GOVERNMENT. The present Constitution of Portugal consists of the Constitutional Charter, granted by King Pedro IV. April 29, 1826, the additional acts of July 5, 1852, of July 24, 1885, and of March 28 and September 25, 1895. The form of government is that of a representative constitutional monarchy, with the system of min isterial responsibility in legislation and admin istration. The legislative power is vested in a Cortes of two chambers: the House of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies. The House of Peers consists of the princes of the royal blood who have attained the age of twenty-five, the bishops and archbishops, who are peers of right, and about 90 peers appointed at will by the King, their dignity being hereditary, although a law of July 24, 1885, has provided for the gradual abolition of hereditary peerages. The Peers have an equal initiative with the Deputies and the Government, except as to measures relating to im posts and recruitment, and may constitute them selves into a high court of justice for the trial of members of the royal family and high officials. By the law of August 8, 1901. elections to the Chamber of Deputies are by all male citizens twenty-one years of age who can read and write or who pay taxes amounting to 500 rein. Depu ties must he graduates of a secondary or profes sional school or in the enjoyment of an income of not less than 400 milreis per year. Disquali fied for membership are peers, naturalized citi zens, and certain employees of the Government. The Deputies are apportioned according to popu lation, at present the ratio being one Deputy to every 36.000 inhabitants. The total number is 155, of which seven are returned by the colonies. They are chosen in single electoral districts, and sit for four years unless the Cortes is sooner dis solved. Their chamber has the usual powers and duties of a lower chamber in a parliamentary system. The executive power is vested in the Crown, which is hereditary, females succeeding when males are wanting. The Crown has the usual powers intrusted to a constitutional mon arch, but its veto is only suspensive. The King is inviolable and irresponsible. He, therefore, acts officially through responsible ministers who have a seat in the Cortes and take part in its deliberations. The King is also assisted by a
Council of State consisting of about 16 members appointed by himself for life. For the purpose of administering justice the country is divided into comarcag or districts. in each of which a court of first instance held by a single judge is provided. There are also in each district a number of jus tices of thy peace, who have jurisdiction in minor civil and criminal cases. Above these are three courts of second instance located at Lisbon, Opor to, and Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, which have original jurisdiction in certain cases and hear appeals from the lower courts, while the ultimate judicial authority is the Supreme Court at Lisbon. It is divided into two chambers, has original jurisdiction in a variety of matters, and is a final court of appeal for the whole kingdom. Trial by jury is allowed iu criminal cases.
For the purpose of local government, Portugal, with the neighboring isles, is divided into 21 dis tricts, corresponding somewhat to the French de partments. The districts are again divided into communes (concahos); and these are further sub divided into parishes, about 4000 in number. In each district there are a popularly elected assem bly or junta, a permanent executive commission chosen from the membership of the junta and charged with the execution of its deliberations, an administrative tribunal for the settlement of ad ministrative controversies, and a Governor ap pointed by the King and charged with tbe super vision of matters of central administration iu the district. The commune is an administrative cir cumscription varying in population from 500 to 15.000 inhabitants. Its chief organs of govern ment are an elected municipal council with a president. whose duty it is to execute the resolu tions of the council, and an administrador, ap pointed by the King and charged with the super vision of central affairs in the commune. In each parish there is an elected assembly or junta. with a president who is charged with the execu tion of its resolutions, which for the most part relate to ecclesiastical affairs and poor relief.