e Cortes in extraordinary
session, approval of the measures of the Cortes to the end that they
might acquire the force of law, the proroguing and adjourning of the
Cortes and the dissolving of the House of Deputies, the appointing and
dismissing of ministers, the granting of amnesties, and the remitting
or reducing of penalties imposed upon offenders by judicial sentence.
The theory was that these were powers which the sovereign exercised in
the capacity of mediator between the several organs of the
governmental system, and by the constitution it was declared that this
moderative power was the keystone of the entire political
organization. The distinction, however, while from a certain point of
view logical enough, does not appear to have possessed much practical
importance.

[Footnote 878: Arts. 75-77. Ibid., II., 162-164.]

*703. The Cortes.*--Powers of a legislative character were vested in the
sovereign conjointly with a parliament of two chambers, the _Camara
dos Pares_, or House of Peers, and the _Camara dos Deputados_, or
House of Deputies. Collectively, the two houses were known as the
_Cortes Feraes_, or, more briefly, the Cortes. Until 1885 the House of
Peers consisted of members of two classes, those who sat by (p. 637)
hereditary right and those who were nominated by the crown for life.
By the constitutional amendment of July 24, 1885, hereditary peerages
were put in the way of gradual abolition and it was stipulated that
when they should have been extinguished the chamber should be composed
of princes of the royal blood, the archbishops and bishops of Portugal
proper, 100 members appointed by the king for life, and 50 members
elected every new parliament by the lower chamber. By amendment of
September 25, 1895, however, the 50 elective peerages were abolished
and the number of royal appointees was reduced to 90. In 1910,
therefore, the chamber was made up of (1) princes of the royal blood
who had attained the age of twenty-five; (2) surviving peers whose
hereditary right antedated 1885, together with their immediate
successors; (3) the Patriarch of Lisbon and the archbishops and
bishops of the continental territory of the kingdom; and (4) the 90
life peers nominated by the crown. In the nomination of peers the
crown was restricted only by the requirement that members must have
attained the age of forty and must be able to meet a considerable
property qualification.

The House o