Part 2 — Chapter VII. (continued 2)

18. During the journey, and return of representatives, as well as the time they may have attended the Storthing, they are exempted from arrest; unless they are seized in some flagrant and public act, and out of the Storthing they shall not be responsible for the opinions they may have declared in it. Everyone is bound to conform himself to the order established in it.

19. Representatives, chosen in the manner above declared, compose the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway.

20. The opening of the Storthing shall be made the first lawful day in the month of February, every three years, in the capital of the kingdom, unless the king, in extraordinary circumstances, by foreign invasion or contagious disease, fixes on some other city of the kingdom. Such change ought then to be early announced.

21. In extraordinary cases, the king has the right of assembling the Storthing, without respect to the ordinary time. The king will then cause to be issued a proclamation, which is to be read in all the principal churches six weeks at least previous to the day fixed for the assembling of members of the Storthing at the place appointed.

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22. Such extraordinary Storthing may be dissolved by the king when he shall judge fit.

23. Members of the Storthing shall continue in the exercise of their office during three consecutive years, as much during an extraordinary as any ordinary Storthing that might be held during this time.

24. If an extraordinary Storthing is held at a time when the ordinary Storthing ought to assemble, the functions of the first will cease, as soon as the second shall have met.

25. The extraordinary Storthing, no more than the ordinary, can be held if two-thirds of the members do not happen to be present.

26. As soon as the Storthing shall be organized, the king, or the person who shall be appointed by him for that purpose, shall open it by an address, in which he is to describe the state of the kingdom, and those objects to which he directs the attention of the Storthing. No deliberation ought to take place in the king's presence. The Storthing shall choose from its members one-fourth part to form the Lagthing, and the other three-fourths to constitute the Odelsthing. Each of these houses shall have its private meetings, and nominate its president and secretary.

27. It belongs to the Storthing,

1. To make and abolish laws, establish imposts, taxes, custom-houses, and other public acts, which shall, however, only exist until the 1st of July of that year, when a new Storthing shall be assembled, unless this last is expressly renewed by them.

2. To make loans, by means of the credit of the state.

3. To watch over the finances of the state.

4. To grant sums necessary for its expenses.

5. To fix the yearly grant for the maintenance of the king and viceroy, and also appendages of the royal family; which ought not, however, to consist in landed property.

6. To exhibit the register of the sitting council in Norway, and all the reports, and public documents (the affairs of military command excepted), and certified copies, or extracts of the registers kept by the ministers of state and members of council near the king, or the public documents, which shall have been produced.

7. To communicate whatever treaties the king shall have concluded in the name of the state with foreign powers, excepting secret articles, provided these are not in contradiction with the public articles.

8. To require all individuals to appear before the Storthing on affairs of state, the king and royal family excepted. This is not, however, applicable to the princes of the royal family, as they are invested with other offices than that of viceroy.

9. To examine the lists of provisional pensions; and to make such alterations as shall be judged necessary.

10. To name five revisers, who are annually to examine the accounts of the state, and publish printed extracts of these, which are to be remitted to the revisers also every year before the 1st of July. 11. To naturalize foreigners.

28. Laws ought first to be proposed to the Odelsthing, either by its own members or the government, through one of the members of council. If the proposition is accepted, it shall be sent to the Lagthing, who approve or reject it; and in the last case return it accompanied with remarks. These shall be weighed by the Odelsthing, which sets the proposed law aside, or remits it to the Lagthing, with or without alterations. When a law shall have been twice proposed by the Odelsthing to the Lagthing, and the latter shall have rejected it a second time, the Storthing shall assemble, when two-thirds of the votes shall decide upon it. Three days at least ought to pass between each of those deliberations.

29. When a resolution proposed by the Odelsthing shall be approved by the Lagthing, or by the Storthing alone, a deputation of these two houses to the Storthing shall present it to the king if he is present, and if not, to the viceroy, or Norwegian council, and require it may receive the royal sanction.

30. Should the king approve of the resolution, he subscribes to it, and from that period it is declared to pass into a public law. If he disapproves he returns it to the Odelsthing, declaring that at this time he does not give it his sanction.

31. In this event, the Storthing, then assembled, ought to submit the resolution to the king, who may proceed in it in the same manner if the first ordinary Storthing presents again to him the same resolution. But if, after reconsideration, it is still adopted by the two houses of the third ordinary Storthing, and afterwards submitted to the king, who shall have been intreated not to withhold his sanction to a resolution that the Storthing, after the most mature deliberations, believes to be useful; it shall acquire the strength of a law, even should it not receive the king's signature before the closing of the Storthing.

32. The Storthing shall sit as long as it shall be judged necessary, but not beyond three months, without the king's permission. When the business is finished, or after it has assembled for the time fixed, it is dissolved by the king. His Majesty gives, at the same time, his sanction to the decrees not already decided, either in corroborating or rejecting them. All those not expressly sanctioned are held to be rejected by him.

33. Laws are to be drawn up in the Norwegian language, and (those mentioned in 31st article excepted) in name of the king, under the seal of the kingdom, and in these terms:—"We, &c. Be it known, that there has been submitted to us a decree of the Storthing (of such a date) thus expressed (follows the resolution); We have accepted and sanctioned as law the said decree, in giving it our signature, and seal of the kingdom."

34. The king's sanction is not necessary to the resolutions of the Storthing, by which the legislative body,

1. Declares itself organized as the Storthing, according to the constitution.

2. Regulates its internal police.

3. Accepts or rejects writs of present members.

4. Confirms or rejects judgments relative to disputes respecting elections.

5. Naturalizes foreigners.

6. And in short, the resolution by which the Odelsthing orders some member of council to appear before the tribunals.

35. The Storthing can demand the advice of the supreme tribunal in judicial matters.

36. The Storthing will hold its sittings with open doors, and its acts shall be printed and published, excepting in cases where a contrary measure shall have been decided by the plurality of votes.

37. Whoever molests the liberty and safety of the Storthing, renders himself guilty of an act of high treason towards the country.

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Title IV.

Article 1. The members of the Lagthing and supreme tribunal composing the Rigsret, judge in the first and last instance of the affairs entered upon by the Odelsthing, either against the members of council or supreme tribunal for crimes committed in the exercise of their offices, or against the members of Storthing for acts committed by them in a similar capacity. The president of the Lagthing has the precedence in the Rigsret.

2. The accused can, without declaring his motive for so doing, refuse, even a third part of the members of the Rigsret, provided, however, that the number of persons who compose this tribunal be not reduced to less than fifteen.

3. The supreme tribunal shall judge in the last instance, and ought not to be composed of a lesser number than the resident and six assessors.

4. In time of peace the supreme tribunal, with two superior officers appointed by the king, constitutes a tribunal of the second and last resort in all military affairs which respect life, honour, and loss of liberty for a time beyond the space of three months.

5. The arrests of the supreme tribunal shall not in any case be called upon to be submitted to revisal.

6. No person shall be named member of the supreme tribunal, if he has not attained at least thirty years of age.

Title V.

Article 1. Employments in the states shall be conferred only on Norwegian citizens, who profess the Evangelical Lutheran religion—have sworn fidelity to the constitution and king, speak the language of the country, and are,—

1. Either born in the kingdom of parents who were then subjects of the state.

2. Or born in a foreign country, their father and mother being Norwegians, and at that period not the subjects of another state.

3. Or, who on the 17th May, 1814, had a permanent residence in the kingdom, and did not refuse to take an oath to maintain the independence of Norway.

4. Or who in future shall remain ten years in the kingdom.

5. Or who have been naturalized by the Storthing. Foreigners, however, may be nominated to these official situations in the university and colleges, as well as to those of physicians, and consuls in a foreign country. In order to succeed to an office in the superior tribunal, the person must be thirty years old; and to fill a place in the inferior magistracy,—a judge of the tribunal of first instance, or a public receiver, he must be twenty-five.

2. Norway does not acknowledge herself owing any other debt than that of her own.

3. A new general code, of a civil and criminal nature, shall first be published; or, if that is impracticable, at the second ordinary Storthing. Meantime, the laws of the state, as at present existing, shall preserve their effect, since they are not contrary to this fundamental law, or provisional ordinances published in the interval. Permanent taxes shall continue to be levied until next Storthing.

4. No protecting dispensation, letter of respite, or restitutions, shall be granted after the new general code shall be published.

5. No persons can be judged but in conformity to the law, or be punished until a tribunal shall have taken cognizance of the charges directed against them. Torture shall never take place.

6. Laws shall have no retro-active effect.

7. Fees due to officers of justice are not to be combined with rents payable to the public treasury.

8. Arrest ought not to take place excepting in cases and in the manner fixed by law. Illegal arrests, and unlawful delays, render him who occasions them responsible to the person arrested. Government is not authorized to employ military force against the members of the state, but under the forms prescribed by the laws, unless an assembly which disturbs the public tranquillity does not instantly disperse after the articles of the code concerning sedition shall have been read aloud three times by the civil authorities.

9. The liberty of the press shall be established. No person can be punished for a writing he has ordered to be printed or published, whatever may be the contents of it, unless he has, by himself or others, wilfully declared, or prompted others to, disobedience of the laws, contempt for religion, and constitutional powers, and resistance to their operations; or has advanced false and defamatory accusations against others. It is permitted to everyone to speak freely his opinion on the administration of the state, or on any other object whatever.

10. New and permanent restrictions on the freedom of industry are not to be granted in future to anyone.

11. Domiciliary visits are prohibited, excepting in the cases of criminals.

12. Refuge will not be granted to those who shall be bankrupts.

13. No person can in any case forfeit his landed property, and fortune.

14. If the interest of the state requires that anyone should sacrifice his moveable or immovable property for the public benefit, he shall be fully indemnified by the public treasury.

15. The capital, as well as the revenues of the domains of the church, can be applied only for the interests of the clergy, and the prosperity of public instruction. The property of benevolent institutions shall be employed only for their profit.

16. The right of the power of redemption called Odelsret*, and that of possession, called Afædesret (father's right), shall exist. Particular regulations, which will render these of utility to the states and agriculture, shall be determined by the first or second Storthing.

[Footnote: In virtue of the right of "Odelsret," members of a family to whom certain lands originally pertained, can reclaim and retake possession of the same, even after the lapse of centuries, provided these lands are representative of the title of the family; that is, if for every ten years successively they shall have judicially made reservation of their right. This custom, injurious perhaps to the progress of agriculture, does, however, attach the peasants to their native soil.]

17. No county, barony, majorat or "fidei commis" shall be created for the future.

[Footnote: "fidei commis"—Entail.]

18. Every citizen of the state, without regard to birth or fortune, shall be equally obliged, during a particular period, to defend his country. [Footnote: Every person is obliged to serve from twenty-one to twenty-three, and not after.] The application of this principle and its restrictions, as well as the question of ascertaining to what point it is of benefit to the country, that this obligation should cease at the age of twenty-five,—shall be abandoned to the decision of the first ordinary Storthing, after they shall have been discharged by a committee; in the meantime, vigorous efforts shall preserve their effect.

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19. Norway shall retain her own language, her own finances and coin: institutions which shall be determined upon by laws.

20. Norway has the right of having her own flag of trade and war, which shall be an union flag.

21. If experience should show the necessity of changing some part of this fundamental law, a proposition to this purpose shall be made to an ordinary Storthing, published and printed; and it only pertains to the next ordinary Storthing to decide if the change proposed ought to be effectual or not. Such alteration, however, ought never to be contrary to the principles of this fundamental law; and should only have for its object those modifications in which particular regulations do not alter the spirit of the constitution. Two-thirds of the Storthing ought to agree upon such a change.

Christiana, 4th November, 1814.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (NORWAY): A. D. 1814-1815.

—————CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY: End—————

CONSTITUTION OF PLYMOUTH COLONY (Compact of the Pilgrim Fathers).

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1620.

CONSTITUTION OF POLAND (The old).

See POLAND: A. D. 1573, and 1578-1652.

CONSTITUTION OF POLAND: (of 1891).

See POLAND: A. D. 1791-1792.

—————CONSTITUTION OF POLAND: End—————

CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA.

The following text of the Constitution granted by Frederick William, King of Prussia, on the 31st of January, 1850, with subsequent alterations, is a translation made by Mr. Charles Lowe, and published in the appendix to his Life of Prince Bismarck, 1885.

We, Frederick William, &c., hereby proclaim and give to know that, whereas the Constitution of the Prussian State, promulgated by us on the 5th December, 1848, subject to revision in the ordinary course of legislation, and recognised by both Chambers of our Kingdom, has been submitted to the prescribed revision; we have finally established that Constitution in agreement with both Chambers. Now, therefore, we promulgate, as a fundamental law of the State, as follows:—

Article 1. All parts of the Monarchy in its present extent form the Prussian State Territory.

Article 2. The limits of this State Territory can only be altered by law.

Article 3. The Constitution and the laws determine under what conditions the quality and civil rights of a Prussian may be acquired, exercised, and forfeited.

Article 4. All Prussians are equal before the law. Class privileges there are none. Public offices, subject to the conditions imposed by law, are equally accessible to all who are competent to hold them.

Article 5. Personal freedom is guaranteed. The forms and conditions under which any limitation thereof, especially arrest, is permissible, will be determined by law.

Article 6. The domicile is inviolable. Intrusion and search therein, as well as the seizing of letters and papers, are only allowed in legally settled cases.

Article 7. No one may be deprived of his lawful judge. Exceptional tribunals and extraordinary commissions are inadmissible.

Article 8. Punishments can only be threatened or inflicted according to the law.

Article 9. Property is inviolable. It can only be taken or curtailed from reasons of public weal and expediency, and in return for statutory compensation which, in urgent cases at least, shall be fixed beforehand.

Article 10. Civil death and confiscation of property, as punishments, are not possible.

Article 11. Freedom of emigration can only be limited by the State, with reference to military service. Migration fees may not be levied.

Article 12. Freedom of religious confession, of meeting in religious societies (Art. 30 and 31), and of the common exercise of religion in private and public, is guaranteed. The enjoyment of civil and political rights is independent of religious belief, yet the duties of a citizen or a subject may not be impaired by the exercise of religious liberty.

Article 13. Religious and clerical societies, which have no corporate rights, can only acquire those rights by special laws.

Article 14. The Christian religion is taken as the basis of those State institutions which are connected with the exercise of religion—all religious liberty guaranteed by Art. 12 notwithstanding.

Article 15. [Footnote: Affected by the Falk laws of 1875, and by the act of 1887 which repealed them. See GERMANY: A. D. 1873-1887.]

The Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches, as well as every other religious society, regulate and administer their own affairs in an independent manner, and remain in possession and enjoyment of the institutions, foundations, and moneys intended for their purposes of public worship, education, and charity.

Article 16. [Footnote: See Article 15.]

Intercourse between religious societies and their superiors shall be unobstructed. The making public of Church ordinances is only subject to those restrictions imposed on all other publications.

Article 17. A special law will be passed with respect to Church patronage, and to the conditions on which it may be abolished.

Article 18. [Footnote: See Article 15.]

Abolished is the right of nominating, proposing, electing, and confirming, in the matter of appointments to ecclesiastical posts, in so far as it belongs to the State, and is not based on patronage or special legal titles.

Article 19. Civil marriage will be introduced in accordance with a special law, which shall also regulate the keeping of a civil register.

Article 20. Science and its doctrines are free.

Article 21. The education of youth shall be sufficiently cared for by public schools. Parents and their substitutes may not leave their children or wards without that education prescribed for the public folk-schools.

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Article 22. Every one shall be at liberty to give instruction, and establish institutions for doing so, providing he shall have given proof of his moral, scientific, and technical capacity to the State authorities concerned.

Article 23. All public and private institutions of an educational kind are under the supervision of authorities appointed by the State. Public teachers have the rights and duties of State servants.

Article 24. [Footnote: We cannot translate "Volkschule" better than by "folk-school."]

In the establishment of public folk-schools, confessional differences shall receive the greatest possible consideration. Religious instruction in the folk-schools will be superintended by the religious societies concerned. Charge of the other (external) affairs of the folk-schools belongs to the Parish (Commune). With the statutory co-operation of the Commune, the State shall appoint teachers in the public folk-schools from the number of those qualified (for such posts).

Article 25. The means for establishing, maintaining, and enlarging the public folk-schools shall be provided by the Communes, which may, however, be assisted by the State in proven cases of parochial inability. The obligations of third persons—based on special legal titles—remain in force. The State, therefore, guarantees to teachers in folk-schools a steady income suitable to local circumstances. In public folk-schools education shall be imparted free of charge.

Article 26. A special law will regulate all matters of education.

Article 27. Every Prussian is entitled to express his opinion freely by word, writing, print, or artistic representation. Censorship may not be introduced; every other restriction on freedom of the Press will only be imposed by law.

Article 28. Offences committed by word, writing, print, or artistic representation will be punished in accordance with the general penal code.

Article 29. All Prussians are entitled to meet in closed rooms, peacefully and unarmed, without previous permission from the authorities. But this provision does not apply to open-air meetings, which are subject to the law with respect to previous permission from the authorities.

Article 30. All Prussians have the right to assemble (in societies) for such purposes as do not contravene the penal laws. The law will regulate, with special regard to the preservation of public security, the exercise of the right guaranteed by this and the preceding article.

Article 31. The law shall determine the conditions on which corporate rights may be granted or refused.

Article 32. The right of petitioning belongs to all Prussians. Petitions under a collective name are only permitted to authorities and corporations.

Article 33. The privacy of letters is inviolable. The necessary restrictions of this right, in cases of war and of criminal investigation, will be determined by law.

Article 34. All Prussians are bound to bear arms. The extent and manner of this duty will be fixed by law.

Article 35. The army comprises all sections of the standing army and the Landwehr (territorial forces). In the event of war, the King can call out the Landsturm in accordance with the law.

Article 36. The armed force (of the nation) can only be employed for the suppression of internal troubles, and the execution of the laws, in the cases and manner specified by statute, and on the requisition of the civil authorities. In the latter respect exceptions will have to be determined by law.

Article 37. The military judiciary of the army is restricted to penal matters, and will be regulated by law. Provisions with regard to military discipline will remain the subject of special ordinances.

Article 38. The armed force (of the nation) may not deliberate either when on or off duty; nor may it otherwise assemble than when commanded to do so. Assemblies and meetings of the Landwehr for the purpose of discussing military institutions, commands and ordinances, are forbidden even when it is not called out.

Article 39. The provisions of Arts. 5, 6, 29, 30, and 32 will only apply to the army in so far as they do not conflict with military laws and rules of discipline.

Article 40. The establishment of feudal tenures is forbidden. The Feudal Union still existing with respect to surviving fiefs shall be dissolved by law.

Article 41. The provisions of Art. 40 do not apply to Crown fiefs or to non-State fiefs.

Article 42. Abolished without compensation, in accordance with special laws passed, are:

1. The exercise or transfer of judicial power connected with the possession of certain lands, together with the dues and exemptions accruing from this right;

2. The obligations arising from patriarchal jurisdiction, vassalage, and former tax and trading institutions. And with these rights are also abolished the counter-services and burdens hitherto therewith connected.

Article 43. The person of the King is inviolable.

Article 44. The King's Ministers are responsible. All Government acts (documentary) of the King require for their validity the approval of a Minister, who thereby assumes responsibility for them.

Article 45. The King alone is invested with executive power. He appoints and dismisses Ministers. He orders the promulgation of laws, and issues the necessary ordinances for their execution.

Article 46. The King is Commander-in-Chief of the army.

Article 47. The King fills all posts in the army, as well as in other branches of the State service, in so far as not otherwise ordained by law.

Article 48. The King has the right to declare war and make peace, and to conclude other treaties with foreign governments. The latter require for their validity the assent of the Chambers in so far as they are commercial treaties, or impose burdens on the State, or obligations on its individual subjects.

Article 49. The King has the right to pardon, and to mitigate punishment. But in favour of a Minister condemned for his official acts, this right can only be exercised on the motion of that Chamber whence his indictment emanated. Only by special law can the King suppress inquiries already instituted.

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Article 50. The King may confer orders and other distinctions, not carrying with them privileges. He exercises the right of coinage in accordance with the law.

Article 51. The King convokes the Chambers, and closes their sessions. He may dissolve both at once, or only one at a time. In such a case, however, the electors must be assembled within a period of 60 days, and the Chambers summoned within a period of 90 days respectively after the dissolution.

Article 52. The King can adjourn the Chambers. But without their assent this adjournment may not exceed the space of 30 days, nor be repeated during the same session.

Article 53. The Crown, according to the laws of the Royal House, is hereditary in the male line of that House in accordance with the law of primogeniture and agnatic succession.

Article 54. The King attains his majority on completing his 18th year. In presence of the united Chambers he will take the oath to observe the Constitution of the Monarchy steadfastly and inviolably, and to rule in accordance with it and the laws.

Article 55. Without the consent of both Chambers the King cannot also be ruler of foreign realms (Reiche).

Article 56. If the King is a minor, or is otherwise lastingly prevented from ruling himself, the Regency will be undertaken by that agnate (Art. 53) who has attained his majority and stands nearest the Crown. He has immediately to convoke the Chambers, which, in united session, will decide as to the necessity of the Regency.

Article 57. If there be no agnate of age, and if no legal provision has previously been made for such a contingency, the Ministry of State will convoke the Chambers, which shall then elect a Regent in united session. And until the assumption of the Regency by him, the Ministry of State will conduct the Government.

Article 58. The Regent will exercise the powers invested in the King in the latter's name; and, after institution of the Regency, he will take an oath before the united Chambers to observe the Constitution of the Monarchy steadfastly and inviolably, and to rule in accordance with it and the laws. Until this oath is taken, the whole Ministry of State for the time being will remain responsible for all acts of the Government.

Article 59. To the Crown Trust Fund appertains the annuity drawn from the income of the forests and domains.

Article 60. The Ministers, as well as the State officials appointed to represent them, have access to each Chamber, and must at all times be listened to at request. Each Chamber can demand the presence of the Ministers. The Ministers are only entitled to vote in one or other of the Chambers when members of it.

Article 61. On the resolution of a Chamber the Ministers may be impeached for the crime of infringing the Constitution, of bribery, and of treason. The decision of such a case lies with the Supreme Tribunal of the Monarchy sitting in United Senates. As long as two Supreme Tribunals co-exist, they shall unite for the above purpose. Further details as to matters of responsibility, (criminal) procedure (thereupon), and punishments, are reserved for a special law.

Article 62. The legislative power will be exercised in common by the King and by two Chambers. Every law requires the assent of the King and the two Chambers. Money bills and budgets shall first be laid before the Second Chamber; and the latter (i. e., budgets) shall either be wholly approved by the First Chamber, or rejected altogether.

Article 63. In the event only of its being urgently necessary to maintain public security, or deal with an unusual state of distress when the Chambers are not in session, ordinances, which do not contravene the Constitution, may be issued with the force of law, on the responsibility of the whole Ministry. But these must be laid for approval before the Chambers at their next meeting.

Article 64. The King, as well as each Chamber, has the right of proposing laws. Bills that have been rejected by one of the Chambers, or by the King, cannot be re-introduced in the same session.

Articles 65-68. The First Chamber is formed by royal ordinance, which can only be altered by a law to be issued with the approval of the Chambers. The First Chamber is composed of members appointed by the King, with hereditary rights, or only for life.

Article 69. The Second Chamber consists of 430 members. The electoral districts are determined by law. They may consist of one or more Circles (Arrondissements), or of one or more of the larger towns.

[Footnote: Originally 350 only—a number which, in 1851, was increased by 2, for the Principality of Hohenzollern, and in 1867 by 80 for the annexed provinces.]

Article 70. Every Prussian who has completed his 25th year (i. e., attained his majority), and is capable of taking part in the elections of the Commune where he is domiciled, is entitled to act as a primary voter (Urwähler). Anyone who is entitled to take part in the election of several Communes, can only exercise his right as primary voter in one Commune.

Article 71. For every 250 souls of the population, one (secondary) elector (Wahlmann) shall be chosen. The primary voters fall into three classes, in proportion to the amount of direct taxes they pay—and in such a manner as that each class will represent a third of the sum-total of the taxes paid by the primary voters. This sum-total is reckoned:—

(a) by Parishes, in case the Commune does not form of itself a primary electoral district.

(b) by (Government) Districts (Bezirke), in case the primary electoral district consists of several Communes.

The first class consists of those primary voters, highest in the scale of taxation, who pay a third of the total. The second class consists of those primary voters, next highest in the scale, whose taxes form a second third of the whole; and the third class is made up of the remaining tax-payers (lowest in the scale) who contribute the other third of the whole. Each class votes apart, and for a third of the secondary electors. These classes may be divided into several voting sections, none of which, however, must include more than 500 primary voters. The secondary voters are elected in each class from the number of the primary voters in their district, without regard to the classes.

Article 72. The deputies are elected by the secondary voters. Details will be regulated by an electoral law, which must also make the necessary provision for those cities where flour and slaughter duties are levied instead of direct taxes.

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Article 73. The legislative period of the Second Chamber is fixed at three years.

Article 74. Eligible as deputy to the Second Chamber is every Prussian who has completed his thirtieth year, has forfeited none of his civil rights in consequence of a valid judicial sentence, and has been a Prussian subject for three years. The president and members of the Supreme Chamber of Accounts cannot sit in either House of the Diet (Landtag).

Article 75. After the lapse of a legislative period the Chambers will be elected anew, and the same in the event of dissolution. In both cases, previous members are re-eligible.

Article 76. Both Houses of the Diet of the Monarchy shall be regularly convened by the King in the period from the beginning of November in each year till the middle of the following January, and otherwise as often as circumstances require.

Article 77. The Chambers will be opened and closed by the King in person, or by a Minister appointed by him to do so, at a combined sitting of the Chambers. Both Chambers shall be simultaneously convened, opened, adjourned, and closed. If one Chamber is dissolved, the other shall be at the same time prorogued.

Article 78. Each Chamber will examine the credentials of its members, and decide thereupon. It will regulate its own order of business and discipline by special ordinances, and elect its president, vice-presidents, and office-bearers. Civil servants require no leave of absence in order to enter the Chamber. If a member of the Chamber accepts a salaried office of the State, or is promoted in the service of the State to a post involving higher rank or increase of pay, he shall lose his seat and vote in the Chamber, and can only recover his place in it by re-election. No one can be member of both Chambers.

Article 79. The sittings of both Chambers are public. On the motion of its president, or of ten members, each Chamber may meet in private sitting—at which this motion will then have to be discussed.

Article 80. Neither of the Chambers can pass a resolution unless there be present a majority of the legal number of its members. Each Chamber passes its resolutions by absolute majority of votes, subject to any exceptions that may be determined by the order of business for elections.

Article 81. Each Chamber has the separate right of presenting addresses to the King. No one may in person present to the Chambers, or to one of them, a petition or address. Each Chamber can transmit the communications made to it to the Ministers, and demand of them an answer to any grievances thus conveyed.

Article 82. Each Chamber is entitled to appoint commissions of inquiry into facts—for its own information.

Article 83. The members of both Chambers are representatives of the whole people. They vote according to their simple convictions, and are not bound by commissions or instructions.

Article 84. For their votes in the Chamber they can never be called to account, and for the opinions they express therein they can only be called to account within the Chamber, in virtue of the order of business. No member of a Chamber can, without its assent, be had up for examination, or be arrested during the Parliamentary session for any penal offence, unless he be taken in the act, or in the course of the following day. A similar assent shall be necessary in the case of arrest for debts. All criminal proceedings against a member of the Chamber, and all arrests for preliminary examination, or civil arrest, shall be suspended during the Parliamentary session on demand from the Chamber concerned.

Article 85. The members of the Second Chamber shall receive out of the State Treasury travelling expenses and daily fees, according to a statutory scale; and renunciation thereof shall be inadmissible.

Article 86. The judicial power will be exercised in the name of the King, by independent tribunals subject to no other authority but that of the law. Judgment shall be executed in the name of the King.

Article 87. The judges will be appointed for life by the King, or in his name. They can only be removed or temporarily suspended from office by judicial sentence, and for reasons foreseen by the law. Temporary suspension from office (not ensuing on the strength of a law), and involuntary transfer to another place, or to the retired list, can only take place from the causes and in the form mentioned by law, and in virtue of a judicial sentence. But these provisions do not apply to cases of transfer, rendered necessary by changes in the organisation of the courts or their districts.

Article 88. (abolished).

Article 89. The organisation of the tribunals will only be determined by law.

Article 90. To the judicial office only those can be appointed who have qualified themselves for it as prescribed by law.

Article 91. Courts for special kinds of affairs, and, in particular, tribunals for trade and commerce, shall be established by statute in those places where local needs may require them. The organisation and jurisdiction of such courts, as well as their procedure and the appointment of their members, the special status of the latter, and the duration of their office, will be determined by law.

Article 92. In Prussia there shall only be one supreme tribunal.

Article 93. The proceedings of the civil and criminal courts shall be public. But the public may be excluded by an openly declared resolution of the court, when order or good morals may seem endangered (by their admittance). In other cases publicity of proceedings can only be limited by law.

Article 94. In criminal cases the guilt of the accused shall be determined by jurymen, in so far as exceptions are not determined by a law issued with the previous assent of the Chambers. The formation of a jury-court shall be regulated by a law.

Article 95. By a law issued with the previous assent of the Chambers, there may be established a special court whereof the jurisdiction shall include the crimes of high treason, as well as those crimes against the internal and external security of the State, which may be assigned to it by law.

Article 96. The competence of the courts and of the administrative authorities shall be determined by law. Conflicts of authority between the courts and the administrative authorities shall be settled by a tribunal appointed by law.

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Article 97. A law shall determine the conditions on which public, civil, and military officials may be sued for wrongs committed by them in exceeding their functions. But the previous assent of official superiors need not be requested.

Article 98. The special legal status (Rechtsverhältnisse) of State officials (including advocates and solicitors) not belonging to the judicial class, shall be determined by a law, which, without restricting the Government in the choice of its executive agents, will grant civil servants proper protection against arbitrary dismissal from their posts or diminution of their pay.

Article 99. All income and expenditure of the State must be pre-estimated for every year, and be presented in the Budget, which shall be annually fixed by a law.

Article 100. Taxes and dues for the State Treasury may only be raised in so far as they shall have been included in the Budget or ordained by special laws.

Article 101. In the matter of taxes there must be no privilege of persons. Existing tax-laws shall be subjected to a revision, and all such privileges abolished.

Article 102. State and Communal officers can only levy dues on the strength of a law.

Article 103. The contracting of loans for the State Treasury can only be effected on the strength of a law; and the same holds good of guarantees involving a burden to the State.

Article 104. Budget transgressions require subsequent approval by the Chambers. The Budget will be examined and audited by the Supreme Chamber of Accounts. The general Budget accounts of every year, including tabular statistics of the National Debt, shall, with the comments of the Supreme Chamber of Accounts, be laid before the Chambers for the purpose of exonerating the Government. A special law will regulate the establishment and functions of the Supreme Chamber of Accounts.

Article 105. The representation and administration of the Communes, Arrondissements and Provinces of the Prussian State, will be determined in detail by special laws.

Article 106. Laws and ordinances become binding after having been published in the form prescribed by law. The examination of the validity of properly promulgated Royal ordinances is not within the competence of the authorities, but of the Chambers.

Article 107. The Constitution may be altered by ordinary legislative means; and such alteration shall merely require the usual absolute majority in both Chambers on two divisions (of the House), between which there must elapse a period of at least twenty-one days.

Article 108. The members of both Chambers, and all State officials, shall take the oath of fealty and obedience to the King, and swear conscientiously to observe the Constitution. The army will not take the oath to the Constitution.

Article 109. Existing taxes and dues will continue to be raised; and all provisions of existing statute-books, single laws, and ordinances, which do not contravene the present Constitution, will remain in force until altered by law.

Article 110. All authorities holding appointments in virtue of existing laws will continue their activity pending the issue of organic laws affecting them.

Article 111. In the event of war or revolution, and pressing danger to public security therefrom ensuing, Articles 5, 6, 7, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 36 of the Constitution may be suspended for a certain time, and in certain districts—the details to be determined by law.

Article 112. Until issue of the law contemplated in Article 26, educational matters will be controlled by the laws at present in force.

Article 113. Prior to the revision of the criminal code, a special law will deal with offences committed by word, writing, print, or artistic representation.

Article 114 (abolished).

Article 115. Until issue of the electoral law contemplated in Article 72, the ordinance of 30th May, 1849, touching the return of deputies to the Second Chamber, will remain in force; and with this ordinance is associated the provisional electoral law for elections to the Second Chamber in the Hohenzollern Principalities of 30th April, 1851.

Article 116. The two supreme tribunals still existing shall be combined into one-to be organised by a special law.

Article 117. The claims of State officials appointed before the promulgation of the Constitution shall be taken in to special consideration by the Civil Servant Law.

Article 118. Should changes in the present Constitution be rendered necessary by the German Federal Constitution to be drawn up on the basis of the Draft of 26th May, 1849, such alterations will be decreed by the King; and the ordinances to this effect laid before the Chambers, at their first meeting. The Chambers will then have to decide whether the changes thus provisionally ordained harmonise with the Federal Constitution of Germany.

Article 119. The Royal oath mentioned in Article 54, as well as the oath prescribed to be taken by both Chambers and all State officials, will have to be tendered immediately after the legislative revision of the present Constitution (Articles 62 and 108).

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our signature and seal.

Given at Charlottenburg, the 31st January, 1850. (Signed) FRIEDRICH WILHELM.

In connection with Article 44 the course of domestic and parliamentary politics drew forth the following Declaratory Rescript from the German Emperor and King of Prussia, in 1882:—

"The right of the King to conduct the Government and policy of Prussia according to his own discretion is limited by the Constitution (of January 31, 1850), but not abolished. The Government acts (documentary) of the King require the counter-signature of a Minister, and, as was also the case before the Constitution was issued, have to be represented by the King's Ministers; but they nevertheless remain Government acts of the King, from whose decisions they result, and who thereby constitutionally expresses his will and pleasure. It is therefore not admissible, and leads to obscuration of the constitutional rights of the King, when their exercise is so spoken of as if they emanated from the Ministers for the time being responsible for them, and not from the King himself. The Constitution of Prussia is the expression of the monarchical tradition of this country, whose development is based on the living and actual relations of its Kings to the people. These relations, moreover, do not admit of being transferred to the Ministers appointed by the King, for they attach to the person of the King. Their preservation, too, is a political necessity for Prussia. It is, therefore, my will that both in Prussia and in the Legislative Bodies of the realm (or Reich), there may be no doubt left as to my own constitutional right and that of my successors to personally conduct the policy of my Government; and that the theory shall always be gainsaid that the [doctrine of the] inviolability of the person of the King, which has always existed in Prussia, and is enunciated by Article 43 of the Constitution, or the necessity of a responsible counter-signature of my Government acts, deprives them of the character of Royal and independent decisions. It is the duty of my Ministers to support my constitutional rights by protecting them from doubt and obscuration, and I expect the same from all State servants (Beamten) who have taken to me the official oath. I am far from wishing to impair the freedom of elections, but in the case of those officials who are intrusted with the execution of my Government acts, and may, therefore, in conformity with the disciplinary law forfeit their situations, the duty solemnly undertaken by their oath of service also applies to the representation by them of the policy of my Government during election times. The faithful performance of this duty I shall thankfully acknowledge, and I expect from all officials that, in view of their oath of allegiance, they will refrain from all agitation against my Government also during elections.

Berlin, January 4, 1882. WILHELM. VON BISMARCK. To the Ministry of State."

—————CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA: End—————

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CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

See ROME: B. C. 31-A. D. 14, and A. D. 284-305.

CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

See ROME: B. C. 509, to B. C. 286; also COMITIA CENTURIATA; COMITIA CURIATA; CONSULS, ROMAN; CONSULAR TRIBUNES; SENATE, ROMAN; PLEBEIANS.

CONSTITUTION OF SOLON.

See ATHENS: B. C. 594.

CONSTITUTION OF SPAIN (1812).

See SPAIN: A. D. 1814-1827. (1869). See SPAIN: A. D. 1866-1873. (The Early Kingdoms.) See CORTES.

CONSTITUTION OF SULLA.

See ROME: B. C. 88-78.

—————End—————

CONSTITUTION OF SWEDEN.

"Four fundamental laws account for the present political constitution of Sweden: the law concerning the form of government (regerings-formen) dated June 6, 1809; the law on representation (riksdags-ordningen), June 22, 1866; the order of succession (successions-ordningen), September 26, 1810; and the law on the liberty of the press (tryckfrihets-forordningen), July 16, 1812. The union with Norway is regulated by the act of union (riks-akten), Aug. 6, 1815. … The representation of the nation, since the law of June 22, 1866, rests not as formerly on the division of the nation into four orders, but on election only. Two chambers, having equal authority, compose the diet. The members of the first chamber are elected for nine years by the 'landstingen' (species of provincial assemblies) and by the 'stadsfullmäktige' (municipal counsellors) of cities which do not sit in the 'landsting.'"

Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science, volume 3, pages 834-835.

"The First Chamber consists (1892) of 147 members, or one deputy for every 30,000 of the population. The election of the members takes place by the 'Landstings,' or provincial representations, 25 in number, and the municipal corporations of the towns, not already represented in the 'Landstings,' Stockholm, Göteberg, Malmö and Norrköping. All members of the First Chamber must be above 35 years of age, and must have possessed for at least three years previous to the election either real property to the taxed value of 80,000 kroner, or 4,444 l., or an annual income of 4,000 kroner, or 223 l. They are elected for the term of nine years, and obtain no payment for their services. The Second Chamber consists (Autumn 1892) of 228 members, of whom 76 are elected by the towns and 146 by the rural districts, one representative being returned for every 10,000 of the population of towns, one for every 'Domsaga,' or rural district, of under 40,000 inhabitants, and two for rural districts of over 40,000 inhabitants. All natives of Sweden, aged 21, possessing real property to the taxed value of 1,000 kroner, or 56 l., or farming, for a period of not less than five years, landed property to the taxed value of 6,000 kroner, or 333 l., or paying income tax on an annual income of 800 kroner, or 45 l., are electors; and all natives, aged 25, possessing, and having possessed at least one year previous to the election, the same qualifications, may be elected members of the Second Chamber. The number of qualified electors to the Second Chamber in 1890 was 288,096, or 6.0 of the population; only 110,896, or 38.5 of the electors actually voted. In the smaller towns and country districts the election may either be direct or indirect, according to the wish of the majority. The election is for the term of three years, and the members obtain salaries for their services, at the rate of 1,200 kroner, or 67 l., for each session of four months, besides travelling expenses. … The members of both Chambers are elected by ballot, both in town and country."

Statesman's Year-book, 1893, page 965.

"The Diet, or Riksdag, assembles every year, in ordinary session, on the 15th of January, or the day following, if the 15th is a holiday. It may be convoked in extraordinary session by the king. In case of the decease, absence, or illness of the king, the Diet may be convoked extraordinarily by the Council of State, or even, if this latter neglects to do so, by the tribunals of second instance. The king may dissolve the two chambers simultaneously, or one of them alone, during the ordinary sessions, but the new Diet assembles after the three months of the dissolution, and can only be dissolved again four months after resuming its sitting. The king dissolves the extraordinary session when he deems proper. … The Diet divides the right of initiative with the king: the consent of the synod is necessary for ecclesiastical Laws. … Every three years the Diet names a commission of twenty-four members (twelve from each chamber), charged with the duty of electing six persons who are commissioned under the presidency of the Procureur general of the Diet to watch over the liberty of the press."

G. Demombynes, Constitutions Européennes, volume 1, pages 84-90.

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The following is the text of the Constitution as adopted in 1809, the subsequent modifications of which are indicated above:

Form of government adopted by the King and the Estates of the Swedish Realm, at Stockholm, on the 6th of June, 1809; together with the Alterations afterwards introduced.

We Charles, by the Grace of God, King of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Vandals, &c. &e. &e. Heir to Norway, Duke of Sleswick-Holstein; Stormarn, and Ditmarsen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, &c. &c. &c. make known, that having unlimited confidence in the estates of the realm, charged them with drawing up a new form of government, as the perpetual groundwork of the prosperity and independence of our common native land, We do hereby perform a dear and pleasing duty in promulgating the fundamental law (which has been) upon mature deliberation, framed and adopted by the estates of the realm, and presented unto Us this day, together with their free and unanimous offer of the Swedish crown. Having with deep emotion and an affectionate interest in the prosperity of a nation which has afforded Us so striking a proof of confidence and attachment, complied with their request, We trust to our endeavors to promote its happiness, as the reciprocal rights and duties of the monarch and the subjects have been marked so distinctly, that, without encroachment on the sacred nature and power of majesty, the constitutional liberty of the people is protected. We do therefore hereby adopt, sanction, and ratify this form of government, such as it follows here:—

We the underwritten representatives of the Swedish realm, counts, barons, bishops, knights, nobles, clergymen, burghers, and peasants, assembled at a general Diet, in behalf of ourselves and our brethren at home, Do hereby make known, that, having by the late change of government, to which we, the deputies of the Swedish people, gave our unanimous assent, exercised our rights of drawing up a new and improved constitution, we have, in repealing those fundamental laws, which down to this day have been in force more or less; viz.,—The Form of Government of the 21st of August 1772, the Act of Union and Security, of the 21st of February and the 3d of April 1789, the Ordinance of Diet, of the 24th of January 1617, as well as all those laws, acts, statutes, and resolutions comprehended under the denomination of fundamental laws;—We have Resolved to adopt for the kingdom of Sweden and its dependencies the following constitution, which from henceforth shall be the chief fundamental law of the realm, reserving to Ourselves, before the expiration of the present Diet, to consider the other fundamental laws, mentioned in the 85th article of this constitution.

Article 1. The kingdom of Sweden shall be governed by a king, who shall be hereditary in that order of succession which the estates will further hereafter determine.

Article 2. The king shall profess the pure evangelical faith, such as is contained and declared m the Augsburgian Confession, and explained in the Decree of the Diet at Upsala in the year 1593.

Article 3. The majesty of the king shall be held sacred and inviolable; and his actions shall not be subject to any censure.

Article 4. The king shall govern the realm alone, in the manner determined by this constitution. In certain cases, however, (to be specified) he shall take the opinion of a council of state, which shall be constituted of well-informed, experienced, honest, and generally-esteemed native Swedes, noblemen and commoners, who profess the pure evangelical faith.

Article 5. The council of state shall consist of nine members, viz., the minister of state and justice, who shall always be a member of the king's supreme court of judicature, the minister of state for foreign affairs, six counsellors of state, three of whom at least must have held civil offices, and the chancellor of the court, or aulic chancellor. The secretaries of state shall have a seat and vote in the council, when they have to report matters there, and in cases that belong to their respective departments. Father and son, or two brothers, shall not be permitted to be constant members of the council of state.

Article 6. The secretaries of state shall be four, viz.—One for military affairs; a second for public economy, mining, and all other affairs connected with the civil and interior administration; a third for the finances of the realm, inland and foreign commerce, manufactures, &c.; and the fourth, for affairs relating to religion, public education, and charities.

Article 7. All affairs of government shall be laid before the king, and decided in a council of state: those of a ministerial nature, however, excepted, concerning the relations of the realm with foreign powers, and matters of military command, which the king decides in his capacity of commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces.

Article 8. The king can make no decision in matters in which the council of state are to be heard, unless at least three counsellors of state, and the secretary of state whom it concerns, or his deputy-secretary, are present.—All the members of the council shall, upon due notice, attend all deliberations deemed of importance, and which concern the general administration of the affairs of the kingdom; such as questions for adopting new statutes, repealing or altering those in existence, introducing new institutions in the different branches of the administration, &c.

Article 9. Minutes shall be kept of all matters which shall come before the king in his council of state. The ministers of state, the counsellors of state, the aulic chancellor, and the secretaries of state or deputy-secretaries, shall be peremptorily bound to deliver their opinions: it is, however, the prerogative of the king to decide. Should it, however, unexpectedly occur, that the decisions of the king are evidently contrary to the constitution and the common law of the realm, it shall in that case be the duty of the members of the council of state to make spirited remonstrances against such decision or resolution. Unless a different opinion has been recorded in the minutes (for then the counsellors present shall be considered as having advised the king to the adopted measure), the members of the council shall be responsible for their advices, as enacted in the 106th article.

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Article 10. Necessary informations having been demanded and obtained from the proper boards, authorities, and functionaries, the affairs for deliberation shall be prepared by the secretary of state and eight skilful and impartial men, consisting of four nobles and four commoners, in order to their being laid before the king in the council of state.—The secretary, as well as all the other members of this committee (which are nominated by the king) for preparing the general affairs of the kingdom, shall upon all occasions, when so met, deliver their opinions to the minutes, which shall afterwards be reported to the king and the council of state.

Article 11. As to the management of the ministerial affairs, they may be prepared and conducted in the manner which appears most suitable to the king. It appertains to the minister for foreign affairs to lay such matters before him in the presence of the aulic chancellor, or some other member of the council, if the chancellor cannot attend. In the absence of the minister of state this duty devolves upon the aulic chancellor, or any other member of the council of state, whom his majesty may appoint. After having ascertained the opinions of these official persons entered in the minutes, and for which they shall be responsible, the king shall pronounce his decision in their presence. It shall be the duty of the aulic chancellor to keep the minutes on these occasions. The king shall communicate to the council of state the information on these topics as may be necessary, in order that they may have a general knowledge even of this branch of the administration.

Article 12. The king can enter into treaties and alliances with foreign powers, after having ascertained, as enacted in the preceding article, the opinion of the minister of state for foreign affairs, and of the aulic chancellor.

Article 13. When the king is at liberty to commence war, or conclude peace, he shall convoke an extraordinary council of state; the ministers of state, the counsellors of state, the aulic chancellor, and the secretaries of state; and, after having explained to them the circumstances which require their consideration, he shall desire their opinions thereon, which each of them shall individually deliver, on the responsibility defined in the 107th article. The king shall thereafter have a right to adopt the resolutions, or make such decision as may appear to him most beneficial for the kingdom.

Article 14. The king shall have the supreme command of the military forces by sea and land.

Article 15. The king shall decide in all matters of military command, in the presence of that minister or officer to whom he has entrusted the general management thereof. It shall be the duty of this person to give his opinion, under responsibility, upon the resolutions taken by the king, and in case of these being contrary to his advice, he shall be bound to enter his objections and counsel in the minutes, which the king must confirm by his own signature. Should this minister or official person find the resolutions of the king to be of a dangerous tendency, or founded on mistaken or erroneous principles, he shall advise his majesty to convoke two or more military officers of a superior rank into a council of war. The king shall, however, be at liberty to comply with or to reject this proposition for a council of war; and if approved of, he may take what notice he pleases of the opinions of such council, which shall, however, be entered in the minutes.

Article 16. The king shall promote the exercise of justice and right, and prevent partiality and injustice. He shall not deprive any subject of life, honour, liberty, and property, without previous trial and sentence, and in that order which the laws of the country prescribe. He shall not disturb, or cause to be disturbed, the peace of any individual in his house. He shall not banish any from one place to another, nor constrain, or cause to be constrained, the conscience of any; but shall protect everyone in the free exercise of his religion, provided he does not thereby disturb the tranquillity of society, or occasion public offence. The king shall cause everyone to be tried in that court to which he properly belongs.

Article 17. The king's prerogative of justice shall be invested in twelve men, learned in the law, six nobles, and six commoners, who have shown knowledge, experience, and integrity in judicial matters. They shall be styled counsellors of justice, and constitute the king's supreme court of justice.

Article 18. The supreme court of justice shall take cognizance of petitions to the king for cancelling sentences which have obtained legal force, and granting extension of time in lawsuits, when it has been, through some circumstances, forfeited.

Article 19. If information be sought by judges or courts of justice concerning the proper interpretation of the law, the explanation thus required shall be given by the said supreme court.

Article 20. In time of peace, all cases referred from the courts martial shall be decided in the supreme court of justice. Two military officers of a superior degree, to be nominated by the king, shall, with the responsibility of judges, attend and have a vote in such cases in the supreme court. The number of judges may not, however, exceed eight. In time of war, all such cases shall be tried as enacted by the articles of war.

Article 21. The king, should he think fit to attend, shall have right to two votes in causes decided by the supreme court. All questions concerning explanations of the law shall be reported to him, and his suffrages counted, even though he should not have attended the deliberations of the court.

Article 22. Causes of minor importance may be decided in the supreme court by five members, or even four, if they are all of one opinion; but in causes of greater consequence seven counsellors, at least, must attend. More than eight members of the supreme court, or four noblemen and four commoners, may not be at one time in active service.

Article 23. All the decrees of the supreme court of justice shall issue in the king's name, and under his hand and seal.

Article 24. The cases shall be prepared in the "king's inferior court for revision of judiciary affairs," in order to be laid before, or produced in the supreme court.

Article 25. In criminal cases the king has a right to grant pardon, to mitigate capital punishment, and to restore property forfeited to the crown. In applications, however, of this kind, the supreme court shall be heard, and the king give his decision in the council of state.

Article 26. When matters of justice are laid before the council of state, the minister of state and justice, and, at least, two counsellors of state, two members of the supreme court, and the chancellor of justice shall attend, who must all deliver their opinions to the minutes, according to the general instruction for the members of the council of state, quoted in the 91st article.

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Article 21. The king shall nominate, as chancellor of justice, a juris-consult, an able and impartial man, who has previously held the office of a judge. It shall be his chief duty, as the highest legal officer or attorney general of the king, to prosecute, either personally or through the officers or fiscals under him, in all such cases as concern the public safety and the rights of the crown, on the king's behalf, to superintend the administration of justice, and to take cognizance of, and correct, errors committed by judges or other legal officers in the discharge of their official duties.

Article 28. The king, in his council of state, has a right to appoint native Swedes to all such offices and places within the kingdom for which the king's commissions are granted. The proper authorities shall, however, send in the names of the candidates to be put in nomination for such employments. The king may, likewise, appoint foreigners of eminent talents to military offices, without, however, entrusting to them the command of the fortresses of the realm. In preferments the king shall only consider the merits and the abilities of the candidates, without any regard to their birth. Ministers and counsellors of state and of justice, secretaries of state, judges, and all other civil officers, must always be of the pure evangelical faith.

Article 29. The archbishop and bishops shall be elected as formerly, and the king nominates one of the three candidates proposed to him.

Article 30. The king appoints, as formerly, the incumbents of rectories in the gift of the crown. As to the consistorial benefices, the parishioners shall be maintained in their usual right of election.

Article 31. Citizens, who are freemen of towns, shall enjoy their privilege as heretofore, of proposing to the king three candidates for the office of burgomaster or mayor, one of whom the king selects. The aldermen and secretaries of the magistracy of Stockholm shall be elected in the same manner.

Article 32. The king appoints envoys to foreign courts and the officers of the embassies, in the presence of the minister of state for foreign affairs and the aulic chancellor.

Article 33. When offices, for which candidates are proposed, are to be filled up, the members of the council of state shall deliver their opinions on the qualifications and merits of the applicants. They shall also have right to make respectful remonstrances against the nomination of the king respecting other offices.

Article 34. The new functionaries created by this constitution, viz.—the ministers and counsellors of state and counsellors of justice, shall be paid by the crown, and may not hold any other civil offices. The two ministers of state are the highest functionaries of the realm. The counsellors of state shall hold the rank of generals, and the counsellors of justice that of lieutenant-generals.

Article 35. The minister of state for foreign affairs, the counsellors of state, the presidents of the public boards, the grand governor of Stockholm, the deputy governor, and the chief magistrate of police in the city, the aulic chancellor, the chancellor of justice, the secretaries of state, the governors or lord-lieutenants of provinces, field marshals, generals and admirals of all degrees, adjutant generals, adjutant in chief, adjutants of the staff, the governors of fortresses, captain lieutenants, and officers of the king's life guards, colonels of the regiments, and officers second in command in the foot and horse guards, lieutenant-colonels in the brigade of the life regiments, chiefs of the artillery of the royal engineers, ministers, envoys, and commercial agents with foreign powers, and official persons employed in the king's cabinet for the foreign correspondence, and at the embassies, as holding places of trust, can be removed by the king, when he considers it necessary for the benefit of the realm. The king shall, however, signify his determination in the council of state, the members whereof shall be bound to make respectful remonstrances, if they see it expedient.

Article 36. Judges, and all other official persons, not included in the preceding article, cannot be suspended from their situations without legal trial, nor be translated or removed to other places, without having themselves applied for these.

Article 31. The king has power to confer dignities on those who have served their country with fidelity, bravery, virtue, and zeal. He may also promote to the order of counts and barons, persons, who by eminent merits have deserved such an honour. Nobility and the dignity of a count and baron, granted from this time, shall no longer devolve to any other than the individual himself thus created a noble, and after him, to the oldest of his male issue in a direct descending line, and this branch of the family being extinct, to the nearest male descendant of the ancestor.

Article 38. All despatches and orders emanating from the king, excepting such as concern military affairs, shall be countersigned by the secretary who has submitted them to the council, and is responsible for their being conformable to the minutes. Should the secretary find any of the decisions made by the king to be contrary to the spirit of the constitution, he shall make his remonstrances respecting the same, in the council of state. Should the king still persist in his determination, it shall then be the duty of the secretary to refuse his countersign, and resign his place, which he may not resume until the estates of the realm shall have examined and approved of his conduct. He shall, however, in the mean time, receive his salary, and all the fees of his office as formerly.

Article 39. If the king wishes to go abroad, he shall communicate his resolution to the council of state, in a full assembly, and take the opinion of all its members, as enacted in the ninth article. During the absence of the king he may not interfere with the government, or exercise the regal power, which shall be carried on, in his name, by the council of state; the council of state cannot, however, confer dignities or create counts, barons, and knights; and all officers appointed by the council shall only hold their places ad interim.

Article 40. Should the king be in such a state of health as to be incapable of attending to the affairs of the kingdom, the council of state shall conduct the administration, as enacted in the preceding article.

Article 41. The king shall be of age after having completed eighteen years. Should the king die before the heir of the crown has attained this age, the government shall be conducted by the council of state, acting with regal power and authority, in the name of the king, until the estates of the realm shall have appointed a provisional government or regency; and the council of state is enjoined strictly to conform to the enactments of this constitution.

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Article 42. Should the melancholy event take place, that the whole royal family became extinct on the male side, the council of state shall exercise the government with regal power and authority, until the estates have chosen another royal house, and the new king has taken upon himself the government. All occurrences or things having reference to the four last articles, shall be determined by the whole council of state and the secretaries of state.

Article 43. When the king takes the field of battle, or repairs to distant parts of the kingdom, he shall constitute four of the members of the council of state to exercise the government in those affairs which he is pleased to prescribe.

Article 44. No prince of the royal family shall be permitted to marry without having obtained the consent of the king, and in the contrary case shall forfeit his right of inheritance to the kingdom, both for himself and descendants.

Article 45. Neither the crown prince, or any other prince of the royal family, shall have any appanage or civil place. The princes of the blood may, however, bear titles of dukedoms and principalities, as heretofore, but without any claims upon those provinces.

Article 46. The kingdom shall remain divided, as heretofore, into governments, under the usual provincial administrations. No governor-general shall, from this time, be appointed within the kingdom.

Article 47. The courts of justice, superior as well as inferior, shall administer justice according to the laws and statutes of the realm. The provincial governors, and all other public functionaries, shall exercise the offices entrusted to them according to existing regulations; they shall obey the orders of the king, and be responsible to him if any act is done contrary to law.

Article 48. The court of the king is under his own management, and he may at his own pleasure appoint or discharge all his officers and attendants there.

Article 49. The estates of the realm shall meet every fifth year. In the decree of every Diet the day shall be fixed for the next meeting of the estates. The king may, however, convoke the estates to an extraordinary Diet before that time.

Article 50. The Diets shall be held in the capital, except when the invasion of an enemy, or some other important impediment, may render it dangerous for the safety of the representatives.

Article 51. When the king or council convokes the estates, the period for the commencement of the Diet shall be subsequent to the thirtieth, and within the fiftieth day, to reckon from that day when the summons has been proclaimed in the churches of the capital.

Article 52. The king names the speakers of the nobles, the burghers and the peasants: the archbishop is, at all times, the constant speaker of the clergy.

Article 53. The estates of the realm shall, immediately after the opening of the Diet, elect the different committees, which are to prepare the affairs intended for their consideration. Such committees shall consist in,

a constitutional committee, which shall take cognizance of questions concerning proposed alterations in the fundamental laws, report thereupon to the representatives, and examine the minutes held in the council of state;

a committee of finances, which shall examine and report upon the state and management of the revenues;

a committee of taxation, for regulating the taxes;

a committee of the bank for inquiring into the administration of the affairs of the national bank;

a law committee for digesting propositions concerning improvements in the civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical laws;

a committee of public grievances and matters of economy, to attend to the defects in public institutions, suggest alterations, &c.

Article 54. Should the king desire a special committee for deliberating with him on such matters as do not come within the cognizance of any of the other committees, and are to be kept secret, the estates shall select it. This committee shall, however, have no right to adopt any resolutions, but only to give their opinion on matters referred to them by the king.

Article 55. The representatives of the realm shall not discuss any subject in the presence of the king, nor can any other committee than the one mentioned in the above article hold their deliberations before him.

Article 56. General questions started at the meetings or the orders of the estates, cannot be immediately discussed or decided, but shall be referred to the proper committees, which are to give their opinion thereupon. The propositions or report of the committees shall, in the first instance, without any alteration or amendment, be referred to the estates at the general meetings of all the orders. If at these meetings, observations should be made which may prevent the adoption of the proposed measure, these objections shall be communicated to the committee, in order to its being examined and revised. A proposition thus prepared having been again referred to the estates, it shall remain with them to adopt it, with or without alterations, or to reject it altogether. Questions concerning alterations in the fundamental laws, shall be thus treated:

If the constitutional committee approves of the suggestion of one of the representatives, or the committee reports in favour of or against a measure proposed by the king, the opinion of the committee shall be referred to the estates, who may discuss the topic, but not come to any resolution during that Diet.

If at the general meetings of the orders no observations are made against the opinion of the committee, the question shall be postponed till the Diet following, and then be decided solely by yes or no, as enacted in the 75th article of the ordinance of Diet.

If, on the contrary, objections are urged at the general meetings of the orders against the opinion of the committee, these shall be referred back for its reconsideration. If all the orders be of one opinion, the question shall be postponed for final decision, as enacted above. Should again a particular order differ from the other orders, twenty members shall be elected from among every order, and added to the committee, for adjusting the differences. The question being thus prepared, shall be decided at the following Diet.

Article 57. The ancient right of the Swedish people, of imposing taxes on themselves, shall be exercised by the estates only at a general Diet.

Article 58. The king shall at every Diet lay before the committee of finances the state of the revenues in all their branches. Should the crown have obtained subsidies through treaties with foreign powers, these shall be explained in the usual way.

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Article 59. The king shall refer to the decision of this committee to determine what the government may require beyond the ordinary taxation, to be raised by an extraordinary grant.

Article 60. No taxes of any description whatever can be increased without the express consent of the estates. The king may not farm or let on lease the revenues of state, for the sake of profit to himself and the crown; nor grant monopolies to private individuals, or corporations.

Article 61. All taxes shall be paid to the end of that term for which they have been imposed. Should, however, the estates meet before the expiration of that term, new regulations shall take place.

Article 62. The funds required by government having been ascertained by the committee of finances, it shall rest with the estates whether to assign proportionate means, and also to determine how the various sums granted shall be appropriated.

Article 63. Besides these means, two adequate sums shall be voted and set apart for the disposal of the king, after he has consulted the council of state,—for the defence of the kingdom, or some other important object;—the other sum to be deposited in the national bank, in case of war, after the king has ascertained the opinion of the council and convened the estates. The seal of the order for this latter sum may not be broken, nor the money be paid by the commissioners of the bank, till the summons to Diet shall have been duly proclaimed in the churches of the capital.

Article 64. The ordinary revenues of the land, as well as the extraordinary grants which may be voted by the estates, shall be at the disposal of the king for the civil list and other specified purposes.

Article 65. The above means may not be applied but for the assigned purposes, and the council of state shall be responsible if they permit any deviation in this respect, without entering their remonstrances in the minutes, and pointing out what the constitution in this case ordains.

Article 66. The funds of amortissement or national debt, shall remain, as heretofore, under the superintendence and direction of the estates, who have guaranteed or come under a responsibility for the national debt; and after having received the report of the committee of finances on the affairs of that establishment, the estates will provide, through a special grant, the requisite means for paying the capital as well as the interest of this debt, in order that the credit of the kingdom may be maintained.

Article 67. The deputy of the king shall not attend the meetings of the directors or commissioners of the funds of amortissement, on any other occasion than when the directors are disposed to take his opinion.

Article 68. The means assigned for paying off the national debt shall not, under any pretence or condition, be appropriated to other purposes.

Article 69. Should the estates, or any particular order, entertain doubts either in allowing the grant proposed by the committee of finances, or as to the participation in the taxes, or the principles of the management of the funds of amortissement, these doubts shall be communicated to the committee for their further consideration.—If the committee cannot coincide in the opinions of the estates, or a single order, it shall depute some members to explain circumstances. Should this order still persist in its opinion, the question shall be decided by the resolution of three orders. If two orders be of one, and the other two of a different opinion, thirty new members of every order shall be added to the committee—the committee shall then vote conjointly, and not by orders, with folded billets, for adopting, or rejecting, unconditionally the proposition of the committee.

Article 70. The committee of taxation shall at every Diet suggest general principles for dividing the future taxes, and the amount having been fixed, the committee shall also propose how these are to be paid, referring their proposition to the consideration and decision of the states.

Article 71. Should a difference of opinion arise between the orders, as to these principles and the mode of applying them, and dividing the taxes; or, what hardly can be presumed, any order decline participating in the proposed taxation, the order, which may thus desire some alteration, shall communicate their views to the other representatives, and suggest in what mode this alteration may be effected without frustrating the general object. The committee of taxation having again reported thereon to the estates, they, the estates, shall decide the question at issue. If three orders object to the proposition of the committee, it shall be rejected. If, again, three orders oppose the demands of a single order, or if two be of an opinion contrary to that of the other two, the question shall be referred to the committee of finances, with an additional number of members, as enacted in the above article. If the majority of this committee assent to the proposition of the committee of taxation, in those points concerning which the representatives have disagreed, the proposition shall be considered as the general resolution of the estates. Should it, on the contrary, be negatived by a majority of votes, or be rejected by three orders, the committee of taxation shall propose other principles for levying and dividing the taxes.

Article 72. The national bank shall remain, as formerly, under the superintendence and guarantee of the estates, and the management of directors selected from among all the orders, according to existing regulations. The states alone can issue bank-notes, which are to be recognized as the circulating medium of the realm.

Article 73. No troops, new taxes or imposts, either in money or kind, can be levied without the voluntary consent of the estates, in the usual order, as aforesaid.

Article 74. The king shall have no right to demand or levy any other aid for carrying on war, than that contribution of provisions which may be necessary for the maintenance of the troops during their march through a province. These contributions shall, however, be immediately paid out of the treasury, according to the fixed price-current of provisions, with an augmentation of a moiety, according to this valuation. Such contributions may not be demanded for troops which have been quartered in a place, or are employed in military operations, in which case they shall be supplied with provisions from the magazines.

Article 75. The annual estimation of such rentes as are paid in kind shall be fixed by deputies elected from among all the orders of the estates.

Article 76. The king cannot, without the consent of the estates, contract loans within or without the kingdom, nor burthen the land with any new debts.

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Article 77. He cannot also, without the consent of the estates, vend, pledge, mortgage, or in any other way alienate domains, farms, forests, parks, preserves of game, meadows, pasture-land, fisheries, and other appurtenances of the crown. These shall be managed according to the instructions of the estates.

Article 78. No part of the kingdom can be alienated through sale, mortgage, donation, or in any other way whatever.

Article 79. No alteration can be effected in the standard value of the coin, either for enhancing or deteriorating it, without the consent of the estates.

Article 80. The land and naval forces of the realm shall remain on the same footing, till the king and the estates may think proper to introduce some other principles. No regular troops can be raised, without the mutual consent of the king and the estates.

Article 81. This form of government and the other fundamental laws cannot be altered or repealed, without the unanimous consent of the king and the estates. Questions to this effect cannot be brought forward at the meetings of the orders, but must be referred to the constitutional committee, whose province it is to suggest such alterations in the fundamental laws, as may be deemed necessary, useful, and practicable. The estates may not decide on such proposed alterations at the same Diet. If all the orders agree about the alteration, it shall be submitted to the king, through the speakers, for obtaining his royal sanction, After having ascertained the opinion of the council, the king shall take his resolution, and communicate to the estates either his approbation or reasons for refusing it. In the event of the king proposing any alteration in the fundamental laws, he shall, after having taken the opinion of the council, deliver his proposition to the estates, who shall, without discussing it, again refer it to the constitutional committee. If the committee coincide in the proposition of the king, the question shall remain till next Diet. If again the committee is averse to the proposition of the king, the estates may either reject it immediately or adjourn it to the following Diet. In the case of all the orders approving of the proposition, they shall request that a day be appointed to declare their consent in the presence of his majesty, or signify their disapprobation through their speakers.

Article 82. What the estates have thus unanimously resolved and the king sanctioned, concerning alterations in the fundamental laws, or the king has proposed and the estates approved of, shall for the future have the force and effect of a fundamental law.

Article 83. No explanation of the fundamental laws may be established by any other mode or order, than that prescribed by the two preceding articles. Laws shall be applied according to their literal sense.

Article 84. When the constitutional committee find no reason for approving of the proposition, made by a representative concerning alterations or explanations of the fundamental laws, it shall be the duty of the committee to communicate to him, at his request, their opinion, which the proposer of the resolution may publish, with his own motion, and under the usual responsibility of authors.

Article 85. As fundamental laws of the present form of government, there shall be considered the ordinance of Diet, the order of succession, and the act concerning universal liberty of the press.

Article 86. By the liberty of the press is understood the right of every Swedish subject to publish his writings, without any impediment from the government, and without being responsible for them, except before a court of justice, or liable to punishment, unless their contents be contrary to a clear law, made for the preservation of public peace. The minutes, or protocols, or the proceedings, may be published in any case, excepting the minutes kept in the council of state and before the king in ministerial affairs, and those matters of military command; nor may the records of the bank, and the office of the funds of amortissement, or national debt, be printed.

Article 87. The estates, together with the king, have the right to make new and repeal old laws. In this view such questions must be proposed at the general meetings of the orders of the estates, and shall be decided by them, after having taken the opinion of the law committee, as laid down in the 56th article. The proposition shall be submitted, through the speakers, to the king, who, after having ascertained the opinion of the council of state and supreme court, shall declare either his royal approbation, or motives for withholding it. Should the king desire to propose any alteration in the laws, he shall, after having consulted the council of state and supreme court, refer his proposition, together with their opinion, to the deliberation of the states, who, after having received the report of the law committee, shall decide on the point. In all such questions the resolution of three orders shall be considered as the resolution of the estates of the realm. If two orders are opposed to the other two, the proposition is negatived, and the law is to remain as formerly.

Article 88. The same course, or mode of proceeding, shall be observed in explaining the civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical laws, as in making these. Explanations concerning the proper sense of the law given by the supreme court in the name of the king, in the interval between the Diets, may be rejected by the states, and shall not afterwards be valid, or cited by the courts of judicature.

Article 89. At the general meetings of the orders of the estates, questions may be proposed for altering, explaining, repealing, and issuing acts concerning public economy; and the principles of public institutions of any kind may be discussed. These questions shall afterwards be referred to the committee of public grievances and economical affairs, and then be submitted to the decision of the king, in a council of state. When the king is pleased to invite the estates to deliberate with him on questions concerning the general administration, the same course shall be adopted as is prescribed for questions concerning the laws.

Article 90. During the deliberations of the orders, or their committees, no questions shall be proposed but in the way expressly prescribed by this fundamental law, concerning either appointing or removing of officers, decisions and resolutions of the government and courts of law, and the conduct of private individuals and corporations.

Article 91. When the king, in such cases as those mentioned in the 39th article, is absent from the kingdom longer than twelve months, the council shall convoke the estates to a general Diet, and cause the summons to be proclaimed within fifteen days from the above time, in the churches of the capital, and speedily afterwards in the other parts of the kingdom. If the king, after being informed thereof, does not return to the kingdom, the estates shall adopt such measures as they deem most beneficial for the country.

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Article 92. The same shall be enacted in case of any disease or ill health of the king, which might prevent him from attending to the affairs of the kingdom for more than twelve months.

Article 93. When the heir of the crown, at the decease of the king, is under age, the council of state shall issue summons to the representatives to meet. The estates of the realm shall have the right, without regard to the will of a deceased king concerning the administration, to appoint one or several guardians, to rule in the king's name, according to this fundamental law, till the king becomes of age.

Article 94. Should it ever happen that the royal family become extinct in the male line, the council of state shall convene the estates, to elect another royal family to rule conformably to this fundamental law.

Article 95. Should, contrary to expectation, the council of state fail to convoke the estates, in the cases prescribed by the 91st, 93d, and 94th articles, it shall be the positive duty of the directors of the house of nobles, the chapters throughout the kingdom, the magistrates in the capital, and the governors in the provinces, to give public notice thereof, in order that elections of deputies to the Diet may forthwith take place, and the estates assemble to protect their privileges and rights of the kingdom. Such a Diet shall be opened on the fiftieth day from that period when the council of state had proclaimed the summons in the churches of the capital.

Article 96. The estates shall at every Diet appoint an officer, distinguished for integrity and learning in the law, to watch over, as their deputy, the conduct of the judges and other official men, and who shall, in legal order and at the proper court, arraign those who in the performance of their offices have betrayed negligence and partiality, or else have committed any illegal act. He shall, however, be liable to the same responsibility as the law prescribes for public prosecutors in general.

Article 97. This deputy or attorney-general of the estates shall be chosen by twelve electors out of every order.

Article 98. The electors shall at the same time they choose the said attorney-general, elect a person possessing equal or similar qualities to succeed him, in case of his death before the next Diet.

Article 99. The attorney-general may, whenever he pleases, attend the sessions of all the superior and inferior courts, and the public offices, and shall have free access to their records and minutes; and the king's officers shall be bound to give him every assistance.

Article 100. The attorney-general shall at every Diet present a report of the performance of his office, explaining the state of the administration of justice in the land, noticing the defects in the existing laws, and suggesting new improvements. He shall also, at the end of each year, publish a general statement concerning these.

Article 101. Should the supreme court, or any of its members, from interest, partiality, or negligence, judge so wrong that an individual, contrary to law and evidence, did lose or might have lost life, liberty, honour, or property, the attorney-general shall be bound, and the chancellor of justice authorised, to arraign the guilty, according to the laws of the realm, in the court after mentioned.

Article 102. This court is to be denominated the court of justice for the realm, and shall be formed by the president in the superior court of Swea, the presidents of all the public boards, four senior members of the council of state, the highest commander of the troops within the capital, and the commander of the squadron of the fleet stationed at the capital, two of the senior members of the superior court of Swea, and the senior member of all the public boards. Should any of the officers mentioned above decline attending this court, he shall be legally responsible for such a neglect of duty. After trial, the judgment shall be publicly announced: no one can alter such a sentence. The king may, however, extend pardon to the guilty, but not admitting him any more into the service of the kingdom.