262 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



The legislative power bas been entrusted to a Congress of two bouses — a 

 Senate composed of two members for eacb province, elected for four years, and a 

 Chamber of Deputies elected for two years on the basis of one deputy for every 

 30,000 inhabitants. One-half of tbe Senate retires every two years. 



Botb president and vice-president are elected by direct popular suffrage, 

 for four years, but the latter is nominated two years after tbe president, so that 

 he remains in office two years after him, and is thus a member of two suc- 

 cessive administrations. During his term of office tbe president is aided by a 

 ministry of four members charged with the conduct of home and foreign affiiirs, 

 finance, war, religion and public instruction. A council of state, nominated for 

 six years, and composed of a Church dignitary, a judge of the High Court, and 

 three others, controls the acts of the president, and, in case of divergent views, 

 may s^ibmit the points at issue to the verdict of Congress. 



The president appoints the generals and colonels, but only on the advice of 

 the state council and after the sanction of Congress. He also chooses the judges 

 of the higher courts from a list of three candidates presented by the Supreme 

 Court of Justice. This tribunal consists in its turn of judges named by Con- 

 gress for ten years and re-eligible. Their power is thus less exposed to political 

 vicissitudes than that of any other functionaries. 



Position or the Church — Finance. 



The constitution is sujTounded by numerous guarantees intended to make it 

 immutable, as if everything did not ultimately depend upon the force of public 

 opinion. No act can be subjected to revision or repeal until it has been enforced 

 for a period of four years. On the other hand all modifications, after being voted 

 by two-thirds of the national assembly, have the force of law only after the sanc- 

 tion of a new assembly. 



Two articles of the constitution are withdrawn from all possible revision, one 

 determining the republican form of government, the other declaring Catholicism, 

 the Fé ("Faith") in a pre-eminent sense, to be the state religion. In fact, 

 Ecuador, one of the few nations of modern origin with an official cult, proclaims 

 itself explicitly "Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman," to the exclusion of all other 

 creeds. " The only government which has a really and thoroughly Catholic char- 

 acter is the republic of Ecuador." The secular arm is required to " respect the 

 official religion, to make it respected, to protect its liberty and its right." On 

 assuming office both president and vice-president have to take an oath, more of a 

 religious than of a political nature, either before Congress or before the Supreme 

 Court, thus worded : " I swear by our Lord God and on this Holy Gospel to loyally 

 fulfil my charge, to protect the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion, to uphold 

 the integrity and independence of the State, to maintain and cause to be maintained 

 the constitution and the laws. Doing so, may God be ray help and defence ; not 

 doing so, may He and my country call me to account ! " 



Formerly the rôle of Ecuador as a Catholic power was even far more explicitly 



