World History
The Constitution of 1875 and Amendments.
REFERENCES. Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, 202–204; Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe, I, 11–14; Bodley, France, I, 263–270; Coubertin, Evolution of France under the Third Republic, 53–61; Hanotaux, Contemporary France, III, 283–362; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, XII, 19–21; Rambaud, Cirilisation contemporaine, 524–529.
A. Law upon the Organization of the Senate.
February 24, 1875. Duvergier,
Lois, LXXV, 54–62.
Duvergier, J. B., et al. Collection complète des lois, decrets, ordonnances, reglements, avis du Conseil d’État. Second ed. of vols. 1–31 inclusive. First ed., 32— Paris 1834.
1. The Senate consists of three hundred members:
Two hundred and twenty-five elected by the departments and colonies, and seventy-five elected by the National Assembly.
The departments of the Seine and of the Nord shall each elect five senators.
The departments of the Seine-Inférieure, Pas-de-Calais. Gironde, Rhône, Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord, each four senators,
Loire-Inférieure, Saône-et-Loire, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-et-Oise, Isère, Puy-de-Dôme, Somme, Bouches-du-Rhône, Aisne, Loire, Manche, Maine-et-Loire, Morbihan, Dordogne, Haute-Garonne, Charente-Inférieure, Calvados, Sarthe, Hérault, Basses-Pyrénées, Gard, Aveyron, Vendée, Orne, Oise, Vosges, Allier, each three senators.
All the other departments each two senators.
The territory of Belfort, the three departments of Algeria, the four colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and the French Indies elect each one senator.
3. No one can be a senator unless he is a French citizen, forty years of age at least, and enjoying civil and political rights.
4. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected by majority vote, and, when there is need, by scrutin de liste, by a college assembled at the head-town of the department or colony and composed:
1st, Of the deputies;
2d, Of the general councillors;
3d, Of the district councillors;
4th, Of delegates elected, one by each municipal council, from among the voters of the commune.
In the French Indies, the members of the colonial council or of the local councils are substituted for the general councillors, district councillors and delegates of the municipal councils.
They vote at the head-town of each district.
5. The senators chosen by the Assembly are elected by scrutin de liste and by a majority of the votes.
6. The senators of the departments and colonies are elected for nine years and renewable by thirds every three years.
At the beginning of the first session, the departments shall be divided into three series containing an equal number of senators each. It shall be determined by lot which series shall be renewed at the expiration of the first and second triennial periods.
7. The senators elected by the Assembly are irremovable.
Vacancies by death, by resignation, or for any other reason, shall, within the space of two months, be filled by the Senate itself.
8. The Senate has, concurrently with the Chamber of Deputies, the initiative and making of laws. Money bills, however, must first be introduced in, and passed by the Chamber of Deputies.
9. The Senate may be constituted a court of justice to judge either the President of the Republic or the ministers, and to take cognizance of attacks made upon the safety of the state.
10. Elections to the Senate shall take place one month before the time fixed by the National Assembly for its own dissolution. The Senate shall organize and enter upon its duties the same day that the National Assembly is dissolved.
11. The present law shall be promulgated only after the passage of the law on the public powers.