ARTICLE VI
THE DIET, OR THE LEGISLATIVE POWER

The Diet, or the Assembly of Estates, shall be divided into two Houses; viz. the House of Deputies, and the House of Senate, where the King is to preside. The former being the representative and central point of Supreme national authority, shall possess the pre-eminence in the Legislature; therefore, all bills are to be decided first in this House.

1st. All General Laws, viz. constitutional, civil, criminal, and perpetual taxes;concerning which matters, the King is to issue his propositions by the circular letters sent before the Dietines to every palatinate and to every district for deliberation, which coming before the House with the opinion expressed in die instructions given to their representatives, shall be taken the first for decision.

2d. Particular Laws, viz. temporal taxes; regulations of the mint; contracting public debts; creating nobles, and other casual recompenses; reparation of public expences, both ordinary and extraordinary; concerning war; peace; ratification of treaties, both political and commercial; all diplomatic acts and conventions relative to the laws of nations; examining and acquitting different executive departments, and familiar subjects arising from the accidental exigencies and circumstances of the State; in which the propositions, coming directly from the Throne into the House of Deputies, are to have preference in discussion before the private bills.

In regard to the House of Senate, it is to consist of Bishops, Palatines, Castellans, and Ministers, under the presidency of the King, who shall have but one vote, and the casting voice in case of parity, which he may give either personally, or by a message to the House. Its power and duty shall be,

1st. Every General Law that passes formally through the House of Deputies is to be sent immediately to this, which is either accepted, or suspended till farther national deliberation, by a majority of votes, as prescribed by law. If accepted, it becomes a law in all its force; if suspended, it shall be resumed at the next Diet; and if it is then agreed to again by the House of Deputies, the Senate must submit to it.

2d. Every Particular Law or Statute of the Diet in matters above specified, as soon as it has been determined by the House of Deputies, and sent up to the Senate, the votes of both Houses shall be jointly computed, and the majority, as described by law, shall be considered as a decree and the will of the Estates.

Those Senators and Ministers who, from their share in executive power, are accountable to the Republic, cannot have an active voice in the Diet, but may be present in order to give necessary explanations to the States.

These ordinary legislative Diets shall have their uninterrupted existence, and be always ready to meet; renewable every two years. The length of sessions shall be determined by the law concerning Diets. If convened out of ordinary session upon some urgent occasion, they shall only deliberate on the subject which occasioned such a call, or on circumstances which may arise out of it.

No law or statute enacted by such ordinary Diet can be altered or annulled by the same.

The compliment of the Diet shall be composed of the number of persons in both Houses, to be determined hereafter.

The law concerning the Dietines, or primary elections, as established by the present Diet, shall be regarded as a most essential foundation of civil liberty.

As the legislative power cannot be performed by all and because the nation works through its representatives, therefore the deputies elected by the Dietines will be recognized as the representatives of the whole nation in whom the trust of the nation will be vested.

The majority of votes shall decide every thing, and every where; therefore we abolish, and utterly annihilate, liberum veto, all sorts of confederacies and confederate Diets, as contrary to the spirit of the present constitution, as undermining the government, and as being ruinous to society.

Willing to prevent, on one hand, violent and frequent changes in the national constitution, yet, considering on the other, the necessity of perfecting it, after experiencing its effects on public prosperity, we determine the period of every twenty-five years for an Extraordinary Constitutional Diet, to be held purposely for the revision and such alterations of the constitution as may be found requisite; which Diet shall be circumscribed by a separate law hereafter.