Section 4.-Of the Attributes of the Legislative Power divided into Chambers.

54. The following are the attributes and duties of Congress:

:

(1.) To reform the Constitution in accordance with the procedure prescribed therein, and to interpret and settle any doubts that may arise as regards the meaning of any of its Articles. Such interpretation or resolution shall be embodied in a special law;

(2.) To watch over the just and lawful application of the public revenue;

(3.) To impose taxation and to authorize the executive to contract loans on the security of public credit. Such loans may not be issued unless approved by Congress;

(4.) To take into consideration the National Debt, and to determine the manner of its redemption and the means for the payment of interest;

(5.) To regulate the administration of public property, to make decrees as to its disposal, and to employ it for objects of public utility;

(6.) To notify the proper authorities by simple resolution of either of the Chambers, to make good the responsibility of public officials who may have abused their opportunities or have failed in the discharge of their duties;

(7.) To create or abolish employments, the creation or abolition of which are not vested in any other authority or body; to fix or modify the functions of officials, and to define their period of service and emoluments;

(8.) To declare according to law, and in view of a judgment pronounced by the Court of Exchequer, the legal and pecuniary responsibility of the Minister of Finance;

(9.) To confer rewards, solely honourable and personal, on those who may have rendered great services to the country, and to decree public honours to their memory;

(10.) To determine and make uniform the alloy, weight, value. and denominations of the national money; to make regulations as to the admission and circulation of foreign money, and to regulate the system of weights and measures;

(11.) To fix annually the maximum of the armed forces, both naval and military, to be maintained on active service in time of peace, and to make regulations for its recruiting;

(12.) To declare war on information received from the executive; to require the latter to enter into negotiations for peace; and to approve or withhold approval from public Treaties and other Conventions. Without such approval they will not be ratified or the ratifications exchanged;

(13.) To dictate general educational laws for the establishments of education and public instruction;

(14.) To promote and

science; the enterprises, discoveries, and improvements that it may be desirable to establish in the Republic;

(15.) To grant amnesties or pardons, general or particular, for political offences; and general pardons for common offences when required for any serious reason, whatever may be the position of the trial.

Except in the cases referred to in the foregoing paragraph Congress shall not suspend the course of judicial proceedings nor revoke the decisions or orders of the judicial power;

(16.) To grant or refuse permission for the transit of foreign troops through the territory of the Republic, or the stationing of foreign ships of war in the ports for a period exceeding two months;

(17.) To create or abolish provinces or cantons, to settle their boundaries, and to open or close ports;

(18.) To decree the opening or improvement of roads and canals without interference with the rights of districts to open and improve their own;

(19.) To draw up national codes, pass laws, decrees, agreements, and resolutions for the regulation of the different branches of the public administration, and to interpret, reform, or abrogate them;

(20.) To exercise the other attributes confided to it by the Constitution and the laws.

55. Congress is prohibited from :

(1.) Exercising the faculties reserved to the executive power, or those which by law may be attributed to any other authority or corporation;

(2.) Diminishing the faculties which, under this Constitution, appertain to the authorities of the district Governments;

(3.) Decreeing any payments without previously providing the necessary credit in accordance with law, or any indemnity unless preceded by a definite sentence;

(4.) Writing off the balances of the accounts or other credits relating to the public funds;

(5.) Granting life pensions;

(6.) Establishing, recognizing, or continuing life appointments or employments in the public service; and

(7.) Delegating to one or more of its members, or to any other person, corporation, or authority, any of the attributes expressed in the preceding Article, or, generally, any function imposed upon it by this Constitution.

Section 5.-Of the Legislative Chambers united in Congress.

56. The Chambers shall unite in Congress :

(1.) To verify the scrutiny of the Registers and to declare legally elected President of the Republic him who shall have obtained a majority of votes, conformably with Article 72 of this Constitution;

(2.) To accept or reject the excuse for absence, or the

resignation, of the President of the Republic, or to decide whether a new election should or should not be held in the case of impossible physical or mental conditions of the President;

(3.) To appoint the members of the Council of State, the Ministers of the Supreme Court, of the Superior Courts, and the accounting officers;

(4.) To receive the pledges of the high officials and to accept or reject their excuses or resignations;

(5.) To approve or withhold approval, in session and by secret voting, the proposals made by the executive for promotion to the rank of colonel and general, subject to the law relating to military promotion;

(6.) To examine any of the official acts of the Secretaries of State, and to censure them should there be grounds for the

same;

(7.) To decree the national budget, balancing expenditure with income. Special provisions shall be made in the budget for maintaining public instruction and the judicial power. The budget shall be settled by Congress in these debates;

(8.) Whenever either of the Chambers makes a request to that effect, or whenever it may be necessary in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the laws.

Section 6. Of the Making of Laws and other Legislative Acts.

57. The laws and decrees of Congress may originate in one of the Chambers on the initiative of any of its members, or of the executive power, or of the Supreme Courts. The proposals of the latter must, however, be confined to matters relating to the administration of justice.

58. If a proposal to bring in a Bill or decree is negatived in the Chamber originating it, it shall be postponed to the next Legislature, unless it is brought forward again with modifications. In the event of its being admitted it will be debated by each Chamber, in three sessions and on different days.

59. A Bill or decree, having been approved by the Chamber in which it originated, shall be immediately sent on, with an indication of the days on which it has been debated, to the other Chamber, which may give or withhold its approval, or make the amendments, additions, or modifications it considers desirable.

60. If the Chamber in which the Bill was first debated does not accept the negation of the whole Bill by the revising Chamber, or does not admit the proposed amendments, it may again send forward the Bill. If, in spite of this insistence the revising Chamber does not give its approval to the Bill, and the additions or modifications affect the Bill as a whole, it will not be debated till the next Legislature. If, however, they only refer to one or more of its clauses, such clauses shall be withdrawn and the Bill proceeded with.

61. The Bill or decree having received the assent of both

Chambers is sent to the executive power for his sanction. If he sanctions it he will order it to be promulgated and executed, but if he disapproves of it he will return it, with his observations, within six days, to the Chamber in which it originated. Bills passed by both Chambers as urgent will be sanctioned or vetoed within three days by the executive power, who shall have no right to decide as to the question of urgency.

62. If the Chamber of origin considers the reasons of the executive to be well-founded, and if they affect the Bill as a whole, the Bill will be deposited in the archives until the following Legislature. But if they are only limited to amendments or modifications, the Chamber may discuss and settle them in a single debate.

63. Should the majority of the members present not admit the observations as relating to the whole of the Bill, the initiating Chamber will send the Bill on with the objections to the revising Chamber, which, if it considers the observations valid, will return the measure in order that it may be deposited in the archives. If, however, the revising Chamber, by a majority of its members, also objects to the observations, the Bill will be returned to the Chamber of origin, which will then pass it on to the executive power for his sanction, which cannot be refused.

64. If the executive power should not return a measure, sanctioned or with observations, within six days, or three in case of urgency, or if he should refuse to sanction it after all constitutional requirements have been complied with, it shall have the force of law. The Bills which may be pending in the office of the executive power at the time when Congress suspends or closes its sessions, and may have been objected to, shall be published in the "Registro Oficial," and shall be presented in the first three days of the next session of the Legislature with the objections duly made. Should, however, the Bill not be published within the space of six days, with the objections thereto, it shall have the force of law.

65. Bills which go to the executive for sanction shall be in duplicate, and both copies signed by the Presidents and Secretaries of the Chambers. They shall also bear a statement of the dates on which they were debated.

66. Resolutions and agreements shall be passed in a single debate.

67. The same formalities shall be observed in interpreting, amending, or abrogating the laws as in their formation.

68. In the laws, decrees, agreements, and resolutions issued by Congress the following formulas will be employed according to circumstances: "The Congress of the Republic of the Equator decrees, resolves, or agrees"; "The Congress of the Republic of the Equator considering decrees, resolves,

or agrees"; "Let it be insisted on.'

The executive power will employ the following: "Let it be executed," or "Let it be objected to." [1910-11. civ.] 3 Q

69. The laws and decrees will be promulgated by the executive power within six days following the date on which his sanction was given; if at the end of that period he has not promulgated them, the Council of State, under the severest penalties, shall do so also within six days.

CHAPTER IX. Of the Executive Power.

Section 1.-General Dispositions.

70. The executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic.

71. In case the Presidency is vacant the post shall be filled by :

(1.) The last President of the Senate;

(2.) The last President of the Chamber of Deputies;

(3.) The last Vice-President of the Senate;

(4.) The last Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies.

In the case of the accidental absence, or obstacle standing in the way of the person who should legally fill the place of President of the Republic, the next person following in the above list shall take the place until the executive power is assumed by the person called thereto by the law.

72. The President of the Republic shall be elected by secret and direct vote in conformity with the Electoral Law. Congress will scrutinize the votes and will declare the election in favour of the citizen who has obtained an absolute majority or, failing that, a relative majority. In case of equal votes the election will be decided by lot.

73. To be President of the Republic it is necessary to have been born in the territory of the Equator, to be in possession of the rights of citizenship, and to have reached 40 years of age.

74. The post of President of the Republic is vacated by death, dismissal, acceptance of resignation, physical or mental incapacity, and by the completion of the term fixed by the Constitution.

75. When by death, resignation, or any of the causes mentioned in the preceding Article, the office of President of the Republic becomes vacant, the person entitled to fill the place shall exercise the executive power until the next ordinary Legislature, and will make arrangements, within the space of eight days counting from the day on which the vacancy occurred, for a new election to take place; such election shall be concluded within the space of two months at the most. The next Congress will scrutinize the voting in the first days of its session, and not later than the 31st August, so that the new constitutional period may commence on the 1st September.

76. The President of the Republic will hold office for four years, and shall not be eligible for re-election until after the lapse of two constitutional periods.

77. No relation within the second degree of consanguinity or the first of affinity of the individual actually exercising the