Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/107

Rh For all waste of monies appropriated for the expenses of their departments.

6. In no case can the order of the king, verbal or in writing, shield a minister from his responsibility.

7. The ministers are required to present each year to the legislative body at the opening of the session an estimate of the expenditures to be made in their departments, to render account of the employment of the sums which were appropriated for them, and to indicate the abuses which may have been able to introduce themselves into the different parts of the government.

8. No minister, in office or out of office, can be prosecuted for any acts of his administration, without a decree of the legislative body.

Chapter III. Of the Exercise of the Legislative Power.

Section I. Powers and functions of the National Legislative Assembly.

1. The constitution delegates exclusively to the legislative body the following powers and functions

1st. To propose and enact the laws; the king can only invite the legislative body to take the matter under consideration;

2d. To fix the public expenditures;

3d. To establish the public taxes, to determine the nature of them, the quota, the duration, and the mode of collection;

4th. To make the apportionment of the direct tax among the departments of the kingdom, to supervise the employment of all the public revenues, and to cause an account of them to be rendered;

5th. To decree the creation or suppression of public offices;

6th. To determine the title, weight, stamp, and denomination of the monies;

7th. To permit or forbid the introduction of foreign troops upon French soil and foreign naval forces in the ports of the kingdom;

8th. To determine annually, after the proposal of the king, the number of men and vessels of which the land and naval