Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/113

Rh the National Legislative Assembly; they shall have a designated place there.

They shall be heard, whenever they shall demand it, upon matters relative to their administrations or when they shall be required to give information.

They shall likewise be heard upon matters foreign to their administrations when the National Assembly shall grant them the word.

Chapter IV. Of the Exercise of the Executive Power.

1. The supreme executive power resides exclusively in the hands of the king.

The king is the supreme head of the general administration of the kingdom; the task of looking after the maintenance of public order and tranquility is confided to him.

The king is the supreme head of the army and navy.

The task of looking after the external security of the kingdom and of maintaining its rights and possessions is delegated to the king.

2. The king appoints the ambassadors and other agents of political negotiations.

He confers the command of the armies and fleets, and the grades of marshal and admiral.

He appoints two-thirds of the rear-admirals, half of the lieutenant generals, camp-marshals, ship-captains, and colonels of the national gendarmerie.

He appoints two-thirds of the colonels and lieutenant colonels, and a sixth of the ship-lieutenants.

All of these conforming to the laws upon promotion.

He appoints in the civil administration of the navy the managers, comptrollers, treasurers of the arsenals, heads of the works, under-chiefs of civil buildings, and half of the heads of administration and under-chiefs of construction.

He appoints the commissioners before the tribunals.

He appoints the officers-in-chief for the administrations of the indirect taxes and for the administration of the national lands.

He superintends the coining of monies, and appoints the officers charged with the exercise of this surveillance in the general commission and in the mints.