terior government thereof shall prescribe. During the sitting of the Cortes, and one month afterwards, the deputies cannot be sued at civil law, nor levied upon for debt. ART. 129. During the period of his deputation, no deputy can admit of for himself, or solicit for another, any employment or grant from the king, nor any degree of increased rank, as there must be no step ladder in his respective career. ART. 130. He cannot, during the period of his deputation, and one year afterwards, obtain for himself, nor solicit for another, any pension or dignity whatever, that may proceed from a grant of the king. It is evident, that the future king of Spain will hold no more authority than the president of the United States, for even when the Cortes are no. sitting they intend to leave a permanent committee from their body, to superintend the administration of affairs. In fact, the President of the United States holds a far more dignified office, than the king of Spain now holds. If Ferdinand was a man possessing common sense, in his first speech to the Cortes, he would propose the abolition of the kingly title and office, and the substitution of an elective presidency. In doing this, he would in some measure rescue his name from the degradation into which It has sunk. CHAP, VII.—On the powers of the Cortes. ART. 131. The powers of the Cortes are, viz. In the first place, to propose and decree the laws and to interpret and alter them on necessary occasion. Secondly, To take an oath to the King, to the Prince of Ast urias, and to the Regency, as is pointed out in their places. Thirdly, To determine any doubt of fact or right, that may occur in order of the succession to the crown. Fourthly, To elect a Regency or Regent of the kingdom, when the constitution requires it, and to point out the limits within which the Regency or the Regent must exercise the royal authority. Fifthly, To make the public acknowledgment of the Prince of Asturias. thly, To nominate a guardian to the King minor, when the Constitution requires it. By the Seventh, They are to approve, previous to ratification, the treaties of offensive alliance, of subsidies, and the particulars of commerce. VOL. III, No. 2. By the Eighth, To permit or refuse the admission of foreign troops into the kingdom." By the Ninth, To decree the creation and suppression of offices in the tribunals established by the Constitution, and also the creation or abolition of public offices. By the Tenth, To fix every year, on the proposal of the king, the land and sea forces, determining the establishment in time of peace, and its augmentation in time of war. By the Eleventh, To issue ordinances to the army, the fleet, and to the national militia, in all their branches. By the Twelfth, To fix the expences of the public administration. By the Fourteenth, To take property upon loan, in cases of necessity, upon the credit of the nation. By the Fifteenth, To approve the division of the taxes among the provinces. By the Sixteenth, To examine and approve the accounts of the application of the public funds. By the Seventeenth, To establish the custom-houses and duties to be paid there. By the Eighteenth, To order what is expedient for the administration, preservation, and alienation of the national funds. By the Nineteenth, To determine the value, the weight, the standard, the figure, and description, of money. By the Twentieth, To adopt the system it may judge most convenient, and just of weights and measures, By the Twenty-first, To promote and encourage all kinds of industry, and to remove the obstacles that paralyse it. By the Twenty-second, To establish a general plau of public instruction in the whole monarchy, and approve that which is intended for the education of the Prince of Asturias. By the twenty third, To approve of the general regulation for the police and health of the kingdom. By the twenty-fourth, To protect the political liberty of the press. By the Twenty-fifth, To render real and effective the responsibility of the secretaries of state, and other persons in public employ. By the twenty sixth, Lastly, it belongs to the Cortes to grant or refuse its consent in all those cases and acts which the Constitution points out necessary. By this chapter we perceive the omnipotency of the Spanish Cortes: the office of King is what it ought to be—a shadow. The English parliament boasts also of its omnipotency, but it is confined to oppressing the people. In England the minister controls the parliament, instead of the parliament controling the minister, thus the English minister is under no responsibility whatever, unless the House of Commons should happen by chance to get purified, and take him by surprize, CHAP. VIII. On the forms of the Laws, and the Royal Assent. ART. Every deputy possesses the power of submitting to the Cortes the sketch of new laws, in writing, and explaining the reasons on which they are found. ART. 133. Two days at least after the presentation and reading of the prospectus of a new law, it shall be read a second time, and the Cortes shall deliberate whether it is to be admitted or not to discussion. ART. 134. Admitted to discussion, if the importance of the matter should require, in the opinion of the Cortes, that it should go previously to a committee, so shall it be determined. ART. 135. Four days at least after the prospectus is admitted to discussion, it shall be read a third time, and a day may be appointed to open the debate thereon. ART. 136. On the day appointed for the debate, it shall examine the subject fundamentally, and in all its bearings. ART. 137. The Cortes shall decide when the matter is sufficiently discussed, and when decided that it has been, it shall be resolved whether there is reason or not for proeeeding to the vote. ART. 138. If it be decided that there is ground for proceeding to the vote, it shall be done immediately, admitting or rejecting in toto or in part the project, or varying and modifying it, according to the observations that have been made in its discussion. ART. 139. Decision shall be given by an absolute majority of votes, and it shall be necessary that there be present at least one half and one more of the total number of the deputies composing the Cortes. ART. 140. If the Cortes reject a project of law in any stage of its examination, or resolve that it should not be put to the vote, it cannot be again proposed in the same year. ART. 141. If it should be adopted, it shall be published in a duplicate in form of law, and shall be read in the Cortes, which being done, and both the original copies being signed by the President and two Secretaries, shall be immediately presented to the King by a committee. ART. 142. The King holds the right of sanction to the laws. ART. 143. The King gives his sanction in this form, with his sign manual. Let this be made public as the law." ART. 144. The King refuses his assent in this form, equally with his sign manual. "Let it return to the Cortes," giving at the same time a statement of his reasons for refusing it. ART. 145. The King may exert this prerogative for thirty days; if within that time he has neither given nor refused his assent, it shall be understood that he has given it, and will in fact give it. ART. 146. The assent being given or refused by the King, one of the two original copies shall be returned to the Cortes, to be reported upon. This original shall be kept in the archives of the Cortes, and the duplicate shall remain at the disposal of the King. ART. 147. If the King refuses his assent, the same matter cannot be again agitated in the Cortes in the same year, but it may in succeeding ones. ART. 148. If the same project of new law should be proposed in the Cortes the following year, admitted, approved, and presented to the King, he may give or refuse his assent a second time, according to the 143d and 145th articles; in the latter case, the subject cannot be again proposed in the same year. ART. 149. If the same project of new law should be proposed a third time, admitted and approved in the Cortes of the following year, it shall be understood that the King gives his assent, and on presenting it to him, he will give it, according to the 143d article. ART. 150. If within the period of thirty days, in which the king is to give or refuse his assent, the day should arrive when the Cortes should terminate their sessions, the king shall give or refuse it in the first eight days of the sessions of the following Cortes; and should this period pass without his giving it, it shall be understood that it is given, and that he will give it in the prescribed form, but if the king should deny his assent, this Cortes may discuss the same bu siness. ART. 151. Although, after the king's refusal of a proposed new law, one or more years should elapse, without the same being again proposed, as it may happen to be brought forward in the time of the same deputation that adopted it the first time, or in the time of the two deputations that immediately follow it, the same project shall require the assent of the king, as explained in the three preceeding articles; but if, during the continuance of the three deputations before-mentioned, it should not be again proposed, although it is afterwards produced at a proper time, it shall be regarded as an entire new matter. ART. 152. If the second or third time that the project is proposed within the period fixed by the preceding article, it should be rejected by the Cortes, at whatever period it may be subsequently brought forward, it shall be regarded as new matter. ART. 153. The laws are altered with the same formalities, and with the same proceedings that enact them. By this chapter we learn, that the extent of the authority of the king, with respect to the laws enacted by the Cortes is, that he may delay their execution for two years if he chuses, but in the third year the Cortes can make it law without him. This is putting too much power and caprice into the hands of one individual, and may enable him to do a great deal of mischief. I shall give my vote to have this part of the Spanish Constitution amended. (To be continued.) CONTINUATION OF REPLY TO THE REV. THOMAS HARTWELL HORNE'S PAMPHLET, ENtitled deiSM REFUTED, &c. From Page 35, I should have noticed in my observations on the fourteenth chapter, that the expression in the fourteenth verse, of Abraham's pursuing the enemy "unto Dan," is one of the proofs that Moses is not the author of the book of Genesis; as the city of Dan which stood near to the source of the river Jor dan, was not founded until 330 years after the death of Moses. We find the origin of the City of Dan in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Judges, I proceed with the fifteenth chapter:-" After these things "the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great "reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is "this Eliezer of Damascus?" Without making any observations on the visionary conversation between Abraham and the Lord, I consider it matter of great doubt, whether the city of Damascus was founded in the time of Abraham, according to Bible chronology. I do not for a moment admit the truth of the history I am commenting upon. I consider it a compilation from loose traditions and fabulous tales, which have abounded in all countries where the use of letters have not been known; and I am very doubtful whether the use of letters was known to the Jews before they were carried captive into Chaldea: there is no proof of the contrary of my doubt, but the probabilities are very strong in support of it, which I shall notice when I arrive at that period. Damascus was the capital of Syria; and although the supposed descendants of Abraham must have frequently traversed that country, according to the Bible history, yet we do not find it noticed until the time of Asa, in the first book of Kings, and fifteenth chapter, where it is described as the residence of Benhadad, but in the twentieth chapter of the same book, we are told of the defeat of Benhadad by Ahab, king of Israel, when Benhadad proposes that Ahab shall build streets in Damascus, which implies, that previous to that time, it was comprised of scattered and irregular buildings. I can believe that there did once exVOL. III. No. 2. |
