sentially a perpetuation of the ancient Table of
Magnates which, in the sixteenth century, began to sit separately as
an aristocratic body made up of the great dignitaries of the kingdom,
the Catholic episcopate (also, after 1792, that of the Orthodox Greek
Church), the "supreme courts," and the adult sons of titled families.
The reforms of 1848 left the Chamber untouched, though its composition
was modified slightly in 1885.[693] At the session of 1910-1911 it
contained 16 archdukes of the royal family (eighteen years of age or
over); 15 state dignitaries; 2 presidents of the High Courts of
Appeal; 42 archbishops and bishops of the Roman Catholic and Greek
Orthodox churches; 13 representatives of the Lutheran, Calvinist, and
Unitarian faiths; 236 members of the hereditary aristocracy (i.e.,
those of the whole number of the nobility who pay a land tax to the
amount of at least 6,000 crowns annually); 3 members elected by the
provincial diet of Croatia; and 60 life peers, appointed by the crown
or chosen by the Chamber of Magnates itself--a total of 387.[694] The
membership is therefore exceedingly complex, resting on the (p. 493)
various principles of hereditary right, _ex-officio_ qualification,
royal nomination, and election. In practice the upper house is
distinctly subordinate to the lower, to which alone the ministers are
responsible. Any member may acquire, by due process of election, a
seat in the lower chamber, and the privilege is one of which the more
ambitious peers are not reluctant to avail themselves. Upon election
to the lower house a peer's right to sit in the upper chamber is, of
course, suspended; but when the term of service in the popular branch
has expired, the prior right is revived automatically.

[Footnote 693: Law VII. of 1885 altering the
Organization of the Table of Magnates. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, I., 100-105.]

[Footnote 694: The number is, of course, variable.
The old Table of Magnates was a very large body,
consisting of more than 800 members.]

*545. The Chamber of Deputies: the Franchise.*--By law of 1848, amended
in 1874, it is stipulated that the Chamber of Deputies, historically
descended from the ancient Table of Nuncios, shall consist of 453
members, "who shall enjoy equal voting power, and who shall be elected
in accordance with an apportionment made on th