ntrol over foreign
relations, declares war, concludes and ratifies treaties,[729] confers
titles of nobility, appoints to public offices, coins money, grants
pardons in cases of penalties imposed by judicial sentence, maintains
supreme control over the land and naval forces, settles certain types
of disputes arising between provinces, or between provinces and
communes or corporations, issues general administrative regulations,
recommends projects of law to the States-General, and approves or
rejects all measures adopted by that body. The sovereign is, however,
in no sense above the law. Many things may not be done at all, save
under the authority of a regularly enacted piece of legislation.
Dispensations from legal provisions, for example, may be granted by
the crown only under the authority of law. In still other respects the
sweeping grants of power contained within the constitution are
tempered by counter-balancing stipulations. Thus, the sovereign has
the right to coin money; but it is also prescribed that "the monetary
system shall be regulated by law."[730] And the crown has "supreme
control of the colonies and possessions of the kingdom in other parts
of the world;" but "the regulations for the conduct of the government
in the colonies and possessions shall be established by law."[731]

[Footnote 729: Save that treaties which provide for
modifications of the boundaries of the state, or
impose a public pecuniary obligation, or contain
any other provision touching legal rights, may not
be approved by the crown until after sanction shall
have been accorded by the States-General, unless
the power has been reserved to the crown by law to
conclude such a treaty. Art. 59. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 91.]

[Footnote 730: Art. 61. Ibid., II., 91.]

[Footnote 731: Art. 61. Ibid.]

III. THE STATES-GENERAL AND POLITICAL PARTIES

*579. The Chambers: Earlier Electoral Arrangements.*--Legislative power
within the kingdom is vested jointly in the sovereign and a States-General,
or parliament, of two chambers. The upper chamber consists of (p. 526)
fifty members elected in varying proportions by the "estates," or
representative assemblies, of the eleven provinces.[732] The term of
office is nine years, and o