6) On judicial affairs.

7) On accounts.

In each of these committees there shall be representatives of at least four states of the Confederation, besides the praesidium, and each state shall be entitled to only one vote therein. In the committee on the army and fortifications Bavaria shall have a permanent seat; the remaining members of this committee, as well as the members of the committee on marine affairs, shall be appointed by the Emperor; the members of the other committees shall be elected by the Bundesrat. These committees shall be newly formed at each session of the Bundesrat, i. e., each year, and the retiring members shall be eligible for re-election.

A Committee on Foreign Affairs, over which Bavaria shall preside, shall also be appointed in the Bundesrat; it shall be composed of the plenipotentiaries of the kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg, and of two plenipotentiaries of other states of the Empire, who shall be elected annually by the Bundesrat.

The employees necessary for the conduct of their work shall be placed at the disposal of the committees.

ART. 9. Each member of the Bundesrat shall have the right to appear in the Reichstag, and must be heard there at any time he shall so request, in order to represent the views of his government, even when such views shall not have been adopted by the majority of the Bundesrat. No one shall at the same time be a member of the Bundesrat and of the Reichstag. ART. IO. The Emperor shall afford the customary diplomatic protection to the members of the Bundesrat.

IV. THE PRESIDENCY

ART. II. To the King of Prussia shall belong the presidency of the Confederation, and he shall have the title of German Emperor. It shall be the duty of the Emperor to represent the Empire among nations, to declare war and to

conclude peace in the name of the Empire, to enter into alliances and other treaties with foreign countries, to accredit ambassadors and to receive them.

For a declaration of war in the name of the Empire, the consent of the Bundesrat is required, unless an attack is made upon the federal territory or its coasts.

So far as treaties with foreign countries relate to matters which, according to Art. 4, are to be regulated by imperial legislation, the consent of the Bundesrat shall be required for their conclusion, and the approval of the Reichstag shall be necessary to render them valid.

ART. 12. The Emperor shall have the right to convene the Bundesrat and the Reichstag, and to open, adjourn, and close them.

ART. 13. The Bundesrat and the Reichstag shall be convened annually, and the Bundesrat may be called together for the preparation of business without the Reichstag; the latter, however, shall not be convened without the Bundesrat.

ART. 14. The Bundesrat shall be convened whenever a meeting is demanded by one-third of the total number of votes. ART. 15. The Imperial Chancellor, to be appointed by the Emperor, shall preside in the Bundesrat, and supervise the conduct of its business.

The Imperial Chancellor shall have the right to delegate the power to represent him to any other member of the Bundesrat; this delegation shall be made in writing.

ART. 16. The necessary bills shall be laid before the Reichstag in the name of the Emperor, in accordance with the resolutions of the Bundesrat, and shall be advocated in the Reichstag by members of the Bundesrat, or by special commissioners appointed by the latter.

ART. 17. It shall be the duty of the Emperor to prepare and publish the laws of the Empire, and to supervise their execution. The decrees and ordinances of the Emperor shall be issued in the name of the Empire, and shall require for

their validity the countersignature of the Imperial Chancellor, who thereby assumes the responsibility for them.

ART. 18. The Emperor shall appoint imperial officials, cause them to take the oath to the Empire, and dismiss them when necessary.

Officials of any one of the states of the Confederation, who shall be appointed to any imperial office, shall enjoy, with reference to the Empire, the same rights as those to which they are entitled in their native state by virtue of their official position, provided that no other legislative provision shall have been made previous to their entrance into the service of the Empire.

ART. 19. If the states of the Confederation do not fulfil their constitutional duties, they may be compelled to do so by execution. This execution shall be decided upon by the Bundesrat, and carried out by the Emperor.

V. THE REICHSTAG

ART. 20. The members of the Reichstag shall be chosen in a general direct election and by secret ballot.

Until regulation by law, the power to make such regulation being reserved by sec. 5 of the Election Law of May 31, 1869, 48 deputies shall be elected in Bavaria, 17 in Württemberg, 14 in Baden, 6 in Hesse south of the River Main, and the total number shall consequently be 382.5

ART. 21. Government officials shall not require leave of absence in order to enter the Reichstag.

When a member of the Reichstag accepts a salaried office of the Empire, or a salaried office in one of the states of the Confederation, or accepts any office of the Empire or of a state involving higher rank or salary, he shall forfeit his seat

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Including, that is to say, those deputies returned by the states of the North German Confederation. By law of June 25, 1873, fifteen additional members are elected from Alsace-Lorraine. With certain minor exceptions every male German of the age of twenty five years may vote for members of and may be elected to the Reichstag.

and vote in the Reichstag, but may recover his place in the same by a new election.

ART. 22. The proceedings of the Reichstag shall be public.

No one shall be held responsible for truthful reports of the proceedings of the public sessions of the Reichstag.

ART. 23. The Reichstag shall have the right to propose laws within the competence of the Empire, and to refer petitions, addressed to it, to the Bundesrat or the chancellor of the Empire.

ART. 24. The Reichstag shall be elected for five years. It may be dissolved during that time by a resolution of the Bundesrat, with the consent of the Emperor.

ART. 25. In case of a dissolution of the Reichstag, new elections shall take place within a period of sixty days, and the Reichstag shall be called together within a period of ninety days after its dissolution.

an

ART. 26. Without the consent of the Reichstag, adjournment of that body shall not exceed the period of thirty days, and shall not be repeated during the same session.

ART. 27. The Reichstag shall examine into the legality of the election of its members and decide thereon. It shall regulate its own procedure, and its own discipline, through its order of business, and elect its president, vice-presidents, and secretaries.

ART. 28. The Reichstag shall take action by absolute majority. To render any action valid, the presence of a majority of the statutory number of members is required."

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ART. 29. The members of the Reichstag are the rep

Art. 24 amended, from three to five years, March 19, 1888.

'The second paragraph of this article was repealed by law of February 24, 1873. It read as follows: "For the decision of matters which, according to this constitution, do not concern the entire Empire, only such members shall vote as are elected from states whose interests are affected by the proposition."

resentatives of the people as a whole, and shall not be bound by orders or instructions.

ART. 30. No member of the Reichstag shall at any time suffer legal or disciplinary prosecution on account of his vote, or on account of utterances made while in the performance of his functions, or be held responsible in any other way outside of the Reichstag.

ART. 31. Without the consent of the Reichstag, no one of its members shall be tried or arrested during the session for any penal offense, unless he be taken in the commission of the offense, or during the course of the following day.

Like consent shall be required in the case of arrest for debt. At the request of the Reichstag all criminal proceedings instituted against one of its members, and any detentions for judicial inquiry or in civil cases, shall be suspended during its session.

ART. 32. The members of the Reichstag as such shall receive no salaries. They shall receive an indemnification in accordance with the provisions of law.

VI. CUSTOMS AND COMMERCE

ART. 33. Germany shall form one customs and commercial territory, having a common frontier for the collection of duties. Such parts of the territory as cannot, by reason of their situation, be suitably embraced within the customs frontier, shall be excluded.

All articles which are the subject of free traffic in one state of the Empire may be brought into any other state, and in the latter shall be subject only to such internal taxes as are imposed upon similar domestic productions.

8 As altered May 21, 1906. Art. 32, as originally worded, forbade any compensation to members of the Reichstag. A law of May 21, 1906, provides that members of the Reichstag shall receive: (1) free transportation on the German railways during the sessions of the Reichstag and for eight days before the beginning of and eight days after the close of each session; and (2) a yearly remuneration of three thousand marks.