n the nearest relative,
according to the order of succession, who had attained the age of
twenty-five. Associated with the sovereign was a ministry and a
council of state. The ministry consisted of a premier, usually without
portfolio, and a variable number of heads of departments (in 1910,
seven),[876] and it was a principle of the constitution that, the
crown being legally irresponsible, no executive act might be adjudged
valid unless signed by one or more of the members of the ministerial
group. For all of their acts the ministers were responsible nominally
to the Cortes, although in point of fact the turbulent state of (p. 636)
politics rendered such responsibility nearly impossible to enforce.
The council of state was a body composed of the crown prince (when of
the age of eighteen) and of twelve men appointed by the king for life,
usually from present or past ministers. It was required that the
council be consulted in all affairs of weight and in general measures
of public administration, especially those relating to the declaration
of war, the conclusion of peace, and the conduct of diplomatic
negotiations.[877]

[Footnote 876: Foreign Affairs, Interior, Finance,
Justice and Worship, War, Marine and Colonies, and
Public Works.]

[Footnote 877: Arts. 107-112. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 168-169.]

Aside from participation in legislation, the powers of the crown
(exercised at least nominally through the intermediary of the
ministers and councillors) were, as has been said, of two categories,
executive and moderative. The powers of an executive character were of
the usual sort, i.e., the appointment of civil, military, and
ecclesiastical officials; the conduct of foreign relations; the
promulgation of the laws, and of decrees, instructions, and
regulations requisite to the proper execution of the laws; the
ordering, not less frequently than quadrennially, of an election of a
new Cortes; and the supervision, in conformity with the constitution,
of "all things which bear upon the internal and external security of
the state."[878] Among modern constitutions those of Portugal and
Brazil are unique in the distinction drawn between powers that are
executive and powers that are "moderative." Under the head of
moderative powers the Portuguese constitution vested in the crown the
nomination of peers, the convening of th