Finally the Convention chose a middle course. The Constitution of 1795 retained the Republican form, and divided the supreme executive power among a Directory of five persons. The legislative power it committed to a Parliament consisting of two Houses, a Council of Five Hundred, who must be over thirty years of age, and a Council of Ancients, who must be over forty. The Parliament was to elect the Directory, but the functions of each were strictly defined; the legislative and the executive powers were kept jealously distinct, and cordial co-operation between them was rendered almost impossible. The Convention had learned from the experience of the past the necessity of making the Executive strong, but it had not yet learned the folly of making the legislature and the Executive independent rivals instead of harmonious allies. The new Parliament was to last for three years, but one-third of its members were renewable yearly. Apart from these new regulations, the Convention, rejecting a series of fantastic proposals brought forward by Sieyès, adhered to the main lines of the Constitution of 1791. The system of double election was re-established. The franchise was limited by a slight property qualification. In the local administration the division into Departments and Communes was retained. But the Communes were strictly subordinated to the Departments, the Districts were abolished altogether, and the numbers and powers of the officials were so reduced, as to simplify the whole system, and to increase the authority of the central Government. Other articles established freedom of worship, the freedom of labour, and the freedom of the Press, prohibited political clubs and federations, and forbade the return of the Emigrants to France.