# Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria (1818)

Source: British and Foreign State Papers, 1817–1818. London. James Ridgway and Sons. 1837. pp.1055–1076.
CONSTITUTIONAL ACT of the Kingdom of Bavaria.— Munich, 26th May, 1818.
(Translation)
Maximilian Joseph, by the Grace of God, King of Bavaria.
Impressed with a due sense of the important duties of a Sovereign, and actuated thereby, we have hitherto distinguished our Government by the adoption of such regulations as displayed our continued exertions to promote the general prosperity of the whole of our Subjects. In order more firmly to establish the same, we granted, in the year 1808, a Constitution to our Kingdom, which was suited to its external and internal relations existing at that time, and into which we admitted the introduction of a Representative Assembly as its principal and most essential provision. The great political events which occurred subsequently to that period, by which every German State was in some degree affected, and during the operation of which the People of Bavaria shewed themselves to be as magnanimous while suffering under oppression, as they were while engaged in contests on the field of battle, had scarcely reached their termination, by the Act of the Congress at Vienna, when we immediately endeavoured to complete the undertaking, which had been interrupted only by the circumstances of the times, with a steadfast and determined regard to the general and peculiar claims requiring to be attended to in order to promote the general purposes of the State. The preliminary proceedings which were directed to be taken with this object in the year 1814, and the Decree of the 2nd of February, 1817, prove the sincere resolution which we had previously formed on this subject. The present Constitutional Act, having first received the fullest and most mature deliberation, and having afterwards been considered by our Council of State, is the work of our own free-will and earnest determination, and our People will find it it, from the following summary of its contents, the strongest and most convincing pledge of the sincerity of our royal and paternal intentions:
Freedom of conscience, and a conscientious separation and protection of whatever is the property of the State and of the Church;
Freedom of opinions, with legal restrictions to prevent the abuse of it;
Equal right of Native Subjects to promotion to all the grades of Public Service, and to all marks of distinction awarded to merit;
Equal liability to be called upon for the duty and for the honour of bearing arms;
Equality in the eye of the Law, whether as Plaintiffs or Defendants, Accusers or Accused;
Impartiality and dispatch in the administration of Justice;
Equality in the imposition of, and in the obligation to pay, Taxes and Duties;
Order in every branch of the domestic economy of the State,—legitimate maintenance of the Public Credit, and a guarantee of the proper application of the funds appointed for these purposes;
Re-establishment of the Communal Corporations, by the restitution to them of the administration of those affairs upon which most particularly depend their prosperity;
A Representative Assembly, proceeding from all classes of Citizens domiciled in the State, enjoying the rights of counselling, of assenting to Laws, of voting grants, of expressing wishes, and of prefering complaints on account of the violation of rights guaranteed by the Constitution; summoned in order to increase in public convocations the wisdom of deliberation without weakening the power and influence of the Government;
And, finally, a solemn pledge or guarantee, securing the Constitution against any capricious alterations, but not preventing those progressive changes in it which may be found by experience to tend more and more to its improvement.
Bavarians! These are the fundamental provisions of the Constitution granted to you of our own free-will and determination;—and in them you will perceive the principles of a King, who will not derive the happiness of his heart and the glory of his Throne from any other source than the prosperity of his Country and the love and affection of his People.
We hereby declare the following stipulations to be the Constitutional Law of the Kingdom of Bavaria:
Title I.—General Regulations.
Art. I. The Kingdom of Bavaria, collectively, with all the portions of Territory acquired recently and in previous years, shall form one Sovereign Monarchical State, according to the stipulations contained in the present Constitutional Act.
II. There shall exist for the whole Kingdom one general Assembly of Estates or Representatives, divided into 2 Chambers.
Title II.—Of the King and of the succession to the Throne, and also of the Regency.
Art. I. The King shall be the Supreme Head of the State, shall unite in himself all the rights of political dominion, and shall exercise them under the conditions established in the present Constitutional Act, granted by himself.
His Person shall be sacred and inviolable.
II. The Crown shall be hereditary in the Male Line of the Royal House, according to the order of Primogeniture, and of regular lineal hereditary descent from the same Ancestor.
III. In order to establish the eligibility of Succession, a legitimate birth from Parents who were born of an equal class, and who were married with the consent of the King, shall be requisite.
IV. The Male shall have preference before the Female Descendants; and the Princesses shall be excluded from the Succession to the Crown, so long as there exists in the Royal House either a Male Descendant competent to succeed, or a Prince entitled to the Throne according to any Special Compact of reciprocal inheritance.
V. In the event of the entire extinction of the Male Line, and in default of a Special Compact of reciprocal inheritance, concluded with another Princely House belonging to the Germanic Confederation, the Throne shall devolve upon a Female Descendant, in precisely the same order of succession as is established for the Male Line; so that the Bavarian Princesses, or their Descendants, without distinction as to sex, who are living at the time of the demise of the last reigning Monarch, shall be eligible to succeed to the Throne, in the same manner as if they were Princes belonging o the original Male Line of the Bavarian House, according to the order of Primogeniture, and the right of lineal hereditary succession.
If in such new reigning branch of the Royal House, Descendants of the first grade and of both sexes should be born, the preference shall be again enjoyed by the Male to the exclusion of the Female Line.
VI. Should the Bavarian Crown, in the event of the extinction of the Male Line, devolve upon the Sovereign of another Monarchy, who could not or would not reside in the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Crown shall then pass over to the second-born Prince of the same House, and the like hereditary succession shall be observed in his Line as has been already pointed out.
But if the Crown should devolve upon the Consort of a Foreign Sovereign ruling over another Monarchy, such Consort shall nevertheless become Queen: Her Majesty must, however, appoint a Viceroy, who shall take up his residence in the Capital of the Kingdom, and, after her demise, the Crown shall devolve upon her second-born Prince.
VII. The Princes and Princesses of the Royal House shall attain their majority upon their completing the 18th year of their age.
VIII. The other relative circumstances of the Members of the Royal House shall be arranged in conformity with the regulations of the Pragmatic Family Law.
IX. The Government shall be administered by a Regent:
a. During the minority of the Monarch; and,
b. When the Monarch is prevented from continuing to exercise the Supreme Authority, and shall not have made, and is unable to make, arrangements for the due administration of the Government.
X. The Monarch shall be at liberty to select, from amongst those Princes of the Family who have attained their majority, a Prince to act as Regent during the period of the minority of his Successor.
In default of such a selection, the temporary administration of the Government shall devolve upon the Male Descendant from the original Ancestor, who is the next Heir in the established order of hereditary succession, if he shall have attained his majority.
Should the Prince, however, upon whom, according to the above regulation, the Regency would devolve, be a Minor, or be unable, from any other cause, to undertake it, the temporary direction of affairs shall then devolve upon the Male Descendant from the original Ancestor, who is the next Prince in succession after him.
XI. Should the Monarch, by any cause whatever, the existence or the effect of which shall continue longer than a year, be prevented from exercising the supreme authority; and should he not previously have provided for this contingency, and be prevented from making the requisite arrangements, the same legal Regulations with respect to the Regency, which are to be observed in the event of his minority, shall be adopted in this case, with the concurrence of the Estates, to whom the causes of prevention shall be explained.
XII. When the King, agreeably to Article X, shall nominate the Regent, who is to act during the minority of his Successor, the Declaration of Appointment, to be executed for this purpose, shall be preserved among the Family Archives, under the charge of that Minister to whom the performance of the duties of Officer of the Royal House are entrusted, until the demise of the Monarch; and, upon the occurrence of that event, it shall be communicated to the Collective Ministry of State, for their information, and with a view to Public Proclamation. The Act containing the Appointment shall, at the same time, be communicated also to the Regent.
XIII. Should there be no Male Descendant from the original Ancestor living, who is qualified to take upon himself the temporary government of the Kingdom, the Queen, Widow of the deceased Monarch, should there be one, shall become Regent.
Should there be no such Queen-Widow, the Sovereign Authority shall be assumed by that Officer of the Crown whom the last reigning Monarch may have nominated for the purpose; and if the nomination of such an Officer should not have been made by him, the Regency shall then be transferred to the Principal Officer of the Crown, who is not prevented by any legal obstacle from undertaking it.
XIV. In any case, the Queen-Widow shall have the charge, under the superintendence of the temporary Administrator of the Kingdom, of the education of her Children, agreeably to the particular stipulations upon this subject contained in the Family Law.
XV. In the cases pointed out in Article IX, § a and b, the Government shall be administered in the Name of the Monarch;—whether he be a Minor, or be prevented from exercising the supreme authority.
All Documents of every description shall be issued in his Name and under the usual Royal Seal, and all Coins shall be stamped with his Effigy, Arms, and Titles.
The Regent shall subscribe himself as "The Administrator of the Kingdom of Bavaria."
XVI. The Prince of the Royal House, the Queen-Widow, or the Officer of the Crown, to whom the temporary Administration of the Kingdom shall be confided, must, immediately after his or her assumption of the Regency, convoke the Estates, and, in the midst of them, and in the presence of the Ministers of the State, and also of the Members of the Council of State, take the following Oath:
"I swear to administer the State in conformity with the Constitution and the Laws of the Kingdom; to maintain the integrity of the Kingdom and the rights of the Crown, and faithfully to surrender up to the King the authority, the exercise of which is entrusted to me. So help me God, and his Holy Gospel." Of which Oath a Special Record shall be kept.
XVII. The Regent shall exercise, during his or her temporary Administration of the Kingdom, all those rights of Supreme Power which are not specially excepted by this Constitutional Act.
XVIII. All Offices, with the exception of those in the Department of Justice, which fall vacant during the temporary Administration of the Government, can be only provisionally filled up. The Regent cannot alienate the property of the Crown, nor grant Fiefs, nor introduce new Offices.
XIX. The Collective Ministry of State shall form the Council of the Regency, and the Regent shall be bound to take the opinion of this Council upon all important matters.
XX. The Administrator of the Government shall, during the continuance of his or her Regency, inhabit the Royal Residence, and be maintained at the charge of the State; and there shall be assigned to the Regent, for his or her own disposal, out of the Public Treasury, the sum of 200,000 florins annually, payable in monthly proportions.
XXI. The duration of the Regency, in the 2 cases mentioned in Article IX shall be;—in the first, until the majority of the King, and in the second, until the obstacle which may have arisen shall have ceased.
XXII. When the Regency is at an end, and the Kingdom, upon assuming the Chief Authority, shall have made the solemn Deposition pointed out in Title X, Article I, all the transactions of the Regency shall be considered as concluded, and the Accession of the King to the Government shall be solemnly proclaimed, both in the Capitol and throughout the Kingdom.
Title III.—Of the Property of the State.
Art. I. The Property of the State throughout the Kingdom of Bavaria shall form a single, indivisible, inalienable, collective mass, by the union of all its constituent parts, comprizing Territories of every description, Lordships, Domains, and Royal Dues and Rents, with every thing appertaining therto.
All new acquisitions of immoveable property in virtue of Private Titles, whether they be derived from the direct or the collateral line, shall, unless the Person who first acquired them made, during his lifetime, a special disposition of them, fall to the inheritance of the male line, and be considered as incorporated with the collective mass.
II. The inalienable property of the State, which, in case of a separation of the public and private effects of the deceased Monarch, ought not to be introduced into the inventory of the latter effects, shall consist of:
1. All the Archives and Registries;
2. All the Public Establishments and Buildings, with their appurtenances;
3. All the Arms and Ammunition, and all the Military Magazines, and whatever is required for maintaining the Fortifications of the Country;
4. All the Establishments of the Royal Chapels, and of the Offices belonging to the Household of the Sovereign, with all the furniture appertaining thereto, which are entrusted to the charge of the Superintendents and Principal Officers of the Court, and are necessary for the use, or for the splendour, of the Court;
5. All that has been appropriated to the arrangement, or for the ornament, of the Town Residences and Country Palaces;
6. The Property of the Royal House, and whatever has been united to it by testament;
7. All Collections for the promotion of the Arts and Sciences, such as Libraries, Museums, Cabinets of Natural Curiosities and Coins, Antiques, Statues, Observatories and the Instruments used in them Pictures, and Collections of Copper Plate Engravings, and all other Articles which are set apart for the use of the public, or for the encouragement of the Arts and Sciences;
8. All actual and available sums in Cash and Capital Funds in the Public Treasury, and all Collections of Natural Productions, remaining with the Administrators of the Public Domains; together with all outstanding Dues payable to the State; and lastly,
9. Whatever has been procured with the public money.
III. All the constituent parts of the property of the State, as has already been determined in the Pragmatic Law of 20th October, 1804, (from which have been transferred into the present Constitutional Act those stipulations, which are, according to the altered circumstances relating thereto, still in force upon the subject,) shall be for ever inalienable, with a reservation of the under-mentioned modifications.
All the rights of Supreme Authority, however, shall, without exception, and above all others, be maintained entire and undivided, for him who is to enjoy them by virtue of Primogeniture.
IV. Not only is every actual sale to be regarded as an alienation of the property of the State; but also any donation to the living, or any transfer by the terms of a last will or testament, or any grant of a new fief, or the imposition of any permanent burthen upon, or the mortgaging or surrendering up of any part of, such property, in consequence of a compromise entered into upon condition of the receipt of a sum of money, are to be so regarded. Exemption from contributing towards the public burthens shall, on no account, be conceded to any Subject of the State.
V. Those fiefs, public domains, and revenues, which have already been granted, as rewards for particular services rendered to the State, shall be excepted from the above prohibition.
The King shall also be at liberty, at all times, again to dispose, by grant, of all the fiefs which may fall in.
Other public domains or revenues may, with the concurrence of the Estates, be granted, in the character of male-fiefs of the Crown, as a recompense for great and decisive services rendered to the State. Reversions to domains, revenues, and privileges, which may at any future time devolve to the Crown, shall not be granted, nor any reversions to Offices of honour or profit.
VI. From the prohibitions, as to alienations, shall further be excepted:
1. All those public transactions of the Monarch, which, being within the limits of the rights belonging to hi as the Supreme Authority, have been undertaken upon public grounds, and with a view to the benefit of the State, either with Foreigners or with Subjects of the Country, relative to the hereditary property and public domains;
2. Especially also, whatever particular estates and dues are given up, in order to bring to a termination a depending law-suit, and upon condition of retaining or acquiring other estates, revenues, or privileges, or with a view to the settlement of a question of Boundary-line with the neighboring States, and also upon condition of receiving in return a suitable compensation;
3. Whatever is given in exchange for other absolute property, and privileges, which may be of equal value;
4. Whatever particular alienations or exchanges of the property of the State have, in conformity with some public purpose, and in consequence of the regulations already issued, been found advisable, agreeably to the strict principle of carrying into effect a progressively improving administration of the public resources, in order to promote agricultural amelioration or the general prosperity of the Country, to benefit the public Treasury, or to abolish any prejudicial management peculiar thereto.
VII. In all the cases described in the preceding Article, the Revenues of the State shall not however be diminished; but stipulations shall be made for compensating the parties, when necessary, by the payment of a dominical rent, if possible in corn; and the money received from the parties shall be employed, in procuring new acquisitions, in affording temporary assistance to the fund for the liquidation of debts, or in any other manner having for object the general prosperity of the Country.
With respect to the moveable articles, comprehended in the property of the State described in Article II, the Sovereign may effect such alterations and improvements as may be suitable to time and circumstances.
Title IV.—Of general Rights and Duties.
Art. I. In order to be admitted to a full participation in all civil rights, both public and private, in Bavaria, the enjoyment of the right of a native Subject, called indigenat, shall be required; which is obtained either by birth or by naturalization, according to the regulations detailed in the Edict upon this subject.
II. The right of a Bavarian Citizen of the State is obtained, as a natural consequence, by the grant of the right of indigenat, and is forfeited at the same time with the forfeiture thereof.
III. In order to exercise the above-mentioned right, it is necessary, in addition,
a. To have attained the age of majority fixed by Law.
b. To be domiciled in the Kingdom; by the possession of lands, revenues, or privileges, liable to taxation, by the exercise of a trade upon which contributions are payable, or by holding a public appointment.
IV. Crown-Offices, the Principal Offices of the Court, Civil Employments of the State, and the chief Military Appointments, as also Ecclesiastical Dignities, or Benefices, can be conferred only upon Natives, or upon Persons naturalized according to the Constitutional Regulations.
V. Every Bavarian Subject, without distinction, may attain to all Civil and Military Appointments, and to all Ecclesiastical Dignities, or Benefices.
VI. Personal bondage, of any description whatever, shall on no account exist throughout the whole Kingdom, in conformity with the stipulations of the Edict of 3rd August, 1808.
VII. All indefinite soccage services shall be defined and made positive, and when regulated and arranged shall also be redeemable.
VIII. The State guarantees to each individual Inhabitant, security for his person, property, and rights.
No one shall be withdrawn from his ordinary Judge.
No one shall be apprehended or prosecuted, except in those cases distinctly laid down in the Laws, and then only according to the legal forms.
No one shall be compelled to surrender up his private property, even for public purposes, until after a formal decision of the assembled Council of State, and after the receipt of an indemnification, as settled in the Ordinance of 14th August, 1815.
IX. Perfect liberty of conscience is secured to every Inhabitant of the Kingdom; the simple act of domestic devotion, therefore, shall not be forbidden to any Individual, whatever may be the Religion which he professes.
The 3 Christian Ecclesiastical Communities existing in the Kingdom shall enjoy equal rights, both civil and political.
Those Individuals, however, who do not profess the Christian Faith, although they shall enjoy complete liberty of conscience, shall participate in the enjoyment of the general rights of Citizens of the State, to such an extent only as the same is secured to them in the Organic Edict, relative to their reception into the Community at large.
The property of beneficed Foundations, and the enjoyment of their Revenues, according to the original Documents by which they were established, and according to the due and legal possession of them, shall be completely secured to every denomination of religious professions, without any exception, whether such Foundations have been instituted for education, or for religious or charitable purposes.
The Spiritual Authorities shall never be impeded within their peculiar sphere of action, and the Temporal Administration shall on no account interfere in the purely spiritual matters of the doctrines of religion and of conscience, except in so far as the supreme right of protection, and of superintendence, vested in the Sovereign, are concerned; according to which right no Ordinances and Laws of the Ecclesiastical Authorities are to be promulgated and carried into execution, without being previously submitted to the King and receiving His Majesty's Placet.
The Churches, and the Spiritual Officers attached to them, are, in their civil concerns and relations, as also with reference to the property belonging to them, subject to the Laws of the State and to the Temporal Tribunals; and they can in no respect claim exemption from sharing the public burthens of the Kingdom.
The other stipulations relating to the outward judicial relations of the Inhabitants of the Kingdom in matters of religion, and to Ecclesiastical Communities, are contained in detail in the Special Edict to be appended to the present Constitutional Charter.
X. The whole property of Foundations instituted for the 3 objects of religion, education, and charity, shall be placed under the immediate protection of the State, and shall not, under any pretence whatever, be included with the public property in any financial arrangements, or be alienated or appropriated to other than the 3 objects already mentioned, without the consent of all the Parties interested, and, in the case of the Public Chartered Establishments, without the approbation of the Estates of the Kingdom.
XI. The freedom of the Press and of the Book-trade shall be secured, under the Regulations of the Special Edict which is to be issued upon the subject.
XII. Every Bavarian shall be equally bound to perform military duty, and to serve in the Corps that may be specially raised for the defence of the Country, and for employment only within the limits of the same, agreeably to the existing Laws upon this subject.
XIII. The participation in the public burthens of the State shall be general for all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom, without exception of any particular grade, and without regard to any special exemptions which were formerly enjoyed.
XIV. All Bavarians shall be at liberty to emigrate to any other State belonging to the Germanic Confederation, which it can be proved is willing to receive them as Subjects; and also to enter into the military and civil service of such State; provided that they have fulfilled their engagements towards the Country of their birth.
They shall not, however, so long as they remain Subjects of Bavaria, accept either pay or honorary distinctions from a Foreign Power, without the express permission of their own Sovereign.
Title V.—Of peculiar Rights and Privileges.
Art. I. The Crown Appointments, being the principal Posts of honour in the Kingdom, shall be conferred as Feudal Tenures held of the Throne, either for the life of the Persons who are to enjoy them, or with reversion to their male heirs, according to the right of Primogeniture, and of regular lineal hereditary descent from the common Ancestor of the Family.
The Crown Officers shall, by virtue of their Royal Appointments, be Members of the First Chamber of the Assembly of the Estates.
II. The Princes and Counts who were formerly Members of the Estates of the German Empire shall be secured in the enjoyment of all those privileges and rights which are described in the Special Edict, determining their relative position and circumstances, which is to be appended to the present Constitutional Act.
III. Those of the Nobility who were formerly immediate Nobles of the Empire, and are now subject to the Sovereignty of Bavaria, shall enjoy all the rights which, in conformity with the Royal Declaration on the subject, are secured to them in the Constitutional Act.
IV. All the other Nobility of the Kingdom shall, like every individual possessor of a domain, retain the rights appertaining to them as Proprietors of Domains, according to the legal enactments on the subject contained in the Edict to be appended to the present Constitutional Act.
They shall, moreover, enjoy the following privileges:
1. The exclusive right of exercising a certain jurisdiction within the limits of their domains, under the provisions of a Special Edict to be issued for the purpose, and to be appended to the present Constitutional Act.
2. The right of establishing family entails upon their landed property, according to the Edict to be appended to the present Constitutional Act.
3. The right of recourse to special Judicial Tribunals in civil and in criminal cases, independently of the ordinary Courts of Justice of the Country.
4. The exercise of certain rights of verifying and issuing Documents under their own Seals, according to the restrictions contained in the Laws relating to Mortgages, defined in the Edict upon the subject, and which is to be appended to the present Constitutional Act.
5. The distinction that, on the occasions of Military Conscription, their Sons, as Noblemen, shall be entered as Cadets.
V. The Spiritual Councillors of the Principal Boards of Administration, as well as the Superior Functionaries who are in the same category with them, shall, in like manner, also enjoy, as regards their persons, the following privileges:
The Spiritual Councillors shall enjoy the same independent Judicial Tribunals, in civil and criminal cases; and the Councillors of the Principal Boards of Administration and the Superior Functionaries shall enjoy, in addition thereto, the further right of verifying and issuing Documents under their own Seals, and also the above distinction on the occasions of Military Conscription.
VI. The relative position, with reference to their Services, and their claims to receive Pensions, of the Officers of State and Public Functionaries, shall be regulated according to the stipulations contained in the Pragmatic Law regarding the Services of Public Officers.
Title VI.—Of the Assembly of the Estates.
Art. I. The 2 Chambers of the General Assembly of the Estates of the Kingdom, shall consist of:
a. The Chamber of Senators of the Kingdom.
b. The Chamber of Deputies.
II. The Chamber of Senators of the Kingdom shall be composed of:
1. The Princes of the Royal House, who shall have attained their majority.
2. The Crown Officers of the Kingdom.
3. The 2 Archbishops.
4. The Heads of the Families of those Princes and Counts who were formerly Members of the Estates of the German Empire, as Hereditary Senators of the Kingdom; so long as they remain in possession of those Domains, situated in the Kingdom, by virtue of which they, or the original Possessors, belonged to the Estates of the Empire.
5. A Bishop, appointed by the King, and the President for the time being of the Protestant General Consistory.
6. Those Persons whom the King, on account of distinguished services rendered by them to the State, or on account of their birth or of their property, shall specially nominate as Members of this Chamber, either for the term of their natural lives, or with reversion to their heirs.
III. The King shall grant the right of inheriting seats in this Chamber, only to those noble Proprietors of Domains, who enjoy, to their fullest extent, the rights of Citizens of the State, and who possess landed property, which is subject to the conditions imposed upon fiefs and entails,—upon which are payable land and dominical taxes in simplo, the the amount of 300 florins, and in possessing which, a lineal hereditary succession from the common ancestors of the family, according to the rights of primogeniture, is observed.
The dignity of an Hereditary Senator of the Kingdom, acquired with the Domains upon which the entail has been established, reverts in all cases to such Proprietor only as comes into possession of them according to this plan of hereditary succession.
IV. The number of Senators of the Kingdom, appointed for life, shall not exceed the third part of those whose seats are hereditary.
V. The Hereditary Senators of the Kingdom shall be admitted into the Chamber so soon as they have attained their majority; but they shall not be entitled to vote until the following periods: that is to say, the Princes of the Royal House, when they shall have attained the 21st, and the other Senators of the Kingdom, when they shall have attained the 25th, year of their age.
VI. The Chamber of Senators of the Kingdom shall be opened only when one-half, at least, of all the Members belonging to it are present.
VII. The Second Chamber of the Assembly of the Estates shall be composed:
a. Of those Proprietors of Domains, who exercise a Seigneurial Jurisdiction by virtue of the possession of such Domains, but who have no seat or voice in the First Chamber.
b. Of the Deputies of the Universities.
c. Of the Spiritual Authorities of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.
d. Of the Deputies of Cities and Towns.
e. Of such Landed Proprietors as are not included among those mentioned under the Letter a.
VIII. The number of the Members shall be regulated, in the aggregate, according to the number of Families in the Kingdom, in such proportion that 1 Deputy may be reckoned for 7,000 Families.
IX. Of the number determined according to this arrangement,
a. The Class of the Noble Proprietors of Domains shall appoint 1-8th part.
b. The Class of the Spiritual Authorities of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, shall appoint 1-8th part;
c. The Class of the Cities and Towns shall appoint 1-4th part; and
d. The Class of the other Landed Proprietors, who do not exercise any Seigneurial Jurisdiction, by virtue of the possession of their Domains, shall appoint the remaining half of the Deputies.
e. Each of the 3 Universities shall, moreover, appoint 1 Member.
X. The number of Deputies shall be assigned to each separate Class, according to the Regulations contained in the Special Edict to be issued relative to the Assembly of the Estates; which Edict will be appended to the present Constitutional Act, and be distributed in the different Districts by the Executive Government.
XI. The Classes shall, in each Electoral Government District, choose the number of Deputies assigned to them, according to the Regulations contained in the Edict which is to be promulgated, for the whole term of the continuance of the Assembly, viz.—6 years. Those seats which become vacant in the course of that term, shall be filled up by the introduction of those Candidates at the last Election, who followed immediately after the successful Members elected, in respect of the number of votes.
XII. Each Member of the Chamber of Deputies must, without reference to the circumstances of his rank or employment, be a free Citizen of the State, have completed the 30th year of his age, and be in the absolute enjoyment of such a property, situate in the District or Locality concerned, as ensures him an independent maintenance, and is fixed upon, for the purpose of qualification, according to the amount of his annual Taxes, in the Special Edict to be issued upon this subject.
He must, moreover, belong to one of the 3 Christian Religions, and must never have been subjected to any personal Trial, on account of any crime or misdemeanor, of which he was not completely acquitted by the Tribunal.
XIII. There shall be a new Election of Deputies every 6 years, and at no other time, excepting only when the Chamber is dissolved by the King.
The Members who retire, on either of the above occasions, may be re-elected.
XIV. Members already appointed, shall retire, during the period of the existence of the Assembly;
1. If, from any cause whatever, they shall cease to possess the real Property, Seigneurial Jurisdiction, Spiritual Benefice, or other qualification, in the particular District or Class for which their Claim to be elected was specially established; provided that they have not acquired another equal qualification in the same or some other District or Class; or
2. If they shall, in the mean time, forfeit, or no longer possess, one or other of the qualifications mentioned in Article XII, which are indispensable to their eligibility.
In these cases, the Chamber of Deputies shall decide, according to the information submitted to it, and after hearing the Party interested.
XV. The presence of at least 2:3rds of the Members elected shall be required, in order legally to constitute the Chamber of Deputies.
XVI. The Chamber of Senators of the Kingdom shall be convoked, assembles, and closed, at the same time as that of the Deputies.
XVII. No Member of the First or of the Second Chamber shall be allowed to be represented, in the Sittings, by any Person, as his Substitute.
XVIII. All the Propositions relative to the Imposts of the State, shall, in the first instance, be submitted by the Government to the Chamber of Deputies, and afterwards by that to the First Chamber.
All other Government Propositions may be presented, in the first instance, either to the First or to the Second Chamber, agreeably to the command of the King.
XIX. No Proposition, which ought to be deliberated and decided upon by the Two Chambers of the Kingdom, shall be discussed in one Chamber alone, and acquire thereby the same force and effect as it if had obtained the legal approbation of both Chambers of the Estates.
Title VII.—Of the Functions and Attributes of the Assembly of the Estates.
Art. I. The 2 Chambers shall enter into discussion, only upon those subjects which belong to their immediate sphere of action, and are described in the following Articles, numbered from II to XIX.
II. No new Law, of a general nature, which affects the personal freedom or the property of the Subjects of the State, shall be enacted, and no existing Law shall be amended, or authentically interpreted, or repealed, without the advice and approbation of the Estates of the Kingdom.
III. The King shall obtain the consent of the Estates, to the levying of any direct Taxes, to the imposition of any new indirect Duties, or to the increasing or alteration of those already existing.
IV. There shall, therefore, be laid before the Estates, after the opening of the Chambers, a detailed Estimate of the sums required to meet the exigencies of the State, and also of the whole of the Public Income (Budget): these Estimates shall be examined by a Committee; and after its Report, the Chamber shall proceed to consider what Taxes ought to be levied.
V. Those direct Taxes which will be required to meet the regular and ordinary Expenditure of the State, and the Payments which can with certainty be anticipated, including the necessary Reserve-Fund, shall in all cases be voted for 6 years.
In order, however, to prevent any inconvenience to the pecuniary operations of the State, the same Taxes shall continue to be levied, during the financial year in which the first Assembly of the Estates is to be convoked, which were levied in the previous financial year.
VI. At the period of one year before the expiration of the term for which the regular Expenditure shall have been settled; viz., 6 years, the King shall cause a new Budget, applicable to the 6 years which will follow that term, to be laid before the Estates.
VII. In case the King should be prevented, by external relations of an extraordinary character, from convoking the Estates, during the last of the 6 years for which the ordinary Taxes shall have been voted, he shall have the power of ordering that the levying of those Taxes, so voted, be continued for another half-year.
VIII. In the case of any extraordinary and unforeseen emergency, or of the existing Income of the State being insufficient to meet the Expenditure of it, the circumstances connected therewith shall be represented to the Estates, in order that they may vote the necessary additional Imposts.
IX. The Estates shall not be at liberty to connect with the grant of Taxes, the performance of any irrelevant conditions.
X. A detailed Account, shewing the appropriation of the Public Income, shall, every Session, be laid before the Estates.
XI. The whole of the Public Debt of the State shall be placed under the guarantee of the Estates.
The consent of the Estates of the Kingdom shall be obtained, previously to the contracting of any new Public Debt, by which the amount of the then existing Debt is increased, either by Capital or by the Interest payable thereupon.
XII. Such an increase of the Public Debt of the State, as that just alluded to, shall be made in the case only of urgent and extraordinary National exigencies, which cannot be met by the ordinary and extraordinary contributions of the People, without pressing too heavily upon them, and which really tend to promote the true interests of the whole Country.
XIII. The Plan for the extinction of the National Debt shall be submitted to the Estates, and no alteration shall be made in that Plan, after it has been approved of by them, without their concurrence. Moreover, the Taxes which are specially destined for the extinction of the Debt, shall on no account be appropriated to any other object.
XIV. Each of the 2 Chambers shall nominate 1 of its Members as a Commissioner, and the 2 Commissioners so nominated shall conjointly take minute cognizance of all the transactions of the Royal Commission for the extinction of the Public Debt, and shall take care that the established rules are strictly complied with.
XV. On extraordinary occasions, when threatening dangers from without imperatively require the obtaining of Capital by means of Loans, and the convocation of the Estates is rendered impossible by external circumstances, the 2 Commissioners to be appointed, as above, shall be authorized to give their consent to such Loans, provisionally, in the name of the Estates.
But, so soon as it is practicable to convoke the Estates, the whole particulars of the Transaction relative to the raising of such Capital shall be laid before them, in order that the additional Debt so contracted may be inscribed in the Register of the Public Debt of the State.
XVI. A detailed Account of the state of the Fund for the extinction of the Public Debt of the State, shall, every Session, be presented to the Estates.
XVII. No alienation, or application, to other than their original purposes, of the Property belonging to Public Institutions, shall take place without the consent of the Estates.
XVIII. In like manner, no grants of Public Domains, or of Public Revenues, as rewards for great and decisive services rendered to the State, shall be made without the consent of the Estates.
XIX. The Estates shall enjoy the right to submit to the King, in a suitable form, their common opinions and propositions, with reference to all matters which come within their immediate sphere of action.
XX. Each Member also shall have the right to bring forward, in the Chamber to which he belongs, his opinions and propositions with reference to such matters, and the Chamber shall decide, by a majority of Votes, whether or not the proposition shall be taken into consideration, and, if the question be decided in the affirmative, the proposition shall be submitted to a Committee, in order that they may examine and make a Report thereupon.
The Resolutions which may be passed upon such Propositions by either Chamber, shall be communicated to the other Chamber, and cannot be laid before the King, until after they have received the assent of the latter Chamber.
XXI. Each individual Citizen of the State, as also every Community, shall be at liberty to address to the Assembly of the Estates, Complaints respecting the violation of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and may submit them to either of the 2 Chambers, which shall examine them by means of the Committee appointed for the consideration of such matters; and should the Committee report them to be deserving of notice, they shall be taken into consideration accordingly.
If the Chamber should decide, by a majority of Votes, that a Complaint is well founded, it shall communicate to the other Chamber the Proposition which is to be made upon the subject to the King, and if the latter Chamber should coincide with the former Chamber in the Proposition, it shall be made the subject of a joint Representation to His Majesty.
XXII. The King shall convoke the Estates, at least once in every 3 years.
The King shall open and close the Assembly, either in his own person, or by a Special Commissioner to be appointed for this purpose.
The regular Session of the Assembly shall not continue longer than 2 months; and the Estates shall be bound to take into consideration, during their Sittings, those subjects which are submitted to them by the King, previously to discussing any others.
XXIII. The King shall, at all times, have the right to prolong or to prorogue the Session, or to dissolve the Assembly.
In the last mentioned case, the new Election of the Chamber of Deputies shall take place within at least 3 months afterwards.
XXIV. The Ministers of State shall have a right to be present at the Sittings of either Chamber, even although they be not Members of either of them.
XXV. Each Member of the Assembly of the Estates shall take the following Oath:
"I swear to be faithful to the King, and to the Laws, to observe and maintain the Constitution of the State, and, in the Assembly of the Estates, to advise only that which is for the general advantage and well-being of the whole Kingdom, without reference to particular grades or classes of Society, according to my real and sincere conviction. So help me God and his holy Gospel!"
XXVI. No Member of the Assembly of the Estates shall be arrested, during the continuance of their Sittings, without the consent of the Chamber to which he belongs, except in the case of his being apprehended in the act of committing a penal offence.
XXVII. No Member of the Assembly of the Estates shall be called to account for the opinion which he may have given in his Chamber, except by the Chamber itself, in conformity with the order by which its proceedings are regulated.
XXVIII. A Proposition, upon which the 2 Chambers do not concur, shall not be brought forward a second time for discussion, during the same Session.
XXIX. The determination of the King, upon the Propositions of the Estates of the Kingdom, shall not be made known at different periods upon each subject singly; but his decisions upon all the subjects which may have been submitted to him during the Session, shall be declared at one and the same time; viz. at the closing of the Assembly.
XXX. The King alone shall sanction the Laws; and shall promulgate them, with his own signature attached thereto, and with the announcement, that they have been duly examined by the Council of State, and have been submitted for the advice, and received the assent of his true and faithful Servants, the Estates of the Kingdom.
XXXI. If the Assembly of the Estates of the Kingdom shall have been adjourned, or formally closed, or dissolved, the Chambers shall not lawfully continue their deliberations, and every subsequent transaction shall be illegal.
Title VIII.—Of the Administration of Justice.
Art. I. Justice shall emanate from teh King.
It shall be administered under his supreme controul, by a suitable number of Tribunals and Superior Courts of Judicature; according to a legal Regulation which shall determine the extent of the jurisdiction of each.
II. All the Courts of Judicature shall be bound to affix to their Decrees the grounds of their decisions.
III. The Courts of Justice shall be independent within the limits of their official jurisdiction; and no Judge shall be suspended from his appointment, with the loss of salary, or be dismissed from the same, except in virtue of a judicial Sentence.
IV. The King shall be at liberty, in criminal cases, to grant pardon, and to mitigate or entirely remit punishment; but he shall on no account interfere, so as to stop in any shape a matter depending in dispute or an investigation which has been commenced and is still in progress.
V. The Fiscal Officer of the Crown shall, in all matters of contention affecting private rights, proceed at Law in the Royal Courts of Judicature.
VI. The confiscation of property shall not take place in any other case than that of desertion.
VII. There shall exist for the whole Kingdom, only one Code of Civil and Criminal Laws.
Title IX.—Of the Military Organization.
Art. I. Every Bavarian shall be in duty bound to co-operate in the defence of the Country, according to the Laws which may exist on the subject.
The Clergy shall be exempt from the obligation to bear arms.
II. For the proper protection of the State, there shall be a Standing Army, which shall be kept up to its proper complement by the general military conscription, and shall be also suitably maintained in time of Peace.
III. In addition to this Army, there shall also be Reserve-Battalions; and a Special Force, (Landwehr) for the defence of the Country, and for the performance of Military Services, exclusively within the Kingdom.
IV. The Reserve-Battalions shall be appointed to re-inforce the Standing Army, and, upon a public summons from the Sovereign, shall participate with it in all its duties, honours, and privileges.
The Men composing the Reserve-Battalions, shall respectively remain at their own homes during Peace, and, excepting for the time required for military exercise, free from every compulsory military duty, and subject merely to Civil Jurisdiction and to the Civil Laws, without being prevented from changing their places of residence, from marrying, or from obtaining a regular domicile.
V. The Special Force (Landwehr) for the defence of the Country, shall enter into active military service, in order to increase the strength of the Army, when it shall have been re-inforced by the Reserve-Battalions, upon a summons being issued by the King for this purpose; but their services shall, nevertheless, not extend beyond the Limits of the Kingdom.
In order that this Force may be strictly employed in the manner intended, it shall be separated into 2 Divisions, the second of which shall include those Individuals who are incapable of active marching service, and who shall not in any case be employed beyond its own district.
In time of Peace, also, the Landwehr shall co-operate in the maintenance of internal security, so far as may be necessary, should the Troops which are appointed to this duty be insufficient for that purpose.
VI. The Army shall be organized to serve against a Foreign Enemy; and it shall be brought to act within the Country, only on those occasions when the Military Authorities are formally called upon for that purpose by the competent Civil Powers.
VII. The Military shall be subject to martial law in all matters relating to their duty as Soldiers, and also in respect of their crimes or misdemeanors; but in actual Suits at Law and in those of a mixed nature, they shall be subject to the Civil Tribunals of Justice.
Title X.—Of the Security of the Constitution.
Art. I. The King, upon his Accession to the Throne, shall take the following Oath in a solemn Assembly of the Ministers of State, and of the Members of the Council of State; and, if the Estates should be assembled at the time, also of a Deputation of that Body:
"I swear that I will govern according to the Constitution and the Laws of the Kingdom; so help me God and his holy Gospel!"
A formal Act, containing this Oath of the King, shall be prepared, and shall be deposited among the Archives of the Kingdom; and certified Copies of it shall be communicated to the Assembly of the Estates.
II. The Person, who may be called to the temporary administration of the Government, shall, with reference to the maintenance of the Constitution, take the Oath prescribed in the XVIth Article of Title II.
All the Princes of the Royal House shall, in like manner, after they have attained their majority, swear that they will strictly observe the provisions of the Consttution.
III. All Citizens of the State shall, upon being domiciled, and upon the occasion of a general Act of Homage on the part of the Nation, and also all Public Officers shall, upon their appointment, subscribe the following Oath:
"I swear that I will be faithful to the King, that I will obey the Laws, and that I will observe the Constitution of the State; so help me God and his holy Gospel!"
IV. The King's Ministers of State, and all the Public Officers, shall be responsible for their strict observance of the Constitution.
V. The Estates shall have the right to prefer their complaints of any violation of the Constitution, committed by the Royal Ministers of State or by other Public Functionaries, in a joint representation to the King; and His Majesty shall either immediately remedy the grievance complained of, or, if any doubt prevail upon the subject, shall cause the complaints to be thoroughly investigated and decided upon, according to the nature of the circumstances, by the Council of State, or by the Supreme Court of Judicature.
VI. If the Estates should consider themselves called upon by a sense of their duty to institute a formal Accusation against a superior Officer of the State, the particulars of the charge shall be distinctly specified, and shall be examined in both Chambers by a Committee to be specially appointed by each of them.
If both Chambers should afterwards agree in their Resolutions upon the subject of the Accusation, they shall present the same in the prescribed form to the King, together with all the Documents relating thereto.
His Majesty shall then immediately submit the consideration of the matter to the Supreme Court of Judicature; from the Members of which, in the event of an appeal being made by the Accused, a Court of Second Instance shall be formed, in order that it may be decided upon by that Court, and, after Judgment shall have been pronounced, the King shall communicate the same to the Estates.
VII. Alterations in the enactments contained in the Constitutional Act, or additions thereto, shall not be made without the consent of the Estates.
The propositions to be submitted for this purpose shall emanate from the King alone; and it is only on the occasions when His Majesty himself shall have submitted them to the Estates, that they can deliberate respecting them.
The presence of at least 3-4ths of the Members belonging to the Assembly, in each Chamber, and a majority of 2-3rds of the votes, shall be required, in order to arrive at a legal and valid resolution upon this most important affair.
Whilst we hereby promulgate the above Fundamental Law of the State, in order that it may be generally observed and strictly complied with in all its contents, including the Edicts which are Supplementary to the same, and described in the principal Act as Appendices thereto, We at the same time further declare and order, that the Assembly of the Estates therein organized shall be summoned to meet on the 1st January 1819, for the due exercise of all those rights which appertain to its peculiar sphere of operation; and that, in the mean time, the necessary preliminary measures for this purpose shall be adopted.
Given at Munich, our Capital and City of Residence, on the 26th of May, 1818, in the 13th year of our Reign.
(L. S.)MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH.
Count von Reigersberg. Prince von Wrede. Count von Triva. Count von Rechberg. Count von Thurheim. Baron von Lerchenfeld. Count von Torring.
By command of His Majesty the King:
EGID VON KOBELL, Royal Councillor of State, and Secretary General.
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