as again changed, only three ecclesiastics being now admitted
into it; and on the 14th the new constitution, or "Fundamental Statute,"
was proclaimed. It instituted a Legislature in two branches, the High
Council and the Council of Deputies, the members of the former being
appointed by the Pope, and those of the latter being chosen by popular
vote in the ratio, as nearly as might be, of one to every thirty
thousand souls. All citizens were voters who paid twelve crowns a year
in direct taxes or had property amounting to three hundred crowns; to
these were added all members of colleges and honorary graduates, and all
persons holding office in the communes and municipalities. The
Legislature was to be convoked every year, both Councils were to choose
their own officers, and their sessions were to be public, except on
extraordinary occasions when they might of their own accord prefer
secrecy. Freedom of debate and vote was guaranteed, and the members of
both Houses were protected from arrest, even for notoriously criminal
acts, during the session, except by consent of the Council to which they
belonged.

They were to have authority to make laws on all subjects, excepting
ecclesiastical matters and the canons and discipline of the Church, but
including the imposition of taxes; the Pope, however, like most
monarchs, reserved to himself the right of negativing a law. All
discussions, also, of the diplomatico-religious relations of the Holy
See with foreign powers were forbidden. Money bills were to originate in
the lower house, and direct taxes could be granted for only a year. The
Deputies had a right to impeach ministers, who, if they were laymen,
were to be tried by the High Council; if ecclesiastics, by the Sacred
College. The unlimited right of petition to the lower house was assured
and ministers were responsible for every ministerial act; they had the
right of sitting and debating, but not of voting, in both Councils. A
portion of the revenue of the State, for the support of the cardinals,
the ecclesiastical congregations, and generally for the transaction of
purely ecclesiastical business, was to be secured to the Pope, and to be
borne on the estimates every year.

The judges were to be irremovable after they had held office for three
years; and all persons were declared equal in the sight of the law.
Extraordinary commissions or tribunals for the trial of offences were
abolished. All property, whether of individuals