thority within the department. He is, in addition, charged with the preliminary investigation of matters which are of importance to the department, as well as the carrying out of the decisions of the general council and of the departmental commission, in conformity with the provisions of the present law. TITLE II. OF THE FORMATION OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS. 4. Each canton of the department elects one member of the general council. 5. The election is made by universal suffrage, in each commune from the lists drawn up for the municipal elections. 6. All citizens enrolled upon a list of electors, or proving that they ought to be enrolled there before the day of the election, fully twenty-five years of age, who are domiciled within the department, and those who, without being domiciled there, are listed there upon the roll of one of the direct taxes on the 1st of January of the year in which the election takes place, or who prove that they ought to be enrolled there on that day or that they have inherited since the same date a real estate property within the department, are eligible to the general council. However, the general councillors not domiciled cannot exceed one-fourth the total number of which the council must be composed. 14. No one is elected a member of the general council at the first ballot, unless he unites: 1st, a majority of the votes cast; 2d, a number of votes equal to a fourth of that of the enrolled electors. At the second ballot, the election takes place by plurality, whatever may be the number of voters. If several candidates obtain the same number of votes, the election is awarded to the eidest. 21. The general councillors are selected for six years; they are renewed by half every three years and are re-eligible indefinitely. TITLE III. OF THE SESSIONS OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS. 23. The general councils have each year two ordinary sessions. The session in which the budget and the accounts are considered commences with full right the first Monday which follows August 15 and can be postponed only by a law. The opening of the other session takes place upon the day fixed by the general council in the session of the preceding August. The duration of the August session cannot exceed one month; that of the other ordinary session cannot exceed fifteen days. 27. The prefect has entrance to the general council; he is heard when he demands it and is present at the deliberations, except when the auditing of his accounts is in question. 28. The sittings of the general councils are public. Nevertheless, upon the request of five members, the president or the prefect, the general council, by rising and sitting, without debate, decides whether it will form itself into secret committee. 33. Every act and every decision of a general council in relation to matters which are not legally included within its powers is null and void. The nullity is pronounced by a decree rendered in the form of public administrative regulations. 35. During the sessions of the National Assembly, the dissolution of a general council can be pronounced by the head of the executive power only under the express obligation to render an account of it to the Assembly within the shortest space of time possible. 36. In the interim of the sessions of the National Assembly, the Head of the Executive Power can pronounce the dissolution of a general council for causes peculiar to this council. TITLE IV. OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS. 37. The general council apportions each year, at its August session, the direct taxes, in conformity with the rules established by the laws. 40. The general council votes the additional centimes the collection of which is authorised by the laws. It can vote extraordinary centimes within the limit of the maximum annually fixed by the law of finances. It can likewise vote departmental loans, reimbursable within a period which cannot exceed fifteen years, out of the ordinary and extraordinary resources. 42. The general council determines each year at its August session, within the limits annually fixed by the law of finances, the maximum number of extraordinary centimes which the municipal councils are authorised to vote, in order to appropriate the proceeds of them for extraordinary expenses of communal utility. 44. The general council effects the recognition, determines the width and prescribes the opening and repair of crossroads which are highways and of common interest. 46. The general council decides finally upon the matters hereinafter designated, to wit: [Here follow twenty-six distinct matters embracing the more important powers of local administration.] 47. The resolutions in which the general councils make definitive decisions are carried into effect, unless within a period of twenty days, dating from the close of the session, the prefect has demanded the setting aside of them for excess of power or for violation of a provision of a law or a regulation of public administration. 48. The general council deliberates over: [Here follow five important matters of local government.] 49. The resolutions taken by the general council upon the matters enumerated in the preceding article are carried into effect, unless within a period of three months, dating from the closing of the session, a decree with statement of reasons has suspended their execution. 50. The general council gives its opinion upon : [Here follow three matters of local government.] 51. The general council can address directly to the minister concerned, through the medium of its president, the complaints which it shall have to present in the special interest of the department, as well as its opinion upon the condition and the needs of the different public services, in that which touches the department. All expressions of political opinions are forbidden to it. Nevertheless, it can express opinions upon all economic and general administrative questions. TITLE V. OF THE BUDGET AND OF THE ACCOUNTS OF THE DEPARTMENT. 57. The project for the budget of the department is prepared and presented by the prefect, who is required to communicate it to the departmental commission, with the corroborative documents, at least ten days before the opening of the August session. The budget, considered by the general council, is definitively determined by decree. It is divided into ordinary budget and extraordinary budgct. TITLE VI. OF THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMISSION. 69. The departmental commission is elected each year at the end of the August session. It is composed of at least four members and of seven at most, and it includes one member chosen, as nearly as possible, from among the councillors elected or domiciled in each district. The members of the commission are re-eligible indefinitely. 75. The members of the departmental commission do not receive any compensation. 76. The prefect or his representative is present at the sittings of the commission; they are heard when they demand it. 77. The departmental commission controls the matters which are remitted to it by the general council, within the limits of the delegation that is made to it. It deliberates over all the questions that are referred to it by the general council, within the limits of the delegation that is made to it. It deliberates over all the questions that are referred to it by the prefect, and it gives its opinion to the prefect upon all the questions which he submits to it or upon which it believes that it ought to call his attention in the interest of the department. 79. At the opening of each ordinary session of the general council, the departmental commission makes a report to it upon the whole of its labors and submits to it all the proposals that it believes useful. At the opening of the August session, it presents in a summary report its observations upon the budget proposed by the prefect. These reports are printed and distributed, unless the commission decides otherwise in regard to them. Special or Temporary Provisions. 94. The present law is not applicable to the department of the Seine. A special law shall be enacted in respect to it. 128. Law for Reorganizing the Army. July 27, 1872. Duvergier, Lois, LXXII, 332-362. The disasters of the Franco-Prussian war making necessary a complete reorganization of the French army, this law was passed after careful consideration, and with very slight alterations it is still in force. Two features of it call for particular notice, (1) the principle upon which military service is based, (2) the manner in which that principle is applied. REFERENCES. Seignobos. Europe Since 1814. 195; Hanotaux, Contemporary France, I, 465-468; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, XII, 10. TITLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS. 1. Every Frenchman owes personal military service. . 3. Every Frenchman who is not declared unfit for all military service can be summoned, from the age of twenty years to that of forty years, to make up part of the active army and |