Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/251

Rh ber of members of each council which each department shall furnish.

51. No change can be made in this apportionment during this interval.

52. The members of the legislative body are not representatives of the department which has selected them, but of the entire nation, and no instructions can be given to them.

53. Both councils are renewed every year by a third.

54. The members retiring after three years can be immediately re-elected for the three following years, after which there must be an interval of two years before they can be elected again.

55. No one in any case can be a member of the legislative body during more than six consecutive years.

56. If through extraordinary circumstances either of the two councils finds itself reduced to less than two-thirds of its members, it gives notice thereof to the Executive Directory, which is required to convoke without delay the primary assemblies of the departments, which have members of the legislative body to replace through the effect of these circumstances: the primary assemblies immediately select the electors, who proceed to the necessary replacements.

57. The newly elected members for both of the councils meet upon 1 Prairial of each year in the commune which has been indicated by the preceding legislative body, or in the same commune where it has held its last sittings, if it has not designated another.

58. The two councils always reside in the same commune.

59. The legislative body is permanent; nevertheless, it can adjourn for periods which it designates.

60. In no case can the two councils meet in a single hall.

61. Neither in the Council of Ancients nor in the Council of the Five Hundred can the functions of president and secretary exceed the duration of one month.

62. The two councils respectively have the right of police in the place of their sittings and in the environs which they have determined.

63. They have respectively the right of police over their members; but they cannot pronounce any penalty more severe than censure, arrests for eight days, or imprisonment for three.