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The
Legislature was to be convoked every year, both Councils were to choose
their own officers, and their sessions were to be public, except on
extraordinary occasions when they might of their own accord prefer
secrecy. Freedom of debate and vote was guaranteed, and the members of
both Houses were protected from arrest, even for notoriously criminal
acts, during the session, except by consent of the Council to which they
belonged.
They were to have authority to make laws on all subjects, excepting
ecclesiastical matters and the canons and discipline of the Church, but
including the imposition of taxes; the Pope, however, like most
monarchs, reserved to himself the right of negativing a law. All
discussions, also, of the diplomatico-religious relations of the Holy
See with foreign powers were forbidden. Money bills were to originate in
the lower house, and direct taxes could be granted for only a year. The
Deputies had a right to impeach ministers, who, if they were laymen,
were to be tried by the High Council; if ecclesiastics, by the Sacred
College.


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