CXXIII, CXXV, CXXVII, and CXXVIII, as well as on all other important matters which may occur, or may appear to him of importance; but he shall not be bound to abide by their Opinions.

CXXXV. The Council shall keep a Journal of all its Opinions, and every Year transmit to the Senate an exact Copy of the same, excepting only upon secret matters, so long as this secrecy may be necessary.

SECTION IV. Of the Secretaries of State.

CXXXVI. Five Secretaries of State shall be nominated for the management of publick business; viz. for Foreign Affairs, the Interior, Finance, the Navy, and War. It shall be lawful for the Executive Power to unite, temporarily, two Departments into one.

CXXXVII. It shall be lawful for Congress to make such alterations in the above number, as experience may suggest, or circumstances require; and by a particular Regulation, which the Executive Power shall draw up and submit for its approbation, the Affairs appertaining to each Department shall be properly distinguished.

CXXXVIII. Each Secretary is the regular and indispensable organ through which the Executive Power issues its orders to the Authorities subject to it. Any Order not authorized by the respective Secretary, shall not be executed by any Tribunal, or Person, publick or private.

CXXXIX. It is the duty of the Secretaries of State, with the concurrence of the Executive Power, to give to each Chamber all the information required of them, in writing or verbally, in their respective Departments, withholding only that which it may not be expedient to make public.

TITLE VI.

OF THE JUDICIAL POWER.

SECTION I. Of the Attributes of the High Court of Justice, and the Election and duration in Office of its Members.

CXL. The High Court of Justice of Colombia shall be composed of at least 5 Members.

CXLI. To be a Member of the High Court of Justice, it is requisite:

1. To enjoy the rights of an Elector. 2. To be an Advocate, not disqualified. 3. To be above 30 Years of age.

CXLII. The Members of the High Court of Justice shall be proposed to the Chamber of Representatives, in a triple list, by the Presi dent of the Republick. The latter shall reduce the same to 2 lists, and present them to the Senate, in order that they may select the Persons who are to compose the Bench. The same regulation shall be observed whenever, in consequence of death, dismissal, or resigna

tion, it may be necessary to renew the High Court, or to appoint to Vacancies of its Members. If, however, Congress be not assembled, the Executive Power shall provisionally appoint to the vacant Seats until the Election be made in the form above described. On the present occasion, they shall be nominated by the existing Congress.

CXLIII. To the High Court of Justice belongs the cognizance: 1. Of Differences relating to Ambassadors, Ministers, Consuls, and Diplomatick Agents.

2. Of Controversies arising out of Treaties and Negotiations entered into by the Executive Power.

3. Of Disputes relating to jurisdiction, which have arisen, or may arise, in the Superior Tribunals.

CXLIV. The Law shall determine the stage, form, and cases, in which the Court shall take cognizance of the affairs above mentioned, as well as of all other Civil and Criminal matters which are to be submitted to it.

CXLV. The Members of the High Court of Justice shall retain their Seats so long as their good behaviour warrants their retention. CXLVI. At fixed periods, to be determined by Law, they shall, for their services, receive such Salaries, as may be assigned to them. SECTION II. Of the Superior Courts of Justice, and Inferior Tribunals.

CXLVII. For the more prompt and convenient administration of Justice, the Congress shall establish, throughout the whole Republick, the Superior Courts which they may deem necessary, or existing cir cumstances may permit, assigning to each the Territory to which their respective jurisdiction shall extend, and the Place of its residence.

CXLVIII. The Members of the Superior Courts shall be nominated by the Executive Power from amongst three Persons proposed by the High Court of Justice. Their duration in Office shall be the same as that determined in Article CXLV.

CXLIX. The Inferior Courts of Law, shall, for the present, continue under such regulations as shall be determined by a particular Law, until Congress shall reform the Administration of Justice.

TITLE VII.

OF THE INTERIOR ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICK.

SECTION I.-Of the Administration of the Departments.

CL. The Congress shall divide the Territory of the Republick into 6, or more Departments, for their more easy and adequate administration.

CLI. The political direction of each Department shall be placed in the hands of a Magistrate, with the title of Intendant, subject to the

President of the Republick, to whom he shall act as the natural and immediate Agent. The Law shall determine his powers.

CLII. The Intendants shall be nominated by the President of the Republick, conformably to the Regulations prescribed in Articles CXXI and CXXII. Their duration in office shall be for 3 Years.

SECTION II.-Of the Administration of the Provinces and Cantons.

CLIII. In each Province there shall be a Governor, entrusted with the immediate direction of it, under the orders of the Intendant of the Department, and with such powers as the Law shall determine. His period of service and mode of nomination shall be the same as those of the Intendants.

CLIV. The Intendant of the Department shall be the Governor of the Province in whose Capital he may reside.

CLV. The present Corporations and Municipalities of the Cantons shall continue. Congress shall regulate their number, limits, and attributes, as well as every thing that may conduce to their better administration.

TITLE VIII.

GENERAL REGULATIONS.

CLVI. All Colombians have the right of freely recording, printing, and publishing their thoughts and opinions, without the necessity of any examination, revision, or censorship, previous to publication. Those, however, who commit any abuse of this inestimable privilege, shall incur the punishments which they have deserved, conformably to the Laws.

CLVII. The freedom possessed by every Citizen to demand his rights before the Depositaries of the Publick Authority, with due moderation and respect, shall at no time be impeded or restrained. All, on the contrary, agreeably to the Laws, shall find a ready and secure remedy for the injuries and losses they may experience in their Persons, property, honour, and reputation.

CLVIII. Every Man shall be presumed innocent, until he has been declared guilty, agreeably to law. If, previous to this declaration, it may be deemed expedient to arrest and confine him, no harsh measures shall be employed, which are not indispensably necessary for the security of his Person.

CLIX. In Criminal matters, no Colombian shall be arrested until after a summary information shall have been laid of the Offence for which, agreeably to Law, he may have incurred the penalty of corporal punishment.

CLX. When taken in the commission of crime, any Offender may be arrested, and all Persons are authorized to seize and convey him to

the presence of a Judge, in order that the provisions of the preceding Article may be immediately carried into effect.

CLXI. In order to the arrest of any Citizen, are required:

1. An Order of Arrest, signed by the Authority to whom the Law has confided this power.

2. That the Order should express the grounds for the commitment. 3. That he receive a notice thereof, and a copy of the same.

CLXII. No Governor or Keeper of a Prison shall admit or detain in confinement, any Person until he shall have received the Order of Arrest or Commitment alluded to in the preceding Article.

CLXIII. It shall not be lawful for the Governor or Gaoler to prohibit the Prisoner from having intercourse with any Person whatsoever, unless in cases where the Order of Commitment contains a clause enjoining close custody. The latter shall not last more than 3 days, and no fetters or other restraint shall be resorted to, unless expressly directed by the Judge.

CLXIV. Are guilty of, and subject to punishment for, arbitrary detention:

1. Persons who, without legal power, shall arrest, or cause, or command to be arrested, any Person whatsoever.

2. Persons who, possessing the said power, abuse it, by arresting, or commanding to be arrested, or detained in confinement, any Person, not within the Cases determined by Law, or contrary to the forms therein prescribed, or in places not publickly and legally known as Prisons.

3. Governors and Gaolers who contravene the provisions contained in Articles CLXII and CLXIII.

CLXV. Whenever the grounds of arrest, detention, or confinement, have ceased, the Prisoner shall be set at liberty. He may also obtain his enlargement, by giving bail in any stage of the proceedings, should it appear that he is not liable to corporal punishment. At the time of recording the information against the Accused, which at farthest shall take place within the third day, all the Documents and Attestations of the Witnesses, together with their names, shall be read to him in full, and, should he be unacquainted with their Persons, every information shall be given to him, in order that he may ascertain what is necessary respecting them.

CLXVI. No one can be tried by Special Commission, nor by any other than the Tribunal to which the case corresponds, in virtue of the Law.

CLXVII. No one can be tried, much less punished, unless by virtue of a Law anterior to his crime, or act, nor until after he has been heard or legally cited; moreover, no one shall be admitted, or compelled by oath, or any other constraint, to give testimony against himself in a criminal case; neither shall those reciprocally bear witness against each other, who are of kin, either by ascent or descent, or rela

tives, as far as the fourth civil degree of consanguinity, and the second of affinity.

CLXVIII. All maltreatment, in aggravation of the punishment determined by Law, is a crime.

CLXIX. It shall not be lawful to enter forcibly the House of a Colombian, unless in the Cases determined by Law, and under the responsibility of the Judge who issues the Order.

CLXX. The private Papers of the Citizens, as well as their epistolary Correspondence, are inviolable, and it shall not be lawful to register, intercept, or examine them, unless in the Cases expressly prescribed by the Law.

CLXXI. All Judges and Tribunals shall be bound to pronounce their Sentences, by quoting the Law, or the grounds applicable to the Case in question.

CLXXII. In no Trial shall there be more than 3 Appeals, and the Judges, who have presided at one, shall never be allowed to assist, in a revision of the same Suit.

CLXXIII. The infamy attaching to certain Crimes shall never affect the Family or Children of the Delinquent.

CLXXIV. No Colombian, unless employed in the Navy, or Militia, in actual service, shall be subject to Military Laws, or suffer any punishment awarded by them.

CLXXV. One of the first cares of the Congress shall be to introduce, in certain kinds of Suits, the Trial by Jury; until, the advantages of that Institution being practically made known, it may be extended to all Criminal and Civil Cases to which it is usually applied in other Nations, with all the forms adapted to this mode of procedure.

CLXXVI. The Military, in time of Peace, cannot be quartered or lodged in the Houses of other Citizens, without the consent of the Owners; nor, in time of War, unless by order of the Civil Magistrates, conformably to Law.

CLXXVII. No one shall be deprived of the least portion of his property, nor shall the latter be applied to publick uses, without his own consent, or that of the Legislative Body. Whenever any publick exigency, legally proved, requires that the property of any Citizen should be applied to similar purposes, the condition of a just compen sation must be presupposed.

CLXXVIII. No article of manufacture, cultivation, industry, o commerce, shall be prohibited to Colombians, excepting those which are so at present, for the support of the Republick, but which shal be declared free, so soon as it shall be judged fit and proper b Congress.

CLXXIX. The founding of Mayorasgos (Rights of Primogeniture and every description of Entail is prohibited.

CLXXX. No gold, silver, or paper, or other equivalent for money