VII.

With the same view, of avoiding discussions during the unsettled state of opinion, a majority of the members of the conservative senate are for the present appointed by the consuls, Sieyes and Ducos, going out of office, and the consuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, about to come into office; they shall be held to be duly elected, if the public _acquiesce_; and proceed to fill up their own number, and to nominate the members of the tribunate and legislative senate.VIII.The acts of legislation shall be proposed by the consuls: the tribunate shall discuss and propound them to the legislative senate, but _not vote_: the legislative senate shall hear the tribunate, and vote, but _not debate_ themselves; and the act thus discussed and voted, shall become law on being promulgated by the chief consul.

IX.
Buonaparte is nominated chief consul, Cambaceres (minister of justice) second, and Lebrun third consul.
It would be rash to say that this could never have turned out in practice a free constitution.

Circumstances might have modified its arrangements, and given the spirit of freedom to institutions not _ex-facie_ favourable to it.

But for the present it was universally admitted that, under these new forms, the power of the state must be virtually lodged in Buonaparte.