versal suffrage, and the Senate, by a restricted
suffrage. The financial budget must originate in the Chamber, and the
two bodies, beginning their sessions on the second Tuesday of January,
must sit at least five months every year. Their adjournment, which must
be on the same day, is pronounced by the President, who communicates
with them through the ministers of his cabinet, and the frequent _crises
ministerielles_, which have done so much to discredit the Third
Republic, have been caused by the responsibility of these ministers to
the Chambers for the general politics of the government. If they are
defeated by ever so small a minority on any question which they have
made a "vote of confidence," they place their resignations in the hands
of the President, who accepts them, and sends for one of the leaders of
the victorious opposition to form a new cabinet. This cabinet, in its
turn, can only hold power so long as it can command the support of a
certain combination of parties, and, as these combinations shift, so do
the ministries.

So well recognized is the material impossibility of arriving at any
permanent grouping of political parties, and, consequently, at any
permanent and coherent ministerial policy, that various amendments to
the Constitution of the State are being proposed. One of the methods
suggested is to suppress the ministerial responsibility, and to cause
the Parlement to elect the President of the Conseil d'Etat each year.
As to the Senate, it is to be reduced in power and privileges, and
condemned to a _role_ subordinate to that of the Chamber of Deputies.

At the palace of the Elysee, which is his official residence, the
President holds his audiences on Mondays and Thursdays, from nine
o'clock to noon. To be received by him, it is necessary to write to the
Secretariat de la Presidence, requesting this honor, and to receive a
reply stating the day and hour. The Deputies and Senators are received,
without any letters of audience, on Wednesdays, from five to seven. The
President gives each year two State balls, for which some twelve
thousand invitations are issued, and also a garden-party in the grounds
of the Elysee in June. The two legislative bodies hold their sessions on
the other side of the river,--the Chamber, in the old Palais-Bourbon,
opposite the end of the Pont de la Concorde, and the Senate, in the
Luxembourg palace.

The Conseil d'Etat, which sits in the Palais-Royal under the presidency
o