On Civil Liberty and Self-Government
chapter iv.: of the senate.
19th Century Theodore Dwight Woolsey EnglishArt. 19. The number of senators shall not exceed 150; it is fixed for the first year at 80.
Art. 20. The senate is composed: 1, of cardinals, marshals, and admirals; 2, of citizens whom the president of the republic may think proper to raise to the dignity of senators.
Art. 21. The senators are appointed for life.
Art. 22. The functions of senator are gratuitous; nevertheless, the president of the republic may grant to senators, on account of services rendered, or of their position with regard to fortune, a personal donation, which cannot exceed 30,000 francs per annum.
Art. 23. The president and the vice-presidents of the senate are named by the president of the republic, and chosen from among the senators. They are appointed for one year. The salary of the president of the senate is fixed by a decree.
Art. 24. The president of the republic convokes and prorogues the senate. He fixes the duration of its sessions by a decree. The sittings of the senate are not public.
Art. 25. The senate is the guardian of the fundamental compact and of public liberties. No law can be promulgated without being submitted to it.
Art. 26. The senate may oppose the promulgation:
Of laws which may be contrary to, or be an attack on, the constitution, on religion, on morals, on freedom of worship, on individual liberty, on the equality of citizens in the eye of the law, on the inviolability of property, and on the principle of the immovability of the magistracy.
Of those which may comprise the defence of the territory.
Art. 27. The senate regulates by a senatus-consultum:
The constitution of the colonies and of Algeria.
All that has not been provided for by the constitution, and which is necessary for its march.
The sense of the articles of the constitution which give rise to different interpretations.
Art. 28. These senatus-consulta will be submitted to the sanction of the president of the republic, and promulgated by him.
Art. 29. The senate maintains or annuls all the acts which are referred to it as unconstitutional by the government, or denounced for the same cause by the petitions of citizens.
Art. 30. The senate may, in a report addressed to the president of the republic, lay down the bases of bills of great national interest.
Art. 31. It may also propose modifications in the constitution. If the proposition is adopted by the executive power, it must be stated by a senatus-consultum.
Art. 32. Nevertheless, all modifications in the fundamental basis of the constitution, such as they were laid down in the proclamation of the 2d December, and adopted by the French people, shall be submitted to universal suffrage.
Art. 33. In case of the dissolution of the legislative body, and until a new convocation, the senate, on the proposition of the president of the republic, shall provide by measures of urgency for all that is necessary for the progress of the government.