

LEGISLATIVE PEEKS. 125 



different political rights. 1st. The members of those families styled 

 of the state, the descendants of the late members of the German 

 Empire ; 2dly. The possessors of seigneurial land ; and 3dly. Those 

 of lands simply noble. The heads of the noble families on whom the 

 Grand Duke confers the dignity of the first class of nobility, take 

 their seats in the first chamber as hereditary members, and are equal 

 to the barons, provided they possess, by right of primogeniture, a 

 family estate or fief of the value of 300.000 florins after deducting 

 every charge. The eight deputies of the nobility are elected by every 

 possessor of a lordship who has attained the age of one-and-twenty. 

 To be eligible they must possess the right of voting, and have reached 

 the age of five-and -twenty. Every election is for eight years every 

 fourth year one-half goes out. The two deputies of the universities 

 are elected every four years. The number of members of the first 

 chamber appointed by the Grand Duke must not exceed eight. All 

 financial bills must first be laid before the second chamber. 



In the Grand Duchy of 'Hesse Darmstadt, the constitution of 

 1820 instituted an Upper Chamber composed of the princes of the 

 ducal family, of the heads of those families the immediate descen- 

 dants of former members of the German Empire, of two ecclesiastical 

 dignitaries, one Protestant and the other Catholic, of the chancellor of 

 the university, and of members appointed for life by the Grand 

 Duke, whose number must not exceed ten. The second chamber is 

 composed of deputies of the nobility and of the towns, elected for six 

 years by a triple election. 



The constitution of some other German states, too inconsiderable 

 to fix our attention, are very similar in disposition to those we have 

 described. It is worthy of remark that in all of them the hereditary 

 principle is found almost exclusively consecrated in favour of those 

 families who were sovereign princes of the German empire before the 

 French revolution, and whom they have thus sought to indemnify for 

 the loss of their former high prerogatives. 



In Portugal the constitutional charter given by Don Pedro to the 

 nation, in 1826, on abdicating the throne, had constituted a peerage 

 according to the spirit of the French charter* of 1814. The mem- 

 bers of it were both hereditary and appointed for life by the King ; 

 their number was unlimited. 



The ancient Polish constitution admitted but one representative 

 body, and one single order of the nation. The nobility was alone re- 

 presented in it by its principal members. In the course of time a 

 second fraction of the body was introduced into the Diet, and was 

 represented by members called Nuncios. In 1774, at the period of 

 the first partition of Poland, the constitution was reformed. There 

 was then a senate and a chamber of nuncios, who held their sittings 

 separately. The senate was composed of bishops, of palatins, of cas- 

 tellans, and of the grand dignitaries of the state. As in the former 

 constitution, the nobles alone formed the composition of the chamber 



* By the 27th article of the Charte, the nomination of Peers of France be- 

 longs to the King : he may vary their dignities, appoint them for life, or render 

 them hereditary at will. Hereditary peerage in France is now abolished. 



