taxpaying, or position. An
electoral law of March 5, 1906, introduced the principle of
proportional representation, but failed to break the dominance of the
well-to-do classes in the chamber. Half of the membership is renewed
triennially. The service is unpaid and, under ordinary circumstances,
compulsory.

The larger portion of the executive authority is vested in the Senate.
After the fashion of the prince of a monarchical state, this body
appoints officials, designates and instructs the delegate in the
Bundesrath, issues ordinances, and supervises administration.[417] One
senator is placed at the head of each of the nine executive
departments. In matters of legislation the powers of the Senate and of
the Buergerschaft are concurrent. Both bodies possess the right of
legislative initiative, and all laws, treaties, and fiscal
arrangements must receive the assent of both. The lower chamber elects
and maintains a Buergerausschuss, or Committee of the Burgesses,
consisting of twenty-five members, whose business it is to watch over
the proceedings of the Senate and the administration of the laws. The
sessions of both Senate and Buergerschaft are irregular but frequent.

*303. Luebeck and Bremen.*--The government of Luebeck rests upon a
constitution proclaimed December 30, 1848, but revised in later years
upon a number of occasions. The system is essentially similar to that
in operation in Hamburg, the principal differences being that in
Luebeck the full membership of the Buergerschaft (120) is elected by the
citizens directly and that the Buergerausschuss, of thirty members,
performs larger and more independent functions. The constitution of
Bremen dates from March 5, 1849, but was revised in 1854, 1875, and
three times subsequently. As in Luebeck, the Buergerschaft, of 150
members, is elected by all of the citizens, but under a class system
according to which citizens who have studied at a university return
fourteen members; the merchants, forty; the mechanics and
manufacturers, twenty; and all other citizens who have taken the
burgher oath, the remaining seventy-six. The Senate consists of
fourteen members.

[Footnote 417: The presiding officer of the Senate
is a burgomaster, chosen for one year by the
senators from their own number. The burgomaster as
such, however, possesses no administrative power.]

III. ALSACE-LORRAINE