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Chargés-d'Affaires in concert with the Senate; and he appoints and removes, by his own authority alone, the Secretaries of State, the officers of their departments, the Consular Agents, and the other persons employed by the administration, whose appointment is not otherwise regulated by this Constitution.

11. He annually opens the Sessions of the Congress, both Chambers being assembled for that purpose in the hall of the Senate; on that occasion he gives the Congress an account of the state of the nation, of the reforms promised by the Constitution, and recommends to its consideration such measures as he deems necessary and expedient.

12. He prorogues the ordinary sessions of the Congress, or convokes it in extraordinary sessions, when important interests of order or progress require it.

13. He has the revenues of the nation collected, and decrees their application in accordance with the law of the estimates of national expenses.

14. He concludes and signs Treaties of Peace, Commerce, Navigation, Alliance, Boundaries, and Neutrality, Concordats, and other negotiations required for the maintenance of good relations with foreign powers; he receives their Ministers, and admits their Consuls.

15. He is the Commander-in-chief of all the military and naval forces of the nation.

16. He fills the military offices of the nation, in concert with the Senate, by conferring the posts or rank of the superior officers of the army and navy; and he does this on his own authority alone, on the field of battle.

17. He disposes of the naval and military force by land and sea, and attends to their organization and distribution, according to the necessities of the nation.

18. He declares war and grants letters of marque and reprisal, with the authority and approval of the Congress.

19. He declares one or more parts of the nation in a state of siege, in case of attack from without, and for a limited period, with the concurrence of the Senate. In case of internal commotion, he has this power only when the Congress is in recess, because it is an attribution which belongs to that body. The President exercises it within the limitations prescribed in Article XXIII.

20. He may demand from the chiefs of all the branches and departments of the administration, and through them from the other persons employed, such reports as he considers expedient, and they are bound to furnish them.

21. He cannot absent himself from the territory of the capital without the permission of Congress. During the recess of Congress

he can only be absent, without leave, for important purposes of public service.

22. The President shall have the power of filling vacancies in offices which require the concurrence of the Senate, and which occur during its recess, by means of appointments in commission, which shall expire at the end of the next legislature.

Chap. IV. Of the Ministers of the Executive Power.

LXXXVII. Five Minister Secretaries, that is to say: of the Interior, of Foreign Affairs, of Finance, of Justice, Worship, and Public Instruction, and of War and Marine, shall undertake the dispatch of the affairs of the nation, and shall countersign and legalize the acts of the President by their signature, without which requisite those acts shall be of no effect. A law shall define the branches of the respective offices of the Ministers.

LXXXVIII. Each Minister is responsible for the acts which he legalizes, and jointly for those in which he concurs with his colleagues.

LXXXIX. The Ministers cannot, in any case, form resolutions by themselves alone, excepting in what concerns the economical and administrative regulation of their respective departments.

XC. As soon as the Congress opens its sessions, the Ministers of State are to lay before it a detailed memorial of the state of the nation in regard to the business of their respective departments.

XCI. The Ministers cannot be Senators or Deputies without resigning their offices.

XCII. The Ministers can attend the sittings of the Congress, and take part in the debates, but they cannot vote.

XCIII. They shall receive for their services a salary fixed by law, which can neither be augmented nor diminished in favour or to the prejudice of those holding office.

Sect. 3. Of the Judicial Power.

Chap. I. Of its nature and duration.

XCIV. The judicial power of the nation shall be exercised by a Supreme Court of Justice, and by the other inferior tribunals which the Congress may establish in the territory of the nation.

XCV. In no case can the President of the nation exercise judicial functions, arrogate to himself the cognisance of pending causes, or re-open those that have been concluded.

XCVI. The Judges of the Supreme Court and of the inferior tribunals of the nation shall hold their offices so long as they conduct themselves properly, and they shall receive for their services a compensation, to be determined by law, and which cannot be diminished in any way so long as they shall remain in office.

XCVII. No one can be a member of the Supreme Court of Justice without being an advocate of the nation, with 8 years practice, and having the qualifications required for a Senator.

XCVIII. At the first installation of the Supreme Court the individuals appointed shall take oath, at the hands of the President of the nation, to perform their duties in administering justice legally and well, and in conformity with what this Constitution prescribes. For the future they shall take the oath before the President of the Court itself.

XCIX. The Supreme Court will make its own internal and economical regulations, and will appoint to all its subaltern employments.

Chap. II.-Attributions of the Judicial Power.

C. To the supreme court and the inferior tribunals of the nation, belong the cognizance and decision of all causes concerning points regulated by the Constitution, by the laws of the nation, with the reservation made in section 11 of Article LXVII, and by Treaties with foreign nations, of causes relating to Ambassadors, public Ministers, and Consuls of foreign nations; of causes concerning the Admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; of matters to which the nation is a party; of the causes which arise between two or more provinces; between one province and the inhabitants of another; between the inhabitants of different provinces; and between a province or its inhabitants and a foreign State or citizen.

CI. In these cases the supreme court exercises its jurisdiction on appeal according to the rules and exceptions which the Congress may prescribe; but in all matters relating to Ambassadors, Ministers, and Consuls of foreign nations, and in those to which any province is a party, it shall exercise original and exclusive jurisdiction

CII. All ordinary criminal trials not arising from the right of accusation conceded to the Chamber of Deputies shall be concluded by juries, so soon as that institution is established in the nation. These trials shall take place in the province where the crime has been committed; but when it has been committed beyond the bounds of the nation against the law of nations, the Congress shall determine by a special law where the trial is to take place.

CIII. Treason against the nation shall consist solely in taking arms against it, or in joining its enemies and affording them aid or succour. The Congress will fix by a special law the punishment of this crime, but it shall be confined to the person of the delinquent, nor shall the infamy of the offender be transmitted to his relations of any grade whatever.

TITLE II.- Governments of Provinces.

CIV. The provinces retain all the power not delegated by this Constitution to the Federal Government, as well as that which may have been expressly reserved by special compacts at the time of their incorporation.

CV. They establish their own local institutions and govern themselves by them. They elect their governors, their legislators, and the other provincial functionaries, without the intervention of the Federal Government.

CVI. Each province enacts its own constitution according to the provision in Article V.

CVII. The provinces may conclude partial Treaties for purposes of administration of justice, of economical interests, and works of common utility, with the knowledge of the Federal Congress; and they may promote their industrial interests, immigration, the construction of railways and navigable canals, the colonization of lands which are provincial property, the introduction and establishment of new occupations, the importation of foreign capital, the exploration of their rivers, by laws conducive to those purposes, and from their own resources.

CVIII. The provinces do not exercise the power delegated to the nation. They cannot conclude partial Treaties of a political character, nor establish provincial Custom-Houses, nor coin money, nor establish banks with power to issue notes without the authority of the Federal Congress, nor enact the civil, commercial, penal and mining codes after the Congress has sanctioned them, nor especially enact laws concerning citizenship and naturalization, bankruptcies, falsification of money or State documents, nor establish tonnage dues, nor arm vessels of war or raise armies, except in the case of external invasion or of danger so imminent as to admit of no delay, when immediate information is to be given to the Federal Government, nor appoint or receive foreign agents, nor admit new religious orders.

CIX, No province can either declare or make war against another province. Their complaints must be submitted to and be settled by the supreme court of justice. Their actual hostilities are acts of civil war, characterized as sedition or tumult, which the Federal Government has to quell and suppress in conformity with the law.

CX. The Governors of provinces are the natural agents of the Federal Government for causing the fulfilment of the Constitution and the laws of the nation.

Agreed to with the alterations sanctioned by the national

Convention.

Let it be communicated in accordance with Article IX of the Convention of 6th June of the present year.*

Let it be fulfilled throughout the territory of the nation, and let it be published.

Sessions Hall of the National Convention, in the city of Santa Fé, on the 25th day of the month of September, 1860.

LUCIO V. MANSILLA, Secretary.

MARIANO FRAGUEIRO.

CARLOS MARIA SARAVIA, Secretary.

Department of the Interior,

Paraná, October 1, 1860.

Let this be considered as fundamental law of the Argentine nation, let it be published and circulated.

JUAN PUJOL.

DERQUI.

DECREE of the Supreme Government of Paraguay, regulating the Treatment of Foreigners within the Republic.--Assumption, May 20, 1845.

(Translation.)

THE Supreme Government of the Republic, considering that it is right to promote and cultivate friendship, good understanding, and harmony with foreign Powers, and that with this view it is important to make the national authorities acquainted with the system to be applied and observed for the protection of foreign subjects, by virtue of and in conformity with the fundamental laws of the State, and their political and commercial principles, decrees that the following regulations be strictly observed:

ART. I. The Supreme Government of the Republic will uphold a perfect and absolute equality as a general and unalterable principle in its political relations with foreign Powers; so that in identical cases and circumstances, no privilege, exemptions or advantages whatever, will be granted to one nation, that are not granted to others.

II. Therefore all foreigners whatever may come to the ports of the Republic open to external commerce, and transact their mercantile business with entire freedom.

III. For the present, and so long as the Government shall consider that those circumstances exist which have rendered it necessary to appoint those ports for foreigners, the latter shall not enter the country at any other places without the special licence of the Government.

IV. Every foreigner shall enjoy, while he remains in the Republic, the most complete freedom in his business, and in the exercise of * Vol. LI. Page 904.

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