XL. To be a Deputy it is necessary to be full 25 years of age, to have exercised the citizenship for 4 years, and to be a native of the electing province, or to have resided therein for the last

two years.

XLI. For this occasion the Legislatures of the provinces will arrange the means of carrying out the direct election of the Deputies of the nation; for the future the Congress will pass a general

Jaw

XLII. The Deputies will continue in their representation for 4 years, and are re-eligible, but the Chamber will be renewed by moiety every two years; for which purpose the Deputies who are appointed for the first Legislature shall, as soon as they assemble, decide by lot who are to go out at the end of the first period.

XLIII. In case of a vacancy, the Government of the province or of the capital causes the election of a new member.

XLIV. The initiative of the laws concerning taxes and the recruiting of troops belongs exclusively to the Chamber of Depu

ties.

XLV. That Chamber alone has the right of bringing charges before the Senate against the President, the Vice-President, the Ministers, and the members of the Supreme Court and of the other inferior tribunals of the nation in actions of responsibility brought against them for neglect or delinquency in the exercise of their functions or for ordinary crimes, after having inquired into them and declared by a majority of two-thirds of the members present that there are grounds for the institution of proceedings.

Chap. II. Of the Senate.

XLVI. The Senate shall be composed of two Senators for each province elected by their Legislatures by plurality of suffrages; and two for the capital elected in the form prescribed for the election of the President of the nation. Each Senator shall have one vote.

XLVII. To be elected a Senator it is required to be 30 years of age, to have been a citizen of the nation for 6 years, to enjoy an annual income of 2,000 dollars or an equivalent amount of property, and to be a native of the province which elects him, or to have resided therein for the last two years.

XLVIII. The Senators remain in the exercise of their functions for 9 years, and are indefinitely re-eligible; but the Senate shall be renewed by third parts every three years; it is to be decided by lot as soon as all the members assemble which of them are to go out at the end of the first and second three years.

XLIX. The Vice-President of the nation shall be President of the Senate, but he shall have no vote, except in the case of equal voting.

L. The Senate shall appoint a provisional President to preside over it in the absence of the Vice-President, or when that personage exercises the functions of President of the nation.

LI. To the Senate it belongs to try in public trial those persons who are accused by the Chamber of Deputies, and its members must be sworn for the performance of that duty. If the accused be the President of the nation, the Senate shall be presided over by the President of the Supreme Court. No one shall be declared guilty unless by a majority of two-thirds of the members present.

LII. Its sentence shall have no further effect than to dismiss the accused, and it may also declare him incapable of filling any post of honour in the confidence or pay of the nation; but the individual so condemned will remain, nevertheless, subject to accusation, trial, and punishment, in accordance with the laws, before the ordinary tribunals.

LIII. It also belongs to the Senate to authorize the President of the nation to declare one or more parts of the Republic in a state of siege, in case of attack from without.

LIV. When the place of any Senator shall become vacant, by death, resignation, or other cause, the Government to which the vacancy belongs shall immediately cause the election of a new member.

Chap. III-Enactments common to both Chambers.

LV. Both Chambers shall assemble in ordinary sessions from the 1st of May to the 30th of September every year. They may also be convoked extraordinarily by the President of the nation, or have their sessions prorogued.

LVI. Each Chamber is the judge as to the validity of the elections, the rights and qualifications of its members. Neither of them can begin its session without the absolute majority of its members; but a lesser number may compel the absent members to attend the sessions, upon the terms and under the penalties which each Chamber may establish.

LVII. Both Chambers begin and likewise end their sessions at the same time. Whilst they are assembled, neither of them can suspend its sessions for more than 3 days without the consent of the other.

LVIII. Each Chamber shall make its own regulations, and shall have the power of correcting, by two-thirds of its votes, any of its members for disorderly conduct in the exercise of their functions, or to remove them for physical or moral incapacity supervening after their incorporation, or even to exclude them the -Chamber; but a majority of one more than the moiety of the

members present shall be sufficient to decide upon voluntary resignations of their posts.

LIX. The Senators and Deputies shall make oath at the time of their incorporation, duly to perform their duties, and to act in all things in conformity with the prescriptions of this Constitution.

LX. No member of the Congress can be accused, judicially questioned, or molested for the opinions or speeches which he may give utterance to in the discharge of his duties as legislator.

LXI. No Senator or Deputy can be arrested from the day of his election until his office ceases; except in the case of his being surprised in the very act of committing any crime, the penalty of which is death, or other corporal or degrading punishment; of which an account shall be given to the Chamber to which he belongs with the report of the preliminary proceedings in the case.

LXII. When a complaint is made in writing before the ordinary justices against any Senator or Deputy, and the merits of the case have been examined in public trial, each Chamber may, by twothirds of its votes, suspend the accused from his functions, and place him at the disposal of the competent judge for his sentence.

LIII. Each of the Chambers may send for the Ministers of the Executive Power to its hall in order to receive from them such explanations and reports as it may deem necessary.

LXIV. No Member of the Congress can receive an office or commission from the Executive Power, without the previous consent of the Chamber to which he belongs, except offices in regular gradation.

LXV. The regular clergy cannot be Members of Congress; nor can the Governors of Provinces be members for those which they govern.

LXVI. The Senators and Deputies are remunerated for their services by an allowance from the national Treasury which will be specified by law.

Chap. IV.-Attributes of the Congress.

LXVII. It belongs to the Congress :

1. To legislate upon the external customs, and to establish the importation duties, which, as well as the valuations upon which they are charged, shall be uniform throughout the nation; it being well understood that these as well as the other national contributions can be paid in the money that may be current in the respective provinces, taken at its just equivalent. Likewise to establish the exportation duties until 1866, at which date they are to cease as a national impost, and they cannot become a provincial one.

2. To impose direct taxes for a determinate time, and pro

portionably equal throughout the national territory, whenever they may be required for the defence, common security, and general welfare of the nation.

3. To contract loans of money on the credit of the nation.

4. To arrange for the use and the alienation of the lands belonging to the nation.

5. To establish and regulate a national bank in the capital and its branches in the provinces, with the power of issuing notes.

6. To regulate the payment of the external and internal debt of the nation.

7. To determine every year the estimate of the expenses of the national administration, and to approve or reject the account of the expenditure.

8. To grant aids from the National Treasury to those provinces whose revenues are not sufficient, according to their estimates, to cover the ordinary expenses.

9. To regulate the free navigation of the rivers in the interior, to qualify such ports as may be considered expedient, and to establish and suppress Custom-Houses; but the external CustomHouses which existed in each province at the time of its incorporation must not be suppressed.

10. To have money stamped, to fix its value, as well as that of foreign coin, and to adopt a uniform system of weights and measures for the whole nation.

11. To enact the civil, commercial, penal, and mining codes, which must not interfere with the local jurisdictions, their application belonging to the federal or provincial tribunals, according as the matters or persons may fall under their respective jurisdictions; and especially to enact general laws for the whole nation, respecting naturalization and citizenship, with subjection to the principle of natural citizenship; also respecting bankruptcies, respecting the falsification of the current coin and the public documents of the State; as well as those laws which may be required for the establishment of trial by jury.

12. To regulate the commerce with foreign nations by sea and land, and that of the provinces amongst themselves.

13. To arrange and establish the general posts and mails of the nation.

14. To settle definitively the boundaries of the territory of the nation, to fix those of the provinces, to create other new provinces, and to determine by special legislation, the organization, administration, and government, for the national territories which remain without the boundaries assigned to the provinces.

15. To provide for the security of the frontiers, to preserve

peaceable intercourse with the Indians, and to promote their con version to Catholicism.

16. To provide what may be necessary for the prosperity of the country, for the advancement and welfare of all the provinces, and for the progress of enlightenment, forming plans of general and university education, and promoting industry, immigration, the construction of railroads and navigable canals, the colonization of lands belonging to the nation, the introduction and establishment of new occupations, the importation of foreign capital, and the exploration of the internal rivers, by protecting laws for these purposes, and by the temporary concession of privileges, and encouraging rewards.

17. To establish tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court of Justice, to create and suppress places, to settle their attributions, to grant pensions, to decree honours, and to concede general amnesties.

18. To admit or reject the reasons for the resignation of the President or Vice-President of the Republic, and to declare the case of proceeding to a new election, to perform the scrutiny, and

make the rectification thereof.

19. To approve or reject the Treaties with other nations, and the Concordats with the Apostolic See, and to regulate the exercise of the patronage throughout the nation.

20. To admit into the territory of the Confederation other reli gious orders besides those already existing.

21. To authorize the Executive Power to declare war or to conclude peace.

22. To grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to establish regulations for the prizes.

23. To determine the force of the army and navy of the line in time of peace and war, and to draw up regulations and orders for the government of those forces.

24. To authorize the union of the militia of all the provinces, or of part of them, when required for the execution of the laws of the nation, or when it is necessary for the repression of insurrection or the repulse of invasion. To direct the organization, armament, and discipline of that militia, and the administration and govern. ment of the part of it that may be employed in the service of the nation, leaving to the provinces the appointment of the necessary chiefs and officers, and the care of establishing in their respective militias the discipline prescribed by the Congress.

25. To allow the introduction of foreign troops into the territory of the nation, and the departure of the national forces from it. 26. To declare one or more parts of the nation in a state of