administration to the Court established by law. They shall submit anually a detailed report of receipts and expenditures.

ART. 152. Municipal corporations shall freely appoint their own employees, and those police agents whose salaries are to be paid out of the municipal funds.

ART. 153. In the exercise of their own functions municipal corporations shall be wholly independent of the other powers, but in no case shall they violate the general laws of the country. They shall be responsible before the courts of justice for any acts which they may commit collectively or individually.

ART. 154. Municipal corporations have the power to commute, according to law, sentences imposed for misdemeanors.

Municipal corporations have also the right to take action on matters of police, sanitation and public instruction, provided said action is not in opposition to the Constitution and general laws.

ART. 155. No member of the municipal corporations shall be compelled to accept another position or be called to the military service.

TITLE XIX. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES.

ART. 156. Every employee or public functionary, when entering on the discharge of his duties, shall make the following promise:

I promise to be faithful to the Republic, and to comply and make others comply with the Constitution and the laws.

ART. 157. Every public functionary is responsible for his own acts. ART. 158. The President of the Republic, deputies, justices of the Supreme Court, secretaries of State and diplomatic ministers shall be answerable before Congress for the offenses committed by them in the exercise of their functions. Congress, after following the course of procedure for such cases, determined by its rules, shall declare whether or not there are grounds for their indictment, in order to place the offender at the disposal of the competent court. The same declaration shall be required before instituting proceedings for common offenses, against the President of the Republic, the secretaries of State and justices of the Supreme Court.

ART. 159. Notwithstanding the approval which Congress may give to the conduct of the executive, the President and secretaries of State may be accused for official offenses. If these public officials have remained in the country, the right to bring such proceedings against them shall become prescribed five years after they have ceased in their office.

ART. 160. Public employees who violate any of the rights and guarantees set forth in this Constitution shall be civilly and criminally responsible. They may be accused without need of filing a bond for libel. They shall not be pardoned nor their sentences commuted

within the constitutional period, nor during the following one. The offenses and the penalties which they may be liable for shall not prescribe until after the said two periods.

ART. 161. Whenever a public functionary, against whom a declaration should have been made to the effect that there are grounds for his indictment, should be acquitted, he shall be reinstated in the exercise of his functions.

TITLE XX.-CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS.

ART. 162. The following are constitutional laws: Press laws, laws regarding a state of siege, laws granting the right of asylum (amparo) and electoral laws.

TITLE XXI.-REFORMS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL

LAWS.

ART. 163. The reforms of this Constitution shall only be effected by two thirds of the votes of the representatives in Congress in ordinary session setting forth the article or articles which need reform, and stating whether or not the reform is to be absolute.

As soon as the reform is decreed, Congress shall convoke a Constituent Assembly in order that the latter may proceed to reform it; the decree containing the proposed reforms to be contained in the decree of convocation.

ART. 164. The Constituent Assembly shall be elected in the same manner as Congress, and shall have the same number of representatives, with the same immunities.

ART. 165. In no case shall a reform of the articles of the Constitution forbidding the reelection of the President or of his substitute, and establishing the duration of the presidential term be decreed so as to be effective during the current term, or during the following term.

ART. 166. The constitutional laws may be reformed in the same manner as the Constitution, or by two ordinary Congresses with two thirds of the votes.

ART. 167. The National Constituent Assembly entrusts this Constitution, and the rights consecrated therein, to the patriotism of all Hondurans.

FINAL ARTICLE. The present Constitution shall commence to take effect on 1 January 1895; the Constitution of 1 November 1880 being annulled from that date.1

1 The signatures of 41 deputies follow.

ITALY.

The victorious campaigns of Napoleon in 1796 and 1797 constituted the starting-point of a series of political revolutions in Italy which ended in the successive annexation of all the parts of Italy to the Kingdom of Sardinia and the formation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. From 1797 to 1849 there were 23 constitutions or statutes in force in Italy. Of all of these the Statuto fondamentale of the Kingdom of Sardinia of 4 March 1848 was the only one to survive and it still forms the Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy. This Statute, promised by King Charles Albert in a famous proclamation of 18 February 1848, was published the following month and was put into force in the annexed territories by successive decrees. Many of the provisions of this Statute have fallen into disuse, although not expressly repealed. In this number are generally classed Articles 1, 28 (Paragraph 2), 53, 62 (Paragraph 2), 76, 77 and 80. A Law of 17 March 1861 conferred on Victor Emmanuel II and his successors the title of King of Italy, and a Law of 3 February 1871 transferred the capital of the Kingdom to Rome. The position of the Holy See is governed by the Law of 13 May 1871, called the "Law of Guarantees," which was declared to be a fundamental law of the Kingdom by the Council of State (2 March 1878). Nevertheless, since the Holy See has not ceased to protest against the annexation of the Papal States, this law has remained the unilateral work of the Italian government.2

FUNDAMENTAL STATUTE OF 4 MARCH 1848.3

[PREAMBLE.]

We, Charles Albert, by the Grace of God, King of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem, Duke of Savoy, Genoa, etc., etc., Prince of Piedmont,

1 Lombardy, decree of 7 December 1859; Emilia, decree of 18 March 1860 and law of 15 April 1860; Tuscany, decree of 22 March and law of 15 April 1860; Sicily, Marches, Umbria and Neapolitan Provinces, law of 17 December 1860; Province of Venice, decree of 28 July 1866; Roman Provinces, decree of 9 October and law of 31 December 1870.

This introductory paragraph is based upon F. R. DARESTE ET P. DARESTE, Les Consti. tutions modernes (3d edition, Paris, 1910), vol. 1, pp. 672-674.

English translation in W. F. DODD, Modern Constitutions (Chicago, 1909), vol. II, pp. 5-16, and by S. M. LINDSAY and L. S. ROWE in the Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November, 1894 (Philadelphia, 1894). French translation in DARESTE, op. cit., pp. 674–685. German translation in PAUL POSENER, Die Staatsverfassungen des Erdballs (Charlottenburg, 1909), pp. 642-656. The translation given here is based on that in Dodd.

etc., etc., etc., with the fidelity of a king and the affection of a father. are about today to fulfill all that we promised our most beloved subjects in our proclamation of the eighth of last February, whereby we desired to show, in the midst of the extraordinary events then transpiring throughout the country, how much our confidence in our subjects increased with the gravity of the situation, and how, consulting only the impulse of our heart, we had fully determined to make their condition conform to the spirit of the times and to the interests and dignity of the nation.

We, believing that the broad and permanent representative institutions established by this Fundamental Statute are the surest means of cementing the bonds of indissoluble affection that bind to our Italian crown a people that has so often given us ample proof of their faithfulness, obedience and love, have determined to sanction and promulgate this Statute, in the belief that God will bless our good intentions, and that this free, strong and happy nation will ever show itself more deserving of its ancient fame and thus merit a glorious future.

Therefore, we, with our full knowledge and royal authority and with the advice of our Council, have ordained and do hereby ordain and declare in force the fundamental perpetual and irrevocable Statute and law of the monarchy as follows.

ARTICLE 1. The Catholic, apostolic and Roman religion is the only religion of the State.1 Other cults now existing are tolerated, in conformity with the law.

ART. 2. The State is governed by a representative monarchical government. The throne is hereditary according to the Salic Law.2 ART. 3. The legislative power shall be exercised collectively by the King and two houses, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.3 ART. 4. The person of the King is sacred and inviolable. ART. 5. To the King alone belongs the executive power. He is the supreme head of the State; commands all land and naval forces: declares war; makes treaties of peace, alliance, commerce and other treaties, communicating them to the houses as soon as the interest. and security of the State permit, accompanying such notice with opportune explanations. Treaties involving financial obligations or alterations of the territory of the State shall not take effect until after they have received the approval of the houses.

ART. 6. The King appoints to all of the offices of the State, and makes the necessary decrees and regulations for the execution of the laws, without suspending their execution or granting exemptions.

1 See below, the Law of 13 May 1871. The Law of 19 June 1848 reads as follows: "Difference of religion shall entail no distinction as regards the enjoyment of civil and political rights and eligibility to civil and military positions."

2 Law of 2 July 1890 on the status of the royal family.

In case of political necessity, the Italian government frequently takes legislative measures by means of law decrees, and this procedure is considered justified by the commentators on this Statute.