Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/304

274 28. The Tribunate discusses the projects for laws: it votes for their adoption or their rejection.

It sends three orators taken from its own body, by whom the grounds for the view that it has taken upon each of these proposals are set forth and defended before the Legislative Body.

It refers to the Senate, on account of unconstitutionality only, the lists of eligibles, the acts of the Legislative Body and those of the government.

29. It expresses its opinion upon the laws made and to be made, the abuses to be corrected, and the improvements to be undertaken in all parts of the public administration, but never upon civil or criminal matters pending before the tribunals.

The opinions that it expresses by virtue of the present article have no necessary consequence and do not compel any constituted authority to a deliberation.

30. When the Tribunate adjourns, it can appoint a commission of from ten to fifteen of its members, charged to convoke it if it deems expedient.

31. The Legislative Body is composed of three hundred members of at least thirty years of age; they are renewed each year by a fifth.

It must always contain at least one member from each department of the Republic.

32. A member retiring from the Legislative Body cannot re-enter it until after an interval of one year; but he can be immediately elected to any other public office, including that of tribune, if he is otherwise eligible to it.

33. The session of the Legislative Body commences each year upon 1 Frimaire, and continues only four months; it can be convoked in extraordinary session during the other eight months by the government.

34. The Legislative Body makes a law by deciding through secret ballot, and without any discussion on the part of its members, upon the projects of law discussed before it by the orators of the Tribunate and the government.

35. The sittings of the Tribunate and those of the Legislative Body are public; the number of spectators at either of them cannot exceed two hundred.