Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/431

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. 395

will elect one " compromisario." These compromisarios will unite with the provincial deputation, and constitute the electoral junta. They will proceed to elect, by plurality of votes, four senators for each of the actual provinces. Whatever in future may be the territorial divi- sion, the number of senators prescribed in this Constitution can never be altered. To be senator requires to be a Spaniard ; to be forty years of age; to be in possession of civil rights ; and to possess any one of the following qualifications : — Of being or having been president of the congress; deputy elected in three general elections, or for the cortes constituyentes ; minister of the crown ; president of the council of state, of the supreme tribunal, or of the upper tri- bunal of accounts; captain-general of the army, or admiral, lieut.- general, or vice-admiral ; ambassador ; councillor of state ; magistrate of the supreme tribunals ; assessor of the tribunal of accounts, or minister plenipotentiary during two years ; arch- bishop or bishop ; rector of a university ; president of one of the Spanish academies of history, of moral and political sciences, of exact sciences, and of medical science ; inspector-general of the body of civil engineers ; provincial deputy four times ; or, finally, alcalde twice in districts exceeding 30,000 souls.' There are also eligible ' the fifty largest payers of territorial taxes, and the twenty largest contributors to industrial or commercial undertakings in each province.' The senate will be ' renewable by fourth parts, according to the electoral law, each time that general elections for deputies are held. The renewal will be total when the King dis- solves the Senate.' Sections 65 and 6G, treating of the second legislative body, the Congress, enact that it shall be composed of mode of election being left to future legislation. Three conditions only are requisite to be eligible as a deputy, namely, 'to be a Spaniard, to be of age, and to be in the full possession of civil rights.'
 * at least one deputy to each 40,000 souls of the population,' the

The sections of the Constitution treating ' de la celabracion y facultades de las Cortes,' enact: 'The Cortes will meet every year. It will belong to the King to convoke, suspend, and close the sessions, and dissolve one of the co-legislative bodies, or both, at the same time. The Cortes will meet for at least four months in the year. The King must convoke them at the latest by the 1st day of February. The Cortes will meet whenever the Crown may be vacant, or whenever, by any cause, the King is incapacitated for the government of* the State. Each of the co-legislative bodies will have to form the rules for their internal government, and nominate and constitute its presidents, vice-presidents, and secretaries. One of the co-legislative bodies cannot be assembled unless the other is also, except in the case when the Senate is constituted into a tribunal. The co-legislative bodies cannot deliberate jointly nor in