Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/109

 80 shall send the enactment to the council of ministers, of the Kingdom which, ina period not exceeding six months, shall approve it or return it to the Governor-General, with a statement of the reasons that it may have for objecting to its sanction and promulgation. The insular parliament, in view of these reasons, may again deliberate concerning the matter and modify the enactment, if it thinks proper, without the necessity of a special proposition.

If two months shall pass without the central Government's having expressed its opinion concerning an enactment of the Chambers that shall have been transmitted to it by the Governor-General, that officer shall sanction and promulgate it.

(3) To appoint, suspend, and remove the employees of the colonial administration, on motion of the respective secretaries of the Government, and in accordance with the laws

(4) To appoint and remove freely the secretaries of the Government.

No order of the Governor-General, issued in his capacity as representative and head of the colony, shall be carried out unless it is countersigned by a secretary of the government, who, by this act alone, becomes responsible therefor.

The secretaries of the government shall be five:

Grace, justice, and of the interior.

Finance.

Public instruction.

Public works and means of communication.

Agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The secretary, who shall be appointed by the Governor-General, shall be president. The Governor-General may likewise appoint a president without a determinate department.

The insular parliament shall have power to increase or diminish the number of the secretaries of the Government, and also to determine what matters belong to the department of each.

The secretaries of the Government may be members of the chamber of representatives or of the council of administration, and take part in the discussions of both bodies; but they shall only have a vote in that to which they belong.

The secretaries of the Government shall be responsible for their acts to the insular chambers.

The Governor-General shall not modify or revoke his own orders when they shall have been sanctioned by the Government, whether they are declaratory of rights, or have served as a basis for a judicial decision, or shall have reference to his own competency.

The Governor-General shall not delegate the powers of his office on absenting himself from the island without the express permission of the Government.

In cases of absence from the capital, which shall prevent him from transacting business, or of the impossibility of his doing so, he may designate a person or persons to act in his stead, if the Government shall not previously have done so, or if, in his instructions, there is no provision made for the appointment of a substitute.

The supreme court shall take cognizance, without appeal, of all charges defined in the penal code that shall be made against the governor-general.

The council of ministers shall take cognizance of any malfeasance in office committed by him.

The Governor-General, notwithstanding the provisions contained in the various articles of this decree, may act by himself and on his own responsibility, without granting a hearing to the secretaries of the Government in the following cases:

(1) When the question is of the transmission to the Government of the enactments of the insular chambers, especially when he considers that the rights guaranteed in Title I of the constitution of the monarchy or the guarantees provided by law for their exercise are violated by those enactments.

(2) When the law relative to public order is to be executed, especially if there is no time or any way to consult the central government.

(3) When the question is of the execution and fulfillment of laws of the Kingdom sanctioned by His Majesty, and operative in all the Spanish territory or that of its Government.

A law shall provide for the procedure and means of action that may be used in such cases by the Governor-General.

Municipal organization shall be obligatory in every center of population containing more than 1,000 inhabitants. Localities containing a smaller population may organize services of a common character by special agreements.

Any municipal board that is legally constituted shall have power to legislate concerning public instruction, communication by land, river, or sea, concerning local health, the municipal budgets, and to appoint and remove its employees at will.