Office of the Historian

No. 112.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Paris, May 23, 1873. (Received June 5.)
No. 809.]

Sir: You will find in the Journal Officiel the reports of M. Thiers and M. Dufaure, his minister of justice, on the proposed fundamental law. I have the honor to inclose you herewith a translation of the text of the bill, offered with the report, which you may find of some interest.

I have, &c.,

E. B. WASHBURNE.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

The following is the text of the hill presented on Monday in the national assembly by the government for the organization of the public powers:

Article 1. The government of the French Republic is composed of a senate, a chamber of representatives, and a President of the Republic, chief of the executive power.

Art. 2. The senate is formed of 265 members, French citizens, of at least thirty-five years of age, in the enjoyment of all their civil, political, and family right’s.

The chamber of representatives is formed of 537 members, French citizens, not less than twenty-five years of age, in the enjoyment of their civil, political, and family rights.

The President of the Republic must be at least forty years old, and in the enjoyment of all his civil, political, and family rights.

Art. 3. The senate is nominated for ten years, and is renewed by a fifth every two years.

The chamber of representatives is elected for five years, and is renewed entirely at the expiration of that period.

The President of the Republic is nominated for five years, and can be re-elected.

Art. 4. Each of the eighty-six departments of France elects three senators; and the territory of Belfort, the Algerian provinces, the islands of Réunion, Martinique, and Gaudeloupe one each.

The choice will be made by the direct suffrage of all the electors of the department, or the colony, and by a collective list in the French departments.

Art. 5. Can only be elected to the functions of senator—

1.
The members of the chamber of representatives.
2.
The former members of legislative assemblies.
3.
Ministers or persons who have formerly held portfolios.
4.
Members of the council of state, the court of cassation, and the court of accounts.
5.
Presidents and former presidents of councils-general.
6.
Members of the institute.
7.
Persons forming part of the superior council of commerce, agriculture, and manufacture.
8.
The cardinals, archbishops, and bishops.
9.
The presidents of the two consistories of the confession of Augsburg which comprise the greatest number of electors, and of the twelve consistories of the reformed religion which contain the largest number of voters.
10.
The president and the grand rabbi of the Jewish consistory in France.
11.
The marshals, generals of division, admirals, and vice-admirals on active service or on the retired list, the governors of Algeria and of the three great colonies who have exercised their functions during five years.
12.
The prefects on active service.
13.
The mayors of towns of above 100,000 souls.
14.
The functionaries who have fulfilled during ten years the duties of directors in the central administrations of the ministries.
15.
Retired judges who have belonged to the court of cassation, or to the courts of appeal, or who have held the functions of president of a civil tribunal.

Art. 6. The eligible persons designated in paragraphs 1, 4, and 12 of the preceding article shall declare, in the fifteen days that follow the elections, if they mean to accept the functions of senator. Their silence shall be equivalent to a refusal, and their acceptance will involve at once their resignation of the posts which they were occupying.

Art. 7. Each of the 362 arrondissements of France, including the territory of Belfort, names a representative. However, such arrondissements as have a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants shall elect as many representatives as there are repetitions of that number, each supplementary fraction counting for 100,000.

The said division can only be modified by virtue of the quinquennial census of the population and by law.

Two representatives are assigned to each of the departments of Algeria, and one to each of the six colonies of Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe Senegal, Guyana, and French India.

Art. 8. The election of representatives is effected by the direct vote of all the electors of the arrondissement. The arrondissement which shall have several representatives to nominate shall be divided into as many sections as there are representatives. The sections shall be formed by agglomerations of cantons, and can only be established and modified by the law.

Art. 9. The President of the Republic is named by a congress composed, 1. Of the members of the senate. 2. Members of the chamber of representatives. 3. A delegation of three members designated by each of the councils-general of France and Algeria in their annual session of the month of August.

That congress shall be presided over by the president of the senate.

Art. 10. When the President of the Republic shall have to be elected, the president of the senate, within a week, shall convoke the senators, representatives, and councillors-general designated.

The delay for the meeting shall not exceed a fortnight.

The President of the Republic shall be named by the absolute majority of the suffrages.

The president of the senate shall notify the nomination to the President of the Republic elect, and to the president of the chamber of representatives.

attributions of the public powers.

Art. 11. The initiative of laws belongs to the two chambers and to the President of the Republic.

The two chambers co-operate equally in the framing of the laws. But those relating to taxes are first submitted to the chamber of representatives.

The senate can be constituted as a court of justice to try charges of responsibility brought against the President, ministers, and the generals-in-chief of the sea and land armies.

Art. 12. Each of the chambers is judge of the eligibility of its members, and of the regularity of their election, and can alone receive their resignations.

Art. 13. The senators and representatives cannot be sought out, accused, or tried at any time for opinions they may have expressed in the chamber to which they belong.

They cannot be arrested for criminal matters, excepting in cases of flagrante delicto, nor prosecuted without an authorization from the chamber of which they form a part.

Art. 14. The President of the Republic promulgates the laws when they have been voted by the two chambers; he watches over and assures the execution of them.

He negotiates and ratifies treaties. No treaty is valid until it shall have been approved of by the two chambers.

He has the right of pardon; amnesties can only be accorded by a law.

He disposes of the armed force without being able to command it in person.

He presides over the national solemnities; the envoys and embassadors of foreign powers are accredited to him.

The President of the Republic and the ministers, taken individually or collectively, are responsible for the acts of the government.

Art. 15. When the President of the Republic shall consider that the interest of the country requires the renewal of the chamber of representatives, before the normal expiration of its powers, he must ask the senate for authorization to dissolve it. That [Page 256] permission can only be given in secret committee, and by a majority of votes. It should be accorded within a week.

The electoral colleges should be convoked within the three days that shall follow the notification made to the President of the Republic of the affirmative vote of the senate.

transitory enactments.

Art. 16. When the national assembly shall have determined by a vote the period at which it will separate, the President of the Republic shall convoke the electoral colleges to choose the representatives, and afterward to appoint the senators, so that the two chambers may be constituted on the day of the dissolution.

The powers of the President of the Republic shall last until the notification of the vote of the congress which shall have elected the new president.

  • A. THIERS,
    President of the Republic.
  • J. DUFAURE,
    Minister of Justice.