_The Consulate and the Empire._--The constitutional law of the Consulate and the Empire is to be found in a series of documents called later the _Constitutions de l'Empire_, the constitution promulgated during the Hundred Days being consequently given the name of _Acte additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Empire_. These documents consist of (1) the Constitution of the 22nd Frimaire of the year VIII., the work of Sieyes and Bonaparte, the text on which the others were based; (2) the _senatus consulte_ of the 16th Thermidor in the year X., establishing the consulate for life; and (3) the _senatus consulte_ of the 28th Floreal in the year XII., which created the Empire. These constitutional acts, which were all, whether in their full text or in principle, submitted to the popular vote by means of a _plebiscite_, had all the same object: to assure absolute power to Napoleon, while preserving the forms and appearance of liberty. Popular suffrage was maintained, and even became universal; but, since the system was that of suffrage in many stages, which, moreover, varied very much, the citizens in effect merely nominated the candidates, and it was the Senate, playing the part of _grand electeur_ which Sieyes had dreamed of as his own, which chose from among them the members of the various so-called elected bodies, even those of the political assemblies. According to the constitution of the year VIII., the first consul (to whom had been added two colleagues, the second and third consuls, who did not disappear until the Empire) possessed the executive power in the widest sense of the word, and he alone could initiate legislation. There were three representative assemblies in existence, elected as we have seen; but one of them, the Corps Legislatif, passed laws without discussing them, and without the power of amending the suggestions of the government. The Tribunate, on the contrary, discussed them, but its vote was not necessary for the passing of the law. The Senate was the guardian and preserver of the constitution; in addition to its role of _grand electeur_, its chief function was to annul laws and acts submitted to it by the Tribunate as being unconstitutional. This original organization was naturally modified during the course of the Consulate and the Empire; not only did the emperor obtain the right of directly nominating senators, and the princes of the imperial family, and grant dignitaries of the Empire that of entering the Senate by right; but a whole body, the Tribunate, which was the only one which could preserve some independence, disappeared, without resort having been had to a plebiscite; it was modified and weakened by _senatus consulte_ of the year X., and was suppressed in 1807 by a mere _senatus consulte_. The importance of another body, on the contrary, the _conseil d'etat_, which had been formed on the improved type of the ancient _conseil du roi_, and consisted of members