LEGISLATIVE PEKRS. 127 



ment. When a bill has been twice thrown out by the first chamber 

 the two assemblies unite, and deliberate together on the bill, when 

 two-thirds of their votes decide the rejection or the adoption of the 

 measure. Three days must elapse between each deliberation. The 

 King's signature affixed to a resolution of the Diet, adopted either in 

 general or partial assembly, becomes a law. On the other hand, a 

 bill to which the King may have refused his sanction, cannot be pro- 

 posed again but in the next Diet, and should he a second time refuse 

 his sanction, only in a third Diet. But then it acquires the force a 

 law, notwithstanding the refusal of the royal sanction. 



The Diet cannot prolong its sessions beyond the space of three 

 months without the royal authority. The members of the chamber 

 compose, with those of the supreme court, the high court of appeal 

 of the kingdom. 



This constitution is decidedly the most liberal of all those by which 

 monarchical states are governed ; but it must be borne in mind that 

 the aristocracy of Norway was never very considerable, and that 

 now it is totally abolished, and that several acts of their charter forbid 

 the sovereign to attach to any title hereditary functions, or to create 

 new baronies^ 



The constitution given to the kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, 

 and which since the resolution of 1830 is the constitution of the 

 kingdom of Holland, first introduced into those provinces the prin- 

 ciple of division of the representative body. The first chamber is 

 composed of at least forty members, and must not exceed sixty ; 

 these members are appointed for life by the King from among those 

 persons most distinguished by birth and fortune ; they must be forty 

 years of age. No legislative measure can originate with them they 

 can only approve or reject such as have been previously deliberated 

 upon in the elective chamber. They receive an annual indemnity 

 from the government for travelling expenses, &c. of 3000 florins 

 each. 



The constitution of the new kingdom of Belgium also establishes a 

 first chamber under the name of Senate. The members of this body 

 are elected by the electoral colleges that elect the elective chamber. 

 Their number must not exceed the half of that of the members of the 

 lower chamber, and they are elected for a period of time double that 

 of the commons. The King has the power to dissolve the senate. 

 To become a senator the conditions are to be forty years of age, 

 and to pay 1000 florins in direct taxes. They do not receive any 

 salary or allowance. The presumptive heir to the throne takes his 

 seat in the senate at the age of eighteen, but he is not entitled to vote 

 until he has attained the age of twenty-Jive. 



^ The plan of the federal constitution of the United States of Ame- 

 rica was settled by a convention in 1787, and adopted on the 3rd 

 March, 1789, by a'll the States. Since that period twelve additional 

 articles have been added to it, which attribute the whole legislative 

 power to Congress, divided into a senate and a house of represen- 

 tatives. 



The senate is composed of persons appointed for six years by the 

 legislature of every state. They are divided into three series, one of 



