Of these five constitutional laws one has now almost completely disappeared, that is the law concerning the Senate. Of the four others, exclusively relative to political organization, only the following facts are constitutionally established: 1. The existence of a legislative power divided into two assemblies, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, concerning the organiza tion of which the Constitution mentions only the functions, the interior organization, the privileges of members and the election of dep uties by universal suffrage.
2. 'The existence of a President of the Re public, the complete enumeration of his functions and prerogatives and directions in regard to the mode of election and the dura tion of power.
3. The reciprocal powers of the President and the Chambers either in regard to each other or to common questions, such as the con vocation of the Chambers, length of sessions, form of dissolution, general procedure of amendments, forms of presidential and minis terial responsibility, method of promulgating laws and concluding international conventions.
Everything outside of these matters depends upon legislative action; the electoral system, ministerial organization, communal, depart mental, judiciary, military and financial admin istration, etc. However one question remain ing outside of both constitution and legislation is the form of government. Contrary to pre ceding constitutions, these constitutional laws give the greatest scope to legislative action and, tend to confound the legislative and constitu tional authority.
II. The Principle of the Separation of (a) Formation and evolution of that principle before the Third Republic.
Under the Ancien Regime, the king, by the use of his sovereignty and the abuse of extreme penalties, absorbed in his own hands an abso lute power. The right of making regulations and by-laws on all sorts of matters was exer cised by the king's agents, that is to say by the "intendants' (Provincial Governors), the Provincial Assemblies and the Provincial States. In fact, such agents were entirely de pendent on their master's omnipotence, and the legislative power could play only an auxiliary part. Such principles were thoroughly upset by the Great Revolution of 1789. The repre sentative system was finally adopted in spite of inevitable reactions with the results that the French Parliament has now a predominant in fluence and the separation of powers is as nearly complete as it may be. The initial con
ception of the National Assembly was ex pressed in the following manner: "The leg islative Power alone, has the right of interpret ing or completing the laws which have been passed. To entrust such a dual function to the executive power would create a confusion of two Powers which public interest requires to be distinct' The Assembly, however, objected to such wording, the character of which appeared too absolute, and adopted the following resolution, which became article 6, title III, chapter IV, section 1 of the Constitution of 1791: "The executive power cannot make any law, even of temporary character; it can only inake proc lamations whch are consistent with the laws, for the purpose of ordering their execution or calling attention to their observance' From that moment, the right to make regulations and by-laws concerning all the matters, was en trusted by the Constitution to the exclusive care of the Assembly, and was withdrawn from the king. Such was also the case for all mat ters upon which the Assembly itself had passed a law. The Legislative Assembly which suc ceeded the Assemblee Constituante, adopted the same principle when it defined the attributes of the executive power. The same tradition was also followed by the Convention, the Con stitution Jacobine and the Constitution Giron dine of 1793. The latter conferred to the Conseil Executif a power which was limited to the execution of the laws and decrees of the Corps Legislatif (article 65). All matters which could bed ealt only by laws were enumer ated in articles 54 and 55. The Constitution of the year III (1795) made the attrilutes of the executive power more extensive by suppressing the list of matters whiCh were considered as being of an exclusive legislative character. The laws became less elaborate in their details, allowing the executive power, i.e., the Direc toire, not only to enforce them, but to provide regulations intended to complete them. The Directoire did not even limit its activities to such regulations as were required by the laws, it took the initiative of providing others which were not connected with any existing law and which concerned chiefly the police, the theatres, the exchanges, or military or naval Flatters.