Note XVIII-40 — Chapter XVIII · POLITICAL EVENTS IN COSTA RICA. 1856-1886.

The legislative consisted of a chamber of deputies chosen for four years. During recess it was to be represented near the executive by a comision permanente of five deputies. All citizens able to read and write, and possessing property to the value of $500, or an occupation yielding $200 a year, could be chosen deputies, excepting the president, his ministers, members of the supreme court, and governors. Deputies could accept no offices except ministerial or diplomatic, and then they must resign the elections. The executive was vested in a president for four years, who must be a native, thirty years and upwards, and could not be reëlected for the next immediate term. He was allowed a council of state, composed of his ministers, the members of the comision permanente, and others that he might invite to join the deliberations. The judicial authority was vested in a supreme court, whose members must be natives of the country, and such other courts as might be established by law. Id., xx. 171-206; El Porvenir de Nic., Jan. 14, 1872; Nic., Gaceta, Jan. 13, 1872.