Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/265

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Constitution of the Year III
235

The legislative body determines the regulations and the method of their functions upon these subjects as well as upon other parts of the internal administration.

191. The Executive Directory appoints over each department and municipal administration a commissioner whom it recalls when it deems expedient.

This commissioner watches over and requires the execution of the laws.

192. The commissioner for each local administration shall be taken from among the citizens domiciled for a year past in the department where that administration is established.

He must be at least twenty-five years of age.

193. The municipal administrations are subordinate to the department administrations and these to the ministers.

In consequence, the ministers can annul, each en his part, the acts of the department administrations, and these the acts of the municipal administrations, when these acts are contrary to the laws or the orders of the higher authorities.

194. The ministers can also suspend the department administrations which have contravened the laws or the orders of the higher authorities, and the department administrators have the same right with respect to the members of the municipal administrations.

195. No suspension or annulment becomes definitive without the formal confirmation of the Executive Directory.

196. The Directory can also annul directly the acts of department or municipal administrations.

It can also suspend or dismiss directly when it thinks necessary either the department or the canton administrators and send them before the tribunals of the department when there is occasion.

197. Every order providing for the annulment of acts, suspension, or dismissal of an administrator must include a statement of the reasons.

198. When five members of a department administration are dismissed, the Executive Directory provides for their replacement until the following election; but it can choose their substitutes only from among the former administrators of the same department.

199. The administrations, whether department or canton, can correspond among themselves only upon matters as-