under such limitations and restrictions as may be prescribed by law, but shall be subject to the same restrictions and liabilities that are imposed, and shall have no greater rights than are conferred upon, domestic corporations of like character, and the stockholders of such foreign corporations shall be subject to like personal liabilities as stockholders in similar domestic corporations. No foreign corporation shall acquire or hold any more lands in this State than a domestic corporation of like character is permitted to acquire or hold, and all lands hereafter acquired or held in violation of this provision shall escheat to the State. Provision may be made for debarring all foreign corporations which shall violate any law of this State from thereafter being allowed to do business in the State.

SEC. 11. The Legislature may, from time to time, pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight, and regulate the speed of trains, on different railroads in this State, and shall prohibit running contracts between such railroad companies whereby discrimination is made in favor of either of such companies as against other companies owning connecting or intersecting lines of railroads. The Legisla ture may also pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of tolls or freights on ship or other canals in this State.

SEC. 12. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, property or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning a parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation take place except upon public notice given of at least sixty days to all stockholders, in such manner as shall be provided by law, nor shall any such corporation hereafter lease any parallel or competing line of road, and no two or more competing lines of railroad shall be run or operated, directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, under the same management or supervision, or under or subject to any arrangement, agreement, or understanding, with reference to rates of fare or freight to be charged, or for the division of earnings.

SEC. 13. Every corporation organized in this State shall maintain an office. therein, where a record of the transfers of its stock shall be made, and where books shall be kept for inspection by any stockholder or creditor of such corporation, in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and amount paid in, and by whom, the names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned by them respectively, the transfers of said stock, and the names and places of residence of its officers.

SEC. 14. No president, director, officer, agent, or employe of any railroad. or canal company shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of material or supplies to such company, nor in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, leased, controlled, or operated by such company.

SEC. 15. No telegraph company shall consolidate with, nor hold a controlling interest in the stock or bonds of any other telegraph company owning a competing line, nor acquire by purchase or otherwise any competing line of telegraph.

SEC. 16. No corporation, except for municipal or mining purposes, for life insurance, or for the construction of railroads, canals, and the establishment of cemeteries, shall be created for a longer period than thirty years.

SEC. 17. The term corporation, as used in this article, shall be construed to include all associations and joint stock companies having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships.

SEC. 18. All railroads shall be public highways, and all railroad companies shall be common carriers. Any association or corporation, organized for the purpose, shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any points within this State, and to connect at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right, with its road, to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each other's passengers, tonnage, and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.

SEC. 19. The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never be abridged or so construed as to prevent the Legislature from taking the property and franchises of incorporated companies, and subjecting them to public use the same as the property of individuals; and the exercise of the police power of the State shall never be abridged or so construed as to permit corporations to conduct their business in such manner as to infringe the equal rights of individuals, or the general well-being of the State.

ARTICLE XII.

IMPEACHMENTS AND REMOVALS FROM OFFICE.

SECTION 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeaching civil officers for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors; but a majority of the members elected shall be necessary to direct an impeachment.

SEC. 2. Every impeachment shall be tried by the Senate. When the Governor or Lieutenant Governor shall be tried, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. When an impeachment is directed, the members of the Senate shall take an oath or affirmation truly and impartially to try and determine the same according to the evidence. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office; but the party accused, whether acquitted or convicted, shall be liable to trial and punishment according to law.

SEC. 3. When an impeachment is directed, the House of Representatives shall appoint, from their own body, a committee whos eduty it shall be to prosecute such impeachment. An impeachment may be tried after the final adjournment of the Legislature.

SEC. 4. No officer shall exercise his office after an impeachment is directed, until he be acquitted, but such disability shall not continue longer than three months, unless the trial of such impeachment shall have been commenced and proceeded with.

SEC. 5. For reasonable cause, which shall not be a sufficient ground for the impeachment of a Judge, the Governor shall remove him on a concurrent resolution of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the Legislature, after the party accused shall have had an opportunity to be heard in his defense; but the cause for which such removal is required shall be stated at length in such resolution. Provision may be made by law for the suspension of a Judge when the Legislature is not in session.

SEC. 6. County, township, city, village or school district officers, may be removed in such manner and for such cause as may be provided by law.

SEC. 7. The Governor shall have power, and it shall be his duty, to examine into the condition and administration of any public office and the acts of any

public officer, elective or appointed, and, except at such times as the Legislature may be in session, to suspend from office for gross neglect of duty, or for corrupt conduct in office, or any other misfeasance or malfeasance therein, either of the following State officers, to wit: The Attorney General, State Treasurer, Commissioner of the State Land Office, Secretary of State, Auditor General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, or members of the State Board of Education, or any other officer of the State, except legislative and judicial, and report the cause of such suspension to the Legislature at its next session.

SEC. 8. Whenever, during a recess of the Legislature, it shall, in the opinion of the Governor, become necessary to direct an impeachment of any civil officer, he may, by proclamation, convene the House of Representatives for that purpose; and if the House, when so convened, shall direct an impeachment, he shall in like manner immediately convene the Senate to try such impeachment; and whenever, in the opinion of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, it shall, during a recess of the Legislature, become necessary to direct an impeachment of the Governor, they may, by their joint proclamation, convene the House for that purpose; and if the House direct such impeachment, the said President and Speaker shall, in like manner, immediately convene the Senate to try such impeachment.

SEC. 9. The Goveruor may make a provisional appointment to fill a vacancy occasioned by the suspension of an officer, by impeachment or otherwise, until he shall be acquitted, or until the election or appointment and qualification of

a successor.

ARTICLE XIII.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have the general supervision of public instruction, and his duties shall be prescribed by law; and he shall be a member, ex officio, of the boards of all State educational institutions, including the Reform School.

SEC. 2. The Regents of the University and their successors in office shall continue to constitute a body corporate by the name and title of "The Board of Regents of the University of Michigan." Said Board shall consist of the two ex officio members provided for in this article, and eight elective members. The terms of office of the elective members shall be eight years, and two of such members shall be elected every second year at the time of the annual township election, so as to succeed the Regents now in office as their several terms expire. Said Board of Regents shall as often as necessary, elect a President of the University, who shall be its chief executive officer, and, ex officio, a member and president of said board, with the privilege of speaking, but not of voting. The Board of Regents shall have the general supervision of the University, and the direction and control of all expenditures from the University interest fund.

SEC. 3. The State Normal School shall continue under the supervision of the State Board of Education, which shall consist of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex officio, and three elective members. The terms of office of said elective members shall be six years, and one of said members shall be elected every second year, at the time of the election of Governor, and shall enter upon the duties of his office on the first day of January succeeding his election. Said Board shall perform such other duties as shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 4. The boards of control of the Reform School, the State Public School, and of the Agricultural College, shall be appointed by the Governor by aud with the consent of the Senate, and their duties shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 5. Any vacancy that shall occur in any of the boards mentioned in this article shall be filled by appointment by the Governor.

SEC. 6. The Legislature shall provide a system of primary schools, by which a school shall be maintained in each school district in the State, free of charge for tuition, at least three months in the year. The instruction shall, in all cases, be conducted in the English language.

SEC. 7. A school shall be maintained in each school district at least three months in each year. Any school district neglecting to maintain such school shall be deprived for the ensuing year of its proportion of the income of the primary school fund, and of all funds arising from general taxes for the support of schools.

SEC. 8. The proceeds from the sale of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to the State for educational purposes, and the proceeds of all lands or other property given by individuals or appropriated by the State for like purposes, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest and income of which, together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, shall be inviolably appropriated and annually applied to the specific objects of the original gift, grant or appropriation.

SEC. 9. All lands which have heretofore escheated, or which shall hereafter escheat to the State, shall inure to the benefit of the primary school fund, and be held and disposed of as primary school lands.

SEC. 10. All moneys belonging to the public derived from fines, penalties, forfeitures or recognizances, imposed or taken in the several counties, cities or townships for any breach of the penal laws of this State, shall be paid into the county treasury and apportioned in the same manner as is the income of the primary school fund, and paid over to the several cities and townships of the County in which such money accrued, for the support of a library in each township or city, or for the support of primary schools, as the township board of any township, or board of education or school board of any city, may determine. But fines, penalties, forfeitures, and recognizances, accruing from the violation of village or city ordinances, shall be paid into the treasury of the village or city where the same are collected, and be applied as the board of education or school board of such village or city may determine.

SEC. 11. Institutions for the benefit of those inhabitants who are deaf, dumb, blind or insane, shall always be fostered and supported.

ARTICLE XIV.

FINANCE AND TAXATION.

SECTION 1. The Legislature may provide for the collection of specific taxes from banking, railroad and plank-road corporations, and may, in its discretion, impose specific taxes upon other corporations, and upon any property or business within this State; but when a specific tax is imposed upon a corporation, it shall only apply to such property of the corporation as shall be necessary for the exercise of its corporate franchises.

SEC. 2. All specific State taxes received from corporations, except mining companies of the upper peninsula, shall be applied in paying the interest upon the primary school, university and other educational funds, and the interest

and principal of the State debt, in the order herein recited, until the extinguishment of the State debt other than the amounts due to educational funds, when such specific taxes shall be added to and constitute a part of the primary school interest fund.

4

SEC. 3. The Legislature shall provide for an annual tax, sufficient, with other resources, to pay the estimated expenses of the State government, the interest of the State debt, and such deficiency as may occur in the resources.

SEC. 4. Every law hereafter enacted by the Legislature, creating a debt or authorizing a loan, shall provide a sinking fund for the payment of the same. SEC. 5. The unfunded debt shall not be funded or redeemed at a value exceeding that established by law in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

SEC. 6. The State may contract debts to meet deficits in revenue. Such debts shall not in the aggregate at any time exceed fifty thousand dollars. The moneys so raised shall be applied to the purposes for which they were obtained, or to the payment of the debts so contracted.

SEC. 7. The State may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, defend the State, or aid the United States in time of war. The money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purposes for which it was raised, or to pay such debts.

SEC. 8. No money shall be paid out of the State treasury, except in pursuance of appropriations made by law. The Legislature shall provide by law for barring all claims against the State, unless presented within a time to be therein fixed.

SEC. 9. The State shall not aid, by gift, or pledge of its credit, any person or corporation, nor shall it subscribe to, or become interested in, the stock of any corporation, nor assume any indebtedness of a municipal or [other] corporation. The provisions of this section shall not apply to educational, charitable, reformatory, or penal institutions which are or may be under the care and control of the State.

SEC. 10. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State indebtedness shall be issued, except for the redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are expressly authorized by this Constitution.

SEC. 11. The State shall not be a party to or be interested in any work of internal improvement, except the ship canal at the Sault Ste. Marie, and the Portage Lake and Lake Superior Ship Canal, nor engage in carrying on any such work, otherwise than in the expenditure of grants to the State of land or other property.

SEC. 12. The Legislature shall provide a uniform rule of taxation, except on property or business paying specific taxes. Taxes shall be levied on all property except such as may be exempted by law.

SEC. 13. All assessments hereafter authorized shall be on property at its cash value.

SEC. 14. The Legislature shall provide for an equalization by a State board in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, and every fifth year thereafter, of assessments on all taxable property except that paying specific taxes.

SEC. 15. Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax, shall distinctly state the tax, and the object to which it is to be applied; and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object.