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Constitution of MDCCXCI.
289

shall retire; the chair of the President shall be vacant; order shall bemaintained by the VicePresident. Art. 3. A legislative act can only be deliberated upon and decreedin the following manner:Art. 4. There shall be three readings of a bill, at thre^ intervals, each of which shall be eight days. Art. 5. The discussion shall be open after each reading, but theLegislative Body may declare, after the first or second reading, that itshall be adjourned, or that no discussion shall take place; but in thislast case, the bill may be presented again during the same session. All bills must be printed and distributed before the second reading. Art. 6. After the third reading, the President must bring the billforward for discussion, and the Legislative Body must decide whetherit is ready to decide, or the decision shall be postponed in order toprocure the clearest light upon the subject. Art. 7. The Legislative Body can not deliberate unless the sessionis composed of at least 200 members, and a decree shall only be passedby an absolute plurality of votes. Art. 8. Every bill which has been acted on and rejected after thethird reading can not be brought up again during the same session. Art. 9. The preamble of each decree shall definitely express:1. The days of the session on which the three readings of the billtook place. 2. The act by which it was, after the third reading, declared to decide definitely. Art. 10. The King shall refuse his sanction to a decree of whichthe preamble does not attest the compliance with the above forms. But if such a decree is sanctioned, the ministers must not seal andpromulgate it, and their responsibility in this regard shall last sixyears. Art. 11. Decrees recognized and declared urgent by a previousdeclaration of the Legislative Body are excepted from the aboveprovisions, but they may be modified and revoked in the course of thesame session. The decree by which the matter shall have beendeclared urgent shall express the reasons for it, and it shall makemention of the previous decree in the preamble of the final decree. Section III. Of the Royal Sanction. Article i. The decrees of the Legislative Body are presented tothe King, who may refuse to give his consent to them.19