TITLE IV. OF THE EMPEROR.

13. The Emperor is responsible to the French people, to whom he has always the right to make appeal.

14. The Emperor is the Head of the State. He commands the land and naval forces, declares war, makes treaties of peace, alliance and commerce, appoints to all offices, makes the rules and decrees necessary for the execution of the laws. 15. Justice is rendered in his name.

The irremovability of the judges is maintained.

16. The Emperor has the right to pardon and to grant amnesties.

17. He sanctions and promulgates the laws.

18. Future modifications by international treaties in the schedules of the custom-duties and the postoffice shall be binding only in virtue of a law.

19. The Emperor appoints and removes the ministers. The ministers deliberate in council under the presidency of the Emperor.

They are responsible.

20. The ministers can be members of the Senate or of the Corps-Legislatif.

They have entrance into both assemblies and must be heard whenever they request it.

21. The ministers, the members of the Senate, of the CorpsLegislatif and of the Council of State, the officers of the army and navy, the judges and the public functionaries take the following oath :

"I swear obedience to the Constitution and fidelity to the Emperor.”

22.

The senatus-consulta of December 12, 1852, and of April 23, 1856, upon the endowment of the crown and the civil list, remain in force.

However, there shall be a law enacted in the case provided for by articles 8, 11 and 16 of the senatus-consultum of December 12, 1852.

For the future, the endowment of the crown and the civil list shall be fixed, for the entire duration of the reign, by the [first?] legislature which shall meet after the accession of the Emperor.

TITLE V. OF THE SENATE.

23. The Senate is composed:

Ist. Of the cardinals, marshals and admirals.

2d. Of the citizens whom the Emperor raises to the dignity of senator.

24. The decrees of appointment of the senators are individual. They recount the services and indicate the titles upon which the appointment is based.

No other condition can be imposed upon the choice of the Emperor.

25. Senators are irremovable and for life.

26. The number of the senators can be brought to twothirds of that of the members of the Corps-Legislatif, including therein the senators er-officio.

The Emperor cannot appoint more than twenty senators per annum.

27. The president and vice-president of the Senate are appointed by the Emperor and chosen from among the senators. They are appointed for one year.

28. The Emperor convokes and prorogues the Senate. He pronounces the closure of the sessions.

29. The sittings of the Senate are public.

Nevertheless, the Senate can form itself into secret committee in the case and according to the conditions determined by its rule.

30. The Senate discusses and votes the projects of law.

TITLE VI. OF THE CORPS-LEGISLATIF.

31. The deputies are elected by universal suffrage, without scrutin de liste.

32. They are elected for a term which cannot be less than six years.

33. The Corps-Legislatif discusses and votes the projects of law.

34. The Corps-Legislatif elects, at the opening of each session, the members who compose its bureau.

35. The Emperor convokes, adjourns, prorogues and dissolves the Corps-Legislatif.

In case of dissolution, the Emperor shall convoke a new one within a period of six months.

The Emperor pronounces the closure of the Corps-Legislatif.

36. The sittings of the Corps-Legislatif are public.

Nevertheless, the Corps-Legislatif can form itself into secret committee in the cases and according to the conditions determined by its rule.

TITLE VII. OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE.

37. The Council of State is charged, under the direction of the Emperor, to draw up the projects of law and the rules of public administration, and to settle the difficulties which arise in matters of administration.

38. The Council carries on, in the name of the government, the discussion of the projects of law before the Senate and the Corps-Legislatif,

39. The Councillors of State are appointed by the Emperor and are removable by him.

40. The ministers have rank, sitting and deliberative voice in the Council of State.

41.

The right of petition is exercised before the Senate and the Corps-Legislatif.

42. Articles 19, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 of the Constitution of January 14, 1852; article 2 of the senatus-consultum of December 25, 1852; articles 5 and 8 of the senatus-consultum of September 8, 1869; and all the provisions contrary to the present Constitution are abrogated.

43. The provisions of the Constitution of January 14, 1852, and those of the senatus-consulta promulgated since that date which are not included in the present Constitution and are not abrogated by the preceding article have the force of law.

44. The Constitution can be modified only by the people, upon the proposal of the Emperor.

45. The changes and the additions effected in the plebiscite of December 20 and 21, 1851, by the present Constitution shall be submitted to the approval of the people in the forms determined by the decrees of December 2 and 4, 1851, and November 7. 1852.

However, the balloting shall continue but a single day.

May 8, 1863.

118. The Persigny Circular.

Moniteur, May 9, 1863.

This letter was sent to the prefects by the minister of the in

terior, Persigny, during the electoral campaign of 1863. It shows something of the methods by which the imperial government influenced the elections and gives in concise form a number of the principal arguments employed in defence of the imperial régime.

REFERENCE. Andrews. Modern Europe, II, 171-172.

Mr. Prefect.

Paris, May 8, 1863.

The elections which are being prepared for will be for France a new opportunity to strengthen before Europe the institutions which it has given itself.

Under these circumstances I scarcely need to remind you of the principles which ought to serve you for guidance. You will not forget that the Empire is the expression of the needs, feelings, and interests of the masses, and that, before rallying to it all the living forces of the nation, it was in the cottage of the people that it passed its infancy.

Strong in his providential origin, the Elect of the people has realized all the hopes of France, which he found in anarchy, misery and abasement, into which the régime of the rhetoricians had thrown it, and a few years have sufficed for him to raise it to the highest degree of wealth and grandeur.

We know how in this country distracted by so many revolutions, political, social and religious order has been restored, and the security of persons and property established as it never had been; how, in ten years, wealth in personal property has been doubled and wealth in lands augmented by 7 to 8 milliards, and the public revenue increased by 300 millions; how the territory has been ploughed over with macadamised roads, highways and cross roads, and enriched with innumerable public works; how, finally, the glorious triumphs of our armies and the high influence yielded to our policy abroad have come to crown a development of prosperity until now without example in the world.

History will tell by what prodigies of wisdom, courage and skill, the Elect of the people has accomplished all these things; but it will reveal also the secret of his astonishing fortune, I mean to say the absolute confidence, the touching fidelity with which, in peace or in war, in bad as well

as in good circumstances, the French people have not ceased to support, surround and defend him.

It is to this confidence that the Emperor again makes appeal. He asks from the country a legislature which.. will be as devoted as the two preceding and will have no other preoccupation than the future of the Empire.

Mr. Prefect, if in France, as in England, parties were divided only upon the conduct of affairs, but were all equally attached to our fundamental institutions, the Government could confine itself in the elections to attendance upon the conflict of opinions. But in a country such as ours, which, after so many convulsions, has been seriously constituted only for ten years past, that regular play of parties, which with our neighbors so happily makes the public liberties fruitful, would at present result only in prolonging revolution and in compromising liberty; for with us there are parties which are still only factions. Formed out of the débris of overturned governments, and although enfeebled each day by time, which alone can cause them to disappear, they seek to penetrate to the heart of our institutions only in order to vitiate the principles upon which these rest, and they invoke liberty only in order to turn it against the State.

In the presence of a coalition of animosities, rancors and ill-humors opposed to the great things of the Empire, your duty, Mr. Prefect, is quite naturally traced. Filled with the liberal and democratic spirit of our institutions, which the Emperor applies himself every day to develop, you will address yourself only to the reason and heart of the people. Allow everybody to freely produce candidatures, to publish and distribute professions of faith and ballots, according to the forms prescribed by our laws. Look after the maintenance of order and the regularity of the electoral operations. It is for everybody a right and for you a duty to combat energetically all disloyal maneuvers, intrigue, surprise and fraud, and, lastly, to assure the liberty and sincerity of the ballot and the honesty of the election.

The suffrage is free. But, in order that the good faith of the people may not be deceived by skillful tongues, or by equivocal professions of faith, designate openly, as in preceding elections, the candidates who impart the most confidence