Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/275

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Constitution of the Year III
245

Of the Active National Guard.

285. The Republic maintains in its pay, even in time of peace, under the name of the active national guards, an army and a navy.

286. The army is formed by voluntary enlistment, and in case of need, by the method which the law determines.

287. No foreigner who has not acquired the rights of French citizenship can be admitted into the French armies, unless he has made one or more campaigns for the establishment of the Republic.

288. The commanders or heads of the army or navy are appointed only in case of war. They receive from the Directory commissions revocable at will. The duration of these commissions is confined to one campaign ; but they can be continued.

289. The command of the armees of the Republic cannot be confided to a single man.

290. The army and navy are subject to special laws for discipline, for the form of trials, and for the nature of the penalties.

291. No part of the reserve national guard or of the active national guard can act in the internal service of the Republic except upon the written requisition of the civil authority in the forms prescribed by the law.

292. The public force cannot be requisitioned by the civil authorities except within the extent of their territory; it cannot be transported from one canton to another, without this being authorised by the administration of the department, nor from one department into another without the orders of the Executive Directory.

293. Nevertheless, the legislative body determines the methods to secure by the armed force the execution of the judicial decisions and the prosecution of the accused upon all the French territory,

294. In case of imminent danger the municipal administration of the canton can make requisition upon the national guard of the neighboring cantons; in this case, the administration which has made requisition and the leaders of the national guards who have been requisitioned are likewise required to make instant report of it to the department administration.