Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/274

244 for the high court of justice the functions of national accusers.

271. The bills of accusation are drawn up and put into form by the Council of the Five Hundred.

272. The electoral assemblies of each department select every year a jury for the high court of justice.

273. The Executive Directory causes to be printed and published, one month after the date of the elections, the list of the jurors appointed by the high court of justice.

Title IX. Of the Armed Force.

274. The armed force is established in order to defend the state against enemies from without and to assure within the maintenance of order and the execution of the laws.

275. The armed force is essentially obedient : no armed force can deliberate.

276. It is divided into the reserve national guard and the active national guard.

Of the Reserve National Guard.

277. The reserve national guard is composed of all citizens and sons of citizens in condition to bear arms.

278. Its organization and its discipline are the same for the whole Republic ; they are fixed by law.

279. No Frenchman can exercise the rights of citizenship if he is not registered upon the roll of the reserve national guard.

280. The distinctions of rank and subordination exist there only in relation to the service and during its continuance.

281. The officers of the reserve national guard are elected at stated times by the citizens who compose it and can be re-elected only after an interval.

282. The command of the national guard of an entire department cannot be entrusted ordinarily to a single citizen.

283. If it is deemed necessary to assemble the whole national guard of a department, the Executive Directory can appoint a temporary commander.

284. The command of the reserve national guard in a city of a hundred thousand and upwards cannot ordinarily be entrusted to a single man.