the end of two years, and in the succeeding two years the earliest elected.

(c.) The same qualification shall be required for a Senator as for a Deputy, excepting that of age, which shall be 30 years completed on the day of the opening of the sessions.

59. The Deputies and Senators are inviolable for their opinions expressed in the discharge of their trust, and shall never be called to account for them.

60. Each Chamber shall decide with regard to the election of its members, and determine the doubts that may occur regarding them.

61. The Chambers can neither open their sessions nor exercise their duties without the presence, on the part of the Senators, of two-thirds, and on the part of the Deputies of one-half of the total number of their members; but those present of either body can assemble on the day fixed by law, and compel the attendance, under the penalties which the same law prescribes, of the absent members.

62. Congress shall hold in each year two ordinary sessions: the first, which can be prolonged for 30 working days, shall commence on the 16th of September, and terminate on the 15th of December; and the second, which can be prolonged for 15 working days, shall commence on the 1st of April and terminate on the last day of May.

64. Every Resolution of Congress shall have the character of a Law or Decree. Laws and Decrees shall be communicated to the Executive, signed by the Presidents of both Chambers and by a Secretary of each one of them, and shall be promulgated in this form: "The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees." (Text of the Law or Decree.)

Paragraph II-Of the Introduction and Passage of Laws. 65. The right of initiating Laws or Decrees belongs(1.) To the President of the Union.

(2.) To the Deputies and Senators of the general Congress. (3.) To the Legislatures of the States.

66. The initiatories presented by the President of the Republic, by the Legislatures of the States, or by deputations from the same, shall pass immediately to a Committee. Those which the Deputies or Senators may present shall be subject to the action which the rules of debate prescribe.

67. Every Project of Law or Decree which shall be rejected by the Chamber in which it originated, before passing to a revision, cannot be presented again in the sessions of the year.

69. The day before the last of the first period of sessions, the

Executive shall present to the Chamber of Deputies the Estimates of the coming year and the accounts of the last year. Both shall pass to a Committee of five representatives appointed on the same day, to whom shall belong the duty of examining said documents, and presenting a report on them at the second session of the second

term.

70. The enactment of Laws and Decrees can commence indiscriminately in either House, with the exception of Projects which relate to loans, taxes, or impòsts, or the recruiting of the troops, all which must be discussed first in the Chamber of Deputies.

71. Every Project of Law or of Decree, whose resolution may not belong exclusively to one of the two Chambers, shall be discussed successively in both, the rules of debate being observed in the form, intervals, and mode of proceeding in the discussions and votes.

(A.) A Project having been approved in the Chamber in which it originated shall pass for discussion to the other Chamber. If this Chamber shall approve it, it shall be remitted to the Executive, who, if he shall have no observations to make, shall publish it immediately.

(B.) Every Project not returned with observations to the Chamber of its origin within ten working days shall be regarded as approved by the Executive power, unless, during this period, Congress shall have closed or suspended its sessions; in which case the return must be made on the first working day after it shall have reassembled.

(c.) The Project of Law or Decree rejected in whole or in part by the Executive must be returned with his observations to the Chamber of its origin. It must by it be discussed de novo, and if it be confirmed by an absolute majority of votes, it shall pass again to the revising Chamber. If it be sanctioned by it with the same majority, the Project is a Law or Decree, and shall return to the Executive for its promulgation. The votings upon a Law or Decree shall be viva voce.

(D.) If any Project of Law or Decree be rejected in toto by the Chamber of revision, it shall return to the one of its origin with the observations which the former may have made upon it. If, being examined de novo, it be approved by an absolute majority of the members present, it shall return to the Chamber which rejected it, which shall take it again into consideration, and if it be approved by the same majority, it shall pass to the Executive, to be acted on according to the provisions of Part A. But if it be rejected, it cannot be presented again until the following sessions.

(E.) If a Project of Law or Decree be rejected only in part, or modified or amended by the revising Chamber, the new discussion in the Chamber of its origin shall relate solely to the part rejected,

or to the amendments or the additions, without being able to alter in any manner the approved Articles. If the additions or amendments made by the revising Chamber be approved by an absolute majority of the votes present in the Chamber of its origin, the entire Project shall pass to the Executive for action according to the provisions of Part A. But if the additions or amendments made by the revising Chamber be rejected by a majority of votes in the Chamber of its origin, they shall return to the former, in order that it may take into consideration the reasons of the latter, and if by an absolute majority of the votes present said additions and amendments be rejected in this second revision, the Project in that part which may have been approved by both Chambers shall pass to the Executive for action, according to the provisions of Part A.

But if the revising Chamber, by an absolute majority of the votes present, insists upon said additions or amendments, the entire Project cannot again be presented until the following sessions, unless both Chambers resolve, by an absolute majority of its members present, that the Law or Decree be issued only with Articles approved, and that those added or amended be reserved for examination and vote in the following sessions.

(F.) In the interpretation, amendment, or repeal of Laws or Decrees, the same rules shall be observed that are established for their enactment.

(G.) Both Chambers shall sit in the same place, and they cannot be removed to another without they before agree in the removal, and in the time and manner of effecting it, designating the same point for the reassembling of both. But if the two agreeing in the removal differ as regards the time or place, the Executive shall settle the dispute by selecting one of the points in question. Neither Chamber shall suspend its sessions for more than three days without the consent of the other.

(H.) When the general Congress shall be assembled in extraordinary sessions, it shall be occupied exclusively with the object or objects designated in the call; and if these shall not have been completed by the day in which the ordinary sessions should be opened, the former shall close nevertheless, reserving the pending points to be acted upon in ordinary sessions. The Executive of the Union cannot make observations upon the Resolutions of Congress when it prolongs its sessions or exercises the functions of an electoral or judicial body.

Paragraph III-Of the Faculties of the General Congress. 72. Congress has the power

(3.) To form new States within the limits of those existing, it being necessary for this purpose

First. That the fraction or fractions which ask to be erected into a State have a population of at least 120,000 inhabitants.

Second. That it be established before Congress that they have the elements sufficient to maintain their political existence.

Third. That the Legislature of the States whose territory is in question may be heard upon the propriety or impropriety of the erection of a new State; they being obliged to make their report within six months, counted from the day on which is remitted to them the relative communication.

Fourth. That likewise the Executive of the Federation be heard, who shall send his opinion within seven days, counted from the date on which it may have been asked.

Fifth. That the election of the new State may be voted by twothirds of the Deputies and Senators present in their respective Chambers.

Sixth. That the Resolution of Congress be ratified by the majority of the Legislatures of the States, upon examination of the copy of the record: Provided always, that the Legislatures of the States whose territory is in question may have given their consent.

Seventh. If the Legislatures of the States whose territory is in question shall not have given their consent, the ratification of which the above part speaks must be made by two-thirds of the Legislatures of the other States.

(A.) The exclusive faculties of the Chamber of Deputies are

(1.) To constitute itself an electoral college in order to exercise the powers which the law may designate respecting the appointment of the Constitutional President of the Republic, Magistrates of the Supreme Court, and Senators of the Federal district.

(2.) To examine and decide upon the resignations which the President of the Republic and the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice may make. The same power belongs to it in treating of the leaves of absence requested by the President.

(3.) To supervise, by means of an Inspecting Committee of its own body, the exact discharge of the functions of the Chief Auditor's office.

(4.) To appoint the chiefs and other employés of the same.

(5.) To constitute itself a jury of impeachment for the high functionaries of which Article 103 of the Constitution treats.

(6.) To examine the account which the Executive should annually present to it; to approve the annual estimate of expenses; to initiate the taxes which, in its judgment, ought to be decreed in order to cover the same.

(B.) The exclusive powers of the Senate are

(1.) To ratify the Treaties and Diplomatic Conventions which the Executive may make with foreign Powers.

(2.) To ratify the appointments which the President of the Republic may make, of Ministers, Diplomatic Agents, ConsulsGeneral, Chief Clerks of the Treasury, Colonels, and other chief officers of the Army and National Navy, according to the terms which the law may designate.

(3.) To authorize the Executive to permit the passage of the national troops beyond the limits of the Republic, the passage of foreign troops through the national territory, and the station of squadrons of other Powers for more than one month in the waters of the Republic.

(4.) To give its consent in order that the Executive may make disposition of the national guard, out of their respective States and territories, determining the force necessary.

(5.) To declare, when the Constitutional, Legislative, and Executive powers of a State may have disappeared, that the exigency of appointing for it a provisional Governor has arrived, who shall call for elections, conformably to the Constitutional Laws of the same State. The appointment of a Governor shall be made by the Federal Executive, with the approbation of the Senate, and, in its recesses, with that of the Permanent Committee. Said functionary cannot be elected Constitutional Governor in the elections which may take place in virtue of the call which he may have issued.

(6.) To determine the political questions which may arise between the powers of a State, when any of them may apply with this end to the Senate, or when, by reason of said questions, the Constitutional order may be interrupted, a conflict of arms intervening. In this case the Senate shall dictate its resolution, being subject to the general Constitution of the Republic and to that of the State. The law shall regulate the exercise of this faculty and that of the former.

(7.) To constitute itself a jury of sentence conformably to Article 105 of the Constitution.

(c.) Each one of the two Chambers has the power without the intervention of the other

(1.) To dictate economic resolutions relative to its interior management.

(2.) To communicate between each other and with the Executive of the Union by means of committees of its own body.

(3.) To appoint its Secretaries, and to establish the internal regulations of the same.

(4.) To issue the calls for extraordinary elections for the purpose of filling the vacancies of their respective members.

Paragraph IV.-Of the Permanent Deputation.

73. During the recesses of Congress there shall be a permanent