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lished whose judgment shall be binding only upon parties who voluntarily submit their matters in dispute, and agree to abide the result. A clerk of the court of appeals, to be ex-officio clerk of the supreme court, shall be chosen by the people for three years. Sheriffs, county clerks, coroners, and district attorneys, shall be chosen by counties once in three years, and as often as vacancies happen. Sheriffs shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next three years after the termination of their office.

From June 1st, 1846, there shall be paid each year out of the net revenues of the state canals, $1,300,000, until June 1st, 1855; and from that time $1,700,000 a year, as a sinking fund for the payment of the canal debt of the state. Afterwards, from the remaining revenues of the canals, there shall be paid from June 1st, 1846, until the canal debt is extinguished, $350,000 a year; and afterwards $1,500,000 a year for the redemption of the general fund and all contingent debts. Of the balance of the canal revenues, a sum not above $200,000 a year (which may, if necessary, after eight years be increased to $350,000 per annum, and which, after the above debts are paid and certain now unfinished canals completed, may be still farther increased to $672,500 a year) shall be devoted to pay the necessary expenses of the state; and the balance shall be expended to complete the still unfinished canals. The principal and income of these sinking funds shall be sacredly applied to the purposes for which they were created; and, if either proves insufficient, its revenues shall be sufficiently increased by taxes to preserve perfectly the public faith. The state canals shall never be sold, leased, or otherwise disposed of.

The state shall never give its credit to any individual or corporation; nor shall it ever contract a debt, except to meet casual deficits in the revenue, or to suppress insurrection, or for defence in war, unless such debt be authorized for some single work by a law which shall provide by a direct annual tax, to be irrepealable until the debt is extinguished, for the payment of the interest annually, and of the principal within eighteen years, and which shall be passed by yeas and nays, and be submitted to the people, and receive a majority of all the votes at a general election, to be held not less than three months after its passage, and at which no other law or any amendment to the constitution is voted for; and, on its final passage by the legislature, the question shall be taken by yeas and nays, and three-fifths of all the members elected shall form a quorum. All moneys arising from such loan shall be applied only to the objects of the loan. No payment shall be made out of the funds of the state, unless by a law distinctly specifying the sum and object of the appropriation. Public moneys or property cannot be appropriated for local or private purposes, except by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each branch of the legislature.

Corporations, with the individual liability of the corporators, may be formed under general laws which may be altered or repealed. They shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and when the

objects of the corporation cannot be gained under general laws. No special charter shall be granted for banking purposes; and after January 1st, 1850, stockholders in banks shall be individually liable, to the amount of their stock, for debts incurred after that date. If a bank is insolvent, the billholders shall be preferred creditors.

The capital of the common school and literary funds shall be preserved inviolate, and its revenue applied to the support of common schools and academies. All persons, from scruples of conscience, averse to bearing arms, shall be excused therefrom upon such conditions as may be prescribed by law. No one shall be incompetent as a witness on account of his opinions upon religion. In all libel cases the truth may be given in evidence, and the jury shall have the right to decide the law and the fact. All feudal tenures, with all their incidents, are abolished; except such rents and services certain as have been lawfully created or reserved. No lease or grant of agricultural land for more than twelve years, hereafter made, in which any rent or service is reserved, shall be valid.

Amendments to the constitution must be agreed to by a majority vote of the members elected to each of the two houses; be entered on their journals with the yeas and nays; be referred to the legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, and be published three months previous to such election; be passed by a majority of all the members elected to this legislature; be then submitted to the people, and if a majority approve the amendments, they shall become a part of the constitution. In 1866, and every twentieth year thereafter, and at such times as the legislature may provide, the question of a revision of the constitution shall be submitted to the people; and, if a majority decide in favor of a convention, the legislature at its next session shall provide for the election of delegates thereto.

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Legislature.—The Senate consists of thirty-two members, who are elected for two years, one from each senatorial district. The Assembly consists of one hundred and twenty-eight members elected annually.

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1. Court for the Trial of Impeachments.

This court is composed of the president of the Senate (who is president of the court, and when absent the chief judge of the Court of Appeals presides), the senators, or the major part of them, and the judges of the Court of Appeal, or the greater part of them. It is a Court of Record, and when summoned meets at Albany, and has for its clerk and officers the clerk and officers of the Senate. If the governor is impeached, the lieutenant-governor cannot act as a member of the court. Two-thirds of the members present must concur for conviction. The judgment of the court extends only to removal from or disqualification for office, or both; the party being still liable to indictment.

2. The Court of Appeals.

This court has full power to correct and reverse all proceedings and decisions of the Supreme Court, or of the old Supreme Court and Court of Chancery. It is composed of eight judges, of whom four are elected (one every second year) by the people at large, for eight years, and four selected each year from the justices of the Supreme Court, having the shortest time to serve. These selections are made alternately from the first, third, fifth, and seventh, and from the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth judicial districts. The judge (of the four chosen at large whose term first expires, presides as chief judge. Six judges constitute a quorum. Every cause must be decided within the year in which it is argued, and, unless reärgued, before the close

of the term after the argument. Four terms must be held each year, and every two years there must be one term in each judicial district. Each judge The court for 1848 is thus constituted:

has a salary of $2,500 per annum.

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Selected from the Justices of the Supreme Court to serve until Dec. 31, 1848

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The Supreme Court has general jurisdiction in law and equity, and power to review judgments of the County Courts, and of the old Courts of Common Pleas. For the election of the justices, the state is divided into eight judicial districts, each of which elects four to serve eight years, with an annual salary of $2,500. In each district one justice goes out of office every two years. The justice in each district whose term first expires, and who is not a judge of the Court of Appeals, is a presiding justice of the court, and the clerks of the several counties serve as clerks. In every county of forty thousand inhabitants, at least one general term of the Supreme Court is held each year; and once in two years in every other county except Hamilton. Every county has each year at least two special terms, and two Circuit Courts, except the city and county of New York, which has four Circuit Courts. Any three or more of the justices (including one presiding justice) hold the general terms; and any one or more hold the special terms, at which are heard all equity cases, and Circuit Courts, which are held exclusively for the trial of issues of fact.

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When the real estate, or all the defendants, or all the parties interested, are in the county, the jurisdiction of the County Courts extends to actions of debt, assumpsit and covenant, when the debt or damage claimed are not above $2,000; to actions for injury to the person or trespass upon property where the damages are not above $500; and in replevin suits where the property claimed is not above $1,000. They have equity jurisdiction for the foreclosure of mortgages; for the sale of the real estate of infants; for partition of lands; for admeasurement of dower; for the satisfaction of judgments where above $75 is due on an unsatisfied execution; and for the care and custody of lunatics and habitual drunkards. The Surrogates' Courts have the ordinary jurisdiction of Courts of Probate.

5. Criminal Courts.

These are the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and the Court of Sessions. The Courts of Oyer and Terminer, in each county, except in the city and county of New York, are composed of a justice of the Supreme Court, who presides, the county judge, and the two justices of the peace, chosen members of the Court of Sessions. The presiding justice and any two of the others form a quorum. In the city and county of New York, they are composed of a justice of the Supreme Court, who presides, and any two of the following officers; judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the city and county; the mayor, recorder, and aldermen of said city. These courts are all held at the same time and place at which the Circuit Courts are held. Courts of Sessions are composed of the county judge and the two justices of the peace, designated as members of the Court of Sessions, and are held at the same time and place as the County Courts.

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