Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/148

 State. The Chamber must be re-elected within six months of the expiration of their legislative period, or after being dissolved. In either case former members are re-eligible. The Chambers are to be regularly convoked by the king during the month of November; and in extraordinary session, as often as circumstances may require. The opening and closing of the Chambers must take place by the king in person, or by a minister appointed by him. Both Chambers are to be convoked, opened, adjourned, and prorogued simultaneously. Each Chamber has to prove the qualification of its members, and to decide thereon. Both Chambers regulate their order of business and discipline, and elect their own presidents, vice-presidents, and secretaries. Functionaries do not require leave of absence to sit in the Chamber. When a member accepts paid functions, or a higher office connected with increased salary, he vacates his seat and vote in the Chamber, and can only recover the same by a new election. No one can be member of both Chambers. The sittings of both Chambers are public. Each Chamber, at the proposition of the president or of ten members, may proceed to secret deliberation. Neither Chamber can adopt a resolution when the legal majority of its members is not present. Each Chamber has a right to present addresses to the king. No one can deliver a petition or address to the Chambers, or to either of them in person. Each Chamber can refer documents addressed to it to the ministers, and demand explanations relative to complaints contained therein. Each Chamber has the right to appoint commissions of investigation of facts for their own information. The members of both Chambers are held to be representatives of the whole population. They vote according to their free conviction, and are not bound by prescriptions or instructions. They cannot be called to account, either for their votes, or for opinions uttered by them in the Chambers. No member of the Chambers can, without its assent, be submitted to examination or arrest for any proceeding entailing penalties, unless seized in the act, or within twenty-four hours of the same. Similar proceedings are necessary in case of arrest for debt. All criminal proceedings against members of the Chambers, and all examination or civil arrest, must be suspended during the session, should the Chamber whom it may concern so demand. Members of the second Chamber receive travelling expenses and diet money from the State, according to a scale fixed by law amounting to three dollars, or nine shillings, per day. Refusal of the same is not allowed.

The executive government is carried on by a Staatsministerium, or Ministry of State, the members of which are appointed by the King, and hold office at his pleasure. The Staatsministerium is divided into eight departments, which are:—