ARTICLE VII
THE KING, OR EXECUTIVE POWER


The most perfect government cannot exist or last without an effectual executive power. The happiness of the nation depends on just laws, but the good effects of laws flow only from their execution. Experience has taught us that the neglecting this essential part of government has overwhelmed Poland with disasters.

Having, therefore, secured to the free Polish nation the right of enacting laws for themselves, the supreme inspection over the executive power, and the choice of their magistrates, we entrust to the King, and his Council, the power of executing the laws.

This Council shall be called Straz, or the Council of Guardians.

The duty of such executive power shall be to watch over the laws, and to see them strictly executed according to their import, even by the means of public force, should it be necessary.

All departments and magistracies are bound to obey its directions. To this power we leave the right of controling such as are refractory, or of punishing such as are negligent in the execution of their respective offices.

This executive power cannot assume the right of making laws, or of their interpretation. It is expressly forbidden to contract public debts; to alter the repartition of the national income, as fixed by the Diet; to declare war; to conclude definitively any treaty, or any diplomatic act; it is only allowed to carry on negotiations with foreign Courts, and facilitate temporary occurrences, always with reference to the Diet.

The Crown of Poland we declare to be elective in regard to families, and it is settled so for ever.

Having experienced the fatal effects of interregna, periodically subverting government, and being desirous of preventing for ever all foreign influence, as well as of insuring to every citizen a perfect tranquillity, we have, from prudent motives, resolved to adopt hereditary succession to our Throne: therefore we enact and declare, that, after the expiration of our life, according to the gracious will of the Almighty, the present Elector of Saxony shall reign over Poland.

The dynasty of future Kings of Poland shall begin in the person of Frederic Augustus, Elector of Saxony, with the right of inheritance to the Crown to his male descendants. The eldest son of the reigning King is to succeed his father; and in case the present Elector of Saxony has no male issue, a husband chosen by him (with the consent and approbation of the Republic) for his daughter, shall begin the said dynasty. Hence we declare the Princess Mary-Augusta Nepomucena, only daughter of the Elector of Saxony, to be Infanta of Poland.

We reserve to the nation, however, the right of electing to the Throne any other house or family, after the extinction of the first.

Every King, on his accession to the Throne, shall take a solemn oath to God and the Nation, to support the present constitution, to fulfil the pacta conventa, which will be settled with the present Elector of Saxony, as appointed to the Crown, and which shall bind him in the same manner as former ones.

The King's person is sacred and inviolable; as no act can proceed immediately from him, he cannot be in any manner responsible to the nation; he is not an absolute monarch, but the father and the head of the people; his revenues, as fixed by the pacta conventa, shall be sacredly preserved. All public acts, the acts of magistracies, and the coin of the kingdom, shall bear his name.

The King, who ought to possess every power of doing good, shall have the right of pardoning those that are condemned to death, except the crimes be against the state.

In time of war he shall have the supreme command of the national forces—he may appoint the commanders of the army, however, by the will of the States. It shall be his province to patentee officers in the army, and other dignitaries, consonant to the regulations hereafter to be expressed, to appoint Bishops, Senators, and Ministers, as members of the executive power.

The King's Council of Guardians is to consist,

1st. Of the Primate, as the head of the Clergy, and the President of the Commission of Education, or the first Bishop in Ordine.

2d. Of five Ministers, viz. the Minister of Police, Minister of Justice, Minister of War, Minister of Finances, and Minister for the Foreign Affairs.

3d. Of two Secretaries to keep the Protocols, one for the Council, another for the Foreign Department; both, however, without decisive vote.

The hereditary Prince coming of age, and having taken the oath to preserve the constitution, may assist at all sessions of the Council, but shall have no vote therein.

The Marshal of the Diet, being chosen for two years, has also a right to sit in this Council, without taking any share in its resolves; for the end only to call together the Diet, always existing, in the following case: Should he deem, from the emergencies hereunder specified, the convocation of the Diet absolutely necessary, and the King refusing to do it, the Marshal is bound to issue his circular letters to all Deputies and Senators, adducing real motives for such meeting.

The cases demanding such convocation of the Diet are the following:

1st. In a pressing necessity concerning the law of nations, and particularly in case of a neighboring war.

2d. In case of an internal commotion, menacing with the revolution of the country, or of a collision between Magistratures.

3d. In an evident danger of general famine.

4th. In the orphan state of the country, by demise of the King, or in case of the King's dangerous illness.

All the resolutions of the Council will be taken by the Guardians assembled respectively to the rules above mentioned.

The King's opinion, after that of every Member in the Council has been heard, shall decisively prevail.

Every resolution of this Council shall be issued under the King's signature, countersigned by one of the Ministers sitting therein; and thus signed, shall be obeyed by all executive departments, except in cases expressly exempted by the present constitution.

Should all the Members refuse their countersign to any resolution, the King is obliged to forego his opinion; but if he should persist in it, the Marshal of the Diet may demand the convocation of the Diet; and if the King will not, the Marshal himself shall send his circular letters as above.

The King nominates the Ministers and appoints them for two years to his Council of Guardians.

Ministers composing this Council cannot be employed at the same rime in any other commission or department.

If it should happen that two-thirds of secret votes in both Houses demand the changing of any person, either in the Council, or any executive department, the King is bound to nominate another.

Willing that the Council of Guardians should be responsible to the nation for their actions, we decree that, when these Ministers are denounced and accused before the Diet (by the special Committee appointed for examining their proceedings) of any transgression of positive law, they are answerable with their persons and fortunes.

Such impeachments being determined by a simple majority of votes, collected jointly from both Houses, shall be tried immediately by the Diet Tribunal, where the accused are to receive their final judgment and punishment, if found guilty; or to be honourably acquitted, on sufficient proof of innocence.

In order to form a necessary organization of the executive power, we establish hereby separate commissions, connected with the above Council, and subjected to obey its ordinations. The commissars will be elected by the Diet for time prescribed by the laws.

These commissions are, 1st. of Education; 2d.. of Police; 3d. of War; 4th. of Treasury.

It is through the medium of these four departments that all the particular orderly commissions, as established by the present Diet, in every palatinate and district, shall depend on, and receive all orders from, the Council of Guardians, in their respective duties and occurrences.