(12) Labor. Portfolios may be not only created but
rearranged by simple executive decree, though of course the necessary
financial provisions are conditioned upon the approval of the
chambers. The premier may occupy any one of the ministerial posts, or
even two of them at one time. He is named by the President, and he,
acting with the President, designates his colleagues and allots to
them their respective portfolios. Usually, though not necessarily, the
ministers are members of the Senate or of the Chamber of Deputies,
principally the latter.[469] Whether members or not, they have a right
to attend all sessions of both chambers and to take an especially
privileged part in debate. Ministers receive annual salaries of 60,000
francs and reside, as a rule, in the official mansions maintained for
the heads of the departments they control.

[Footnote 469: In earlier days the ministers of war
and of the marine were selected not infrequently
from outside Parliament, but this practice has been
discontinued.]

Collectively the ministers possess two sets of functions which are
essentially distinct. The one they fulfill as a "council"; the other
as a "cabinet." In the capacity of a council they exercise a general
supervision of the administration of the laws, to the end that there
may be efficiency and unity in the affairs of state. In the event of
the President's death, incapacitation, or resignation, the Council is
authorized to act as head of the state until the National Assembly
shall have chosen a successor. As a cabinet the ministers formulate
the fundamental policies of the Government and represent it in the
chambers. The Council is administrative and is expressly recognized by
law; the Cabinet is political and is not so recognized. In the
meetings of the Council the President of the Republic not only sits,
but presides; in those of the Cabinet he rarely even appears. Aside
from the President, however, the two bodies, in personnel, are
identical.[470]

[Footnote 470: Dupriez, Les ministres, II.,
332-357. A recent treatise of value is H. Noell,
L'Administration centrale; les ministeres, leur
organisation, leur role (Paris, 1911). Mention may
be made of L. Rolland, Le Conseil d'Etat et les
reglements d'administration publique, in _Revu