date

1823. Greece Warning against
1823.

Greece

Warning against latent negatives

Now then for the instances.

First as to all operations together, taken in the lump.

1. By Article 24. "To the President, namely of the so-stiled Legislative Senate, it belongs to determine the day on which each Session of that Assembly shall commence; as also the day on which it shall terminate." If then he determines no such day, no such Session can have place: moreover if such having been his pleasure so it be that a Session having commenced and for a certain time continued, his pleasure in this behalf has changed, he declares such his pleasure, accordingly, and for that time a negative is put by him in the lump upon all such proceedings of the Assembly as would otherwise have ensued. True it is that by Article 17 to that same Senate itself it belongs to choose this same high-seated functionary. But, when the choice has been made, such, as above, is the state of dependence in which that body has been placed under this its own offspring: dependence for its very existence. Now then, an act of this sort of parricide suppose it to have been committed: the consequence is - that what is left of the powers of government falls of itself into the lap of the so stiled Executive Council with its five Members, acting as they are to do in a perpetually secret conclave.

Supposing him to have, (under Article 24) put an end to the existence of these his creators, by Article 25 he is empowered to bestow upon them at any time a new existence. "In case of need" (says this 25th Article) "he may convoke the Senate to enter upon an extraordinary Session." Thus it rests at all times at his choice whether to sell existence to them at his own price, or to leave them in a state of annihilation. If and so long as they are sufficiently obsequious, he suffers them to act accordingly: if refractory, he lays them asleep: and so toties quoties. Thus far as to the latent negative or veto in the hands of the President, on the operations of the so-stiled Legislative Senate taken in the aggregate.
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    1. By Article 30th "Every Act of the Senate is signed by the President and countersigned by the principal Secretary. Suppose then an Act the tenor of which does not suit his views: what is the consequence? He withholds his signature, and no such Act can come into existence.

    Moreover in this same power he has a sharer it has been seen in the principal Secretary.

    2. A second means of applying the President's particular Veto is put into his hands by the next Article, Article 31. "The President" (it says) "transmitts the Resolutions of the Senate to the Council" (meaning the Executive Council) and submitts them to its approbation." Good. But in the mean time though inexplicably they have not the less effectually been thus submitted in the first place to the approbation of this same all powerful functionary. Do they suit his views he transmitts them accordingly: do they thwart his views, he keeps them where they are. President of so stiled Legislative Senate to President or other most infuential member of the so stiled Executive Council - "You see this Resolution: what will you give me if I transmitt it to you? - what will you give me if I keep it back." The language will naturally be, the very quintessence of decorum: and so it may be, while this and nothing else is at the bottom of it.

    3. Article 36, after saying that "Every Member of the Senate may propose a project of law in writing, goes on and says "which the President refers to the examination of a Committee". Suppose then introduced in this manner a project of law which has the misfortune not to suit the views of this great functionary, what becomes of it? He receives it, omitts to forward it to any Committee, and there is an end of it. It is thus stifled in embryo.

    4. So much for the President of the so-stiled Legislative Senate. Now again for the Principal Secretary of that same body. In and by Art. 46 he is once more let in for an equal share with the President as above in the negative which we have seen the President put in possession of by Article 31 with regard to all Resolutions of that same Senate. "He" (the principal Secretary) says the Article "receives from the President the Resolutions of the Senate and transmitts them to the Council" - namely the so stiled Executive Council. Thus then, if it be the pleasure of the President not to deliver them to the Principal Secretary, or of the Principal Secretary not to transmitt them to that same Council, there is an end of these same Resolutions.
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    Mark now the secret perils, which every offspring of the wisdom of the so stiled Legislative Senate has to encounter and surmount before it can come into existence. Instead of birth comes abortion, if either to the so stiled Executive Council, that is to say to those out of its five Members, or to the President of the so-stiled Legislative Senate, or to the Principal Secretary of that same Legislative Senate, it has the misfortune to be an object of displeasure, or even of indifference.

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