Goethe was then in Italy, and the duke of Weimar was absent from Weimar; but the poet was kindly received by Herder and Wieland, by the duchess Amalie and other court notabilities.
The voters were to choose one-tenth of their number (notabilities of the commune); one-tenth of these would form the notabilities of the department; while by a similar decimal sifting, the notabilities of the nation were selected.
The final and all-important act of selection from among these men was, however, to be made by a personage, styled the proclamateur-electeur, who chose all the important functionaries, and, conjointly with the notabilities of the nation, chose the members for the Council of State (wielding the chief executive powers), the Tribunate and the Senate.
To the senate, thus chosen "from above," was allotted the important task of supervising the constitution, and of selecting, from among the notabilities of the nation, the members of the Corps Legislatif and the Tribunate.
For works on special periods see the separate articles on the sovereigns and other notabilities of Hungary.
