52: Art. 50. Ibid., II., 210.]

[Footnote 853: It is required that subsequent to a
declaration of war or the conclusion of peace the
king shall submit to the Cortes a report
accompanied by pertinent documents.]

*680. The Ministry: Organization and Functions.*--In Spain, as in
constitutional states generally, the powers appertaining to the
executive are exercised in the main by the ministers. Concerning the
ministry the constitution has little to say. It, in truth, assumes,
rather than makes specific provision for, the ministry's existence. It
confers upon the crown the power freely to appoint and to dismiss
ministers; it stipulates that ministers may be senators or deputies
and may participate in the proceedings of both legislative chambers,
but may vote only in the chambers to which they belong; and, most
important of all, it enjoins that ministers shall be responsible, and
that no order of the king may be executed unless countersigned by a
minister, who thereby assumes personal responsibility for it. This
principle of ministerial responsibility, which found its first
expression in Spain in the constitution of 1812, is enforced nowadays
sufficiently, at least, to ensure the nation, through the Cortes, some
actual control over the policies and measures of the executive. Of
ministries there are at present nine, as follows: Foreign Affairs;
Justice; Finance; War; Marine; Interior; Public Instruction and Fine
Arts; Commerce; and Public Works. At the head of the ministerial
council is a president, or premier, who, under royal approval, selects
his colleagues, but ordinarily assumes himself no portfolio. It is the
function of the ministers not only to serve as the heads of executive
departments and to explain and defend in the legislative chambers the
acts of the government, but, in their collective capacity, to
formulate measures for presentation to the Cortes and, especially, to
submit every year for examination and discussion a general budget,
accompanied by a scheme of taxation or other proposed means of meeting
prospective expenditures. In each chamber there is reserved for the
ministers of the crown a front bench to the right of the presiding
official. The practice of interpellation exists, although ministries
rarely retire by reason of a vote of censure arising therefrom. But any
minister may be impeached by the Congress before the Senate. I