The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-16 00:00:00

CONSTITUTION OF THE FRENCH
REPUBLIC.

The following is the Constitution, as definitively
Voted on the 4th inst.:—
PREAMBLE.

Art. 1. France, in constituting herself into a Republic,
proposes to herself as its object to march freely in the
path of progress and civilization; to secure a more equit-
able division of the charges and advantages of society
between all citizens; to augment, by the gradual reduc-
tion of public charges, the sum of the general advan-
tages, and to cause all to arrive, without fresh commo-
tions, by the successive and constant action of the
institutions and the laws, to a higher degree of morality,
intelligence, and comfort.
Art. 2. The French Republic is democratic, one and
indivisible.
Art. 3. It recognises rights and duties anterior and
puperior to the positive laws, and independent of them.
Art. 4. Its dogma is Liberty, Equality, and Frater-
laity. It has for basis, labour, family ties, property,
and public order.
Art. 5. It respects foreign nationalities as it compre-
hends making its own respected; it undertakes no war
from views of conquests, and never employs its forces
against the liberty of any nation.
Art. 6. Reciprocal duties bind citizens towards the
Bepublic, and the Republic towards citizens.
Art. 7. The duty of the citizen is to love his country,
to serve the Republic, to defend it even at the expense
of his life ; to share in the charges of the State in pro-
portion to his fortune ; to secure to himself and his fa-
mily by his labour the means of existence, and by care
and forethought to create resources for the future ; to
concur in promoting the common welfare, by giving
fraternal assistance to others, and the general order, by
observing the moral and written laws which govern so-
ciety, families, and individuals.
Art. 8. The Republic is bound to protect the citizen
in his person, his family, his religion, his property, and
his labour, and to place within the reach of each the
instruction indispensable for all; it is bound, by a fra-
ternal assistance, to assure the existence of the necessi-
tous citizens by procuring them employment within the
limits of its resources, or, when there is no family to
provide it, giving assistance to those who are unable to
work. With a view to the accomplishment of these
duties, and to guarantee all these rights, the National
Assembly, faithful to the traditions of the great assem
blies who have inaugurated the French revolution, de-
crees as follows the Constitution of the Republic:—
CONSTITUTION.
CHAPTER L—Or THE SOVEREIGNTY.

Art. 1. The sovereignty resides in the universality of
French citizens. It is inalienable and imprescriptible.
No individual
exercise
of the people can attribute to
ihemselves the of it.
CHAPTER li.—RIGHTS OF CIetZENS, GUARANTEED BY
THE CONSTITUTION.

' Art 2. No man can be arrested, cr detained in-custody,
except according to the prescriptions of the law.
Art. 3. The dwelling place of each person inhabiting
the Freneh territory is an inviolate asylum; it is not
permitted to any one to penetrate within its precincts,
except according to the forms and in the cases provided
fur by law.
Art. 4.. No citizen shall be deprived of his natural
judges; no commissions or extraordinary courts can be
created on any pretext or denomination whatever.
Ar,. 5. The punishment of death is abolished in poli-
tical matters.
Art. 6. Slavery cannot exist in any part of the French
territory.
Art. 7. Each citizen professes freely his religion, and
receives from the 'State for the exercise of his worship
an equal protection. The clergymen of the creeds re-
cognised by:the law have alone aright to receive a salary
from the State.
Art. 8. Citizens have a right to meat, to assemble
peaceably, and without arms, to petition, to express
the r thoughts by means of the press, or otherwise.
The exercise of these rights has no other limit than the
rights or the liberty of others, and public security. The
press cannot in any case be subjugated to censorship.
Art. 9. Instruction is free; the liberty of instruction
is exercised en conditions of capacity and morality de-
termined by the law, and under the surveillance of the
State. This surveillance extends to all establishments of
education and instruction, without any exception.
Art. 10. Citizens are admissible to all public employ-
meats, without other motives of preference but their
merit, or the rights acquired according to the law. The
Constitution recognises no title or distinction of birth,
class, or caste. All titles, distinctions of nobility, of
class, and of caste, are fur ever abolished.
Art. 11. All properties are inviolable; nevertheless the
State cln require the sacrifice of property for cause of
public utility, legally proved, and on payment of a just
and previous indemnity.
Art. 12. The confiscation of property can never be
re-established.
Art. 13. The Constitution guarantees to all citizens
the liberty of labour and industry. Society favours and
encourages the development of labour by gratuitous pri-
mary instruction; by professional education, equality of
relations between the employer and the workman; insti-
tutions of credit and provident establishments, voluntary
associations, agricultural establishments, and the esta-
blishment by the State, the deptrtments, and the com-
munes, of public works proper to employ unoccupied
bawls. It furnishes it,sistance to children who may have
been abandoned, to the infirm and to the old without re-
sources, and whom their families cannot succour.
Act. 14. The public debt is guaranteed. Every kind
of engagement entered into by the State with its credi-
tors is inviolable.
Art. 15. All taxes are established for the common
utility ; each citizen contributes to them in proportion to
his Alities and his fortune.
Art. 16. No tax can be established and levied, except
in vnue of a law.
Art. 17. Direc• taxes are consented to only for one
year, iniiront taxes m sy be consented /o for several years.
CRAP sus 11r.- OF THE PUBLIC POWER.

Art. 18. All the public powers, of every description,
emanate from the people. They cannote be delegated
hereditarily.
Art. 19. The separation of the powers is the first con-
dition of a free government.
CHAPTER IV.—OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

Art. 20. The French people delegates the legislative
power to on A3sensbly.
Art. 21. The t•Ail number of the representatives of
the people shall be seven hundred and fifty, inclu-
sive of the representatives of Algeria tied the French
colonies.
. 22. That number will be raised to nine hundred
for assemblies called on to revise the Constitution.
Art. 23. The election has fur its basis the population.
Art. 24. The suffrage is direct and universal. The
vote is by b Tot.
Art.2s. Are electors, all Frenchmen aged 21 years,
and in enj,,yrnent of their civil and political rights.
Art. 26. All Frenchmen who are 25 years of age, and
in enjoyment of their civil and political rights, are en-
titled to be representatives without condition of pro-
perty, qualtfication, or residence.
Art. 27. The electoral law shall determine the calves
which may di•prive a French citizen of the right of
electing or being elected. It shall designate the citizens
who exercised or having exercised functions in a depart-
ment of territorial district cannot be el, eta d within it.
Arc. 28. Evsry public functionary with a salary is in
com')atible with the election as a representative of the
people. No Member of the National Assembly can,
dur;ng the Legislature, be named or promoted to salaried
public funct'ons, the holders of which are chosen at will
by the executive power. The exceptions to the two
preceding psragraphs shall be determined by the elec-
toral erjanic law.
Art. 29. The provisions of the preceding article are
not upplieaQa to assemblies elected for the revision of
the Constitution.
. Art. 30. The election of representatives shall be by
departments and by ballot. The e'ectors shall vote at
the chief town of the= cantos-; nevertheless, by reason
of local circumstances, the canton may be divided into
several circumscriptions in manner and on conditions to
be decided by the electoral law.
Art. 31. The National Assembly is elected for three
years, and is renewed integrally. Forty-five days at
latest before the end of the Legislature, a law fixes the
'Period fqr,the new elections. If no law is made within
the delay fixed by tbe.preceding paragraph, the electors
assemble let full right on the thirtieth day preceding the
end of the Legislature. The new Assembly is convoked
as full right on
.the morrow of the day on which the
mandate of the preceding Assembly terminates.
Art. 32. It is permanent. Nevertheless,riuring the proro-
) it may ad-
journ to a day to be fixed by its
gation a commission,
composed itself
the members of the
bureau, and twenty-five represa:bristoaltives, named by the
Assembly by an
and byabsolute majerity, has the
Tight of convoking it in case of urgency. The President
of the Republic has also the rightetocouvoke the
upon the
As-
sembly. The National Assembly determinescy
place of its sittings. It fixes the importance the
military forces established far its safety, and disposes of
of
them.

l
----
Art. 33. The representative are always re eligible.
Art. 34. The Members of the National Asse
the representatives, not of the department which elects
ele are
cts
them, but of all France.
Art. 35. They cannot accept any imperative mandate.
Art. 36. The representatives of the people are inviolate.
They cannot be impeached nor arrested, nor brought to
trial at any time for opinions they may have expressed
in the National Assembly.
Art. 37. They cannot be arrested in any criminal
xnat:er unless when taken in flagrante delicto, nor pro-
secuted, until after the Assembly has permitted their
prosecution. In case of arrest in flagrante delicto,
reference shall be immediately made to the Assembly,
which shall authorise or refuse the continuation of a
prosecution. This provision applies to the case of
ra citizen who, while in custody, is elected a repre-
sentative.
Art. 38. Each representative of the people receives
fin indemnity which he cannot renounce.
Art. 39. The sittings of the Assembly are public.
llevt rtheleas, the Assembly can form itself into a secret
committee on the demand of a number of representatives,
fixed by the regulation. Kieh representative has the
Zight. of p trlismentary initiative, sad may execute it
sccer.ling to the forms laid down by the rega'ations.
Art. 40. The presence of the moiety plus one of the
enerabers of the Assembly is necessary for the validity of
the vote of the law.
Art. 41. No project of law, except in cases of urgency
shell be :lefieitively voted until after three discussions,
$t ilitervale which cannot be less than five days.
,Art. 42. E=eryt proposition for a declarateee of In--
'', teiley is pri-coled by an exposé des motifs. If the As-
-444,_
ibl 1.1,i di.v.esed .ere entertain the proposition of urgency,
i "i'l4lo's 4 leibikeferred to the committees, and fixes the
114 ';,:. •
,44:144b.,t r , .ort on the urgency shall be pre-
:- :'eellaVt
..ii( Tort, if the Assembly admits the
(-1-0-ee" ~, k,:tr• •, " an i fixes the moment of discus-
-- -- r-v-7-47:
.';,,". : '.."at there is no urgency, the project
e r 6 ordinary propositions.
464.""rt Or THE EXECUTIVE POWER.
43" he tench people delegates the Executive