Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/423

 342 derived from actual capital, industry, or honest personal labor. In addition to these requirements, no one will be allowed to vote, after the year 1850, unless he is able to read and write.

The rights of citizenship are suspended (among other disqualifications,) by domestic servitude, habitual intemperance, taking of religious vows, keeping of prohibited gaming-houses, and fraudulent bankruptcy.

The Legislative power is defined by the fourth Title. This power is to reside in a Congress, divided into a Chamber of deputies and a Senate.

The C D is to be composed of individuals elected by the Electoral Colleges of the Departments, in a manner which will be hereafter specified, and in the ratio of one for seventy thousand inhabitants. The Departments which have not so many residents shall, nevertheless, be entitled to a Deputy, and there shall likewise be one for every fraction over thirty.five thousand. It is required, that a Deputy shall be thirty years of age, and possessed of an annual income of twelve hundred dollars. A moiety of the Chamber is to be renewed every two years.

The S is to be composed of sixty-three members, two-thirds of whom are to be elected by the Departmental Assemblies, and the other third by the Chamber of Deputies, the President of the Republic, and the Supreme Court of Justice. One-third of this body is to be renewed biennially. The Departmental Assemblies are to select five persons from each of the classes of agriculturists, miners, proprietors or merchants, and manufacturers; the rest of the quota to be chosen by them from distinguished individuals. Those who are to be appointed by the President and the Supreme Court, are to be taken from among individuals who have signalized themselves in the civil, military, and ecclesiastical career. Senators must possess an annual income of two thousand dollars.

The Congress, so constituted, will sit twice a year for the space of three months, commencing its terms on the 1st of January and 1st of July. Its members are not allowed to obtain place or preferment from the Government, except for the most imperative reasons.

A third body, called the Permanent Deputation, is to be formed by this Congress, and will be composed of four members of the Senate and five of the Chamber, whose term of office shall continue until the next meeting of the National Assembly and the election of their successors. The duty of this Permanent Deputation is to call extra sessions of Congress whenever they may be decreed by the Government, and to receive the certificates of the election of President of the Republic, Senators, and Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The fifth Title defines the E P, which is confided for five years to a President, who must be a Mexican by birth, in the full enjoyment of all his rights of citizenship, more than forty years of age, and a resident of the Republic at the time of his election.