request it. The President may adjourn the Chambers. The adjournment, however, must not exceed one month, nor take place more than twice in the same session.
ARTICLE 3. One month at least before the legal expiration of the powers of the President of the Republic, the Chambers must be called together in National Assembly and proceed to the election of a new President. In default of a summons, this meeting shall take place, as of right, the fifteenth day before the expiration of those powers. In case of the death or resignation of the President of the Republic, the two Chambers shall reassemble immediately, as of right. In case the Chamber of Deputies, in consequence of Article 5 of the law of February 25, 1875, is dissolved at the time when the presidency of the Republic becomes vacant, the electoral colleges shall be convened at once, and the Senate shall reassemble as of right.
ARTICLE 4. Every meeting of either of the two Chambers which shall be held at a time other than the common session of both is illegal and void, except the case provided for in the preceding article, and that when the Senate meets as a court of justice; and in this last case, judicial duties alone shall be performed.
ARTICLE 5. The sittings of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies are public. Nevertheless each Chamber may meet in secret session, upon the request of a fixed number of its members, determined by the rules. It decides by absolute majority whether the sitting shall be resumed in public upon the same subject.
ARTICLE 6. The President of the Republic communicates with the Chambers by messages, which are read from the tribune by a Minister. The Ministers have entrance to both Chambers, and must be heard when they request it. They may be represented, for the discussion of a specific bill, by commissioners designated by decree of the President of the Republic.
ARTICLE 7. The President of the Republic promulgates the laws within the month following the transmission to the Government of the law finally passed. He must promulgate, within three days, laws whose promulgation shall have been declared urgent by an express vote in each Chamber. Within the time fixed for promulgation the President of the Republic may, by a message with reasons assigned, request of the two Chambers a new discussion, which cannot be refused.
ARTICLE 8. The President of the Republic negotiates and ratifies treaties. He communicates them to the Chambers as soon as the interests and safety of the State permit. Treaties of peace, and of commerce, treaties which involve the finances of the State, those relating to the persons and property of French citizens in foreign countries, shall become definitive only after having been voted by the two Chambers. No cession, no exchange, no annexation of territory shall take place except by virtue of a law.
ARTICLE 9. The President of the Republic cannot declare war except by the previous assent of the two Chambers.
ARTICLE 10. Each Chamber is the judge of the eligibility of its members, and of the legality of their election; it alone can receive their resignation.
ARTICLE 11. The bureau of each Chamber is elected each year for the entire session, and for every extra session which may be held before the ordinary session of the following year. When the two Chambers meet together as a National Assembly, their bureau consists of the President, Vice-Presidents and Secretaries of the Senate.
[Footnote: The bureau of the Senate consists of a president, four vice-presidents, six secretaries and three questors; the bureau of the Chamber of Deputies is the same, except that there are eight secretaries instead of six.]
ARTICLE 12. The President of the Republic may be impeached by the Chamber of Deputies only, and tried by the Senate only. The Ministers may be impeached by the Chamber of Deputies for offences committed in the performance of their duties. In this case they are tried by the Senate. The Senate may be constituted a court of Justice, by a decree of the President of the Republic, issued in the Council of Ministers, to try all persons accused of attempts upon the safety of the State. If procedure is begun by the ordinary courts, the decree convening the Senate may be issued any time before the granting of a discharge. A law shall determine the method of procedure for the accusation, trial and judgment.
[Footnote: Fixed by law of April 10, 1880.]
ARTICLE 13. No member of either Chamber shall be prosecuted or held responsible on account of any opinions expressed or votes cast by him in the performance of his duties.
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ARTICLE 14. No member of either Chamber shall, during the session, be prosecuted or arrested for any offence or misdemeanor, except on the authority of the Chamber of which he is a member, unless he be caught in the very act. The detention or prosecution of a member of either Chamber is suspended for the session, and for its [the Chamber's] entire term, if it demands it.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1879. Law Revising Article 9 of the Constitutional Law of February 25,1875, June 21.
Article 9 of the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, is repealed.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1884. Law Partially Revising the Constitutional Laws, August 14.
ARTICLE 1. Paragraph 2 of Article 5 of the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, on the Organization of the Public Powers, is amended as follows: "In that case the electoral colleges meet for new elections within two months, and the Chamber within the ten days following the close of the elections."
ARTICLE 2. To Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the same law of February 25, 1875, is added the following: "The Republican form of the Government cannot be made the subject of a proposed revision. Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the presidency of the Republic."
ARTICLE 3. Articles 1 to 7 of the constitutional law of February 24, 1875, on the Organization of the Senate, shall no longer have a constitutional character.
[Footnote: And may therefore be amended by ordinary legislation. See the law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 4. Paragraph 3 of Article 1 of the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, on the Relation of the Public Powers, is repealed.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1875. Law on the Election of Senators. August 2.
ARTICLE 1. A decree of the President of the Republic, issued at least six weeks in advance, determines the day for the elections to the Senate, and at the same time that for the choice of delegates of the municipal councils. There must be an interval of at least one month between the choice of delegates and the election of senators.
ARTICLE 2. Each municipal council elects one delegate. The election is without debate, by secret ballot, and by an absolute majority of votes. After two ballots a plurality is sufficient, and in case of an equality of votes, the oldest is declared elected. If the Mayor is not a member of the municipal council, he presides, but shall not vote.
[Footnote: Amended by Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
On the same day and in the same way an alternate is elected, who takes the place of the delegate in case of refusal or inability to serve.
[Footnote: See Article 4, law of February 24, 1875, supra.]
The choice of the municipal councils shall not extend to a deputy, a general councilor, or an arrondissement councilor.
[Footnote: See Article 4, law of February 24, 1875, supra. ]
All communal electors, including the municipal councilors, are eligible without distinction.
ARTICLE 3. In the communes where a municipal committee exists, the delegate and alternate shall be chosen by the old council.
[Footnote: Amended by Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra. ]
ARTICLE 4. If the delegate was not present at the election, the Mayor shall see to it that he is notified within twenty-four hours. He must transmit to the Prefect, within five days, notice of his acceptance. In case of refusal or silence, he is replaced by the alternate, who is then placed upon the list as the delegate of the commune.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 5. The official report of the election of the delegate and alternate is transmitted at once to the Prefect; it states the acceptance or refusal of the delegates and alternates, as well as the protests raised, by one or more members of the municipal council, against the legality of the election. A copy of this official report is posted on the door of the town hall.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 6. A statement of the results of the election of delegates and alternates is drawn up within a week by the Prefect; this is given to all requesting it, and may be copied and published. Every elector may, at the bureaux of the prefecture, obtain information and a copy of the list, by communes, of the municipal councilors of the department, and, at the bureaux of the sub-prefectures a copy of the list, by communes, of the municipal councilors of the arrondissement.
ARTICLE 7. Every communal elector may, within three days, address directly to the Prefect a protest against the legality of the election. If the Prefect deems the proceedings illegal, he may request that they be set aside.
ARTICLE 8. Protests concerning the election of the delegate or alternate are decided, subject to an appeal to the Council of State, by the council of the prefecture, and, in the colonies, by the privy council. A delegate whose election is annulled because he does not satisfy the conditions demanded by law, or on account of informality, is replaced by the alternate. In case the election of the delegate and alternate is rendered void, as by the refusal or death of both after their acceptance, new elections are held by the municipal council on a day fixed by an order of the Prefect.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 9. Eight days, at the latest, before the election of senators, the Prefect, and, in the colonies, the Director of the Interior, arranges the list of the electors of the department in alphabetical order. The list is communicated to all demanding it, and may be copied and published. No elector has more than one vote.
ARTICLE 10. The deputies, the members of the general council, or of the arrondissement councils, who have been announced by the returning committees, but whose powers have not been verified, are enrolled upon the list of electors and are allowed to vote.
ARTICLE 11. In each of the three departments of Algeria the electoral college is composed: (1) of the deputies; (2) of the members of the general councils, of French citizenship; (3) of delegates elected by the French members of each municipal council from among the communal electors of French citizenship.
ARTICLE 12. The electoral college is presided over by the President of the civil tribunal of the capital of the department or colony. The President is assisted by the two oldest and two youngest electors present at the opening of the meeting. The bureau thus constituted chooses a secretary from among the electors. If the President is prevented [from presiding] his place is taken by the Vice-President [of the civil tribunal], and, in his absence, by the oldest justice.
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ARTICLE 13. The bureau divides the electors in alphabetical order into sections of at least one hundred voters each. It appoints the President and Inspectors of each of these sections. It decides all questions and contests which may arise in the course of the election, without, however, power to depart from the decisions rendered by virtue of Article 8 of the present law.
ARTICLE 14. The first ballot begins at eight o'clock in the morning and closes at noon. The second begins at two o'clock and closes at four o'clock. The third, if it takes place, begins at six o'clock and closes at eight o'clock. The results of the ballotings are determined by the bureau and announced the same day by the President of the electoral college.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 15. No one is elected senator on either of the first two ballots unless he receives: (1) an absolute majority of the votes cast; and (2) a number of votes equal to one-fourth of the total number of electors registered. On the third ballot a plurality is sufficient, and, in case of an equality of votes, the oldest is elected.
ARTICLE 16. Political meetings for the nomination of senators may take place conformably to the rules laid down by the law of June 6, 1868 subject to the following conditions:
[Footnote: France is divided Into twenty-six judicial districts, in each of which there is a cour d'appel. There are similar courts in Algeria and the colonies. The Cour de Cassation is the supreme court of appeal for all France, Algeria and the colonies.]
I. These meetings may be held from the date of the election of delegates up to the day of the election [of senators] inclusive;
II. They must be preceded by a declaration made, at latest, the evening before, by seven senatorial electors of the arrondissement, and indicating the place, the day and the hour the meeting is to take place, and the names, occupation and residence of the candidates to be presented;
III. The municipal authorities will see to it that no one is admitted to the meeting unless he is a deputy, general councilor, arrondissement councilor, delegate or candidate. The delegate will present, as a means of identification, a certificate from the Mayor of his commune, the candidate a certificate from the official who shall have received the declaration mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra.]
ARTICLE 17. Delegates who take part in all the ballotings shall, if they demand it, receive from the State, upon the presentation of their letter of summons, countersigned by the President of the electoral college, a remuneration for traveling expenses, which shall be paid to them upon the same basis and in the same manner as that given to jurors by Articles 35, 90 and following, of the decree of June 18, 1811. A public administrative regulation shall determine the method of fixing the amount and the method of payment of this remuneration.
[Footnote: Done by decree of December 26, 1875.]
ARTICLE 18. Every delegate who, without lawful reason, shall not take part in all the ballotings, or, having been hindered, shall not have given notice to the alternate in sufficient season, shall, upon the demand of the public prosecutor, be punished by a fine of fifty francs by the civil tribunal of the capital.
[Footnote: Of the department.] The same penalty may be imposed upon the alternate who, after having been notified by letter, telegram, or notice personally delivered in due season, shall not have taken part in the election.
ARTICLE 19. Every attempt at corruption by the employment of means enumerated in Articles 177 and following, of the Penal Code, to influence the vote of an elector, or to keep him from voting, shall be punished by imprisonment of from three months to two years, and a fine of from fifty to five hundred francs, or by one of these two penalties alone. Article 463 of the Penal Code shall apply to the penalties imposed by the present article.
[Footnote: See Article 8, Jaw of December 9, 1884, infra. ]
ARTICLE 20. It is incompatible for a senator to be: I. Councilor of State, Maitre de Requêtes, Prefect or Sub-Prefect, except Prefect of the Seine and Prefect of Police; II. Member of the courts of appeal ("appel, ") or of the tribunals of first instance, except public prosecutor at the court of Paris;
[Footnote: France is divided Into twenty-six judicial districts, in each of which there is a cour d'appel. There are similar courts in Algeria and the colonies. The Cour de Cassation is the supreme court of appeal for all France, Algeria and the colonies.]
III. General Paymaster, Special Receiver, official or employé of the central administration of the ministries.
ARTICLE 21. The following shall not be elected by the department or the colony included wholly or partially in their jurisdiction, during the exercise of their duties and during the six months following the cessation of their duties by resignation, dismissal, change of residence, or other cause:
I. The First Presidents, Presidents, and members of the courts of appeal ("appel");
II. The Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Examining Magistrates, and members of the tribunals of first instance;
III. The Prefect of Police; Prefects and Sub-Prefects, and Prefectorial General Secretaries; the Governors, Directors of the Interior, and General Secretaries of the Colonies;
V. The Chief Arrondissement Engineers and Chief Arrondissement Road-Surveyors;
V. The School Rectors and Inspectors;
VI. The Primary School Inspectors;
VII. The Archbishops, Bishops, and Vicars General;
VIII. The officers of all grades of the land and naval force;
IX. The Division Commissaries and the Military Deputy Commissaries;
X. The General Paymasters and Special Receivers of Money;
XI. The Supervisors of Direct and Indirect Taxes, of Registration of Lands and of Posts;
XII. The Guardians and Inspectors of Forests.
ARTICLE 22. A senator elected in several departments, must let his choice be known to the President of the senate within ten days following the verification of the elections. If a choice is not made in this time, the question is settled by lot in open session. The vacancy shall be filled within one month and by the same electoral body. The same holds true in case of an invalidated election.
ARTICLE 23. If by death or resignation the number of senators of a department is reduced by one·half, the vacancies shall be filled within the space of three months, unless the vacancies occur within the twelve months preceding the triennial elections. At the time fixed for the triennial elections, all vacancies shall be filled which have occurred, whatever their number and date.
[Footnote: See Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra. ]
[ARTICLE 24. The election of senators chosen by the National Assembly takes place in public sitting, by "scrutin de liste," and by an absolute majority of votes, whatever the number of ballotings.]
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[ARTICLE 25. When it is necessary to elect successors of senators chosen by virtue of Article 7 of the law of February 24, 1875, the Senate proceeds in the manner indicated in the preceding article].
[Footnote: Articles 24 and 25 repealed by law of December 9, 1584, infra.]
ARTICLE 26. Members of the Senate receive the same salary as members of the Chamber of Deputies. [Footnote: See Article 17, law of November 30, 1875, infra. ]
ARTICLE 27. There are applicable to elections to the Senate all the provisions of the electoral law relating: I. to cases of unworthiness and incapacity; II. to offences, prosecutions, and penalties; III. to election proceedings, in all respects not contrary to the provisions of the present law.
Temporary Provisions.
ARTICLE 28. For the first election of members of the Senate, the law which shall determine the date of the dissolution of the National Assembly shall fix, without regard to the intervals established by Article 1, the date on which the municipal councils shall meet for the election of delegates and the day for the election of Senators. Before the meeting of the municipal councils, the National Assembly shall proceed to the election of those Senators whom it is to choose.
ARTICLE 20. The provisions of Article 21, by which an interval of six months must elapse between the cessation of duties and election, shall not apply to officials, except Prefects and Sub-Prefects, whose duties shall have ceased either before the promulgation of the present law or within twenty days following.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1875. Law on the Election of Deputies. November 30.
[Footnote: See infra, the laws of June 10,1885, and February 13, 1889, amending the electoral law. ]
ARTICLE 1. The deputies shall be chosen by the voters registered: I. upon the lists drawn up in accordance with the law of July 7, 1874; II. upon the supplementary list including those who have lived in the commune six months. Registration upon the supplementary list shall take place conformably to the laws and regulations now governing the political electoral lists, by the committees and according to the forms established by Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the law of July 7, 1874. Appeals relating to the formation and revision of either list shall be carried directly before the Civil Chamber of the Court of Appeal ("Cassation"). The electoral lists drawn up March 31, 1875, shall serve until March 31, 1876.
ARTICLE 2. The soldiers of all ranks and grades, of both the land and naval forces, shall not vote when they are with their regiment, at their post or on duty. Those who, on election day, are in private residence, in non-activity or in possession of a regular leave of absence, may vote in the commune on the lists of which they are duly registered. This last provision applies equally to officers on the unattached list or on the reserve list.
ARTICLE 3. During the electoral period, circulars and platforms ("professions de foi") signed by the candidates, placards and manifestoes signed by one or more voters, may, after being deposited with the public prosecutor, be posted and distributed without previous authorization. The distribution of ballots is not subjected to this deposit.
[Footnote: See, however, a law of December 20, 1878, by which deposit is made necessary.]
Every public or municipal official is forbidden to distribute ballots, platforms and circulars of candidates. The provisions of Article 19 of the organic law of August 2, 1875, on the elections of Senators, shall apply to the elections of deputies.
ARTICLE 4. Balloting shall continue one day only. The voting occurs at the chief place of the commune; each commune may nevertheless be divided, by order of the Prefect, into as many sections as may be demanded by local circumstances and the number of voters. The second ballot shall take place the second Sunday following the announcement of the first ballot, according to the provisions of Article 65, of the law of March 15, 1849.
ARTICLE 5. The method of voting shall be according to the provisions of the organic and regulating decrees of February 2, 1852. The ballot is secret. The voting lists used at the elections in each section, signed by the President and Secretary, shall remain deposited for eight days at the Secretary's office at the town hall, where they shall be communicated to every voter requesting them.
ARTICLE 6. Every voter is eligible, without any tax qualification, at the age of twenty-five years.
ARTICLE 7. No soldier or sailor forming part of the active forces of land or sea may, whatever his rank or position, be elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies. This provision applies to soldiers and sailors on the unattached list or in non-activity, but does not extend to officers of the second section of the list of the general staff, nor to those who, kept in the first section for having been commander-in-chief in the field, have ceased to be employed actively, nor to officers who, having privileges acquired on the retired list, are sent to or maintained at their homes while awaiting the settlement of their pension. The decision by which the officer shall have been permitted to establish his rights on the retired list shall become, in this case, irrevocable. The rule laid down in the first paragraph of the present Article shall not apply to the reserve of the active army nor to the territorial army.
ARTICLE 8. The exercise of public duties paid out of the treasury of the State is incompatible with the office of deputy. Consequently every official elected deputy shall be superseded in his duties if, within the eight days following the verification of powers, he has not signified that he does not accept the office of deputy. There are excepted from the preceding provisions the duties of Minister, Under Secretary of State, Ambassador, Minister Plenipotentiary, Prefect of the Seine, Prefect of Police, First President of the Court of Appeal ("cassation,") First President of the Court of Accounts, First President of the Court of Appeal ("appel") of Paris, Attorney General at the Court of Appeal ("cassation,") Attorney General at the Court of Accounts, Attorney General at the Court of Appeal ("appel") of Paris, Archbishop and Bishop, Consistorial Presiding Pastor in consistorial districts whose capital has two or more pastors, Chief Rabbi of the Central consistory, Chief Rabbi of the Consistory of Paris.
ARTICLE 9. There are also excepted from the provisions of Article 8: I. titular professors of chairs which are filled by competition or upon the nomination of the bodies where the vacancy occurs; II. persons who have been charged with a temporary mission. All missions continuing more than six months cease to be temporary and are governed by Article 8 above.
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ARTICLE 10. The official preserves the rights which he has acquired to a retiring pension, and may, after the expiration of his term of office, be restored to active service. The civil official who, having had twenty years of service at the date of the acceptance of the office of deputy, and shall be fifty years of age at the time of the expiration of this term of office, may establish his rights to an exceptional retiring pension. This pension shall be regulated according to the third Paragraph of Article 12 of the law of June 9, 1853. If the official is restored to active service after the expiration of his term of office, the provisions of Article 3, Paragraph 2, and Article 28 of the law of June 9, 1853, shall apply to him. In duties where the rank is distinct from the employment, the official, by the acceptance of the office of deputy, loses the employment and preserves the rank only.
ARTICLE 11. Every deputy appointed or promoted to a salaried public position ceases to belong to the Chamber by the very fact of his acceptance; but he may be re-elected, if the office which he occupies is compactible with the office of deputy. Deputies who become Ministers or Under-Secretaries of State are not subjected to a re-election.
ARTICLE 12. There shall not be elected by the arrondissement or the colony included wholly or partially in their jurisdiction, during the exercise of their duties or for six months following the expiration of their duties due to resignation, dismissal, change of residence, or any other cause: I. The First-Presidents, Presidents, and members of the Courts of Appeal ("appel"); II. The Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Titular Judges, Examining Magistrates, and members of the tribunals of first instance; III. The Prefect of Police; the Prefects and General Secretaries of the Prefectures; the Governors, Directors of the Interior, and General Secretaries of the Colonies; IV. The Chief Arrondissement Engineers and Chief Arrondissement Road-Surveyors; V. The School Rectors and Inspectors; VI. The Primary School Inspectors; VII. The Archbishops, Bishops, and Vicars General; VIII. The General Paymasters and Special Receivers of Money; IX. The Supervisors of Direct and Indirect Taxes, of Registration of Lands, and of Posts; X. The Guardians and Inspectors of Forests. The Sub-Prefects shall not be elected in any of the arrondissements of the department where they perform their duties.
ARTICLE 13. Every imperative mandate is null and void.
ARTICLE 14. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by single districts. Each administrative arrondissement shall elect one deputy. Arrondissements having more than 100,000 inhabitants shall elect one deputy in addition for every additional 100,000 inhabitants or fraction of 100,000. Arrondissements of this kind shall be divided into districts whose boundaries shall be established by law and may be changed only by law.
ARTICLE 15. Deputies shall be chosen for four years. The Chamber is renewable integrally.
ARTICLE 16. In ease of vacancy by death, resignation, or otherwise, a new election shall be held within three months of the date when the vacancy occurred. In case of option, the vacancy shall be filled within one month.
[Footnote: i. e., when a deputy had been elected from two or more districts.]
ARTICLE 17. The deputies shall receive a salary. This salary is regulated by Articles 96 and 97 of the law of March 15, 1849, and by the provisions of the law of February 16, 1872.
ARTICLE 18. No one is elected on the first ballot unless he receives: (1) an absolute majority of the votes cast; (2) a number of votes equal to one-fourth of the number of voters registered. On the second ballot a plurality is sufficient. In case of an equality of votes, the oldest is declared elected.
ARTICLE 19. Each department of Algeria elects one deputy.
ARTICLE 20. The voters living in Algeria in a place not yet made a commune, shall be registered on the electoral list of the nearest commune. When it is necessary to establish electoral districts, either for the purpose of grouping mixed communes in each of which the number of voters shall be insufficient, or to bring together voters living in places not formed into communes the decrees for fixing the seat of these districts shall be issued by the Governor-General, upon the report of the Prefect or of the General commanding the division.
ARTICLE 21. The four colonies to which senators have been assigned by the law of February 24, 1875, on the organization of the Senate, shall choose one deputy each.
ARTICLE 22. Every violation of the prohibitive provisions of Article 3, Paragraph 3, of the present law shall be punished by a fine of from sixteen francs to three hundred francs. Nevertheless the criminal courts may apply Article 463 of the Penal Code. The provisions of Article 6 of the law of July 7, 1874, shall apply to the political electoral lists. The decree of January 29, 1871, and the laws of April 10, 1871, May 2, 1871, and February 18, 1873, are repealed. Paragraph 11 of Article 15 of the organic decree of February 2, 1852, is also repealed, in so far as it refers to the law of May 21, 1836, on lotteries, reserving, however, to the courts the right to apply to convicted persons Article 42 of the Penal Code. The provisions of the laws and decrees now in force, with which the present law does not conflict, shall continue to be applied.
ARTICLE 23. The provision of Article 12 of the present law by which an interval of six months must elapse between the expiration of duties and election, shall not apply to officials, except Prefects and Sub-Prefects, whose duties shall have ceased either before the promulgation of the present law or within the twenty days following it.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1879. Law Relating to the Seat of the Executive Power and of the Chambers at Paris. July 22.
ARTICLE 1. The seat of the Executive Power and of the two Chambers is at Paris.
ARTICLE 2. The Palace of the Luxemburg and the Palais-Bourbon are assigned, the first to the use of the Senate, the second to that of the Chamber of Deputies. Nevertheless each of the Chambers is authorized to choose, in the city of Paris, the palace which it wishes to occupy.
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ARTICLE 3. The various parts of the palace of Versailles now occupied by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies preserve their arrangements. Whenever, according to Articles 7 and 8 of the law of February 25, 1875, on the organization of the public powers, a meeting of the National Assembly takes place, it shall sit at Versailles, in the present hall of the Chamber of Deputies. Whenever, according to Article 9 of the law of February 24, 1875, on the organization of the Senate, and Article 12 of the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, on the relations of the public powers, the Senate shall be called upon to constitute itself a Court of Justice, it shall indicate the town and place where it proposes to sit.
ARTICLE 4. The Senate and Chamber of Deputies will sit at Paris on and after November 3 next.
ARTICLE 5. The Presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies are charged with the duty of securing the external and internal safety of the Chambers over which they preside. To this end they have the right to call upon the armed force and every authority whose assistance they judge necessary. The demands may be addressed directly to all officers, commanders, or officials, who are bound to obey immediately, under the penalties established by the laws. The Presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies may delegate to the questors or to one of them their right of demanding aid.
ARTICLE 6. Petitions to either of the Chambers can be made and presented in writing only. It is forbidden to present them in person or at the bar.
ARTICLE 7. Every violation of the preceding article, every provocation, by speeches uttered publicly, or by writings, or printed matter, posted or distributed, to a crowd upon the public ways, having for an object the discussion, drawing up, or carrying to the Chambers or either of them, of petitions, declarations, or addresses--whether or not any results follow such action--shall be punished by the penalties enumerated in Paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the law of June 7, 1848.
ARTICLE 8. The preceding provisions do not diminish the force of the law of June 7, 1848, on riotous assemblies.
ARTICLE 9. Article 463 of the Penal Code applies to the offences mentioned in the present law.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1884. Law Amending the Organic Laws on the Organization of the Senate and the Elections of Senators. December 9.
ARTICLE 1. The Senate consists of three hundred members, elected by the departments and the colonies. The present members, without any distinction between senators elected by the National Assembly or the Senate and those elected by the departments and colonies, maintain their term of office during the time for which they have been chosen.
ARTICLE 2. The department of the Seine elects ten senators. The department of the Nord elects eight senators. The following departments elect five senators each: Côtes-du-Nord, Finistère, Gironde. Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire, Loire-Inférieure, Pas-de-Calais, Rhône, Saône-et-Loire, Seine-Inférieure. The following departments elect four senators each: Aisne, Bouches-du-Rhône, Charente-Inférieure, Dordogne, Haute-Garonne, Isère, Maine-et-Loire, Manche, Morbihan, Puy-de-Dome, Seine-et-Oise, Somme. The following departments elect three senators each: Ain, Allier, Ardèche, Ardennes, Aube, Aude, Aveyron, Calvados, Charente, Cher, Corrèze, Corse, Côte·d'Or, Creuse, Doubs, Drôme, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Gard, Gers, Hérault, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Jura, Landes, Loir-et-Cher, Haute-Loire, Loiret, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Marne, Haute-Marne, Mayenne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Nièvre, Oise, Orne, Basses-Pyréneées, Haute-Saône, Sarthe, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Seine-et-Marne, Deux-Sèvres, Tarn, Var, Vendée, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Vosges, Yonne. The following departments elect two senators each: Basses-Alpes, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Ariège, Cantal, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Tarn-et-Garonne, Vancluse. The following elect one senator each: the Territory of Belfort, the three departments of Algeria, the four colonies: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and French Indies.
ARTICLE 3. In the departments where the number of senators is increased by the present law, the increase shall take effect as vacancies occur among the life senators. To this end, within eight days after the vacancy occurs, it shall be determined by lot what department shall be called upon to elect a senator. This election shall take place within three months of the determination by lot. Furthermore, if the vacancy occurs within six months preceding the triennial election, the vacancy shall be filled at that election. The term of office in this case shall expire at the same time as that of the other senators belonging to the same department.
ARTICLE 4. No one shall be a senator unless he is a French citizen, forty years of age, at least, and enjoying civil and political rights. Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the Senate.
ARTICLE 5. The soldiers of the land and naval forces cannot be elected senators. There are excepted from this provision: I. The Marshals and Admirals of France; II. The general officers maintained without limit of age in the first section of the list of the general staff and not provided with a command; III. The general officers placed in the second section of the list of the general staff; IV. Soldiers of the land and naval forces who belong either to the reserve of the active army or to the territorial army.
ARTICLE 6. Senators are elected by "scrutin de liste," by a college meeting at the capital of the department or colony, and composed: (1) of the Deputies; (2) of the General Councilors; (3) of the Arrondissement Councilors; (4) of delegates elected from among the voters of the commune, by each Municipal Council.
Councils composed of ten members shall elect one delegate. Councils composed of twelve members shall elect two delegates. Councils composed of sixteen members shall elect three delegates. Councils composed of twenty-one members shall elect six delegates. Councils composed of twenty-three members shall elect nine delegates. Councils composed of twenty-seven members shall elect twelve delegates. Councils composed of thirty members shall elect fifteen delegates. Councils composed of thirty-two members shall elect eighteen delegates. Councils composed of thirty-four members shall elect twenty-one delegates. Councils composed of thirty-six members or more shall elect twenty-four delegates. The Municipal Council of Paris shall elect thirty delegates. In the French Indies the members of the local councils take the place of Arrondissement Councilors. The Municipal Council of Pondichéry shall elect five delegates. The Municipal Council of Karikal shall elect three delegates. All the other communes shall elect two delegates each. The balloting takes place at the capital of each district.
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ARTICLE 7. Members of the Senate are elected for nine years. The Senate is renewed every three years according to the order of the present series of departments and colonies.
ARTICLE 8. Articles 2 (paragraphs 1 and 2), 3, 4, 5, 8, 14, 16, 19 and 23 of the organic law of August 2, 1875, on the Elections of Senators are amended as follows:
"Article 2 (paragraphs 1 and 2). In each Municipal Council the election of delegates takes place without debate and by secret ballot, by "scrutin de liste" and by an absolute majority of votes cast. After two ballots a plurality is sufficient, and in case of an equality of votes the oldest is elected. The procedure and method is the same for the election of alternates. Councils having one, two, or three delegates to choose shall elect one alternate. Those choosing six or nine delegates elect two alternates. Those choosing twelve or fifteen delegates elect three alternates. Those choosing eighteen or twenty-one delegates elect four alternates. Those choosing twenty-four delegates elect five alternates. The Municipal Council of Paris elects eight alternates; The alternates take the place of delegates in case of refusal or inability to serve, in the order determined by the number of votes received by each of them.
Article 3. In communes where the duties of a Municipal Council are performed by a special delegation organized by virtue of Article 44 of' the law of April 5, 1884, the senatorial delegates and alternates shall be chosen by the old council.
Article 4. If the delegates were not present at the election, notice is given them by the Mayor within twenty-four hours. They must within five days notify the Prefect of their acceptance. In case of declination or silence they shall be replaced by the alternates, who are then placed upon the list as the delegates of the commune.
Article 5. The official report of the election of delegates and alternates is transmitted at once to the Prefect. It indicates the acceptance or declination of the delegates and alternates, as well as the protests made by one or more members of the Municipal Council against the legality of the election. A copy of this official report is posted on the door of the town hall.
Article 8. Protests concerning the election of delegates or alternates are decided, subject to an appeal to the Council of State, by the Council of the Prefecture, and, in the colonies, by the Privy Council. Delegates whose election is set aside because they do not satisfy the conditions demanded by law, or because of informality, are replaced by the alternates. In case the election of a delegate and of an alternate is rendered void, as by the refusal or death of both after their acceptance, new elections are held by the Municipal Council on a day fixed by decree of the Prefect.
Article 14. The first ballot begins at eight o'clock in the morning and closes at noon. The second begins at two o'clock and closes at four o'clock. The third begins at seven o'clock and closes at ten o'clock. The results of the ballotings are determined by the bureau and announced immediately by the President of the electoral college.
Article 16. Political meetings for the nomination of senators may be held from the date of the promulgation of the decree summoning the electors up to the day of the election inclusive. The declaration prescribed by Article 2 of the law of June 30, 1881, shall be made by two voters, at least. The forms and regulations of this Article, as well as those of Article 3, shall be observed. The members of Parliament elected or electors in the department, the senatorial electors, delegates and alternates, and the candidates, or their representatives, may alone be present at these meetings. The municipal authorities will see to it that no other person is admitted. Delegates and alternates shall present as a means of identification a certificate from the Mayor of the commune; candidates or their representatives a certificate from the official who shall have received the declaration mentioned in Paragraph 2.
Article 19. Every attempt at corruption or constraint by the employment of means enumerated in Articles 177 and following of the Penal Code, to influence the vote of an elector or to keep him from voting, shall be punished by imprisonment of from three months to two years, and by a fine of from fifty francs to five hundred francs, or by one of these penalties alone. Article 463 of the Penal Code is applicable to the penalties provided for by the present article.
Article 23. Vacancies caused by the death or resignation of senators shall be filled within three months; moreover, if the vacancy occurs within the six months preceding the triennial elections, it shall be filled at those elections."
ARTICLE 9. There are repealed: (1) Articles 1 to 7 of the law of February 24, 1875, on the organization of the Senate; (2) Articles 24 and 25 of the law of August 2, 1875, on the elections of senators.
Temporary Provision.
In case a special law on parliamentary incompatibilities shall not have been passed at the date of the next senatorial elections, Article 8, of the law of November 30, 1875, shall apply to those elections. Every official affected by this provision, who has had twenty years of service and is fifty years of age at the date of his acceptance of the office [of senator], may establish his right to a proportional retiring pension, which shall be governed by the third paragraph of Article 12, of the law of June 9, 1853.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1885. Law Amending the Electoral Law. June 16.
[Footnote: Articles 1, 2 and 3 repealed by the law of February 13 1889, infra.]
[ARTICLE 1. The members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by "scrutin de liste."]
[ARTICLE 2. Each department elects the number of deputies assigned to it in the table (Footnote: This table may be found in the Bulletin des Lois, twelfth series, No. 15,518; and in the Journal Officiel for June 17, 1885, page 3074.) annexed to the present law, on the basis of one deputy for seventy thousand inhabitants, foreign residents not included. Account shall be taken, nevertheless, of every fraction smaller than seventy thousand. (Footnote: i. e., fractions of less than 70,000 are entitled to a deputy.) Each department elects at least three deputies. Two deputies are assigned to the territory of Belfort, six to Algeria, and ten to the colonies, as is indicated by the table. This table can be changed by law only.]
[ARTICLE 3. The department forms a single electoral district.]
ARTICLE 4. Members of families that have reigned in France are ineligible to the Chamber of Deputies.
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ARTICLE 5. No one is elected on the first ballot unless he receives: (1) an absolute majority of the votes cast; (2) a number of votes equal to one-fourth of the total number of voters registered. On the second ballot a plurality is sufficient. In case of an equality of votes, the oldest of the candidates is declared elected.
ARTICLE 6. Subject to the case of a dissolution foreseen and regulated by the Constitution, the general elections take place within sixty days preceding the expiration of the powers of the Chamber of Deputies.
ARTICLE 7. Vacancies shall not be filled which occur in the six months preceding the renewal of the Chamber.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1887. Law on Parliamentary Incompatibilities. December 26.
Until the passage of a special law on parliamentary incompatibilities, Articles 8 and 9 of the law of November 30, 1875, shall apply to senatorial elections. Every official affected by this provision who has had twenty years of service and is fifty years of age at the time of his acceptance of the office [of senator]. may establish his rights to a proportional retiring pension, which shall be governed by the third paragraph of Article 12 of the law of June 9, 1853.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1889. Law Re-establishing Single Districts for the Election of Deputies. February 13.
ARTICLE 1. Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the law of June 16, 1885, are repealed.
ARTICLE 2. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by single districts. Each administrative arrondissement in the departments, and each municipal arrondissement at Paris and at Lyons, elects one deputy. Arrondissements whose population exceeds one hundred thousand inhabitants elect an additional deputy for every one hundred thousand or fraction of one hundred thousand inhabitants. The arrondissements are in this case divided into districts, a table of which is annexed to the present law and can be changed by a law only.
[Footnote: This table may be found in the Journal Officiel for February 14, 1889. pages 76 and following; and in the Bulletin des Lois, twelfth series, No. 20,475.]
ARTICLE 3. One deputy is assigned to the territory of Belfort, six to Algeria, and ten to the colonies, as is indicated by the table.
ARTICLE 4. On and after the promulgation of the present law, until the renewal of the Chamber of Deputies, vacancies occurring in the Chamber of Deputies shall not be filled.
CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: 1889. Law on Multiple Candidatures. July 17.
ARTICLE 1. No one may be a candidate in more than one district.
ARTICLE 2. Every citizen who offers himself or is offered at the general or partial elections must, by a declaration signed or countersigned by himself, and duly legalized, make known in what district he means to be a candidate. This declaration is deposited, and a provisional receipt obtained therefor, at the Prefecture of the department concerned, the fifth day, at latest, before the day of election. A definitive receipt shall be delivered within twenty-four hours.
ARTICLE 3. Every declaration made in violation of Article 1 of the present law is void and not to be received. If declarations are deposited by the same citizen in more than one district, the earliest in date is alone valid. If they bear the same date, all are void.
ARTICLE 4. It is forbidden to sign or post placards, to carry or distribute ballots, circulars, or platforms in the interest of a candidate who has not conformed to the requirements of the present law.
ARTICLE 5. Ballots bearing the name of a citizen whose candidacy is put forward in violation of the present law shall not be included in the return of votes. Posters, placards, platforms, and ballots posted or distributed to support a candidacy in a district where such candidacy is contrary to the law, shall be removed or seized.
ARTICLE 6. A fine of ten thousand francs shall be imposed on the candidate violating the provisions of the present law, and one of five thousand francs on all persons acting in violation of Article 4 of the present law.
----------CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE: End----------
CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY.
CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY: 13th-17th Centuries. The Old (Holy Roman) Empire. The Golden Bull.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152; 1347-1493; and DIET, THE GERMANIC.
CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY: A. D. 1815.- The Confederation.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820.
CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY: A. D. 1871. The New Empire.
On the 18th day of January, 1871, at Versailles, King William of Prussia assumed the title of German Emperor. On the 16th of April following the Emperor issued a proclamation, by and with the consent of the Council of the German Confederation, and of the Imperial Diet, decreeing the adoption of a constitution for the Empire.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1871 (JANUARY) and (APRIL).
The following is a translation of the text of the Constitution, as transmitted by the American Minister at Berlin to his Government:
His Majesty the King of Prussia, in the name of the North German Union, His Majesty the King of Bavaria, His Majesty the King of Würtemberg, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden, and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Hesse, and by Rhine for those parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse which are situated south of the Main, conclude an eternal alliance for the protection of the territory of the confederation, and of the laws of the same, as well as for the promotion of the welfare of the German people. This confederation shall bear the name of the German Empire, and shall have the following constitution.
I. Territory.
Article I. The territory of the confederation shall consist of the States of Prussia, with Lauenburg, Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemberg, Baden, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Saxe-Weimar, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Anhalt, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershnusen, Waldeck, Reuss of the elder branch, Reuss of the younger branch, Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe, Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg.
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II. Legislation of the Empire.
Article 2. Within this territory the Empire shall have the right of legislation according to the provisions of this constitution, and the laws of the Empire shall take precedence of those of each individual state. The laws of the Empire shall be rendered binding by imperial proclamation, such proclamation to be published in a journal devoted to the publication of the laws of the Empire, (Reichsgesetzblatt.) If no other period shall be designated in the published law for it to take effect, it shall take effect on the fourteenth day after the day of its publication in the law-journal at Berlin.
Article 3. There is one citizenship for all Germany, and the citizens or subjects of each state of the federation shall be treated in every other state thereof as natives, and shall have the right of becoming permanent residents, of carrying on business, of filling public offices, and may acquire all civil rights on the same conditions as those born in the state, and shall also have the same usage as regards civil prosecutions and the protection of the laws. No German shall be limited, in the exercise of this privilege, by the authorities of his native state, or by the authorities of any other state of the confederation. The regulations governing the care of paupers, and their admission into the various parishes, are not affected by the principle enunciated in the first paragraph. In like manner those treaties shall remain in force which have been concluded between the various states of the federation in relation to the custody of persons who are to be banished, the care of sick, and the burial of deceased citizens. With regard to the rendering of military service to the various states, the necessary laws will be passed hereafter. All Germans in foreign countries shall have equal claims upon the protection of the Empire.
Article 4. The following matters shall be under the supervision of the Empire and its legislature:
1. The privilege of carrying on trade in more than one place; domestic affairs and matters relating to the settlement of natives of one state in the territory of another; the right of citizenship; the issuing and examination of passports; surveillance of foreigners and of manufactures, together with insurance business, so far as these matters are not already provided for by article 3 of this constitution, (in Bavaria, however, exclusive of domestic affairs and matters relating to the settlement of natives of one state in the territory of another;) and likewise matters relating to colonization and emigration to foreign countries.
2. Legislation concerning customs duties and commerce, and such imposts as are to be applied to the uses of the Empire.
3. Regulation of weights and measures of the coinage, together with the emission of funded and unfunded paper money.
4. Banking regulations in general.
5. Patents for inventions.
6. The protection of literary property.
7. The organization of a general system of protection for German trade in foreign countries; of German navigation, and of the German flag on the high seas; likewise the organization of a general consular representation of the Empire.
8. Railway matters, (subject in Bavaria to the provisions of article 46,) and the construction of means of communication by land and water for the purposes of home defense and of general commerce.
9. Rafting and navigation upon those waters which are common to several States, and the condition of such waters, as likewise river and other water dues.
10. Postal and telegraphic affairs; but in Bavaria and Hungary these shall be subject to the provisions of article 52.
11. Regulations concerning the execution of judicial sentences in civil matters, and the fulfillment of requisitions in general.
12. The authentication of public documents.
13. General legislation regarding the law of obligations, criminal law, commercial law, and the law of exchange; likewise judicial proceedings.
14. The imperial army and navy.
15. The surveillance of the medical and veterinary professions.
16. The press, trades' unions, &c.
Article 5. The legislative power of the Empire shall be exercised by the federal council and the diet. A majority of the votes of both houses shall be necessary and sufficient for the passage of a law. When a law is proposed in relation to the army or navy, or to the imposts specified in article 35, the vote of the presiding officer shall decide; in case of a difference of opinion in the federal council, if said vote shall be in favor of the retention of the existing arrangements.
III. Federal Council.
Article 6. The federal council shall consist of the representatives of the states of the confederation, among whom the votes shall be divided in such a manner that Prussia, including the former votes of Hanover, the electorate of Hesse, Holstein, Nassau, and Frankfort shall have 17 votes; Bavaria, 6 votes; Saxony, 4 votes; Würtemberg, 4 votes; Baden, 3 votes; Hesse, 3 votes; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 2 votes; Saxe-Weimar, 1 vote; Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1 vote; Oldenburg, 1 vote; Brunswick, 2 votes; Saxe-Meiningen, 1 vote; Saxe-Altenburg, 1 vote; Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 1 vote; Anhalt, 1 vote; Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, 1 vote; Schwarzburg-Sondershansen, 1 vote; Waldeck, 1 vote; Reuss, elder branch, 1 vote; Reuss, younger branch, 1 vote; Schaumburgh-Lippe, 1 vote; Lippe, 1 vote; Lubeck, 1 vote; Bremen, 1 vote; Hamburgh, 1 vote; total 58 votes. Each member of the confederation shall appoint as many delegates to the federal council as it has votes; the total of the votes of each state shall, however, be cast by only one delegate.
Article 7. The federal council shall take action upon-- 1. The measures to be proposed to the diet and the resolutions passed by the same. 2. The general provisions and regulations necessary for the execution of the laws of the Empire, so far as no other provision is made by said laws. 3. The defects which may be discovered in the execution of the laws of the Empire, or of the provisions and regulations heretofore mentioned. Each member of the confederation shall have the right to introduce motions, and it shall be the duty of the presiding officer to submit them for deliberation. Legislative action shall take place by simple majority, with the exceptions of the provisions in articles 5, 37, and 78. Votes not represented or instructed shall not be counted. In the case of a tie, the vote of the presiding officer shall decide. When legislative action upon a subject which does not affect, according to the provisions of this constitution, the whole Empire is taken, the votes of only those states of the confederation shall be counted which shall be interested in the matter in question.
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Article 8. The federal council shall appoint from its own members permanent committees-- 1. On the army and the fortifications. 2. On naval affairs. 3. On duties and taxes. 4. On commerce and trade. 5. On railroads, post offices, and telegraphs. 6. On the judiciary. 7. On accounts.
In each of these committees there shall be representatives of at least four states of the confederation, beside the presiding officer, and each state shall be entitled to only one vote in the same. In the committee on the army and fortifications Bavaria shall have a permanent seat; the remaining members of it, as well as the members of the committee on naval affairs, shall be appointed by the Emperor; the members of the other committees shall be elected by the federal council. These committees shall be newly formed at each session of the federal council, i. e., each year, when the retiring members shall again be eligible. Besides, there shall be appointed in the federal council a committee on foreign affairs, over which Bavaria shall preside, to be composed of the plenipotentiaries of the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, and Würtemberg, and of two plenipotentiaries of the other states of the Empire, who shall be elected annually by the federal council. Clerks shall be placed at the disposal of the committees to perform the necessary work appertaining thereto.
Article 9. Each member of the federal council shall have the right to appear in the diet, and shall be heard there at any time when he shall so request, to represent the views of his government, even when the same shall not have been adopted by the majority of the council. Nobody shall be at the same time a member of the federal council and of the diet.
Article 10. The Emperor shall afford the customary diplomatic protection to the members of the federal council.
IV. Presidium.
Article II. The King of Prussia shall be the president of the confederation, and shall have the title of German Emperor. The Emperor shall represent the Empire among nations, declare war, and conclude peace in the name of the same, enter into alliances and other conventions with foreign countries, accredit embassadors, and receive them. For a declaration of war in the name of the Empire, the consent of the federal council shall be required, except in case of an attack upon the territory of the confederation or its coasts. So far as treaties with foreign countries refer to matters which, according to article 4, are to be regulated by the legislature of the Empire, the consent of the federal council shall be required for their ratification, and the approval of the diet shall be necessary to render them valid.
Article 12. The Emperor shall have the right to convene the federal council and the diet, and to open, adjourn, and close them.
Article 13. The convocation of the federal council and the diet shall take place annually, and the federal council may be called together for the preparation of business without the diet; the latter, however, shall not be convoked without the federal council.
Article 14. The convocation of the federal council shall take place as soon as demanded by one-third of its members.
Article 14. The chancellor of the Empire, who shall be appointed by the Emperor, shall preside in the federal council, and supervise the conduct of its business. The chancellor of the Empire shall have the right to delegate the power to represent him to any member of the federal council.
Article 16. The necessary bills shall be laid before the diet in the name of the Emperor, in accordance with the resolutions of the federal council, and they shall be represented in the diet by members of the federal council or by special commissioners appointed by said council.
Article 17. To the Emperor shall belong the right to prepare and publish the laws of the Empire. The laws and regulations of the Emperor shall be published in the name of the Empire, and require for their validity the signature of the chancellor of the Empire, who thereby becomes responsible for their execution.
Article 18. The Emperor shall appoint the officers of the Empire, require them to take the oath of allegiance, and dismiss them when necessary. Officials appointed to an office of the Empire from one of the states of the confederation shall enjoy the same rights to which they were entitled in their native states by their official position, provided no other legislative provision shall have been made previously to their entrance into the service of the Empire.
Article 19. If states of the confederation shall not fulfill their constitutional duties, proceedings may be instituted against them by military execution. This execution shall be ordered by the federal council, and enforced by the Emperor.
V. Diet.
Article 20. The members of the diet shall be elected by universal suffrage, and by direct secret ballot. Until regulated by law, which is reserved by section 5 of the election law of May 31, 1869 (Bundesgesetzblatt, 1869, section 145,) 48 delegates shall be elected in Bavaria, 17 in Würtemberg, 14 in Baden, 6 in Hesse, south of the river Main, and the total number of delegates shall be 382.
Article 21. Officials shall not require a leave of absence in order to enter the diet. When a member of the diet accepts a salaried office of the Empire, or a salaried office in one of the states of the confederation, or accepts any office of the Empire, or of a state, with which a high rank or salary is connected, he shall forfeit his seat and vote in the diet, but may recover his place in the same by a new election.
Article 22. The proceedings of the diet shall be public. Truthful reports of the proceedings of the public sessions of the diet shall subject those making them to no responsibility.
Article 23. The diet shall have the right to propose laws within the jurisdiction of the Empire, and to refer petitions addressed to it to the federal council or the chancellor of the Empire.
Article 24. Each legislative period of the diet shall last three years. The diet may be dissolved by a resolution of the federal council, with the consent of the Emperor.
Article 25. In the case of a dissolution of the diet, new elections shall take place within a period of 60 days, and the diet shall reassemble within a period of 90 days after the dissolution.
Article 26. Unless by consent of the diet, an adjournment of that body shall not exceed the period of 30 days, and shall not be repeated during the same session, without such consent.
Article 27. The diet shall examine into the legality of the election of its members and decide thereon. It shall regulate the mode of transacting business, and its own discipline, by establishing rules therefor, and elect its president, vice-presidents, and secretaries.
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Article 28. The diet shall pass laws by absolute majority. To render the passage of laws valid, the presence of the majority of the legal number of members shall be required. When passing laws which do not affect the whole Empire, according to the provisions of this constitution, the votes of only those members shall be counted who shall have been elected in those states of the confederation which the laws to be passed shall affect.
Article 29. The members of the diet shall be the representatives of the entire people, and shall not be subject to orders and instructions from their constituents.
Article 30. No member of the diet shall at any time suffer legal prosecution on account of his vote, or on account of utterances made while in the performance of his functions, or be held responsible outside of the diet for his actions.
Article 31. Without the consent of the diet, none of its members shall be tried or punished, during the session, for any offense committed, except when arrested in the act of committing the offense, or in the course of the following day. The same rule shall apply in the case of arrests for debt. At the request of the diet, all legal proceedings instituted against one of its members, and likewise imprisonment, shall be suspended during its session.
Article 32. The members of the diet shall not be allowed to draw any salary, or be compensated as such.
VI. Customs and Commerce.
Article 33. Germany shall form a customs and commercial union, having a common frontier for the collection of duties. Such territories as cannot, by reason of their situation, be suitably embraced within the said frontier, shall be excluded. It shall be lawful to introduce all articles of commerce of a state of the confederation into any other state of the confederation, without paying any duty thereon, except so far as such articles are subject to taxation therein.
Article 34. The Hanseatic towns, Bremen and Hamburg, shall remain free ports outside of the common boundary of the customs union, retaining for that purpose a district of their own, or of the surrounding territory, until they shall request to be admitted into the said union.
Article 35. The Empire shall have the exclusive power to legislate concerning everything relating to the customs, the taxation of salt and tobacco manufactured or raised in the territory of the confederation; concerning the taxation of manufactured brandy and beer, and of sugar and sirup prepared from beets or other domestic productions. It shall have exclusive power to legislate concerning the mutual protection of taxes upon articles of consumption levied in the several states of the Empire; against embezzlement; as well as concerning the measures which are required, in granting exemption from the payment of duties, for the security of the common customs frontier. In Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden, the matter of imposing duties on domestic brandy and beer is reserved for the legislature of each country. The states of the confederation shall, however, endeavor to bring about uniform legislation regarding the taxation of these articles.
Article 36. The imposing of duties and excises on articles of consumption, and the collection of the same (article 35,) is left to each state of the confederation within its own territory, so far as this has been done by each state heretofore. The Emperor shall have the supervision of the institution of legal proceedings by officials of the empire, whom he shall designate as adjuncts to the custom or excise offices, and boards of directors of the several states, after hearing the committee of the Confederate Council on customs and revenues. Notices given by these officials as to defects in the execution of the laws of the Empire (article 35) shall be submitted to the confederate council for action.
Article 37. In taking action upon the rules and regulations for the execution of the laws of the Empire, (article 35,) the vote of the presiding officer shall decide, whenever he shall pronounce for upholding the existing rule or regulation.
Article 38. The amounts accruing from customs and other revenues designated in article 35 of the latter, so far as they are subject to legislation by the diet, shall go to the treasury of the Empire. This amount is made up of the total receipts from the customs and other revenues, after deducting therefrom-- I. Tax compensations and reductions in conformity with existing laws or regulations. 2. Reimbursements for taxes unduly imposed. 3. The costs for collection and administration, viz.: a. In the department of customs, the costs which are required for the protection and collection of customs on the frontiers and in the frontier districts. b. In the department of the duty on salt, the costs which are used for the pay of the officers charged with collecting and controlling these duties in the salt mines. c. In the department of duties on beet-sugar and tobacco, the compensation which is to be allowed, according to the resolutions of the confederate council, to the several state governments for the costs of the collection of these duties. d. Fifteen per cent. of the total receipts in the departments of the other duties.
The territories situated outside of the common customs frontier shall contribute to the expenses of the Empire by paying an 'aversum,' (a sum of acquittance.) Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden shall not share in the revenues from duties on liquors and beer, which go into the treasury of the Empire, nor in the corresponding portion of the aforesaid 'aversum.'
Article 39. The quarterly statements to be regularly made by the revenue officers of the federal states at the end of every quarter, and the final settlements (to be made at the end of the year, and after the closing of the account-books) of the receipts from customs, which have become due in the course of the quarter, or during the fiscal year, and the revenues of the treasury of the Empire, according to article 38, shall be arranged by the boards of directors of the federal states, after a previous examination in general summaries in which every duty is to be shown separately; these summaries shall be transmitted to the federal committee on accounts. The latter provisionally fixes, every three months, taking as a basis these summaries, the amount due to the treasury of the Empire from the treasury of each state, and it shall inform the federal council and the federal States of this act; furthermore, it shall submit to the federal council, annually, the final statement of these amounts, with its remarks. The federal council shall act upon the fixing of these amounts.
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Article 40. The terms of the customs-union treaty of July 8, 1867, remain in force, so far as they have not been altered by the provisions of this constitution, and as long as they are not altered in the manner designated in articles 7 and 78.
VII. Railways.
Article 41. Railways, which are considered necessary for the defense of Germany or for purposes of general commerce, may be built for the account of the Empire by a law of the Empire, even in opposition to the will of those members of the confederation through whose territory the railroads run, without detracting from the rights of the sovereign of that country; or private persons may be charged with their construction and receive rights of expropriation. Every existing railway company is bound to permit new railroad lines to be connected with it, at the expense of these latter. All laws granting existing railway companies the right of injunction against the building of parallel or competition lines are hereby abolished throughout the Empire, without detriment to rights already acquired. Such right of injunction can henceforth not be granted in concessions to be given hereafter.
Article 42. The governments of the federal states bind themselves, in the interest of general commerce, to have the German railways managed as a uniform net-work, and for this purpose to have the lines constructed and equipped according to a uniform system.
Article 43. Accordingly, as soon as possible, uniform arrangements as to management, shall be made, and especially shall uniform regulations be instituted for the police of the railroads. The Empire shall take care that the administrative officers of the railway lines keep the roads always in such a condition as is required for public security, and that they be equipped with the necessary rolling stock.
Article 44. Railway companies are bound to establish such passenger trains of suitable velocity as may be required for ordinary travel, and for the establishment of harmonizing schedules of travel; also, to make provision for such freight trains as may be necessary for commercial purposes, and to establish, without extra remuneration, offices for the direct forwarding of passengers and freight trains, to be transferred, when necessary, from one road to another.
Article 45. The Empire shall have control over the tariff of fares. The same shall endeavor to cause-- 1. Uniform regulations to be speedily introduced on all German railway lines. 2. The tariff to be reduced and made uniform as far as possible, and particularly to cause a reduction of the tariff for the transport of coal, coke, wood, minerals, stone, salt, crude iron, manure, and similar articles, for long distances, as demanded by the interests of agriculture and industry, and to introduce a one-penny tariff as soon as practicable.
Article 46. In case of distress, especially in case of an extraordinary rise in the price of provisions, it shall be the duty of the railway companies to adopt temporarily a low special tariff, to be fixed by the Emperor, on motion of the competent committee, for the forwarding of grain, flour, vegetables, and potatoes. This tariff shall, however, not be less than the lowest rate for raw produce existing on the said line. The foregoing provisions, and those of articles 42 to 45, shall not apply to Bavaria. The imperial government has, however, the power, also with regard to Bavaria, to establish, by way of legislation, uniform rules for the construction and equipment of such railways as may be of importance for the defense of the country.
Article 47. The managers of all railways shall be required to obey, without hesitation, requisitions made by the authorities of the Empire for the use of their roads for the defense of Germany. Particularly shall the military and all material of war be forwarded at uniform reduced rates.
VIII. Mails and Telegraphs.
Article 48. The mails and telegraphs shall be organized and managed as state institutions throughout the German Empire. The legislation of the empire in regard to postal and telegraphic affairs, provided for in article 4, does not extend to those matters whose regulation is left to the managerial arrangement, according to the principles which have controlled the North German administration of mails and telegraphs.
Article 49. The receipts of mails and telegraphs are a joint affair throughout the Empire. The expenses shall be paid from the general receipts. The surplus goes into the treasury of the Empire. (Section 12.).
Article 50. The Emperor has the supreme supervision of the administration of mails and telegraphs. The authorities appointed by him are in duty bound and authorized to see that uniformity be established and maintained in the organization of the administration and in the transaction of business, as also in regard to the qualifications of employés. The Emperor shall have the power to make general administrative regulations, and also exclusively to regulate the relations which are to exist between the post and telegraph offices of Germany and those of other countries. It shall be the duty of all officers of the post-office and telegraph department to obey imperial orders. This obligation shall be included in their oath of office. The appointment of superior officers (such as directors, counselors, and superintendents,) as they shall be required for the administration of the mails and telegraphs, in the various districts; also the appointment of officers of the posts and telegraphs (such as inspectors or comptrollers,) acting for the aforesaid authorities in the several districts, in the capacity of supervisors, shall be made by the Emperor for the whole territory of the German Empire, and these officers shall take the oath of fealty to him as a part of their oath of office. The governments of the several states shall be informed in due time, by means of imperial confirmation and official publication, of the aforementioned appointments, so far as they may relate to their territories. Other officers required by the department of mails and telegraphs, as also all officers to be employed at the various stations, and for technical purposes, and hence officiating at the actual centers of communication, &c., shall be appointed by the respective governments of the states. Where there is no independent administration of inland mails or telegraphs, the terms of the various treaties are to be enforced.
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Article 51. In assigning the surplus of the post-office department to the treasury of the Empire for general purposes, (article 49,) the following proceeding is to be observed in consideration of the difference which has heretofore existed in the clear receipts of the post-office departments of the several territories, for the purpose of securing a suitable equalization during the period of transition below named. Of the post-office surplus, which accumulated in the several mail districts during the five years from 1861 to 1865, an average yearly surplus shall be computed, and the share which every separate mail district has had in the surplus resulting therefrom for the whole territory of the Empire shall be fixed upon by a percentage. In accordance with the proportion thus made, the several states shall be credited on the account of their other contributions to the expenses of the empire with their quota accruing from the postal surplus in the Empire, for a period of eight years subsequent to their entrance into the post-office department of the Empire. At the end of the said eight years this distinction shall cease, and any surplus in the post-office department shall go, without division, into the treasury of the Empire, according to the principle enunciated in article 49. Of the quota of the post-office department surplus resulting during the aforementioned period of eight years in favor of the Hanseatic towns, one-half shall every year be placed at the disposal of the Emperor, for the purpose of providing for the establishment of uniform post-offices in the Hanseatic towns.
Article 52. The stipulations of the foregoing articles 48 to 51 do not apply to Bavaria and Würtemberg. In their stead the following stipulation shall be valid for these two states of the confederation. The Empire alone is authorized to legislate upon the privileges of the post-office and telegraph departments, on the legal position of both institutions toward the public, upon the franking privilege and rates of postage, and upon the establishment of rates for telegraphic correspondence into Hanseatic towns. Exclusive, however, of managerial arrangements, and the fixing of tariffs for internal communication within Bavaria and Würtemberg. In the same manner the Empire shall regulate postal and telegraphic communication with foreign countries, excepting the immediate communication of Bavaria and Würtemberg with their neighboring states, not belonging to the Empire, in regard to which regulation the stipulations in article 49 of the postal treaty of November 23, 1867, remains in force. Bavaria and Würtemberg shall not share in the postal and telegraphic receipts which belong to the treasury of the Empire.
IX. Marine and Navigation.
Article 53. The navy of the Empire is a united one, under the supreme command of the Emperor. The Emperor is charged with its organization and arrangement, and he shall appoint the officers and officials of the navy, and in his name these and the seamen are to be sworn in. The harbor of Kiel and the harbor of the Iade are imperial war harbors. The expenditures required for the establishment and maintenance of the navy and the institutions connected therewith shall be defrayed from the treasury of the Empire. All sea-faring men of the Empire, including machinists and hands employed in ship-building, are exempt from service in the army, but obliged to serve in the imperial navy. The apportionment of men to supply the wants of the navy shall be made according to the actual sea-faring population, and the quota furnished in accordance herewith by each state shall be credited to the army account.
Article 54. The merchant vessels of all states of the confederation shall form a united commercial marine. The Empire shall determine the process for ascertaining the tonnage of sea-going vessels, shall regulate the issuing of tonnage-certificates and sea-letters, and shall fix the conditions to which a permit for commanding a sea-going vessel shall be subject. The merchant vessels of all the states of the confederation shall be admitted on an equal footing to the harbors, and to all natural and artificial water-courses of the several states of the confederation, and shall receive the same usage therein. The duties which shall be collected from sea-going vessels, or levied upon their freights, for the use of naval institutions in the harbors, shall not exceed the amount required for the maintenance and ordinary repair of these institutions. On all natural water-courses, duties are only to be levied for the use of special establishments, which serve for facilitating commercial intercourse. These duties, as well as the duties for navigating such artificial channels, which are property of the state, are not to exceed the amount required for the maintenance and ordinary repair of the institutions and establishments. These rules apply to rafting, so far as it is carried on on navigable water-courses. The levying of other or higher duties upon foreign vessels or their freights than those which are paid by the vessels of the federal states or their freights does not belong to the various states, but to the Empire.
Article 55. The flag of the war and merchant navy shall be black, white, and red.
X. Consular Affairs.
Article 56. The Emperor shall have the supervision of all consular affairs of the German Empire, and he shall appoint consuls, after hearing the committee of the federal council on commerce and traffic. No new state consulates are to be established within the jurisdiction of the German consuls. German consuls shall perform the functions of state consuls for the states of the confederation not represented in their district. All the now existing state consulates shall be abolished, as soon as the organization of the German consulates shall be completed, in such a manner that the representation of the separate interests of all the federal states shall be recognized by the federal council as secured by the German consulates.
XI. Military Affairs of the Empire.
Article 57. Every German is subject to military duty, and in the discharge of this duty no substitute can be accepted.
Article 58. The costs and the burden of all the military system of the Empire are to be borne equally by all the federal states and their subjects, and no privileges or molestations to the several states or classes are admissible. Where an equal distribution of the burdens cannot be effected 'in natura' without prejudice to the public welfare, affairs shall be equalized by legislation in accordance with the principles of justice.
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Article 59. Every German capable of bearing arms shall serve for seven years in the standing army, ordinarily from the end of his twentieth to the beginning of his twenty-eighth year; the first three years in the army of the field, the last four years in the reserve; during the next five years he shall belong to the militia. In those states of the confederation in which heretofore a longer term of service than twelve years was required by law, the gradual reduction of the required time of service shall take place in such a manner as is compatible with the interests and the war-footing of the army of the Empire. As regards the emigration of men belonging to the reserve, only those provisions shall be in force which apply to the emigration of members of the militia.
Article 60. The strength of the German army in time of peace shall be, until the 31st December, 1871, one per cent. of the population of 1867, and shall be furnished by the several federal states in proportion to their population. In future the strength of the army in time of peace shall be fixed by legislation.
Article 61. After the publication of this constitution the full Prussian military system of legislation shall be introduced without delay throughout the Empire, as well the statutes themselves as the regulations, instructions, and ordinances issued for their execution, explanation, or completion; thus, in particular, the military penal code of April 3, 1845; the military orders of the penal court of April 3, 1845; the ordinance concerning the courts of honor of July 20, 1843; the regulations with respect to recruiting, time of service, matters relating to the service and subsistence, to the quartering of troops, claims for damages, mobilizing, &c., for times of peace and war. Orders for the attendance of the military upon religious services is, however, excluded. When a uniform organization of the German army shall have been established, a comprehensive military law for the Empire shall be submitted to the diet and the federal council for their action in accordance with the constitution.
Article 62. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the whole German army, and the institutions connected therewith, the sum of 225 (two hundred and twenty-five) thalers, shall be placed at the disposal of the Emperor until the 31st of December, 1871, for each man in the army on the peace-footing, according to article 60. (See section 12.) After the 31st of December, 1871, the payment of these contributions of the several states to the imperial treasury must be continued: The strength of the army in time of peace, which has been temporarily fixed in article 60, shall be taken as a basis for calculating these amounts until it shall be altered by a law of the Empire. The expenditure of this sum for the whole army of the Empire and its establishments shall be determined by a budget law. In determining the budget of military expenditures, the lawfully established organization of the imperial army, in accordance with this constitution, shall be taken as a basis.
Article 63. The total land force of the Empire shall form one army, which, in war and in peace, shall be under the command of the Emperor. The regiments, &c., throughout the whole German army shall bear continuous numbers. The principal colors and the cut of the garments of the Royal Prussian army shall serve as a pattern for the rest of the army. It is left to commanders of contingent forces to choose the external badges, cockades, &c. It shall be the duty and the right of the Emperor to take care that, throughout the German army, all divisions be kept full and well equipped, and that unity be established and maintained in regard to organization and formation, equipment, and command in the training of the men, as well as in the qualification of the officers. For this purpose the Emperor shall be authorized to satisfy himself at any time of the condition of the several contingents, and to provide remedies for existing defects. The Emperor shall determine the strength, composition, and division of the contingents of the imperial army, and also the organization of the militia, and he shall have the right to designate garrisons within the territory of the confederation, as also to call any portion of the army into active service. In order to maintain the necessary unity in the care, arming, and equipment of all troops of the German army, all orders hereafter to be issued for the Prussian army shall be communicated in due form to the commanders of the remaining contingents by the committee on the army and fortifications, provided for in article 8, No. 1.
Article 64. All German troops are bound implicitly to obey the orders of the Emperor. This obligation shall be included in the oath of allegiance. The commander-in-chief of a contingent, as well as all officers commanding troops of more than one contingent, and all commanders of fortresses, shall be appointed by the Emperor. The officers appointed by the Emperor shall take the oath of fealty to him. The appointment of generals, or of officers performing the duties of generals, in a contingent force, shall be in each case subject to the approval of the Emperor. The Emperor has the right with regard to the transfer of officers, with or without promotion, to positions which are to be filled in the service of the Empire, be it in the Prussian army or in other contingents, to select from the officers of all the contingents of the army of the Empire.
Article 65. The right to build fortresses within the territory of the Empire shall belong to the Emperor, who, according to section 12, shall ask for the appropriation of the necessary means required for that purpose, if not already included in the regular appropriation.
Article 66. If not otherwise stipulated, the princes of the Empire and the senates shall appoint the officers of their respective contingents, subject to the restriction of article 64. They are the chiefs of all the troops belonging to their respective territories, and are entitled to the honors connected therewith. They shall have especially the right to hold inspections at any time, and receive, besides the regular reports and announcements of changes for publication, timely information of all promotions and appointments concerning their respective contingents. They shall also have the right to employ, for police purposes, not only their own troops but all other contingents of the army of the Empire who are stationed in their respective territories.
Article 67. The unexpended portion of the military appropriation shall, under no circumstances, fall to the share of a single government, but at all times to the treasury of the Empire.
Article 68. The Emperor shall have the power, if the public security of the Empire demands it, to declare martial law in any part thereof, until the publication of a law regulating the grounds, the form of announcement, and the effects of such a declaration, the provisions of the Prussian law of June 4, 1851, shall be substituted therefor. (Laws of 1851, page 451.)
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Addition to section XI.
The provisions contained in this section shall go into effect in Bavaria as provided for in the treaty of alliance of November 23, 1870, ( Bundesgesetzblatt, 1871, section 9,) under III, section 5, in Würtemberg, as provided for in the military convention of November 21-25, 1870, ( Bundesgesetzblatt, 1870, section 658.)
XII. Finances of the Empire.
Article 69. All receipts and expenditures of the Empire shall be estimated yearly, and included in the financial estimate. The latter shall be fixed by law before the beginning of the fiscal year, according to the following principles:
Article 70. The surplus of the previous year, as well as the customs duties, the common excise duties, and the revenues derived from the postal and telegraph service, shall be applied to the defrayal of all general expenditure. In so far as these expenditures are not covered by the receipts, they shall be raised, as long as no taxes of the Empire shall have been established, by assessing the several states of the Empire according to their population, the amount of the assessment to be fixed by the Chancellor of the Empire in accordance with the budget agreed upon.
Article 71. The general expenditure shall be, as a rule, granted for one year; they may, however, in special cases, be granted for a longer period. During the period of transition fixed in Article 60, the financial estimate, properly classified, of the expenditures of the army shall be laid before the federal council and the diet for their information.
Article 72. An annual report of the expenditure of all the receipts of the Empire shall be rendered to the federal council and the diet, through the Chancellor of the Empire.
Article 73. In cases of extraordinary requirements, a loan may be contracted in accordance with the laws of the Empire, such loan to be granted by the Empire.
Addition to section XII.
Articles 69 and 71 apply to the expenditures for the Bavarian army only according to the provisions of the addition to section XI of the treaty of November 23, 1870; and article 72 only so far as is required to inform the federal council and the diet of the assignment to Bavaria of the required sum for the Bavarian army.
XIII. Settlement of Disputes and Modes of Punishment.
Article 74. Every attempt against the existence, the integrity, the security, or the constitution of the German Empire; finally, any offense committed against the federal council, the diet, a member of the federal council, or of the diet, a magistrate or public official of the Empire, while in the execution of his duty, or with reference to his official position, by word, writing, printing, signs, or caricatures, shall be judicially investigated, and upon conviction punished in the several states of the Empire, according to the laws therein existing, or which shall hereafter exist in the same, according to which laws a similar offense against anyone of the states of the Empire, its constitution, legislature, members of its legislature, authorities or officials is to be judged.
Article 75. For those offenses, specified in Article 74, against the German Empire, which, if committed against one of the states of the Empire, would be deemed high treason, the superior court of appeals of the three free Hanseatic towns at Lubeck shall be the competent deciding tribunal in the first and last resort. More definite provisions as to the competency and the proceedings of the superior court of appeals shall be adopted by the Legislature of the Empire. Until the passage of a law of the Empire, the existing competency of the courts in the respective states of the Empire, and the provisions relative to the proceedings of those courts, shall remain in force.
Article 76. Disputes between the different states of the confederation, so far as they are not of a private nature, and therefore to be decided by the competent authorities, shall be settled by the federal council, at the request of one of the parties. Disputes relating to constitutional matters in those of the states of the confederation whose constitution contains no provision for the settlement of such differences, shall be adjusted by the federal council, at the request of one of the parties, or, if this cannot be done, they shall be settled by the legislative power of the confederation.
Article 77. If in one of the states of the confederation justice shall be denied, and no sufficient relief can be procured by legal measures, it shall be the duty of the federal council to receive substantiated complaints concerning denial or restriction of justice, which are to be judged according to the constitution and the existing laws of the respective states of the confederation, and thereupon to obtain judicial relief from the confederate government in the matter which shall have given rise to the complaint.
XIV. General Provision.
Amendments of the constitution shall be made by legislative enactment. They shall be considered as rejected when 14 votes are cast against them in the federal council. The provisions of the constitution of the Empire, by which fixed rights of individual states of the confederation are established in their relation to the whole, shall only be modified with the consent of that state of the confederation which is immediately concerned.
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CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN.
The following text of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, promulgated by the Emperor, February 11, 1889, is from a pamphlet published at Johns Hopkins University on the occasion of a meeting of professors, students and guests, April 17, 1889, to celebrate its promulgation:
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Having, by virtue of the glories of Our Ancestors, ascended the throne of a lineal succession unbroken for ages eternal; desiring to promote the welfare of, and to give development to the moral and intellectual faculties of Our beloved subjects, the very same that have been favoured with the benevolent care and affectionate vigilance of Our Ancestors; and hoping to maintain the prosperity of the State, in concert with Our people and with their support, We hereby promulgate, in pursuance of Our Imperial Rescript of the 14th day of the 10th month of the 14th year of Meiji, a fundamental law of State, to exhibit the principles, by which We are to be guided in Our conduct, and to point out to what Our descendants and Our subjects and their descendants are forever to conform. The rights of sovereignty of the State, We have inherited from Our Ancestors, and We shall bequeath them to Our descendants. Neither We nor they shall in future fail to wield them, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution hereby granted. We now declare to respect and protect the security of the rights and of the property of Our people, and to secure to them the complete enjoyment of the same, within the extent of the provisions of the present Constitution and of the law. The Imperial Diet shall first be convoked for the 23d year of Meiji, and the time of its opening shall be the date, when the present Constitution comes into force. When in the future it may become necessary to amend any of the provisions of the present Constitution, We or Our successors shall assume the initiative right, and submit a project for the same to the Imperial Diet. The Imperial Diet shall pass its vote upon it, according to the conditions imposed by the present Constitution, and in no otherwise shall Our descendants or Our subjects be permitted to attempt any alteration thereof. Our Ministers of State, on Our behalf, shall be held responsible for the carrying out of the present Constitution, and Our present and future subjects shall forever assume the duty of allegiance to the present Constitution. [His Imperial Majesty's Sign-Manual.] The 11th day of the 2nd month of the 22nd year of Meiji. [Countersigned by Ministers.]