Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/253

Rh 74. In order to be elected a member of the Council of the Five Hundred it is necessary to be fully thirty years of age and to have been domiciled upon the soil of France for the ten years which shall have immediately preceded the election.

The condition of thirty years of age shall not be required before the seventh year of the Republic: until that date the age of twenty-five shall be sufficient.

75. The Council of the Five Hundred cannot deliberate, unless the sitting is composed of at least two hundred members.

76. The proposal of the laws belongs exclusively to the Council of the Five Hundred.

77. No proposition can be considered or decided upon in the Council of the Five Hundred, except in observance of the following forms.

There shall be three readings of the proposal; the interval between two of these readings cannot be less than ten days.

The discussion is open after each reading; nevertheless, the Council of the Five Hundred can declare that there is cause for adjournment, or that there is no occasion for consideration.

Every proposal shall be printed and distributed two days before the second reading.

After the third reading the Council of the Five Hundred decides whether or not there is cause for adjournment.

78. No proposition, which after having been submitted to discussion, has been definitely rejected after the third reading, can be renewed until after a year has elapsed.

79. The propositions adopted by the Council of the Five Hundred are called Resolutions.

80. The preamble of every resolution states:

1st. The dates of the sittings upon which the three readings of the proposition shall have occurred;

2d. The act by which after the third reading it has been declared that there was not cause for adjournment.

81. The propositions recognized as urgent by a previous declaration of the Council of the Five Hundred are exempt from the forms prescribed by article 77.

This declaration states the motives for urgency and mention shall be made of them in the preamble of the resolution.