Page:Const history of France (Lockwood, 1890).pdf/305

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Constitution of MDCCXCI.
275

or married a French woman, or founded an agricultural or commercial establishment, and if they have taken the civic oath.4

Art4.The legislative power may, for important considerations, naturalize a foreigner without other conditions than a domicile in France, and the taking of the civic oath.

Art5.5. The civic oath is: I swear to be faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the King, and to maintain with all my power the Constitution of the Kingdom, decreed by the National Constituent Assembly in the years 1789, 1790, and 1791.

Art6.The right of exercising French citizenship is lost: 1, by naturalization in a foreign country; 2, by condemnation to penalties which carry civic degradation, so long as the condemned is not restored to his rights; 3, by a judgment of contumacy, so long as the judgment is not annulled; 4, by affiliation with any order of foreign chivalry, or with any foreign corporation, which would require either proofs of nobility, or distinctions of birth, or exact religious vows.

Art7.The law only considers marriage as a civil contract. The legislative power shall establish for all inhabitants, without distinction, the manner in which births, marriages, and deaths shall be authenticated, and it shall designate the public officers who shall receive and preserve the records.

Art8.French citizens, considered with reference to local relations which arise from their reunion in cities and in certain districts of the country, form communes.

The legislative power shall fix the boundaries of the district of each commune.

Art9.Citizens who compose each commune have the right to elect, at stated times, and following the forms determined by the law, those among them, who, under the title of municipal officers, are charged with the administration of the local affairs of the commune. The law shall delegate to municipal officers certain functions relative to the interest of the State.

Art10.The rules which the municipal officers shall be required to follow in the exercise, both of municipal functions and those which have been delegated to them in the general interest, shall be determined by the law.