out any other motive of preference than virtue and talent and in the equitable participation of all citizens in the charges and in the advantages of society. ART. 5. Safety consists in the protection of person, family, domicile, rights, and property of each member of society. ART. 6. The right of instruction is that which every citizen has of receiving gratuitously from the state the education necessary to develop his physical, moral, and intellectual faculties. ART. 7. The right of labour is that which every man has of living by his work. Society is bound, by the productive and general means at its disposal, and which will hereafter be organized, to furnish labour to every man who cannot procure it otherwise. ART. 8. Property consists in the right of enjoying and disposing of his possessions, his revenues, the produce of his labour, of his intelligence, and of his industry. ART. 9. The right of assistance is that which belongs to children abandoned by their parents, the infirm and aged, to receive the means of existence from the state. THE CONSTITUTION. CHAPTER 1.-Of the Sovereignty of the People. ART. 10. France is a democratic republic, one and indivisible. ART. 11. The French republic has for its motto-Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. ART. 12. The sovereignty resides in the universality of French citizens. It is inalienable and imprescriptible. No individual or fraction of the people can attribute to themselves the exercise of it. ART. 13. All public power, whatever it may be, emanates from the people. It cannot be devised hereditarily. ART. 14. The separation of the powers is the first condition of a free govern ment. CHAPTER II.-Of the Legislative Power. ART. 15. The French people delegate the legislative power to a single Assembly. ART. 16. The election is based on the population. ART. 17. The number of representatives shall be 750, inclusive of those for Algeria and the colonies. ART. 18. This number shall be increased to 900 for the assemblies, which shall revise the constitution. ART. 19. The suffrage is direct and universal. ART. 20. All Frenchmen who have attained the age of 21 years, and enjoy their civil and political rights, are electors. ART. 21. All Frenchmen who have attained the age of 25 years, and enjoy their civil and political rights, are eligible to be elected. ART. 22. The following can neither be electors nor elected:-1. Uncertified bankrupts. 2. Individuals condemned either to afflictive or infamous penalties, or to correctional penalties for acts considered by the law as crimes, or for theft swindling, abuse of confidence, or attack on public decency. ART. 23. The electoral law will point out the functionaries who cannot be elected within the district in which they exercise their functions. ART. 24. The ballot is secret. ART. 25. The election of representatives shall be made by department at the chief town of the canton, and by a ballot list. ART. 26. The national assembly verifies the qualifications of its members, and decides on the validity of the elections. ART. 27. It is elected for three years, and is renewed integrally. ART. 28. It is permanent. Nevertheless, it may adjourn for a term to be fixed on, but which must not exceed three months. ART. 29. The representatives can always be re-elected. ART. 30. The members of the national assembly are the representatives, not of the department which elects them, but of the whole of France. ART. 31. They cannot receive any imperative mandate. ART. 32. The representatives of the people are inviolable. They cannot be sought for, nor accused, nor tried at any time for opinions which they may express in the national assembly. ART. 33. They cannot be prosecuted nor arrested on any criminal offence, except in case of being taken in flagrante delicto, until after the assembly shall have given its sanction for such prosecution. ART. 34. Are incompatible with the legislative mandate all functions, the holders of which are revocable at will. ART. 35. No member of the national assembly can, during the term of the legislature, be named or promoted to functions, the holders of which are chosen at the will of the executive government. ART. 36. The members of the national assembly exercising public functions are replaced in their functions, and cease to receive the salary during the term of their legislative mandate. ART. 37. Are excepted from the provisions of articles, 34, 35, and 36, the ministers, under-secretaries of state, the procureur-general of the court of cassation, the procureur-general of the court of appeal of Paris, the mayor of Paris, the prefect of police, the commandant of the national guard of Paris, and those other functionaries pointed out by particular laws. ART. 38. Each representative of the people receives an indemnity, to which he cannot renounce his claim. ART. 39. The sittings of the assembly are public. Nevertheless the assembly may form itself into a secret committee on the demand of the number of representatives fixed on by the regulations. ART. 40. The assembly publishes laws and decrees. Decrees only relate to local and private interests. The presence of one more than the half of the members of the assembly is necessary to render the vote on a bill valid. The regulations determine the number of members necessary for a vote on decrees. ART. 41. No bill or decree, except in cases of urgency, shall be voted definitively until it has been read three times at intervals of not less than ten days. ART. 42. Every motion of urgency is preceded by an expose des motifs. The proposition is to be referred in the same sitting to the bureaux. A committee, named by the bureaux, makes a report on the urgency only. If the assembly is of opinion that the case is urgent, it declares it to be so, and immediately fixes on the time for its discussion. If it decides that it is not urgent, the bill follows the ordinary course. CHAPTER III.-Of the Executive Power. ART. 43. The French people delegate the executive power to a citizen who receives the title of president of the republic. ART. 44. In order to be named president, the person must be born in France, and have attained the age of thirty years at least. ART. 45. The president is chosen by direct and universal suffrage, by secret ballot, and by the absolute majority of the voters. ART. 46. The minutes of the elections are immediately transmitted to the national assembly, which decides without delay on the validity of the election, and proclaims the president of the republic. If no candidate shall have obtained more than a half of the votes given, the national assembly elects the president of the republic by absolute majority and secret ballot from among the five candidates who have obtained the greatest number of votes. ART. 47. The president of the republic is elected for four years, and is not reeligible until after an interval of four years. ART. 48. He is charged to watch over and assure the execution of the laws. ART. 49. He disposes of the armed force, without the power of ever commanding in person. ART. 50. He cannot cede any portion of the territory, nor dissolve the legislative body, nor suspend in any manner the empire of the constitution and of the laws. ART. 51. He presents every year, by message to the national assembly, the exposé of the general state of the affairs of the republic. ART. 52. He negotiates treaties. No treaty is definitive until after it has been examined and ratified by the national assembly. ART. 53. He has the right to grant pardon; but he can only exercise that right on the proposition of the minister of justice, and after having taken the advice of the council of state. ART. 54. He promulgates the laws in the name of the French people. ART. 55. Laws of urgency are promulgated within a delay of two days, and other laws within a delay of eight days, from the date of their transmission by the president of the national assembly to the president of the republic. ART. 56. In case of the president of the republic having grave objections to a bill, or to a decree adopted by the national assembly, he may in the delay fixed for the promulgation transmit to the assembly a message pointing out his objections, and demand a fresh deliberation. The assembly deliberates; its resolution becomes definite; it is transmitted to the president of the republic. The promul gation takes place in the delay fixed for bills and decrees of urgency. ART. 57. In default of promulgation by the president of the republic, in the delays determined by the preceding articles, it shall be provided for by the president of the national assembly. ART. 58. The president receives the envoys and ambassadors of foreign powers accredited to the republic. ART. 59. He presides at national solemnities. ART. 60. He is lodged at the expense of the republic, and receives a salary of 600,000 fr. per annum. ART. 61. He resides at the seat of government. ART. 62. The president of the republic appoints the ministers and removes them at pleasure. He appoints and removes, in a council of ministers, diplo matic agents, generals, and military commanders of the land and sea forces, prefects, the commanders-in-chief of the national guards of the Seine, the mayor of Paris, the governors of colonies, of Algeria, and of the bank of France, the procureurs general, and other functionaries of superior order. He nominates and removes the secondary agents of the government on the proposition of the competent minister. ART. 63. He has the right to suspend for a term, which cannot exceed three months, the mayors and other agents of the executive power elected by the citi zens. He cannot remove them but with the advice of the council of state. The law determines the case in which agents removed may be declared ineligible for the same functions. That declaration of ineligibility can only be declared by a jury. ART. 64. The number of ministers and their duties are fixed by the legislative power. ART. 65. The acts of the president of the republic, other than those by which he nominates and dismisses the ministers, have no effect, if not counter-signed by a minister. ART. 66. The president, ministers, agents, and depositories of public authority, are responsible, each in what concerns him, for all the acts of the govern ment and the administration. A law will define the case of responsibility, the guarantees of functionaries, and the mode of prosecution. ART. 67. The ministers have the right to sit in the national assembly, and to be heard as often as they may demand. ART. 68. There is a vice president of the republic, nominated for four years by the national assembly, on the presentation made by the president, in the month following his election. In the event of the president being prevented from fulfilling his duties, the vice president replaces him, and exercises the chief power. If the presidency becomes vacant by decease, resignation of the president, or otherwise, the election of a new president shall be proceeded to within a month. CHAPTER IV.-Of the Council of State. ART. 69. There shall be a council of state, composed of forty members at least. The vice president of the republic is by right president of the council of state. ART. 70. The members of this council are nominated for three years by the national assembly, in the first month of each legislature, by ballot, and on an absolute majority. They are always qualified for re-election. ART. 71. Those members of the council of state who may have been chosen from the national assembly shall be immediately replaced as representatives of the people. ART. 72. The members of the council of state can only be dismissed by the assembly, on the proposition of the president of the republic. ART. 73. The council of state draws up the bills which the government may propose to the assembly, and those of parliamentary initiative which the assembly may send to be examined by it. It makes regulations of public administration on the special delegation of the national assembly. It exercises over departmental and municipal administrations all the powers of control and surveillance which may be conferred on it by the law. A special law shall define its other powers. ART. 74. On the expiration of their functions, the president and vice president of the republic are by right members of the council of state. CHAPTER V.-Of Interior Administration. ART. 75. The present division of the territory into departments, arrondissements, cantons, and communes, can only be changed by the law. ART. 76. There are-Ist, in each department an administration consisting of a prefect, of a general council, and of an administrative tribunal fulfilling the functions of a council of prefecture; 2d, in each arrondissement a sub-prefect; 3d, in each canton a council consisting of the mayors of all the communes of the cantons; 4th, in each commune an administration consisting of a mayor, of deputy mayors, and a municipal council. ART. 77. The municipal council chooses the mayor and deputies from among its members. ART. 78. A law will define the powers of the general, communal and municipal councils. ART. 79. The general and municipal councils are elected by the direct suffrage of all the citizens domicilled in the department or the commune. A special law will regulate the mode of election in the city of Paris, and in towns of one hundred thousand souls. ART. 80. The general and municipal councils may be dissolved by the president of the republic, on the recommendation of the council of state. CHAPTER VIII.-Guarantee of Rights. ART. 115. The penalty of death is abolished in political matters. ART. 118. The press cannot in any case be subjected to censure. ART. 119. All citizens have the liberty of printing, or causing to be printed, observing the conditions imposed by the guarantees due to public and private rights. ART. 120. The cognizance of the offences committed by the press, or any other mode of publication, belongs exclusively to the jury. ART. 121. The jury alone decides on the damages claimed for offences by the press. ART. 122. All political offences come under the exclusive cognizance of the jury. ART. 123. Every one freely exercises his religion, and receives from the state equal protection. The ministers of religion, recognised by the law, have alone a right to receive a salary from the state. ART. 124. Freedom of instruction is exercised under the guarantee of the laws and the surveillance of the state. That surveillance extends itself to all educational establishments without exception. ART. 125. The residence of every citizen is an inviolable asylum. It is not permitted to be entered, but according to the forms, and in the cases determined by the law. ART. 126. No one can be deprived of his natural judges. There cannot be created any commissions or extraordinary tribunals, under any title or denomination whatsoever. ART. 127. No one can be arrested or detained, except according to the provision of the law. ART. 128. All property is inviolable. Nevertheless, the state may demand the sacrifice of a property for the public interest legally established, and in return for a just and equitable indemnity. ART. 129. All taxes are established for common utility. Every citizen contributes according to his means and his fortune. ART. 130. No tax can be levied but in virtue of a law. ART. 131. The direct taxes can only be voted for a year. The indirect taxes may be so for several years. ART. 132. The essential guarantees of the rights of labour are-the liberty of work; voluntary association; equality of relations between master and workman; gratuitous instruction, professional education, provident societies, institutions of credit, and the establishment by the state of great works of public duty, destined to employ unoccupied workmen. ART. 133. The constitution guaranties the public debt. ART. 134. The legion of honour is maintained; its statutes shall be revised, and put in harmony with democratic and republican principles. ART. 135. The territory of Algeria and the colonies are declared French territory and shall be governed by particular laws. CHAPTER IX.-Of the Revision of the Constitution. ART. 136. The nation has always the right to change or modify its constitution. If, at the end of the legislature, the National Assembly expresses a wish that the constitution should be reformed either wholly or in part, such revision shall be proceeded to in the following manner: The wish expressed by the assembly shall not be converted into a definitive resolution until after three successive deliberations, each taken at intervals of one month, and a vote of three-fourths of the assembly. The assembly of the revision shall not be named but for two months; it can only occupy itself with the revision for which it shall have been convoked. Nevertheless, it may, in case of urgency, provide for any legislative necessity. CHAPTER X.-Temporary Provisions. ART. 137. The existing codes, laws, and regulations remain in force until they shall have been legally abrogated. ART. 138. All the authorities now in office shall remain in the exercise of their functions until the publication of the organic laws connected with them. ART. 139. The law of judicial organization shall determine the special mode of nomination for the first composition of the new tribunals. |