First
Consul. Corresponding privileges were accorded to the electoral
colleges of the Department, save that these plutocratic bodies had the
right of presenting candidates for admission to the Senate. The lists
of candidates for the _Corps_ _Legislatif_ were to be formed by the
joint action of the electoral colleges, namely, those of the
Departments and those of the _arrondissements_. But as the resulting
councils and parliamentary bodies had only the shadow of power, the
whole apparatus was but an imposing machine for winnowing the air and
threshing chaff.

The First Consul secured few additional rights or attributes, except
the exercise of the royal prerogative of granting pardon. But, in
truth, his own powers were already so large that they were scarcely
susceptible of extension. The three Consuls held office for life, and
were _ex officio_ members of the Senate. The second and third Consuls
were nominated by the Senate on the presentation of the First Consul:
the Senate might reject two names proposed by him for either office,
but they must accept his third nominee. The First Consul might deposit
in the State archives his proposal as to his successor: if the Senate
rejected this proposal, the second and third Consuls made a
suggestion; and if it were rejected, one of the two whom they
thereupon named must be elected by the Senate. The three legislative
bodies lost practically all their powers, those of the _Corps
Legislatif_ going to the Senate, those of the Council of State to an
official Cabal formed out of it; while the Tribunate was forced to
_debate secretly in five sections_, where, as Bonaparte observed,
_they might jabber as they liked_.

On the other hand, the attributes of the Senate were signally
enhanced. It was thenceforth charged, not only with the preservation
of the republican constitution, but with its interpretation in
disputed points, and its completion wherever it should be found
wanting. Furthermore, by means of organic _senatus consulta_ it was
empowered to make constitutions for the French colonies, or to suspend
trial by jury for five years in any Department, or even to declare it
outside the limits of the constitution. It now gained the right of
being consulted in regard to the ratification of treaties, previously
enjoyed by the _Corps Legislatif._ Finally, it could dissolve the
_Corps Legislatif_ and the Tribunate. But this formidable machinery
was kept under the strict control of the ch