appointed by Napoleon and carefully chosen, continually increased. It was this body which really prepared and discussed the laws; and it was its members who advocated them before the Corps Legislatif, to which the Tribunate also sent orators to speak on its behalf. The ministers, who had no relation with the legislative power, were merely the agents of the head of the state, freely chosen by himself. Napoleon, however, found these powers insufficient, and arrogated to himself others, a fact which the Senate did not forget when it proclaimed his downfall. Thus he frequently declared war upon his own authority, in spite of the provisions to the contrary made by the constitution of the year VIII.; and similarly, under the form of _decrets_, made what were really laws. They were afterwards called _decrets-lois_, and those that were not indissolubly associated with the political regime of the Empire, and survived it, were subsequently declared valid by the court of cassation, on the ground that they had not been submitted to the Senate as unconstitutional, as had been provided by the constitution of the year VIII. Administrative changes under Consulate and Empire. This period saw the rise of a whole new series of great organic laws. For administrative organization, the most important was that of the 28th Pluviose in the year VIII. It established as chief authority for each department a prefect, and side by side with him a _conseil general_ for deliberative purposes; for each _arrondissement_ (corresponding to the old _district_) a sub-prefect (_sous-prefet_) and a _conseil d'arrondissement_; and for each _commune_, a mayor and a municipal council. But all these officials, both the members of the councils and the individual agents, were appointed by the head of the state or by the prefect, so that centralization was restored more completely than ever. Together with the prefect there was also established a _conseil de prefecture_, having administrative functions, and generally acting as a court of the first instance in disputes and litigation arising out of the acts of the administration; for the Constituent Assembly had removed such cases from the jurisdiction of the civil tribunals, and referred them to the administrative bodies themselves. The final appeal in these disputes was to the _conseil d'etat_, which was supreme judge in these matters. In 1807 was created another great administrative jurisdiction, the _cour des comptes_, after the pattern of that which had existed under the _ancien regime_. Judicial changes.