Part 2 — Chapter VII.

Article LXXIII. When it has become necessary in future to amend the provisions of the present Constitution, a project to that effect shall be submitted to the Imperial Diet by Imperial Order. In the above case, neither House can open the debate, unless not less than two-thirds of the whole number of Members are present, and no amendment can be passed, unless a majority of not less than two-thirds of the Members present is obtained.

Article LXXIV. No modification of the Imperial House Law shall be required to be submitted to the deliberation of the Imperial Diet. No provision of the present Constitution can be modified by the Imperial House Law.

Article LXXV. No modification can be introduced into the Constitution, or into the Imperial House Law, during the time of a Regency.

Article LXXVI. Existing legal enactments, such as laws, regulations, Ordinances, or by whatever names they may be called, shall, so far as they do not conflict with the present Constitution, continue in force. All existing contracts or orders, that entail obligations upon the Government, and that are connected with expenditure shall come within the scope of Article LXVII.

—————CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN: End—————

CONSTITUTION OF LYCURGUS. "The constitution of Lykourgos was especially adapted to make heroes, and it made them. To serve his country and die for her, this was the Spartan's chief ambition. 'Victory or death!' was their war-cry; honor, their supreme law. 'That most to be admired in Lykourgos,' says Xenophon, 'is that he was able to make a noble death seem preferable to a dishonored life. This great lawgiver provided for the happiness of the brave man, and devoted the coward to infamy. … At Sparta men would be ashamed to sit at table with the coward, to touch his weapons or his hand: in the games neither party will receive him. He has the lowest place at the dances and the dramatic representations. In the street he is pushed aside by younger men. His daughters share in his disgrace; they are excluded from public feasts, and can obtain no husbands.'"

V. Duruy, History of Greece, volume 1, section 2, page 467.

Mr. Grote remarks upon the "unparalleled steadiness" of the Spartan constitution ascribed to Lycurgus, which was maintained "for four or five successive centuries, in the midst of governments like the Grecian, all of which had undergone more or less of fluctuation. No considerable revolution—not even any palpable or formal change—occurred in it from the days of the Messenian war down to those of Agis III.: in spite of the irreparable blow which the power and territory of the state sustained from Epameinondas and the Thebans, the form of government nevertheless remained unchanged. It was the only government in Greece which could trace an unbroken peaceable descent from a high antiquity and from its real or supposed founder."

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 6 (volume 2).

See SPARTA, THE CONSTITUTION.

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CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO.

The following translated text of the Constitution of Mexico is from Bulletin No. 9 of the Bureau of the American Republics, published in July, 1891:

Preamble. In the name of God and with the authority of the Mexican people. The representatives of the different States, of the District and Territories which compose the Republic of Mexico, called by the Plan proclaimed in Ayutla the 1st of March, 1854, amended in Acapulco the 11th day of the same month and year, and by the summons issued the 17th of October, 1855, to constitute the nation under the form of a popular, representative, democratic republic, exercising the powers with which they are invested, comply with the requirements of their high office, decreeing the following political Constitution of the Mexican Republic, on the indestructible basis of its legitimate independence, proclaimed the 16th of September, 1810, and completed the 27th of September, 1821.

Article I. The Mexican people recognize that the rights of man are the basis and the object of social institutions. Consequently they declare that all the laws and all the authorities of the country must respect and maintain the guarantees which the present Constitution establishes.

Article 2. In the Republic all are born free. Slaves who set foot upon the national territory recover, by that act alone, their liberty, and have a right to the protection of the laws.

Article 3. Instruction is free. The law shall determine what professions require a diploma for their exercise, and with what requisites they must be issued.

Article 4. Every man is free to adopt the profession, industrial pursuit, or occupation which suits him, the same being useful and honorable, and to avail himself of its products. Nor shall anyone be hindered in the exercise of such profession, industrial pursuit, or occupation, unless by judicial sentence when such exercise attacks the rights of a third party, or by governmental resolution, dictated in terms which the law marks out, when it offends the rights of society.

Article 5. No one shall be obliged to give personal services without just compensation, and without his full consent. The state shall not permit any contract, pact, or agreement to be carried into effect which has for its object the diminution, loss, or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of man, whether it be for the sake of labor, education, or a religious vow. The law, consequently, may not recognize monastic orders, nor may it permit their establishment, whatever may be the denomination or object with which they claim to be formed.

[Footnote: This sentence was introduced into the original article September 25, 1873, with other less important amendments.]

Neither may an agreement be permitted in which anyone stipulates for his proscription or banishment.

Article 6. The expression of ideas shall not be the object of any judicial or administrative inquisition, except in case it attacks morality, the rights of a third party, provokes some crime or misdemeanor, or disturbs public order.

Article 7. The liberty to write and to publish writings on any subject whatsoever is inviolable. No law or authority shall establish previous censure, nor require security from authors or printers, nor restrict the liberty of the press, which has no other limits than respect of private life, morality, and the public peace. The crimes which are committed by means of the press shall be judged by the competent tribunals of the Federation, or by those of the States, those of the Federal District and the Territory of Lower California, in accordance with their penal laws.

[Footnote: This article was amended May 15, 1883, by introducing the last sentence as a substitute for the following: "The crimes of the press shall be judged by one jury which attests the fact and by another which applies the law and designates the punishment."]

Article 8. The right of petition, exercised in writing in a peaceful and respectful manner, is inviolable; but in political matters only citizens of the Republic may exercise it. To every petition must be returned a written opinion by the authority to whom it may have been addressed, and the latter is obliged to make the result known to the petitioner.

Article 9. No one may be deprived of the right peacefully to assemble or unite with others for any lawful object whatsoever, but only citizens of the Republic may do this in order to take part in the political affairs of the country. No armed assembly has a right to deliberate.

Article 10. Every man has a right to possess and carry arms for his security and legitimate defence. The law shall designate what arms are prohibited and the punishment which those shall incur who carry them.

Article 11. Every man has a right to enter and to go out of the Republic, to travel through its territory and change his residence, without the necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct, or other similar requisite. The exercise of this right shall not prejudice the legitimate faculties of the judicial or administrative authority in cases of criminal or civil responsibility.

Article 12. There are not, nor shall there be recognized in the Republic, titles of nobility, or prerogatives, or hereditary honors. Only the people, legitimately represented, may decree recompenses in honor of those who may have rendered or may render eminent services to the country or to humanity.

Article 13. In the Mexican Republic no one may be judged by special law nor by special tribunals. No person or corporation may have privileges, or enjoy emoluments, which are not compensation for a public service and are established by law. Martial law may exist only for crimes and offences which have a definite connection with military discipline. The law shall determine with all clearness the cases included in this exception.

Article 14. No retroactive law shall be enacted. No one may be judged or sentenced except by laws made prior to the act, and exactly applicable to it, and by a tribunal which shall have been previously established by law.

Article 15. Treaties shall never be made for the extradition of political offenders, nor for the extradition of those violators of the public order who may have held in the country where they committed the offence the position of slaves; nor agreements or treaties in virtue of which may be altered the guarantees and rights which this Constitution grants to the man and to the citizen.

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Article 16. No one may be molested in his person, family, domicile, papers and possessions, except in virtue of an order written by the competent authority, which shall establish and assign the legal cause for the proceedings. In the case of in flagrante delicto any person may apprehend the offender and his accomplices, placing them without delay at the disposal of the nearest authorities.

Article 17. No one may be arrested for debts of a purely civil character. No one may exercise violence in order to reclaim his rights. The tribunals shall always be prompt to administer justice. This shall be gratuitous, judicial costs being consequently abolished.

Article 18. Imprisonment shall take place only for crimes which deserve corporal punishment. In any state of the process in which it shall appear that such a punishment might not be imposed upon the accused, he shall be set at liberty under bail. In no case shall the imprisonment or detention be prolonged for default of payment of fees, or of any furnishing of money whatever.

Article 19. No detention shall exceed the term of three days, unless justified by a writ showing cause of imprisonment and other requisites which the law establishes. The mere lapse of this term shall render responsible the authority that orders or consents to it, and the agents, ministers, wardens, or jailers who execute it. Any maltreatment in the apprehension or in the confinement of the prisoners, any injury which may be inflicted without legal ground, any tax or contribution in the prisons, is an abuse which the laws must correct and the authorities severally punish.

Article 20. In every criminal trial the accused shall have the following guarantees: I. That the grounds of the proceedings and the name of the accuser, if there shall be one, shall be made known to him. II. That his preparatory declaration shall be taken within forty-eight hours, counting from the time he may be placed at the disposal of the judge. III. That he shall be confronted with the witnesses who testify against him. IV. That he shall be furnished with the data which he requires and which appear in the process, in order to prepare for his defence. V. That he shall be heard in defence by himself or by counsel, or by both, as he may desire. In case he should have no one to defend him, a list of official defenders shall be presented to him, in order that he may choose one or more who may suit him.

Article 21. The application of penalties properly so called belongs exclusively to the judicial authority. The political or administrative authorities may only impose fines, as correction, to the extent of five hundred dollars, or imprisonment to the extent of one month, in the cases and manner which the law shall expressly determine.

Article 22. Punishments by mutilation and infamy, by branding, flogging, the bastinado, torture of whatever kind, excessive fines, confiscation of property, or any other unusual or extraordinary penalties, shall be forever prohibited.

Article 23. In order to abolish the penalty of death, the administrative power is charged to establish, as soon as possible, a penitentiary system. In the meantime the penalty of death shall be abolished for political offences, and shall not be extended to other cases than treason during foreign war, highway robbery, arson, parricide, homicide with treachery, premeditation or advantage, to grave offences of the military order, and piracy, which the law shall define.

Article 24. No criminal proceeding may have more than three instances. No one shall be tried twice for the same offence, whether by the judgment he be absolved or condemned. The practice of absolving from the instance is abolished.

Article 25. Sealed correspondence which circulates by the mails is free from all registry. The violation of this guarantee is an offence which the law shall punish severely.

Article 26. In time of peace no soldier may demand quarters, supplies, or other real or personal service without the consent of the proprietor. In time of war he shall do this only in the manner prescribed by the law.

Article 27. Private property shall not be appropriated without the consent of the owner, except for the sake of public use, and with previous indemnification. The law shall determine the authority which may make the appropriation and the conditions under which it may be carried out. No corporation, civil or ecclesiastical, whatever may be its character, denomination, or object, shall have legal capacity to acquire in proprietorship or administer for itself real estate, with the single exception of edifices destined immediately and directly to the service and object of the institution.

[Footnote: See Article 3 of Additions to the Constitution.]

Article 28. There shall be no monopolies, nor places of any kind for the sale of privileged goods, nor prohibitions under titles of protection to industry. There shall be excepted only those relative to the coining of money, to the mails, and to the privileges which, for a limited time, the law may concede to inventors or perfectors of some improvement.

Article 29. In cases of invasion, grave disturbance of the public peace, or any other cases whatsoever which may place society in great danger or conflict, only the President of the Republic in concurrence with the Council of Ministers and with the approbation of the Congress of the Union, and, in the recess thereof, of the permanent deputation, may suspend the guarantees established by this Constitution, with the exception of those which assure the life of man; but such suspension shall be made only for a limited time, by means of general provisions, and without being limited to a determined person. If the suspension should take place during the session of Congress, this body shall concede the authorizations which it may esteem necessary in order that the Executive may meet properly the situation. If the suspension should take place during the recess, the permanent deputation shall convoke the Congress without delay in order that it may make the authorizations.

Article 30. Mexicans are: I. All those born, within or without the Republic, of Mexican parents. II. Foreigners who are naturalized in conformity with the laws of the Federation. III. Foreigners who acquire real estate in the Republic or have Mexican children; provided they do not manifest their resolution to preserve their nationality.

Article 31. It is an obligation of every Mexican: I. To defend the independence, the territory, the honor, the rights and interests of his country. II. To contribute for the public expenses, as well of the Federation as of the State and municipality in which he resides, in the proportional and equitable manner which the laws may provide.

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Article 32. Mexicans shall be preferred to foreigners in equal circumstances, for all employments, charges, or commissions of appointment by the authorities, in which the condition of citizenship may not be indispensable. Laws shall be issued to improve the condition of Mexican laborers, rewarding those who distinguish themselves in any science or art, stimulating labor, and founding practical colleges and schools of arts and trades.

Article 33. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications determined in Article 30. They have a right to the guarantees established by … [Articles 1-29] of the present Constitution, except that in all cases the Government has the right to expel pernicious foreigners. They are under obligation to contribute to the public expenses in the manner which the laws may provide, and to obey and respect the institutions, laws, and authorities of the country, subjecting themselves to the judgments and sentences of the tribunals, without power to seek other protection than that which the laws concede to Mexican citizens.

Article 34. Citizens of the Republic are all those who, having the quality of Mexicans, have also the following qualifications: I. Eighteen years of age if married, or twenty-one if not married. II. An honest means of livelihood.

Article 35. The prerogatives of the citizen are: I. To vote at popular elections. II. The privilege of being voted for for any office subject to popular election, and of being selected for any other employment or commission, having the qualifications established by law. III. To associate to discuss the political affairs of the country. IV. To take up arms in the army or in the national guard for the defence of the Republic and its institutions. V. To exercise in all cases the right of petition.

Article 36. Every citizen of the Republic is under the following obligations: I. To be inscribed on the municipal roll, stating the property which he has, or the industry, profession, or labor by which he subsists. II. To enlist in the national guard. III. To vote at popular elections in the district to which he belongs. IV. To discharge the duties of the offices of popular election of the Federation, which in no case shall be gratuitous.

Article 37. The character of citizen is lost: I. By naturalization in a foreign country. II. By serving officially the government of another country or accepting its decorations, titles, or employments without previous permission from the Federal Congress; excepting literary, scientific, and humanitarian titles, which may be accepted freely.

Article 38. The law shall prescribe the cases and the form in which may be lost or suspended the rights of citizenship and the manner in which they may be regained.

Article 39. The national sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people. All public power emanates from the people, and is instituted for their benefit. The people have at all times the inalienable right to alter or modify the form of their government.

Article 40. The Mexican people voluntarily constitute themselves a democratic, federal, representative republic, composed of States free and sovereign in all that concerns their internal government, but united in a federation established according to the principles of this fundamental law.

Article 41. The people exercise their sovereignty by means of Federal officers in cases belonging to the Federation, and through those of the States in all that relates to the internal affairs of the States within the limits respectively established by this Federal Constitution, and by the special Constitutions of the States, which latter shall in no case contravene the stipulations of the Federal Compact.

Article 42. The National Territory comprises that of the integral parts of the Federation and that of the adjacent islands in both oceans.

Article 43. The integral parts of the Federation are: the States of Aguascalientes, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Oajaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlascala, Valle de Mexico, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas, and the Territory of Lower California.

Article 44. The States of Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Mexico, Puebla, Queretaro, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and the Territory of Lower California shall preserve the limits which they now have.

Article 45. The States of Colima and Tlascala shall preserve in their new character of States the limits which they have had as Territories of the Federation.

Article 46. The State of the Valley of Mexico shall be formed of the territory actually composing the Federal District, but the erection into a State shall only have effect when the supreme Federal authorities are removed to another place.

Article 47. The State of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila shall comprise the territory which has belonged to the two distinct States of which it is now formed, except the part of the hacienda of Bonanza, which shall be reincorporated in Zacatecas, on the same terms in which it was before its incorporation in Coahuila.

Article 48. The States of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oajaca, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan, and Zacatecas shall recover the extension and limits which they had on the 31st of December, 1852, with the alterations the following Article establishes.

Article 49. The town of Contepec, which has belonged to Guanajuato, shall be incorporated in Michoacan. . The municipality of Ahualulco, which has belonged to Zacatecas, shall be incorporated in San Luis Potosi. The municipalities of Ojo-Caliente and San Francisco de los Adames, which have belonged to San Luis, as well as the towns of Nueva Tlascala and San Andres del Teul, which have belonged to Jalisco, shall be incorporated in Zacatecas. The department of Tuxpan shall continue to form a part of Veracruz. The canton of Huimanguillo, which has belonged to Veracruz, shall be incorporated in Tabasco.

[Footnote: Besides the twenty-four States which are mentioned in this section there have been created subsequently, according to executive decrees issued in accordance with the Constitution, the four following: XXV. That of Campeche, separated from Yucatan. XXVI. That of Coahuila, separated from Nuevo Leon. XXVII. That of Hidalgo, in territory of the ancient State of Mexico, which formed the second military district. XXVIII. That of Morelos, in territory also of the ancient State of Mexico, which formed the third military district.]

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Article 50. The supreme power of the Federation is divided for its exercise into legislative, executive, and judicial. Two or more of these powers shall never be united in one person or corporation, nor the legislative power be deposited in one individual.

Article 51. The legislative power of the nation is deposited in a general Congress, which shall be divided into two houses, one of Deputies and the other of Senators.

[Footnote: The original form of this article was as follows: "The exercise of the supreme legislative power is vested in one assembly, which shall be denominated Congress of the Union."]

Article 52. The House of Deputies shall be composed of representatives of the nation, elected in their entire number every two years by Mexican citizens.

Article 53. One deputy shall be elected for each forty thousand inhabitants, or for a fraction which exceeds twenty thousand. The territory in which the population is less than that determined in this article shall, nevertheless, elect one deputy.

Article 54. For each deputy there shall be elected one alternate.

Article 55. The election for deputies shall be indirect in the first degree, and by secret ballot, in the manner which the law shall prescribe.

Article 56. In order to be eligible to the position of a deputy it is required that the candidate be a Mexican citizen in the enjoyment of his rights; that he be fully twenty-five years of age on the day of the opening of the session; that he be a resident of the State or Territory which makes the election, and that he be not an ecclesiastic. Residence is not lost by absence in the discharge of any public trust bestowed by popular election.

Article 57. The positions of Deputy and of Senator are incompatible with any Federal commission or office whatsoever for which a salary is received.

Article 58. The Deputies and the Senators from the day of their election to the day on which their trust is concluded, may not accept any commission or office offered by the Federal Executive, for which a salary is received, except with the previous license of the respective house. The same requisites are necessary for the alternates of Deputies and Senators when in the exercise of their functions.

A. The Senate is composed of two Senators for each State and two for the Federal District. The election of Senators shall be indirect in the first degree. The Legislature of each State shall declare elected the person who shall have obtained the absolute majority of the votes cast, or shall elect from among those who shall have obtained the relative majority in the manner which the electoral law shall prescribe. For each Senator there shall be elected an alternate.

B. The Senate shall be renewed one-half every two years. The Senators named in the second place shall go out at the end of the first two years, and thereafter the half who have held longer.

C. The same qualifications are required for a Senator as for a Deputy, except that of age, which must be at least thirty years on the day of the opening of the session.

Article 59. The Deputies and Senators are privileged from arrest for their opinions manifested in the performance of their duties, and shall never be liable to be called to account for them.

Article 60. Each house shall judge of the election of its members, and shall solve the doubts which may arise regarding them.

Article 61. The houses may not open their sessions nor perform their functions without the presence in the Senate of at least two-thirds, and in the House of Deputies of more than one-half of the whole number of their members, but those present of one or the other body must meet on the day indicated by the law and compel the attendance of absent members under penalties which the law shall designate.

Article 62. The Congress shall have each year two periods of ordinary sessions: the first, which may be prorogued for thirty days, shall begin on the 16th of September and end on the 15th of December, and the second, which may be prorogued for fifteen days, shall begin the 1st of April and end the last day of May.

Article 63. At the opening of the sessions of the Congress the President of the Union shall be present and shall pronounce a discourse in which he shall set forth the state of the country. The President of the Congress shall reply in general terms.

Article 64. Every resolution of the Congress shall have the character of a law or decree. The laws and decrees shall be communicated to the Executive, signed by the Presidents of both houses and by a Secretary of each of them, and shall be promulgated in this form: "The Congress of the United States of Mexico decrees:" (Text of the law or decree.)

Article 65. The right to initiate laws or decrees belongs: I. To the President of the Union. II. To the Deputies and Senators of the general Congress. III. To the Legislatures of the States.

Article 66. Bills presented by the President of the Republic, by the Legislatures of the States, or by deputations from the same, shall pass immediately to a committee. Those which the Deputies or the Senators may present shall be subjected to the procedure which the rules of debate may prescribe.

Article 67. Every bill which shall be rejected in the house where it originated, before passing to the other house, shall not again be presented during the sessions of that year.

Article 68. The second period of sessions shall be destined, in all preference, to the examination of and action upon the estimates of the following fiscal year, to passing the necessary appropriations to cover the same, and to the examination of the accounts of the past year, which the Executive shall present.

Article 69. The last day but one of the first period of sessions the Executive shall present to the House of Deputies the bill of appropriations for the next year following and the accounts of the preceding year. Both shall pass to a committee of five Representatives appointed on the same day, which shall be under obligation to examine said documents, and present a report on them at the second session of the second period.

Article 70. The formation of the laws and of the decrees may begin indiscriminately in either of the two houses, with the exception of bills which treat of loans, taxes, or imposts, or of the recruiting of troops, all of which must be discussed first in the House of Deputies.

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Article 71. Every bill, the consideration of which does not belong exclusively to one of the houses, shall be discussed successively in both, the rules of debate being observed with reference to the form, the intervals, and manner of proceeding in discussions and voting.

A. A bill having been approved in the house where it originated, shall pass for its discussion to the other house. If the latter body should approve it, it will be remitted to the Executive, who, if he shall have no observations to make, shall publish it immediately.

B. Every bill shall be considered as approved by the Executive if not returned with observations to the house where it originated within ten working days, unless during this term Congress shall have closed or suspended its sessions, in which case the return must be made the first working day on which it shall meet.

C. A bill rejected wholly or in part by the Executive must be returned with his observations to the house where it originated. It shall be discussed again by this body, and if it should be confirmed by an absolute majority of votes, it shall pass again to the other house. If by this house it should be sanctioned with the same majority, the bill shall be a law or decree, and shall be returned to the Executive for promulgation. The voting on the law or decree shall be by name.

D. If any bill should be rejected wholly in the house in which it did not originate, it shall be returned to that in which it originated with the observations which the former shall have made upon it. If having been examined anew it should be approved by the absolute majority of the members present, it shall be returned to the house which rejected it, which shall again take it into consideration, and if it should approve it by the same majority it shall pass to the Executive, to be treated in accordance with division A; but, if it should reject it, it shall not be presented again until the following sessions.

E. If a bill should be rejected only in part, or modified, or receive additions by the house of revision, the new discussion in the house where it originated shall treat only of the rejected part, or of the amendments or additions, without being able to alter in any manner the articles approved. If the additions or amendments made by the house of revision should be approved by the absolute majority of the votes present in the house where it originated, the whole bill shall be passed to the Executive, to be treated in accordance with division A. But if the additions or amendments made by the house of revision should be rejected by the majority of the votes in the house where it originated, they shall be returned to the former, in order that the reasons of the latter may be taken into consideration; and if by the absolute majority of the votes present said additions or amendments shall be rejected in this second revision, the bill, in so far as it has been approved by both houses, shall be passed to the Executive, to be treated in accordance with division A; but if the house of revision should insist, by the absolute majority of the votes present, on said additions or amendments, the whole bill shall not be again presented until the following sessions, unless both houses agree by the absolute majority of their members present that the law or decree shall be issued solely with the articles approved, and that the parts added or amended shall be reserved to be examined and voted in the following sessions.

F. In the interpretation, amendment, or repeal of the laws or decrees, the rules established for their formation shall be observed.

G. Both houses shall reside in the same place, and they shall not remove to another without first agreeing to the removal and on the time and manner of making it, designating the same point for the meeting of both. But if both houses, agreeing to the removal, should differ as to time, manner, or place, the Executive shall terminate the difference by choosing one of the places in question. Neither house shall suspend its sessions for more than three days without the consent of the other.

H. When the general Congress meets in extra sessions, it shall occupy itself exclusively with the object or objects designated in the summons; and if the special business shall not have been completed on the day on which the regular session should open, the extra sessions shall be closed nevertheless, leaving the points pending to be treated of in the regular sessions. The Executive of the Union shall not make observations on the resolutions of the Congress when this body prorogues its sessions or exercises functions of an electoral body or a jury.

Article 72. The Congress has power: I. To admit new States or Territories into the Federal Union, incorporating them in the nation. II. To erect Territories into States when they shall have a population of eighty thousand inhabitants and the necessary elements to provide for their political existence. III. To form new States within the limits of those existing, it being necessary to this end: 1. That the fraction or fractions which asked to be erected into a State shall number a population of at least one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. 2. That it shall be proved before Congress that they have elements sufficient to provide for their political existence. 3. That the Legislatures of the States, the territories of which are in question, shall have been heard on the expediency or inexpediency of the establishment of the new State, and they shall be obliged to make their report within six months, counted from the day on which the communication relating to it shall have been remitted to them. 4. That the Executive of the Federation shall likewise be heard, who shall send his report within seven days, counted from the date on which he shall have been asked for it. 5. That the establishment of the new State shall have been voted for by two-thirds of the Deputies and Senators present in their respective houses. 6. That the resolution of Congress shall have been ratified by the majority of the Legislatures of the States, after examining a copy of the proceedings; provided that the Legislatures of the States whose territory is in question shall have given their consent. 7. If the Legislatures of the States whose territory is in question shall not have given their consent, the ratification mentioned in the preceding clause must be made by two-thirds of the Legislatures of the other States.

A. The exclusive powers of the House of Deputies are: I. To constitute itself an Electoral College in order to exercise the powers which the law may assign to it, in respect to the election of the Constitutional President of the Republic, Magistrates of the Supreme Court, and Senators for the Federal District.

II. To judge and decide upon the resignations which the President of the Republic or the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice may make. The same power belongs to it in treating of licenses solicited by the first.

III. To watch over, by means of an inspecting committee from its own body, the exact performance of the business of the chief auditorship.

IV. To appoint the principal officers and other employés of the same.

V. To constitute itself a jury of accusation, for the high functionaries of whom Article 103 of this Constitution treats.

VI. To examine the accounts which the Executive must present annually, to approve the annual estimate of expenses, and to initiate the taxes which in its judgment ought to be decreed to cover these expenses.

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B. The exclusive powers of the Senate are:

I. To approve the treaties and diplomatic conventions which the Executive may make with foreign powers.

II. To ratify the appointments which the President of the Republic may make of ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls-general, superior employés of the Treasury, colonels and other superior officers of the national army and navy, on the terms which the law shall provide.

III. To authorize the Executive to permit the departure of national troops beyond the limits of the Republic, the passage of foreign troops through the national territory, the station of squadrons of other powers for more than a month in the waters of the Republic.

IV. To give its consent in order that the Executive may dispose of the national guard outside of their respective States or Territories, determining the necessary force.

V. To declare, when the Constitutional legislative and executive powers of a State shall have disappeared, that the case has arrived for appointing to it a provisional Governor, who shall call elections in conformity with the Constitutional laws of the said State. The appointment of Governor shall be made by the Federal Executive with the approval of the Senate, and in its recesses with the approval of the Permanent Commission. Said functionary shall not be elected Constitutional Governor at the elections which are had in virtue of the summons which he shall issue.

VI. To decide political questions which may arise between the powers of a State, when any of them may appear with this purpose in the Senate, or when on account of said questions Constitutional order shall have been interrupted during a conflict of arms. In this case the Senate shall dictate its resolution, being subject to the general Constitution of the Republic and to that of the State. The law shall regulate the exercise of this power and that of the preceding.

VII. To constitute itself a jury of judgment in accordance with Article 105 of this Constitution.

C. Each of the houses may, without the intervention of the other:

I. Dictate economic resolutions relative to its internal regimen.

II. Communicate within itself, and with the Executive of the Union, by means of committees from its own body.

III. Appoint the employés of its secretaryship, and make the internal regulations for the same.

IV. Issue summons for extraordinary elections, with the object of filling the vacancies of their respective members.

IV. To regulate definitely the limits of the States, terminating the differences which may arise between them relative to the demarcation of their respective territories, except when these difficulties have a contentious character.

V. To change the residence of the supreme powers of the Federation.

VI. To establish the internal order of the Federal District and Territories, taking as a basis that the citizens shall choose by popular election the political, municipal, and judicial authorities, and designating the taxes necessary to cover their local expenditure.

VII. To approve the estimates of the Federal expenditure, which the Executive must annually present to it, and to impose the necessary taxes to cover them.

VIII. To give rules under which the Executive may make loans on the credit of the nation; to approve said loans, and to recognize and order the payment of the national debt.

IX. To establish tariffs on foreign commerce, and to prevent, by means of general laws, onerous restrictions from being established with reference to the commerce between the States.

X. To issue codes, obligatory throughout the Republic, of mines and commerce, comprehending in this last banking institutions.

XI. To create and suppress public Federal employments and to establish, augment, or diminish their salaries.

XII. To ratify the appointments which the Executive may make of ministers, diplomatic agents, and consuls, of the higher employés of the Treasury, of the colonels and other superior officers of the national army and navy.

XIII. To approve the treaties, contracts, or diplomatic conventions which the Executive may make.

XIV. To declare war in view of the data which the Executive may present to it.

XV. To regulate the manner in which letters of marque may be issued; to dictate laws according to which must be declared good or bad the prizes on sea and land, and to issue laws relating to maritime rights in peace and war.

XVI. To permit or deny the entrance of foreign troops into the territory of the Republic, and to consent to the station of squadrons of other powers for more than a month in the waters of the Republic.

XVII. To permit the departure of national troops beyond the limits of the Republic.

[Footnote: Amended by Section B, Clause III., Article 72, of the law of the 13th of November, 1874.]

XVIII. To raise and maintain the army and navy of the Union, and to regulate their organization and service.

XIX. To establish regulations with the purpose of organizing, arming, and disciplining the national guard, reserving respectively to the citizens who compose it the appointment of the commanders and officers, and to the States the power of instructing it in conformity with the discipline prescribed by said regulations.

XX. To give its consent in order that the Executive may control the national guard outside of its respective States and Territories, determining the necessary force.

XXI. To dictate laws on naturalization, colonization, and citizenship.

XXII. To dictate laws on the general means of communication and on the post-office and mails.

XXIII. To establish mints, fixing the conditions of their operation, to determine the value of foreign money, and adopt a general system of weights and measures.

XXIV. To fix rules to which must be subject the occupation and sale of public lands and the price of these lands.

XXV. To grant pardons for crimes cognizable by the tribunals of the Federation.

XXVI. To grant rewards or recompense for eminent services rendered to the country or humanity.

XXVII. To prorogue for thirty working days the first period of its ordinary sessions.

XXVIII. To form rules for its internal regulation, to take the necessary measures to compel the attendance of absent members, and to correct the faults or omissions of those present.

XXIX. To appoint and remove freely the employés of its secretaryship and those of the chief auditorship, which shall be organized in accordance with the provisions of the law.

XXX. To make all laws which may be necessary and proper to render effective the foregoing powers and all others granted by this Constitution and the authorities of the Union.

[Footnote: See respecting this Article the additions A, B, and C to Article 72 of the law of the 13th of November, already cited.]

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Article 73. During the recess of Congress there shall be a Permanent Deputation composed of twenty-nine members, of whom fifteen shall be Deputies and fourteen Senators, appointed by their respective houses the evening before the close of the sessions.

Article 74. The attributes of the Permanent Deputation are:

I. To give its consent to the use of the national guard in the cases mentioned in Article 72, Clause XX.

II. To determine by itself, or on the proposal of the Executive, after hearing him in the first place, the summons of Congress, or of one house alone, for extra sessions, the vote of two-thirds of the members present being necessary in both cases. The summons shall designate the object or objects of the extra sessions.

III. To approve the appointments which are referred to in Article 85, Clause III.

IV. To administer the oath of office to the President of the Republic, and to the Justices of the Supreme Court, in the cases provided by this Constitution.

[Footnote: See the Amendment of September 25, 1873, Article 4.]

V. To report upon all the business not disposed of, in order that the Legislature which follows may immediately take up such unfinished business.

Article 75. The exercise of the supreme executive power of the Union is vested in a single individual, who shall be called "President of the United States of Mexico."

Article 76. The election of President shall be indirect in the first degree, and by secret ballot, in such manner as may be prescribed by the electoral law.

Article 77. To be eligible to the position of President, the candidate must be a Mexican citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights, be fully thirty-five years old at the time of the election, not belong to the ecclesiastical order, and reside in the country at the time the election is held.

Article 78. The President shall enter upon the performance of the duties of his office on the first of December, and shall continue in office four years, being eligible for the Constitutional period immediately following; but he shall remain incapable thereafter to occupy the presidency by a new election until four years shall have passed, counting from the day on which he ceased to perform his functions.

Article 79. In the temporary default of the President of the Republic, and in the vacancy before the installation of the newly-elected President, the citizen who may have performed the duties of President or Vice-President of the Senate, or of the Permanent Commission in the periods of recess, during the month prior to that in which said default may have occurred, shall enter upon the exercise of the executive power of the Union.

A. The President and Vice-President of the Senate and of the Permanent Commission shall not be reëlected to those offices until a year after having held them.

B. If the period of sessions of the Senate or of the Permanent Commission shall begin in the second half of a month, the default of the President of the Republic shall be covered by the President or Vice-President who may have acted in the Senate or in the Permanent Commission during the first half of the said month.

C. The Senate and the Permanent Commission shall renew, the last day of each month, their Presidents and Vice-Presidents. For these offices the Permanent Commission shall elect, alternatively, in one month two Deputies and in the following month two Senators.

D. When the office of President of the Republic is vacant, the functionary who shall take it constitutionally as his substitute must issue, within the definite term of fifteen days, the summons to proceed to a new election, which shall be held within the term of three months, and in accordance with the provisions of Article 76 of this Constitution. The provisional President shall not be eligible to the presidency at the elections which are held to put an end to his provisional term.

E. If, on account of death or any other reason, the functionaries who, according to this law, should take the place of the President of the Republic, might not be able in any absolute manner to do so, it shall be taken, under predetermined conditions, by the citizen who may have been President or Vice-President of the Senate or the Permanent Commission in the month prior to that in which they discharged those offices.

F. When the office of President of the Republic shall become vacant within the last six months of the constitutional period, the functionary who shall take the place of the President shall terminate this period.

G. To be eligible to the position of President or Vice-President of the Senate or of the Permanent Commission, one must be a Mexican citizen by birth.

H. If the vacancy in the office of President of the Republic should occur when the Senate and Permanent Commission are performing their functions in extra sessions, the President of the Commission shall fill the vacancy, under conditions indicated in this article.

I. The Vice-President of the Senate or of the Permanent Commission shall enter upon the performance of the functions which this Article confers upon them, in the vacancies of the office of President of the Senate or of the Permanent Commission, and in the periods only while the impediment lasts.

J. The newly-elected President shall enter upon the discharge of his duties, at the latest, sixty days after that of the election. In case the House of Deputies shall not be in session, it shall be convened in extra session, in order to make the computation of votes within the term mentioned.

Article 80. In the vacancy of the office of President, the period of the newly-elected President shall be computed from the first of December of the year prior to that of his election, provided he may not have taken possession of his office on the date which Article 78 determines.

Article 81. The office of President of the Union may not be resigned, except for grave cause, approved by Congress, before whom the resignation shall be presented.

Article 82. If for any reason the election of President shall not have been made and published by the first of December, on which the transfer of the office should be made, or the President-elect shall not have been ready to enter upon the discharge of his duties, the term of the former President shall end nevertheless, and the supreme executive power shall be deposited provisionally in the functionary to whom it belongs according to the provisions of the reformed Article 79 of this Constitution.

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Article 83. The President, on taking possession of his office, shall take an oath before Congress, and in its recess before the Permanent Commission, under the following formula: "I swear to perform loyally and patriotically the duties of President of the United States of Mexico, according to the Constitution, and seek in everything for the welfare and prosperity of the Union."

[Footnote: See the Amendments and Additions of September 25, 1873.]

Article 84. The President may not remove from the place of the residence of the Federal powers, nor lay aside the exercise of his functions, without grave cause, approved by the Congress, and in its recesses by the Permanent Commission.

Article 85. The powers and obligations of the President are the following:

I. To promulgate and execute the laws passed by the Congress of the Union, providing, in the administrative sphere, for their exact observance.

II. To appoint and remove freely the Secretaries of the Cabinet, to remove the diplomatic agents and superior employés of the Treasury, and to appoint and remove freely the other employés of the Union whose appointment and removal are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or in the laws.

III. To appoint ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls-general, with the approval of Congress, and, in its recess, of the Permanent Commission.

IV. To appoint, with the approval of Congress, the colonels and other superior officers of the national army and navy, and the superior employés of the treasury.

V. To appoint the other officers of the national army and navy, according to the laws.

VI. To control the permanent armed force by sea and land for the internal security and external defence of the Federation.

VII. To control the national guard for the same objects within the limits established by Article 72, Clause XX.

VIII. To declare war in the name of the United States of Mexico, after the passage of the necessary law by the Congress of the Union.

IX. To grant letters of marque, subject to bases fixed by the Congress.

X. To direct diplomatic negotiations and make treaties with foreign powers, submitting them for the ratification of the Federal Congress.

XI. To receive ministers and other envoys from foreign powers.

XII. To convoke Congress in extra sessions when the Permanent Commission shall consent to it.

XIII. To furnish the judicial power with that assistance which may be necessary for the prompt exercise of its functions.

XIV. To open all classes of ports, to establish maritime and frontier custom-houses and designate their situation.

XV. To grant, in accordance with the laws, pardons to criminals sentenced for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Federal tribunals.

XVI. To grant exclusive privileges, for a limited time and according to the proper law, to discoverers, inventors, or perfecters of any branch of industry.

Article 86. For the dispatch of the business of the administrative department of the Federation there shall be the number of Secretaries which the Congress may establish by a law, which shall provide for the distribution of business and prescribe what shall be in charge of each Secretary.

Article 87. To be a Secretary of the Cabinet it is required that one shall be a Mexican citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights, and fully twenty-five years old.

Article 88. All the regulations, decrees, and orders of the President must be signed by the Secretary of the Cabinet who is in charge of the department to which the subject belongs. Without this requisite they shall not be obeyed.

Article 89. The Secretaries of the Cabinet, as soon as the sessions of the first period shall be opened, shall render an account to the Congress of the state of their respective departments.

Article 90. The exercise of the judicial power of the Federation is vested in a Supreme Court of Justice and in the district and circuit courts.

Article 91. The Supreme Court of Justice shall be composed of eleven judges, four supernumeraries, one fiscal, and one attorney-general.

Article 92. Each of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice shall remain in office six years, and his election shall be indirect in the first degree, under conditions established by the electoral law.

Article 93. In order to be elected a member of the Supreme Court of Justice it is necessary that one be learned in the science of the law in the judgment of the electors, more than thirty-five years old, and a Mexican citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights.

Article 94. The members of the Supreme Court of Justice, on entering upon the exercise of their charge, shall take an oath before Congress, and, in its recesses, before the Permanent Commission, in the following form: "Do you swear to perform loyally and patriotically the charge of Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, which the people have conferred upon you in conformity with the Constitution, seeking in everything the welfare and prosperity of the Union?"

[Footnote: See Additions to the Constitution, September 25, 1873. ]

Article 95. A member of the Supreme Court of Justice may resign his office only for grave cause, approved by the Congress, to whom the resignation shall be presented. In the recesses of the Congress the judgment shall be rendered by the Permanent Commission.

Article 96. The law shall establish and organize the circuit and district courts.

Article 97. It belongs to the Federal tribunals to take cognizance of:

I. All controversies which may arise in regard to the fulfilment and application of the Federal laws, except in the case in which the application affects only private interests; such a case falls within the competence of the local judges and tribunals of the common order of the States, of the Federal District, and of the Territory of Lower California.

II. All cases pertaining to maritime law.

III. Those in which the Federation may be a party.

IV. Those that may arise between two or more States.

V. Those that may arise between a State and one or more citizens of another State.

VI. Civil or criminal cases that may arise under treaties with foreign powers.

VII. Cases concerning diplomatic agents and consuls.

Article 98. It belongs to the Supreme Court of Justice, in the first instance, to take cognizance of controversies which may arise between one State and another, and of those in which the Union may be a party.

Article 99. It belongs also to the Supreme Court of Justice to determine the questions of jurisdiction which may arise between the Federal tribunals, between these and those of the States, or between the courts of one State and those of another.

Article 100. In the other cases comprehended in Article 97, the Supreme Court of Justice shall be a court of appeal or, rather, of last resort, according to the graduation which the law may make in the jurisdiction of the circuit and district courts.

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Article 101. The tribunals of the Federation shall decide all questions which arise:

I. Under laws or acts of whatever authority which violate individual guarantees.

II. Under laws or acts of the State authority which violate or restrain the sovereignty of the States.

III. Under laws or acts of the State authority which invade the sphere of the Federal authority.

Article 102. All the judgments which the preceding article mentions shall be had on petition of the aggrieved party, by means of judicial proceedings and forms which shall be prescribed by law. The sentence shall be always such as to affect private individuals only, limiting itself to defend and protect them in the special case to which the process refers, without making any general declaration respecting the law or act which gave rise to it.

Article 103. The Senators, the Deputies, the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Secretaries of the Cabinet are responsible for the common crimes which they may commit during their terms of office, and for the crimes, misdemeanors, and negligence into which they may fall in the performance of the duties of said office. The Governors of the States are likewise responsible for the infraction of the Constitution and Federal laws. The President of the Republic is also responsible; but during the term of his office he may be accused only for the crimes of treason against the country, express violation of the Constitution, attack on the freedom of election, and grave crimes of the common order. The high functionaries of the Federation shall not enjoy any Constitutional privilege for the official crimes, misdemeanors, or negligence into which they may fall in the performance of any employment, office, or public commission which they may have accepted during the period for which, in conformity with the law, they shall have been elected. The same shall happen with respect to those common crimes which they may commit during the performance of said employment, office, or commission. In order that the cause may be initiated when the high functionary shall have returned to the exercise of his proper functions, proceeding should be undertaken in accordance with the provision of Article 104 of this Constitution.

Article 104. If the crime should be a common one, the House of Representatives, formed into a grand jury, shall declare, by an absolute majority of votes, whether there is or is not ground to proceed against the accused. In the negative case, there shall be no ground for further proceedings; in the affirmative, the accused shall be, by the said act, deprived of his office, and subjected to the action of the ordinary tribunals.

Article 105. The houses shall take cognizance of official crimes, the House of Deputies as a jury of accusation, the Senators as a jury of judgment. The jury of accusation shall have for its object to declare, by an absolute majority of votes, whether the accused is or is not culpable. If the declaration should be absolutory, the functionary shall continue in the exercise of his office; if it should be condemnatory, he shall be immediately deprived of his office, and shall be placed at the disposal of the Senate. The latter, formed into a jury of judgment, and, with the presence of the criminal and of the accuser, if there should be one, shall proceed to apply, by an absolute majority of votes, the punishment which the law designates.

Article 106. A judgment of responsibility for official crimes having been pronounced, no favor of pardon may be extended to the offender.

Article 107. The responsibility for official crimes and misdemeanors may be required only during the period in which the functionary remains in office, and one year thereafter.

Article 108. With respect to demands of the Civil order, there shall be no privilege or immunity for any public functionary.

Article 109. The States shall adopt for their internal regimen the popular, representative, republican form of government, and may provide in their respective Constitutions for the reelection of the Governors in accordance with what Article 78 provides for the President of the Republic.

Article 110. The States may regulate among themselves, by friendly agreements, their respective boundaries; but those regulations shall not be carried into effect without the approval of the Congress of the Union.

Article 111. The States may not in any case:

1. Form alliances, treaties, or coalitions with another State, or with foreign powers, excepting the coalition which the frontier States may make for offensive or defensive war against the Indians.

II. Grant letters of marque or reprisal.

III. Coin money, or emit paper money or stamped paper.

Article 112. Neither may any State, without the consent of the Congress of the Union:

I. Establish tonnage duties, or any port duty, or impose taxes or duties upon importations or exportations.

II. Have at any time permanent troops or vessels of war.

III. Make war by itself on any foreign power except in cases of invasion or of such imminent peril as to admit of no delay. In these cases the State shall give notice immediately to the President of the Republic.

Article 113. Each State is under obligation to deliver without delay the criminals of other States to the authority that claims them.

Article 114. The Governors of the States are obliged to publish and cause to be obeyed the Federal laws.

Article 115. In each State of the Federation entire faith and credit shall be given to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of all the other States. The Congress may, by means of general laws, prescribe the manner of proving said acts, records, and proceedings, and the effect thereof.

Article 116. The powers of the Union are bound to protect the States against all invasion or external violence. In case of insurrection or internal disturbance they shall give them like protection, provided the Legislature of the State, or the Executive, if the Legislature is not in session, shall request it.

Article 117. The powers which are not expressly granted by this Constitution to the Federal authorities are understood to be reserved to the States.

Article 118. No person may at the same time hold two Federal elective offices; but if elected to two, he may choose which of them he will fill.

Article 119. No payment shall be made which is not comprehended in the budget or determined by a subsequent law.

Article 120. The President of the Republic, the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Deputies, and other public officers of the Federation, who are chosen by popular election, shall receive a compensation for their services, which shall be determined by law and paid by the Federal Treasury. This compensation may not be renounced, and any law which augments or diminishes it shall not have effect during the period for which a functionary holds the office.

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Article 121. Every public officer, without any exception, before taking possession of his office, shall take an oath to maintain this Constitution and the laws which emanate from it.

[Footnote: See the Additions of September 25, 1873.]

Article 122. In time of peace no military authority may exercise more functions than those which have close connection with military discipline. There shall be fixed and permanent military commands only in the castles, fortresses, and magazines which are immediately under the government of the Union; or in encampments, barracks, or depots which may be established outside of towns for stationing troops.

Article 123. It belongs exclusively to the Federal authorities to exercise, in matters of religious worship and external discipline, the intervention which the laws may designate.

Article 124. The States shall not impose any duty for the simple passage of goods in the internal commerce. The Government of the Union alone may decree transit duties, but only with respect to foreign goods which cross the country by international or interoceanic lines, without being on the national territory more time than is necessary to traverse it and depart to the foreign country. They shall not prohibit, either directly or indirectly, the entrance to their territory, or the departure from it, of any merchandise, except on police grounds; nor burden the articles of national production on their departure for a foreign country or for another State. The exemptions from duties which they concede shall be general; they may not be decreed in favor of the products of specified origin. The quota of the import for a given amount of merchandise shall be the same, whatever may have been its origin, and no heavier burden may be assigned to it than that which the similar products of the political entity in which the import is decreed bear. The national merchandise shall not be submitted to definite route nor to inspection or registry on the ways, nor any fiscal document be demanded for its internal circulation. Nor shall they burden foreign merchandise with a greater quota than that which may have been permitted them by the Federal law to receive.

Article 125. The forts, military quarters, magazines, and other edifices necessary to the government of the Union shall be under the immediate inspection of the Federal authorities.

Article 126. This Constitution, the laws of the Congress of the Union which emanate from it, and all the treaties made or which shall be made by the President of the Republic, with the approval of Congress, shall be the supreme law of the whole Union. The judges of each State shall be guided by said Constitution, law, and treaties in spite of provisions to the contrary which may appear in the Constitutions or laws of the States.

Article 127. The present Constitution may be added to or reformed. In order that additions or alterations may become part of the Constitution, it is required that the Congress of the Union, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present, shall agree to the alterations or additions, and that these shall be approved by the majority of the Legislatures of the States. The Congress of the Union shall count the votes of the Legislatures and make the declaration that the reforms or additions have been approved.

Article 128. This Constitution shall not lose its force and vigor even if its observance be interrupted by a rebellion. In case that by any public disturbance a government contrary to the principles which it sanctions shall be established, as soon as the people recover their liberty its observance shall be reestablished, and in accordance with it and the laws which shall have been issued in virtue of it, shall be judged not only those who shall have figured in the government emanating from the rebellion, but also those who shall have cooperated with it.

Additions.

Article 1. The State and the Church are independent of one another. The Congress may not pass laws establishing or prohibiting any religion.

Article 2. Marriage is a civil contract. This and the other acts relating to the civil state of persons belong to the exclusive jurisdiction of the functionaries and authorities of the civil order, within limits provided by the laws, and they shall have the force and validity which the same attribute to them.

Article 3. No religious institution may acquire real estate or capital fixed upon it, with the single exception established in Article 27 of this Constitution.

Article 4. The simple promise to speak the truth and to comply with the obligations which have been incurred, shall be substituted for the religious oath, with its effects and penalties.

—————CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO: End—————

CONSTITUTION OF NETHERLANDS KINGDOM. After 1830, this became the Kingdom of Holland.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1830-1832, and 1830-1884.

—————NETHERLANDS: End—————

CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY.

"On May 17, 1814, … a constitution was granted to Norway. The Fundamental Law of the constitution (Grundlöv), which almost every peasant farmer now-a-days has framed and hung up in the chief room of his house, bears the date the 4th of November 1814."

C. F. Keary, Norway and the Norwegians, chapter 13.

The following the text of the constitution as granted in 1814:

Title I.

Article 1. The kingdom of Norway is a free, independent, undivisible, and inalienable state, united to Sweden under the same king. The form of its government is limited, hereditary, and monarchical.

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Article 2. The Lutheran evangelical religion shall continue to be the ruling religion of the kingdom; those of the inhabitants which profess it are bound to bring up their children in its tenets; Jesuits and monastic orders shall not be prohibited in the kingdom. The admission of Jews into the kingdom shall always be, as formerly, prohibited.

Title II.

Article 1. The executive power is declared to be in the person of the king.

Article 2. The king shall always profess the evangelical Lutheran religion, which he shall maintain and protect.

Article 3. The person of the king is sacred: he can neither be blamed or accused.

Article 4. The succession is lineal, and collateral, such as it is determined by the order of succession decreed by the general estates of Sweden, and sanctioned by the king in the Act of the 26th September 1810, of which a translation is annexed to this Constitution. Of the number of legitimate heirs, is comprehended the child in its mother's womb, which, as soon as it shall be born, after the death of its father, takes the place which is due to him in the line of succession. When a Prince, heir of the re-united crowns of Norway and Sweden, shall be born, his name, and the day of his birth shall be announced at the first Storthing, and inscribed in the registers.

Article 5. Should there not be found any prince, a legitimate heir to the throne, the king can propose his successor at the Storthing of Norway, and at the same time to the states general of Sweden. As soon as the king shall have made the proposition, the representatives of the two nations shall choose from among them a committee, invested with the right of determining the election, in case the king's proposition should not, by the plurality of voices, be approved of separately by the representatives of each of the countries. The number of members of this committee, shall be composed of an equal number of Norwegians and Swedes, so that the step to follow in the election shall be regulated by a law which the king shall propose at the same time to the next Storthing, and the states general of Sweden. They shall draw by lot one out of the committee for its member.

Article 6. The Storthing of Norway, and the states general of Sweden shall concert to fix by a law the king's majority; if they cannot agree, a committee, taken from the representatives of the two nations, shall decide it in the manner established by article 5th, title 2nd. As soon as the king shall have attained the years of majority fixed by the law, he shall publicly declare that he is of age.

[Footnote: Storthing is the national assembly, or general estates of the kingdom.]

[Footnote: A law of the Storthing, 13th July 1815, and sanctioned by the king, declared that the king is major on arriving at the age of eighteen years.]

Article 7. When the king comes of age he shall take into his hands the reins of government, and make the following oath to the Storthing: "I swear, on my soul and conscience, to govern the kingdom of Norway conformably to its constitution and laws." If the Storthing is not then assembled, this oath shall be deposited in writing in the council, and solemnly repeated by the king at the first Storthing, either vivâ voce or by writing, by the person whom he shall have appointed to this effect.

Article 8. The coronation of the king shall take place when he is of age, in the cathedral of Drontheim, at the time and with those ceremonies that shall be fixed by himself.

Article 9. The King shall pass some time in Norway yearly, unless this is prevented by urgent circumstances.

Article 10. The king shall exclusively choose a council of Norwegians, citizens, who shall have attained the seventieth year of their age. This council shall be composed at least of a minister of state, and seven other members. In like manner the king can create a viceroy or a government. The king shall arrange the affairs between the members of the council, in such manner as he shall consider expedient. Besides these ordinary members of council, the king, or in his absence the viceroy (or the government jointly with the ordinary members of council) may on particular occasions, call other Norwegians, citizens, to sit there, provided they are not members of the Storthing. The father and son, or two brothers, shall not, at the same time, have a seat in the council.

Article 11. The king shall appoint a governor of the kingdom in his absence, and on failure it shall be governed by the viceroy or a governor, with five at least of the members of council. They shall govern the kingdom in the name and behalf of the king; and they shall observe inviolably, as much the principles contained in this fundamental law as those relative precepts the king shall lay down in his instructions. They shall make a humble report to the king upon those affairs they have decided. All matters shall be decided by plurality of votes. If the votes happen to be equal, the viceroy or governor, or in their absence the first member of council, shall have two.

Article 12. The prince royal or his eldest son can be viceroy; but this can only occur when they have attained the majority of the king. In the case of a governor, either a Norwegian or a Swede may be nominated. The viceroy shall remain in the kingdom, and shall not be allowed to reside in a foreign one beyond three months each year. When the king shall be present, the viceroy's functions shall cease. If there is no viceroy, but only a governor, the functions of the latter shall also cease, in which event he is only the first member of council.

Article 13. During the residence of the king in Sweden, he shall always have near him the minister of state of Norway, and two of the members of the Norwegian council, when they shall be annually changed. These are charged with similar duties, and the same constitutional responsibility attaches to them as to the sitting council in Norway; and it is only in their presence that state affairs shall be decided by the king. All petitions addressed to the king by Norwegian citizens ought, first, to be transmitted to the Norwegian council, that they may be duly considered previously to decisions being pronounced. In general, no affairs ought to be decided before the council has expressed an opinion, in case it should be met with important objections. The minister of state of Norway ought to report the affairs, and he shall be responsible for expedition in the resolutions which shall have been taken.

Article 14. The king shall regulate public worship and its rites, as well as all assemblies that have religion for their object, so that ministers of religion may observe their forms prescribed to them.

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Article 15. The king can give and abolish ordinances which respect commerce, the custom-house, manufactures, and police. They shall not, however, be contrary to the constitution nor the laws adopted by the Storthing. They shall have provisional force until the next Storthing.

Article 16. The king shall in general regulate the taxes imposed by the Storthing. The public treasurer of Norway shall remain in Norway, and the revenues shall only be employed towards the expenses of Norway.

Article 17. The king shall superintend the manner in which the domains and crown property of the state are employed and governed, in the manner fixed by the Storthing, and which shall be most advantageous to the country.

Article 18. The king in council has the right to pardon criminals when the supreme tribunal has pronounced its opinion. The criminal has the choice of receiving pardon from the king or of submitting to the punishment to which he is condemned. In the causes which the Odelsthing would have ordered to be carried to the Rigsret, there can be no other pardon but that which shall liberate from a capital punishment.

Article 19. The king, after having heard his Norwegian council, shall dispose of all the civil, ecclesiastic, and military employments. Those who assist in the functions shall swear obedience and fidelity to the constitution and to the king. The princes of the royal family cannot be invested with any civil employment; yet the prince royal, or his eldest son, may be nominated viceroy.

Article 20. The governor of the kingdom, the minister of state, other members of council, and those employed in the functions connected with these offices, the envoys and consuls, superior magistrates, civil and ecclesiastic commanders of regiments, and other military bodies, governors of fortresses, and commanders-in-chief of ships of war, shall, without previous arrest, be deposed by the king and his Norwegian council. As to the pension to be granted to those employed they shall be decided by the first Storthing. In the mean time, they shall enjoy two-third parts of their former salary. The others employed can only be suspended by the king, and they shall afterwards be brought before the tribunals, but cannot be deposed excepting by order of an arrest, and the king cannot make them change their situations contrary to their will.

Article 21. The king can confer orders of knighthood on whomsoever he chooses, in reward of distinguished services, which shall be published; but he can confer no other rank, with the title, than that which is attached to every employment. An order of knighthood does not liberate the person on whom it is conferred from those duties common to all citizens, and particular titles are not conferred in order to obtain situations in the state. Such persons shall preserve the title and rank attached to those situations which they have occupied. No person can, for the future, obtain personal, mixed, or hereditary privileges.

Article 22. The king elects and dismisses, whenever he thinks proper, all the officers attached to his court.

Article 23. The king is commander-in-chief of all the forces, by sea and land, in the kingdom, and these cannot be increased or diminished without the consent of the Storthing. They will not be ceded to the service of any foreign power, and troops belonging to a foreign power (except auxiliary troops in case of a hostile invasion,) cannot enter the country without the consent of the Storthing. During peace, the Norwegian troops shall be stationed in Norway, and not in Sweden. Notwithstanding this the king may have in Sweden a Norwegian guard, composed of volunteers, and may for a short time, not exceeding six weeks in a year, assemble troops in the environs of the two countries, for exercising; but in case there are more than 3,000 men, composing the army of one of the two countries, they cannot in time of peace enter the other.

[Footnote: The law of the Storthing, 5th July 1816, bears, that troops of the line shall be employed beyond the frontiers of the kingdom, and the interpretation given by it to that law is, that troops of the line shall be employed beyond the frontiers of the two kingdoms.]

The Norwegian army and gun-boats shall not be employed without the consent of the Storthing. The Norwegian fleet shall have dry docks, and during peace its stations and harbours in Norway. Ships of war of both countries shall be supplied with the seamen of the other, so long as they shall voluntarily engage to serve. The landwehr, and other Norwegian forces, which are not calculated among the number of troops, of the line, shall never be employed beyond the frontiers of the kingdom of Norway.

Article 24. The king has the right of assembling troops, commencing war, making peace, concluding and dissolving treaties, sending ministers to, and receiving those of, foreign courts. When he begins war he ought to advise the council of Norway, consult it, and order it to prepare an address on the state of the kingdom, relative to its finances, and proper means of defence. On this the king shall convoke the minister of state of Norway, and those of the council of Sweden, at an extraordinary assembly, when he shall explain all those relative circumstances that ought to be taken into consideration; with a representation of the Norwegian council, and a similar one on the part of Sweden, upon the state of the kingdom, shall then be presented. The king shall then require advice upon these objects; and each shall be inserted in a register, under the responsibility imposed by the constitution, when the king shall then adopt that resolution which he judges most, proper for the benefit of the state.

Article 25. On this occasion all the members of council must be present, if not prevented by some lawful cause, and no resolution ought to be adopted unless one half of the members are present. In Norwegian affairs, which, according to the fifteenth article, are decided in Sweden, no resolution shall be taken unless the minister of state of Norway and one of the members of council, or two members, are present.

Article 26. The representations respecting employments, and other important acts, excepting those of a diplomatic and military nature, properly so called, shall be referred to the council by him who is one of the members in the department charged with it, who shall accordingly draw up the resolution adopted in council.

Article 27. If any member of council is prevented from appearing, and referring the affairs which belong to his peculiar department, he shall be replaced in this office by one of the others appointed to this purpose, either by the king, if personally present, and if not, by him who has precedence in the council, jointly with the other members composing it. Should several of these be prevented from appearing, so that only one half of the ordinary number is present, the other employed in the offices shall in like manner have right to sit in council; and in that event it shall be afterwards referred to the king, who decides if they ought to continue to exercise this office.

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Article 28. The council shall keep a register of all affairs that may come under its consideration. Every individual who sits in it shall be at liberty to give his opinion freely, which the king is obliged to hear; but it is reserved to his majesty to adopt resolutions after he has consulted his own mind. If a member of council finds that the king's resolution is contrary to the form of government, the laws of the kingdom, or injurious to the state, he shall consider it his duty to oppose it, and record his opinion in the register accordingly; but he who remains silent shall be presumed to have agreed with the king, and shall be responsible for it, even in the case of being referred to at a future period; and the Odelsthing is empowered to bring him before the Rigsret.

Article 29. All the orders issued by the king (military affairs excepted) shall be countersigned by the Norwegian minister of state.

Article 30. Resolutions made in absence of the king, by the council in Norway, shall be publicly proclaimed and signed by the viceroy, or the governor and council, and countersigned by him who shall have referred them, and he is further responsible for the accuracy and dispatch with the register in which the resolution is entered.

Article 31. All representations relative to the affairs of this country, as well as writings concerning them, must be in the Norwegian language.

Article 32. The heir-apparent to the throne, if a son of the reigning king, shall have the title of prince royal, the other legitimate heirs to the crown shall be culled princes, and the king's daughters princesses.

Article 33. As soon as the heir shall have attained the age of eighteen, he shall have a right to sit in council, without, however, having a vote, or any responsibility.

Article 34. No prince of the blood shall marry without permission of the king, and in case of contravention, he shall forfeit his right to the crown of Norway.

Article 35. The princes and princesses of the royal family, shall not, so far as respects their persons, be bound to appear before other judges, but before the king or whomsoever he shall have appointed for that purpose.

Article 36. The minister of state of Norway, as well as the two members of council who are near the king, shall have a seat and deliberative voice in the Swedish council, where objects relative to the two kingdoms shall be treated of. In affairs of this nature the advice of the council ought also to be understood, unless these require quick dispatch, so as not to allow time.

Article 37. If the king happens to die, and the heir to the throne is under age, the council of Norway, and that of Sweden, shall assemble, and mutually call a convocation of the Storthing in Norway and Diet of Sweden.

Article 38. Although the representatives of the two kingdoms should have assembled, and regulated the administration during the king's minority, a council composed of an equal number of Norwegian and Swedish members shall govern the kingdoms, and follow their fundamental reciprocal laws. The minister of state of Norway who sits in this council, shall draw by ballot in order to decide on which of its members the preference shall happen to fall.

Article 39. The regulations contained in the two last articles shall be always equally adopted after the constitution of Sweden. It belongs to the Swedish council, in this quality, to be at the head of government.

Article 40. With respect to more particular and necessary affairs that might occur in cases under the three former articles, the king shall propose to the first Storthing in Norway, and at the first Diet in Sweden, a law having for its basis the principle of a perfect equality existing between the two kingdoms.

Article 41. The election of guardians to be at the head of government during the king's minority, shall be made after the same rules and manner formerly prescribed in the second title, Article 5th, concerning the election of an heir to the throne.

Article 42. The individuals who in the cases under the 38th and 39th articles, are at the head of government, shall be, the Norwegians at the Storthing of Norway, and shall take the following oath: "I swear, on my soul and conscience, to govern the kingdom conformably to its constitution and laws;" and the Swedes shall also make a similar oath. If there is not a Storthing or Diet, it shall be deposited in writing in the council, and afterwards repeated at the first of these when they happen to assemble.

Article 43. As soon as the governments have ceased, they shall be restored to the king, and the Storthing.

Article 44. If the Storthing is not convoked, agreeably to what is expressed in the 38th and 39th articles, the supreme tribunal shall consider it as an imperious duty, at the expiration of four weeks, to call a meeting.

Article 45. The charge of the education of the king, in case his father may not have left in writing instructions regarding it, shall be regulated in the manner laid down under the 5th and 41st articles. It is held to be an invariable rule, that the king during his minority shall learn the Norwegian language.

Article 46. If the masculine line of the royal family is extinct, and there has not been elected a successor to the throne, the election of a new dynasty shall be proceeded in, and after the manner prescribed under the 5th article. In the mean time the executive power shall be exercised agreeably to the 41st article.

Title III.

Article 1. Legislative power is exercised by the Storthing, which is constituted of two houses, namely, the Lagthing and Odelsthing.

Article 2. None shall have a right to vote but Norwegians, who have attained twenty·five years, and resided in the country during five years. 1. Those who are exercising, or who have exercised functions. 2. Possess land in the country, which has been let for more than five years. 3. Are burgesses of some city, or possess either in it, or some village, a house, or property of the value of at least three hundred bank crowns in silver.

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Article 3. There shall be drawn up in cities by the magistrates, and in every parish by the public authority and the priest, a register of all the inhabitants who are voters. They shall also note in it without delay, those changes which may successively take place. Before being inscribed in the register, everyone shall take an oath, before the tribunal, of fidelity to the constitution.

4. Right of voting is suspended in the following cases:

1. By the accusation of crime before a tribunal; 2. By not attaining the proper age; 3. By insolvency or bankruptcy, until creditors have obtained their payment in whole, unless it can be proved that the former has arisen from fire, or other unforeseen events.

5. The right of voting is forfeited definitively:

1. By condemnation to the house of correction, slavery, or punishment for defamatory language; 2. By acceptance of the service of a foreign power, without the consent of government. 3. By obtaining the right of citizen in a foreign country. 4. By conviction of having purchased and sold votes, and having voted in more than one electoral assembly.

6. The electoral assemblies and districts are held every three years, and shall finish before the end of the month of December.

7. Electoral assemblies shall be held for the country, at the manor-house of the parish, the church, town-hall, or some other fit place. In the country they shall be directed by the first minister and assistants; and in towns, by magistrates and sheriffs; election shall be made in the order appointed by the registers. Disputes concerning the right of voting shall be decided by the directors of the assembly, from whose judgment an appeal may be made to the Storthing.

8. Before proceeding to the election, the constitution shall be read with a loud voice in the cities, by the first magistrate, and in the country by the curate.

9. In cities, an elector shall be chosen by fifty eligible inhabitants. They shall assemble eight days after, in the place appointed by the magistrate, and choose, either from amongst themselves, or from others who are eligible in the department of their election, a fourth of their number to sit at the Storthing, that is after the manner of three to six in choosing one; seven to ten in electing two; eleven to fourteen in choosing three, and fifteen to eighteen in electing four; which is the greatest number permitted to a city to send. If these consist of less than 150 eligible inhabitants, they shall send the electors to the nearest city, to vote conjointly with the electors of the former, when the two shall only be considered as forming one district.

[Footnote: A law passed 8th February 1816, contains this amendment. Twenty-five electors and more shall not elect more than three representatives, which shall be, ad interim, the greatest number which the bailiwick can send: and, consequently, out of which the number of representatives in the county, which are sixty-one, shall be diminished from fifty to fifty-three.]

10. In each parish in the country the eligible inhabitants shall choose in proportion to their number electors in the following manner; that is to say, a hundred may choose one; two to three hundred, three; and so on in the same proportion.

[Footnote: If future Storthings discover the number of representatives of towns from an increase of population should amount to thirty, the same Storthing shall have right to augment of new the number of representatives of the country, in the manner fixed by the principles of the constitution, which shall be held as a rule in future.]

Electors shall assemble a month after, in the place appointed by the bailiff, and choose, either from amongst themselves or the others of the bailiwick eligible, a tenth of their own number to sit at the Storthing, so that five to fourteen may choose one; fifteen to twenty-four may choose two of them; twenty-five to thirty-four, three; thirty-five and beyond it, four. This is the greatest number.

11. The powers contained in the 9th and 10th articles shall have their proper force and effect until next Storthing. If it is found that the representatives of cities constitute more or less than one-third of those of the kingdom, the Storthing, as a rule for the future, shall have right to change these powers in such a manner that representatives of the cities may join with those of the country, as one to two; and the total number of representatives ought not to be under seventy-five, nor above one hundred.

12. Those eligible, who are in the country, and are prevented from attending by sickness, military service, or other proper reasons, can transmit their votes in writing to those who direct the electoral assemblies, before their termination.

13. No person can be chosen a representative, unless he is thirty years of age, and has resided ten years in the country.

14. The members of council, those employed in their offices, officers of the court, and its pensioners, shall not be chosen as representatives.

15. Individuals chosen to be representatives, are obliged to accept of the election, unless prevented by motives considered lawful by the electors, whose judgment may be submitted to the decision of the Storthing. A person who has appeared more than once as representative at an ordinary Storthing, is not obliged to accept of the election for the next ordinary Storthing. If legal reasons prevent a representative from appearing at the Storthing, the person who after him has most votes shall take his place.

16. As soon as representatives have been elected, they shall receive a writing in the country from the superior magistrate, and in the cities from the magistrate, also from all the electors, as a proof that they have been elected in the manner prescribed by the constitution. The Storthing shall judge of the legality of this authority.

17. All representatives have a right to claim an indemnification in travelling to and returning from the Storthing; as well as subsistence during the period they shall have remained there.