(16.) The right of direct petition to any authority or corporation, and the right to obtain the corresponding reply. These rights may be exercised individually or collectively, but never in the name of the people;

(17.) The liberty of meeting and association, without arms, for objects not prohibited by law.

27. The confiscation of property, torture, and infamous punishments are prohibited.

28. Foreigners enjoy the same civil rights as Equatorians, and all the constitutional guarantees, except those specified in sections (13) and (14) of Article 26, in so far as they respect the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.

29. No institutions of public right shall be recognized other than the Treasury, the municipalities, and the establishments maintained by the State.

CHAPTER VII.-Of the Elections.

30. Direct and indirect elections shall be held as regulated by the Constitution and the law.

31. To be an elector it is necessary to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, and who fulfils in other respects the requirements determined by law in the respective cases.

CHAPTER VIII. Of the Legislative Power.

Section 1.-General Provisions.

32. The legislative power resides in the National Congress, composed of two Chambers, one of senators and the other of deputies.

33. Congress will meet annually, on the 10th August, in the capital of the Republic, even though it may not have been convoked. The sessions will last for sixty days, and may be prolonged for thirty days more, on the vote of an absolute majority of the same Congress.

It will, moreover, meet in extraordinary session when convoked by the executive in conformity with Article 80, section (3).

34. The sessions will be public unless either of the Chambers should pass a resolution to treat any matter in secret session.

35. Neither of the Chambers may be installed unless twothirds of the total number of its members are present, nor will continue its sessions without an absolute majority.

36. No senator or deputy shall absent himself from the Chamber to which he belongs without its permission; should he do so he will lose for two years the rights of citizenship.

37. The Chambers shall sit separately, must open and close their sessions on the same day, and sit in the same place; neither of them shall transfer itself to another place, nor suspend its

sittings for more than three days without the consent of the other.

38. If on the day fixed for the opening of Congress there should not be the number of senators or deputies prescribed in Article 35, or if, the sessions being opened, they are unable to continue for want of an absolute majority, the members present, in each Chamber, will compel the appearance of the absent members under the legal penalties, and will continue to sit until the said majority is completed.

39. Senators and deputies will not be held responsible for the opinions expressed by them in Congress, and will enjoy privilege for thirty days previous to the sessions, during the sessions, and for thirty days after.

They shall not be sentenced, arrested, or prosecuted unless the Chamber to which they belong previously authorizes the trial, arrest, or prosecution by a vote of the majority of members present.

Should any senator or deputy be surprised in the commission of any crime or offence, he shall be placed at the disposal of the Chamber to which he belongs, in order that the Chamber may declare, after consideration of the circumstances, whether the matter should be carried to trial. But if the crime or offence is committed during the period when the sessions of Congress are closed, the trial of the senator or deputy shall be proceeded with without hindrance.

40. Senators or deputies who accept commissions or offices in the gift of the executive power, or conclude any contract with it, vacate by the fact of the acceptance of office or the conclusion of the contract the position of legislator occupied by them in the Chamber to which they may have been elected.

41. Each Chamber has a limited faculty to make such appointments, and to regulate them, as required, for the direction and discharge of its business, and for the interior police of its sessions.

42. The President of the Republic, the Secretaries of State, the Judges of the Courts of Justice, and ministers of religion of any denomination, are not eligible as senators and deputies. Nor is any person eligible to be returned for a province if in it, or in one of its cantons, he holds, or has held, three months previous to the elections, any civil, political, or military command or jurisdiction.

43. Officials who are appointed or removed by the executive, and who are in the enjoyment of emoluments, may not be elected as senators or deputies while holding office, nor unless three months have elapsed from the date on which, for any reason, they may have vacated their appointments.

Section 2.-Of the Chamber of the Senate.

44. The Chamber of the Senate is composed of two senators for each province, elected in conformity with law.

45. To be a senator it is necessary :

(1.) To be Equatorian by birth, in exercise of the rights of citizenship; and

(2.) To be 30 years of age.

46. Senators remain in discharge of their functions for four years, and may be re-elected indefinitely.

47. The exclusive attributes of the Senate are:

(1.) To try prosecutions instituted by the Chamber of Deputies against officials referred to in Article 53.

(2.) To reinstate those who have lost the rights of citizenship, except in the case of treason in favour of a hostile nation or of a foreign faction.

(3.) To rehabilitate the memory of persons condemned unjustly in the event of their innocence being proved.

48. When the Senate tries any accusation, limited to the discharge of official functions, it may not impose any other penalty than the suspension or dismissal of the official, and, at most, declare the accused temporarily or permanently incapacitated from obtaining public employment. A criminal trial of the accused before the competent Tribunal will, however, follow if the deed constitutes an offence which merits other punishment.

49. When the prosecution does not relate to official conduct, the Senate shall confine itself to declaring whether or no there is ground for a trial; in the affirmative case it will place the accused person at the disposition of the proper Tribunal.

Section 3.-Of the Chamber of Deputies.

50. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of citizens nominated by the provinces of the Republic in conformity with the Electoral Law. Each province elects a deputy for each 30,000 inhabitants, but if the remainder exceeds 15,000 one deputy more shall be elected.

Should a province not fall under the dispositions of the foregoing cases, it will elect a deputy whatever may be its population.

51. To be a deputy it is necessary to be Equatorian by birth and in exercise of the rights of citizenship.

52. Deputies are such for two years, and may be definitely re-elected;

53. The special attributes of the Chamber of Deputies are:(1.) To impeach before the Senate the President of the Republic, or the individual entrusted with the executive power, the Councillors and Secretaries of State, and the Ministers of the Supreme Court;

(2.) To examine accusations made against the said authorities by private individuals or corporations, and if considered wellfounded, to lay them before the Senate;

Section 4.-Of the Attributes of the Legislative Power divided into Chambers.

54. The following are the attributes and duties of Congress:

(1.) To reform the Constitution in accordance with the procedure prescribed therein, and to interpret and settle any doubts that may arise as regards the meaning of any of its Articles. Such interpretation or resolution shall be embodied in a special law;

(2.) To watch over the just and lawful application of the public revenue;

(3.) To impose taxation and to authorize the executive to contract loans on the security of public credit. Such loans may not be issued unless approved by Congress;

(4.) To take into consideration the National Debt, and to determine the manner of its redemption and the means for the payment of interest;

(5.) To regulate the administration of public property, to make decrees as to its disposal, and to employ it for objects of public utility;

(6.) To notify the proper authorities by simple resolution of either of the Chambers, to make good the responsibility of public officials who may have abused their opportunities or have failed in the discharge of their duties;

(7.) To create or abolish employments, the creation or abolition of which are not vested in any other authority or body; to fix or modify the functions of officials, and to define their period of service and emoluments;

(8.) To declare according to law, and in view of a judgment pronounced by the Court of Exchequer, the legal and pecuniary responsibility of the Minister of Finance;

(9.) To confer rewards, solely honourable and personal, on those who may have rendered great services to the country, and to decree public honours to their memory;

(10.) To determine and make uniform the alloy, weight, value. and denominations of the national money; to make regulations as to the admission and circulation of foreign money, and to regulate the system of weights and measures;

(11.) To fix annually the maximum of the armed forces, both naval and military, to be maintained on active service in time of peace, and to make regulations for its recruiting;

(12.) To declare war on information received from the executive; to require the latter to enter into negotiations for peace; and to approve or withhold approval from public Treaties and other Conventions. Without such approval they will not be ratified or the ratifications exchanged;

(13.) To dictate general educational laws for the establishments of education and public instruction;

(14.) To promote and develop the progress of arts and

science; the enterprises, discoveries, and improvements that it may be desirable to establish in the Republic;

(15.) To grant amnesties or pardons, general or particular, for political offences; and general pardons for common offences when required for any serious reason, whatever may be the position of the trial.

Except in the cases referred to in the foregoing paragraph Congress shall not suspend the course of judicial proceedings nor revoke the decisions or orders of the judicial power;

(16.) To grant or refuse permission for the transit of foreign troops through the territory of the Republic, or the stationing of foreign ships of war in the ports for a period exceeding two months;

(17.) To create or abolish provinces or cantons, to settle their boundaries, and to open or close ports;

(18.) To decree the opening or improvement of roads and canals without interference with the rights of districts to open and improve their own;

(19.) To draw up national codes, pass laws, decrees, agreements, and resolutions for the regulation of the different branches of the public administration, and to interpret, reform, or abrogate them;

(20.) To exercise the other attributes confided to it by the Constitution and the laws.

55. Congress is prohibited from :—

(1.) Exercising the faculties reserved to the executive power, or those which by law may be attributed to any other authority or corporation;

(2.) Diminishing the faculties which, under this Constitution, appertain to the authorities of the district Governments;

(3.) Decreeing any payments without previously providing the necessary credit in accordance with law, or any indemnity unless preceded by a definite sentence;

(4.) Writing off the balances of the accounts or other credits relating to the public funds;

(5.) Granting life pensions;

(6.) Establishing, recognizing, or continuing life appointments or employments in the public service; and

(7.) Delegating to one or more of its members, or to any other person, corporation, or authority, any of the attributes expressed in the preceding Article, or, generally, any function imposed upon it by this Constitution.

Section 5.-Of the Legislative Chambers united in Congress.

56. The Chambers shall unite in Congress :

(1.) To verify the scrutiny of the Registers and to declare legally elected President of the Republic him who shall have obtained a majority of votes, conformably with Article 72 of this Constitution;

(2.) To accept or reject the excuse for absence, or the