Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/250

220 The judges of the civil tribunals.

42. When a citizen is elected by the electoral assemblies in order to replace a deceased, resigned, or dismissed functionary, this citizen is elected only for the time which remained to the replaced functionary.

43. The commissioner of the Executive Directory near the administration of each department is required, under penalty of dismissal, to inform the Directory of the opening and closing of the electoral assemblies: this commissioner can neither stop nor suspend the operations, nor enter into the place of the sittings; but he has the right to call for communication of the minutes of each session within the twenty-four hours which follow it, and he is required to inform the Directory of the infractions which may be made of the constitutional act.

In all cases the legislative body alone passes upon the validity of the operations of the electoral assemblies.

Title V. Legislative Power.

General Provisions.

44. The legislative body is composed of a Council of Ancients and a Council of the Five Hundred.

45. In no case can the legislative body delegate to one or several of its members, nor to anybody whomsoever, any of the functions which are assigned to it by the present constitution.

46. It cannot itself or by delegates discharge the executive or the judicial power.

47. The position of member of the legislative body and the discharge of any other public function, except that of archivist of the Republic, are incompatible.

48. The law determines the method of permanently or temporarily replacing the public functionaries who have been elected members of the legislative body.

49. Each department contributes, in proportion to its population alone, to the selection of the members of the Council of Ancients and of the members of the Council of the Five Hundred.

50. Every ten years the legislative body, according to the lists of population which are sent to it, determines the num-