ry appointment of Associate Judge shall be made in like manner; but in such case, the person appointed Chief Judge shall not be deemed to vacate his office of Associate Judge any longer than until the expiration of his appointment as Chief Judge. The powers and jurisdiction of the court shall not be suspended for want of appointment or election, when the number of Judges is sufficient to constitute a quorum. All appointments under this section shall continue until and including the last day of December next after the election at which the vacancy shall be filled. Section 9. After the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals, except where the judgment is of death, shall be limited to the review of questions of law. No unanimous decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court that there is evidence supporting or tending to sustain a finding of fact or a verdict not directed by the court shall be reviewed by the Court of Appeals. Except where the judg ment is of death, appeals may be taken, as of right, to said court only from judgments or orders entered upon decisions of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, finally deter mining actions or special proceedings, and from orders granting new trials on exceptions, where the appellants stipulate that upon affirmance judgment absolute shall be rendered against them. The Appellate Division in any department may, however, allow an appeal upon any question of law which, in its opinion, ought to be reviewed by the Court of Appeals. The Legislature may further restrict the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals and the right of appeal thereto, but the right to appeal shall not depend upon the amount involved. The provisions of this section shall not apply to orders made or judgments rendered by any General Term before the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, but appeals therefrom may be taken under existing provisions of law. Section 10. The Judges of the Court of Appeals and the Justices of the Supreme Court shall not hold any other office or public trust. All votes for any of them, for any other than a judicial office, given by the Legislature or the people, shall be void. Section 11. Judges of the Court of Appeals and Justices of the Supreme Court, may be removed by concurrent resolution of both houses of the Legislature, if two-thirds of all the members elected to each house concur therein. All other judicial officers, except Justices of the Peace and judges or justices of inferior courts not of record, may be removed by the Senate, on the recommendation of the Governor, if twothirds of all the members elected to the Senate concur therein. But no officer shall be removed by virtue of this section except for cause, which shall be entered on the journals, nor unless he shall have been served with a statement of the cause alleged, and shall have had an opportunity to be heard. On the question of removal, the yeas and nays shall be entered on the journal. Section 12. The Judges and Justices hereinbefore mentioned shall receive for their services a compensation established by law, which shall not be increased or diminished during their official terms, except as provided in section five of this article. No person shall hold the office of Judge or Justice of any court longer than until and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age. No Judge or Justice elected after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, shall be entitled to receive any compensation after the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age; but the compensation of every Judge of the Court of Appeals or Jus tice of the Supreme Court elected prior to the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, whose term of office has been, or whose present term of office shall be, so abridged, and who shall have served as such Judge or Justice ten years or more, shall be continued dur ing the remainder of the term for which he was elected; but any such Judge or Justice may, with his consent, be assigned by the Governor, from time to time, to any duty in the Supreme Court while his compensation is so continued. Section 13. The Assembly shall have the power of impeachment, by a vote of a majority of all the members elected. The Court for the Trial of Impeachments shall be composed of the President of the Senate, the senators, or the major part of them, and the Judges of the Court of Appeals, or the major part of them. On the trial of an impeachment against the Governor or Lieutenant Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor shall not act as a member of the court. No judicial officer shall exercise his office, after articles of impeachment against him shall have been preferred to the Senate, until he shall have been acquitted. Before the trial of an impeachment the members of the court shall take an oath or affirmation truly and impartially to try the impeachment according to the evidence, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, or removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under this State but the party impeached shall be liable to indictment and punishment according to law. Section 14. The existing County Courts are continued, and the Judges thereof now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. In the county of Kings there shall be two County Judges and the additional County Judge shall be chosen at the next general election held after the adoption of this article. The successors of the several County Judges shall be chosen by the electors of the counties for the term of six years. County Courts shall have the powers and jurisdiction they now possess, and also orig. inal jurisdiction in actions for the recovery of money only, where the defendants reside in the county, and in which the complaint demands judgment for a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars. The Legislature may hereafter enlarge or restrict the jurisdiction of the County Courts, provided however that their jurisdiction shall not be so extended as to authorize an action therein for the recovery of money only, in which the sum demanded exceeds two thousand dollars, or in which any person not a resident of the county is a defendant. Courts of Sessions, except in the county of New York, are abolished from and after the last day of December, one thousandight hundred and ninety-five. All the jurisdiction of the Court of Sessions in each county, except the county of New York, shall thereupon be vested in the County Court thereof, and all actions and proceedings then pending in such Courts of Sessions shall be transferred to said County Courts for hearing and determination. Every County Judge shall perform such duties as may be required by law. His salary shall be established by law, payable out of the county treasury. A County Judge of any county may hold County Courts in any other county when requested by the Judge of such other county. Section 15. The existing Surrogates' Courts are continued, and the Surrogates now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their terms. Their successors shall be chosen by the electors of their respective counties, and their terms of office shall be six years, except in the county of New York, where they shall continue to fourteen years. Surrogates and Surrogates' Courts, shall have the jurisdiction and powers which the Surrogates and existing Surrogates' Courts now possess, until otherwise provided by the Legisla ture. The County Judge shall be Surrogate of his county, except where a separate Surrogate has been or shall be elected. In counties having a population not exceeding forty thousand, wherein there is no separate Surrogate, the Legisla ture may provide for the election of a separate officer to be Surrogate, whose term of office shall be six years. "When the Surrogate shall be elected as a separate officer his salary shall be established by law, payable out of the county treas ury. No County Judge or Surrogate shall hold office longer than until and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age. Vacancies occurring in the office of County Judge or Surrogate shall be filled in the same manner as like vacancies occurring in the Supreme Court. The compensation of any County Judge or Surrogate shall not be increased or diminished during his term of office. For the relief of Surrogates' Courts the Legislature may confer upon the Supreme Court in any county having a population exceeding four hundred thousand, the powers and jurisdiction of Surrogates, with authority to try issues of fact by jury in probate cases. Section 16. The Legislature may, on application of the board of supervisors, provide for the election of local officers, not to exceed two in any county, to discharge the duties of County Judge and of Surrogate, in cases of their inability or of a vacancy, and in such other cases as may be provided by law, and to exercise such other powers in special cases as are or may be provided by law. Section 17. The electors of the several towns shall, at their annual town meetings, or at such other time and in such manner as the Legislature may direct, elect Justices of the Peace, whose term of office shall be four years. In case of an election to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a full term, they shall hold for the residue of the unexpired term. Their number and classification may be regulated by law. Justices of the Peace and judges or justices of inferior courts not of record, and their clerks, may be removed for cause, after due notice and an opportunity of being heard, by such courts as are or may be prescribed by law. Justices of the Peace and District Court Justices may be elected in the different cities of this State in such manner, and with such powers, and for such terms, respectively, as are or shall be prescribed by law; all other judicial officers in cities, whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for in this article, shall be chosen by the electors of such cities, or ap pointed by some local authorities thereof. Section 18. Inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the Legislature, but no inferior local court hereafter created shall be a court of record. The Legislature shall not hereafter confer upon any inferior or local court of its creation, any equity jurisdiction or any greater jurisdiction in other respects than is conferred upon County Courts by or under this article. Except as herein otherwise provided, all judicial officers shall be elected or appointed at such times and in such manner as the Legislature may direct. Section 19. Clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the Supreme Court, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law. The Justices of the Appellate Division in each department shall have power to appoint and to remove a clerk who shall keep his office at a place to be designated by said Justices. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals shall keep his office at the seat of government. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals and the clerks of the Appellate Division shall receive compensation to be established by law and paid out of the public treasury. Section 20. No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office; nor shall any Judge of the Court of Appeals, or Justice of the Supreme Court, or any County Judge or Surrogate hereafter elected in a county having a population exceeding one hundred and twenty thousand, practice as an attorney or counselor in any court of record in this State, or act as referee. The Legislature may impose a similar prohibition upon County Judges and Surrogates in other counties. No one shall be eligible to the office of Judge of the Court of Appeals, Justice of the Supreme Court, or, except in the county of Hamilton, to the office of County Judge or Surrogate, who is not an attorney and counselor of this State. Section 21. The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statutes, and shall regulate the reporting of the decisions of the courts; but all laws and judicial decisions shall be free for publication by any person. Section 22. Justices of the Peace and other local judicial officers provided for in sections seventeen and eighteen in office when this article takes effect, shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective terms. Section 23. Courts of Special Sessions shall have such jurisdiction of offenses of the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law. ARTICLE VII. Section 1. The credit of the State shall not in any manner be given or loaned to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation. Section 2. The State may, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, or for expenses not provided for, contract debts; but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time exceed one million of dollars; and the moneys arising from the loans creating such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which they were obtained, or to repay the debt so contracted, and to no other purpose whatever. Section 3. In addition to the above limited power to contract debts, the State may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in war; but the money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was raised, or to repay such debts, and to no other purpose whatever. Section 4. Except the debts specified in sections two and three of this article, no debts shall be hereafter contracted by or on behalf of this State, unless such debt shall be authorized by a law, for some single work or object, to be distinctly specified therein; and such law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay, and sufficient to pay, the interest on such debts as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal on such debt within eighteen years from the time of the contracting thereof. No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election. On the final passage of such bill in either house of the Legislature, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be: "Shall this bill pass, and ought the same to receive the sanction of the people? The Legislature may at any time, after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or liability under such law; but the tax imposed by such act, in proportion to the debt and liability which may have been contracted, in pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable, and be annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have made the provision hereinbefore specified to pay and discharge the interest and principal of such debt and liability. The money arising from any loan or stock creating such debt or liability shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act authorizing such debt or liability, or for the repayment of such debt or liability, and for no cther purpose whatever. No such law shall be submitted to be voted on, within three months after its passage, or at any general election when any other law, or any bill, or any amendment to the Constitution, shall be submitted to be voted for or against. Section 5. The sinking funds provided for the payment of interest and the extinguishment of the principal of the debts of the State shall be separately kept and safely invested, and neither of them shall be appropriated or used in any manner other than for the specific purpose for which it shall have been provided. Section 6. Neither the Legislature, canal board, nor any person or persons acting in behalf of the State, shall audit, allow, or pay any claim which, as between citizens of the State, would be barred by lapse of time. This provision shall not be construed to repeal any statute fixing the time within which claims shall be presented or allowed, nor shall it extend to any claims duly presented within the time allowed by law, and prosecuted with due diligence from the time of such presentment. But if the claimant shall be under legal disability, the claim may be presented within two years after such disability is removed. Section 7. The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. Section 8. The Legislature shall not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal, the Cayuga and Seneca canal, or the Black River canal; but they shall remain the property of the State and under its management forever. The prohibition of lease, sale or other disposition herein contained shall not apply to the canal known as the Main and Hamburg street canal, situated in the city of Buffalo, and which extends easterly from the westerly line of Main street to the westerly line of Hamburg street. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal shall be applied to the improvement, superintendence or repair of the remaining portion of the canals. Section 9. No tolls shall hereafter be imposed on persons or property transported on the canals, but all boats navigating the canals, and the owners and masters thereof, shall be subject to such laws and regulations as have been or may hereafter be enacted concerning the navigation of the canals. The Legislature shall annually, by equitable taxes, make provision for the expenses of the superintendence and repairs of the canals. All contracts for work or materials on any canal shall be made with the persons who shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance. No extra compensation shall be made to any contractor; but if, from any unforeseen cause, the terms of any contract shall prove to be unjust and oppressive, the canal board may upon the application of the contractor, cancel such contract. Section 10. The canals may be improved in such manner as the Legislature shall provide by law. A debt may be authorized for that purpose in the mode prescribed by section four of this article, or the cost of such improvement may be defrayed by the appropriation of funds from the State treasury, or by equitable annual tax. ARTICLE VIII. Section 1. Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed. Section 2. Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the corporators and other means as may be prescribed by law. Section 3. The term corporations 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. And all corporations shall have the right to sue and shall be subject to be sued in all courts in like cases as natural persons. Section 4. The Legislature shall, by general law, conform all charters of savings banks, or institutions for savings, to a uniformity of powers, rights and liabilities, and all charters hereafter granted for such corporations shall be made to conform to such general law, and to such amendments as may be made thereto. And no such corporation shall have any capital stock, nor shall the trustees thereof, or any of them, have any interest whatever, direct or indirect, in the profits of such corporation; and no director or trustee of any such bank or institution shall be interested in any loan or use of any money or property of such bank or institution for savings. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any act granting any special charter for banking purposes; but corporations or associations may be formed for such purposes under general laws. Section 5. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any law sanctioning in any manner, directly or indirectly, the suspension of specie payments, by any person, association or corporation, issuing bank notes of any description. Section 6. The Legislature shall provide by law for the registry of all bills or notes, issued or put in circulation as money, and shall require ample security for the redemption of the same in specie. Section 7. The stockholders of every corporation and jointstock association for banking purposes, shall be individually responsible to the amount of their respective share or shares of stock in any such corporation or association, for all its debts and liabilities of every kind. Section 8. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association, the billholders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment, over all other creditors of such bank or association. Section 9. Neither the credit nor the money of the State shall be given or loaned to or in aid of any association, corporation or private undertaking. This section shall not, however, prevent the Legislature from making such provision for the education and support of the blind, the deaf and dumb, and juvenile delinquents, as to it may seem proper. Nor shall it apply to any fund or property now held, or which may hereafter be held, by the State for educational purposes. Section 10. No county, city, town or village shall hereafter give any money or property, or loan its money or credit to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, or become directly or indirectly the owner of stock in, or bonds of, any association or corporation; nor shall any such county, city, town or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness except for county, city, town or village purposes. This section shall not prevent such county, city, town or village from making such provision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law. No county or city shall be allowed to become indebted for any purpose or in any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed ten per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate of such county or city subject to taxation, as it appeared by the assessment-rolls of said county or city on the last assessment for state or county taxes prior to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all indebtedness in excess of such limitation, except such as may now exist, shall be absolutely void, except as herein otherwise provided. No county or city whose present indebtedness exceeds ten per centum of the assessed valuation of its real estate subject to taxation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any further amount until such indebtedness shall be reduced within such limit. This section shall not be construed to prevent the issuing of certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes for amounts actually contained, or to be contained in the taxes for the year when such certificates or revenue bonds are issued and payable out of such taxes. Nor shall this section be construed to prevent the issue of bonds to provide for the supply of water; but the term of the bonds issued to provide the supply of water shall not exceed twenty years, and a sinking fund shall be created on the issuing of the said bonds for their redemption, by raising annually a sum which will produce an amount equal to the sum of the principal and interest of said bonds at their maturity. All certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes, which are not retired within five years after their date of issue, and bonds issued to provide for the supply of water, and any debt hereafter incurred by any portion or part of a city, if there shall be any such debt, shall be included in ascertaining the power of the city to become otherwise indebted. Whenever hereafter the boundaries of any city shall become the same as those of a county, the power of the county to become indebted shall cease, but the debt of the county at that time existing shall not be included as a part of the city debt. The amount hereafter to be raised by tax for county or city purposes, in any county containing a city of over one hundred thousand inhabitants, or any such city of this State, in addition to providing for the principal and interest of existing debt, shall not in the aggregate exceed in any one year two per centum of the assessed valuation of the real and personal estate of such county or city, to be ascertained as prescribed in this section in respect to county or city debt. Section 11. The Legislature shall provide for a state board of charities, which shall visit and inspect all institutions, whether state, county, municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, excepting only such institutions as are hereby made subject to the visitation and inspection of either of the commissions hereinafter mentioned, but including all reformatories except those in which adult males convicted of felony shall be confined; a state commission in lunacy, which shall visit and inspect all institutions, either public or private, used for the care and treatment of the insane (not including institutions for epileptics or idiots); a state commission of prisons which shali visit and inspect all institutions used for the detention of sane adults charged with or convicted of crime, or detained as witnesses or debtors. Section 12. The members of the said board and of the said commissions shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and any member may be removed from office by the Governor for cause, an opportunity having been given him to be heard in his defense. Section 13. Existing laws relating to institutions referred to in the foregoing sections and to their supervision and inspection, in so far as such laws are not inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, shall remain in force until amended or repealed by the Legislature. The visitation and inspection herein provided for, shall not be exclusive of other visitation and inspection now authorized by law. Section 14. Nothing in this Constitution contained shall prevent the Legislature from making such provision for the education and support of the blind, the deaf and dumb, and juvenile delinquents, as to it may seem proper; or prevent any county, city, town or village from providing for the care, support, maintenance and secular education, of inmates of orphan asylums, homes for dependent children or correctional institutions, whether under public or private control. Payments by counties, cities, towns and villages to charitable, eleemosynary, correctional and reformatory institutions, wholly or partly under private control, for care, support and maintenance, may be authorized, but shall not be required by the Legislature. No such payments shall be made for any inmate of such institutions who is not received and retained therein pursuant to rules established by the state board of charities. Such rules shall be subject to the control of the Legislature by general laws. Section 15 Commissioners of the state board of charities and commissioners of the state commission in lunacy, now holding office shall be continued in office for the term for which they were appointed, respectively, unless the Legislature shall otherwise provide. The Legislature may confer upon the commissions and upon the board mentioned in the foregoing sections any additional powers that are not inconsistent with Other provisions of the Constitution. ARTICLE IX. Section 1. The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this State may be educated. Section 2. The corporation created in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, under the name of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, is hereby continued under the name of The University of the State of New York. It shall be governed and its corporate powers, which may be in creased, modified or diminished by the Legislature, shall be exercised, by not less than nine regents. Section 3. The capital of the common school fund, the capital of the literature fund, and the capital of the United States deposit fund, shall be respectively preserved inviolate. The revenue of the said common school fund shall be applied to the support of common schools; the revenue of the said literature fund shall be applied to the support of academies; and the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars of the revenues of the United States deposit fund shall each year be appropriated to and made part of the capital of the said common school fund. Section 4. Neither the State nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or au thorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspec tion, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught. ARTICLE X. Section 1. Sherifs, clerks of counties, district attorneys, and registers in counties having registers, shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties, once in every three years and as often as vacancies shall happen, except in the counties of New York and Kings, and in counties whose boundaries are the same as those of a city, where such officers shall be chosen by the electors once in every two or four years as the Legislature shall direct. Sheriff's shall hold no other office, and be ineligible_for_the next term after the termination of their offices. may be required by law to renew their security, from time to time; and in default of giving such new security, cheir offices shall be deemed vacant. But the county shall never be made responsible for the acts of the sheriff. The Governor may remove any officer, in this section mentioned, within the term for which he shall have been elected; giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him, and an opportunity of being heard in his defense. They Section 2. All county officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of the respective counties or appointed by the boards of supervisors, or other county authorities, as the Legislature shall direct. All city, town and village officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, shall be elected by the electors of such cities, towns and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof, as the Legislature shall designate for that purpose. All other officers, whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all officers, wiose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed, as the Legislature may direct. Section 3. When the duration of any office is not provided by this Constitution, it may be declared by law, and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment. Section 4. The time of electing all officers named in this article shall be prescribed by law. Section 5. The Legislature shall provide for filling vacancies in office, and in case of elective officers, no person appointed to fill a vacancy shall hold his office by virtue of such appointment longer than the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual election after the happening of the vacancy. Section 6. The political year and legislative term shall begin on the first day of January; and the Legislature shall, every year, assemble on the first Wednesday in January. Section 7. Provision shall be made by law for the removal for misconduct or malversation in office of all officers, except judicial, whose powers, and duties are not local or legislative and who shall be elected at general elections, and also for supplying vacancies created by such removal. Section S. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant when no provision is ma le for that purpose in this Constitution. Section 9. No officer whose salary is fixed by the Constitution shall receive any additional compensation. Each of the other State officers named in the Constitution shall, during his continuance in office, receive a compensation, to be fixed by law, which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected or appointed; nor shall he receive to his use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation. ARTICLE XI. Section 1. All able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, who are residents of the State, shall constitute the militia, subject however to such exemptions as are now, or may be hereafter created by the laws of the United States, or by the Legislature of this State. Section 2. The Legislature may provide for the enlistment into the active force of such other persons as may make application to be so enlisted. Section 3. The militia shall be organized and divided into such land and naval, and active and reserve forces, as the Legislature may deem proper, provided however that there shall be maintained at all times a force of not less than ten thousand enlisted men, fully uniformed, armed, equipped, disciplined and ready for active service. And it shall be the duty of the Legislature at each session to make sufficient appropriations for the maintenance thereof. Section 4. The Governor shall appoint the chiefs of the several staff departments, his aides-de-camp and military secretary, all of whom shall hold office during his pleasure, their commissions to expire with the term for which the Governor shall have been elected; he shall also nominate, and with the consent of the Senate appoint, all major-generals. Section 5. All other commissioned and non-commissioned officers shall be chosen or appointed in such manner as the Legislature may deem_most conducive to the improvement of the militia, provided however that no law shall be passed changing the existing mode of election and appointment unless two-thirds of the members present in each house shall concur therein Section 6. The commissioned officers shall be commissioned by the Governor as commander-in-chief. No commissioned officer shall be removed from office during the term for which he shall have been appointed or elected, unless by the Senate on the recommendation of the Governor, stating the grounds on which such removal is recommended, or by the sentence of a court-martial, or upon the findings of an examining board organized pursuant to law, or for absence without leave for a period of six months or more. ARTICLE XII. Section 1. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments, and in contracting debt by such municipal corporations." Section 2. All cities are classified according to the latest State enumeration, as from time to time made, as follows: The first class includes all cities having a population of two nundred and fifty thousand, or more; the second class, all cities having a population of fifty thousand and less than two hundred and fifty thousand; the third class, all other cities. Laws relating to the property, affairs or government of cities, and the several departments thereof, are divided into general and special city laws; general city laws are those which relate to all the cities of one or more classes; special city laws are those which relate to a single city, or to less than all the cities of a class. Special city laws shall not be passed except in conformity with the provisions of this section. After any bill for a special city law, relating to a city, has been passed by both branches of the Legislature, the house in which it originated shall immediately transmit a certified copy thereof to the mayor of such city, and within fifteen days thereafter the mayor shall return such bill to the house from which it was sent, or if the session of the Legislature at which such bill was passed has terminated, to the Governor, with the mayor's certificate thereon, stating whether the city has or has not accepted the same. In every city of the first class, the mayor, and in every other city, the mayor and the legislative body thereof concurrently, shall act for such city as to such bill; but the Legislature may provide for the concurrence of the legislative body in cities of the first class. The Legislature shall provide for a public notice and opportunity for a public hearing concerning any such bill in every city to which it relates, before action thereon. Such a bill, if it relates to more than one city, shall be transmitted to the mayor of each city to which it relates, and shall not be deemed accepted unless accepted as herein provided, by every such city. Whenever any such bill is accepted as herein provided, it shall be subject as are other bills, to the action of the Governor. Whenever, during the session at which it was passed, any such bill is returned without the acceptance of the city or cities to which it relates, or within such fifteen days is not returned, it may nevertheless again be passed by both branches of the Legislature, and it shall then be subject as are other bills, to the action of the Governor. In every special city law which has been accepted by the city or cities to which it relates, the title shall be followed by the words "accepted by the city," or cities," as the case may be; in every such law which is passed without such acceptance, by the words "passed without the acceptance of the city," or cities," as the case may be. Section 3. All elections of city officers, including supervisors and judicial officers of inferior local courts, elected in any city or part of a city, and of county officers elected in the counties of New York and Kings, and in all counties whose boundaries are the same as those of a city, except to fill vacancies, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November in an odd-numbered year, and the term of every such officer shall expire at the end of an odd-numbered year. The terms of office of all such officers elected before the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, whose successors have not then been elected, which under existing laws would expire with an even-numbered year, or in an odd-numbered year and before the end thereof, are extended to and including the last day of December next following the time when such terms would otherwise expire; the terms of office of all such officers, which under existing laws would expire in an even-numbered year, and before the end thereof, are abridged so as to expire at the end of the preceding year. This section shall not apply to any city of the third class, or to elections of any judicial officer, except judges and justices of inferior local courts. ARTICLE XIII. Section 1. Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as shall be by law exempted shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office ofaccording to the best of my ability;" and all such officers who shall have been chosen at any election shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the oath or af firmation above prescribed, together with the following addition thereto, as part thereof: "And I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered or promised to pay, contributed, or offered or promised to contribute any money or other valuable thing as a consideration or reward for the giving or withholding a vote at the election at which I was elected to said office, and have not made any promise to influence the giving or withholding any such vote," and no other oath, declaration or test shall be required as a qualification for any office of public trust. Section 2. Any person holding office under the laws of this State, who, except in payment of his legal salary, fees or perquisites, shall receive or consent to receive, directly or indirectly, any thing of value or of personal advantage, or the promise thereof, for performing or omitting to perform any official act, or with the express or implied understanding that his official action or omission to act is to be in any degree influenced thereby, shall be deemed guilty of a felony. This section shall not effect the validity of any existing statue in relation to the offense of bribery. Section 3. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe to an officer, if it shall be received, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and liable to punishment, except as herein provided. No person offering a bribe shall, upon any prosecution of the officer for receiving such bribe, be privileged from testifying in relation thereto, and he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor, if he shall testify to the giving or offering of such bribe. Any person who shall offer or promise a bribe, if it be rejected by the officer to whom it was tendered, shall be deemed guilty of an attempt to bribe, which is hereby declared to be a felony. Section 4. Any person charged with receiving a bribe, or with offering or promising a bribe, shall be permitted to testify in his own behalf in any civil or criminal prosecution therefor. Section 5. No public officer, or person elected or appointed to a public office, under the laws of this State, shall directly or indirectly ask, demand, accept, receive or consent to receive for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another, any free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or disc imination in passenger, telegraph or telephone rates, from any person or corporation, or make use of the same himself or in conjunction with another. A person who violates any provision of this section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall forfeit his office at the suit of the Attorney General. Any corporation, or officer or agent thereof, who shall offer or promise to a public officer, or person elected or ap pointed to a public office, any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination, shall also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to punishment except as herein provided. No person, or officer or agent of a corporation giving any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimnation hereby prohibited, shall be privileged from testifying in relation thereto, and he shall not be liable to civil or criminal prosecution therefor if he shall testify to the giving of the same. Section 6. Any district attorney who shall fail faithfully to prosecute a person charged with the violation in his county of any provision of this article which may come to his knowledge, shall be removed from office by the Governor, after due notice and an opportunity of being heard in his defense. The expenses which shall be incurred by any county, in investigating and prosecuting any charge of bribery or attempting to bribe any person holding office under the laws of this State, within such county, or of receiving bribes by any such person in said county, shall be a charge against the State, and their payment by the State shall be provided for by law. ARTICLE XIV. Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate and Assembly; and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals, and the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of making such choice; and if in the Legislature so next chosen, as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit each proposed amendment or amendments to the people for approval in such manner and at such times as the Legislature s all prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the Constitution from and after the first day of January next after such approval. Section 2. At the general election to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and every twentieth year thereafter, and also at such times as the Legislature may by law provide, the question, “Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same !" shall be decided by the electors of the State; and in case a majority of the electors voting thereon shall decide in favor of a convention for such purpose, the electors of every Senate district of the State, as then organized, shall elect three delegates at the next ensuing general election at which members of the Assembly shall be chosen, and the electors of the State voting at the same election shall elect fifteen delegates-at-large. The delegates so elected shall convene at the capitol on the first Tuesday of April next ensuing after their election, and shall continue their session until the business of such convention shall have been completed. Every delegate shall receive for his services the same compensation and the same mileage as shall then be annually payable to the members of the Assembly. A majority of the convention shail constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and no amendment to the Constitution shall be submitted for approval to the electors as hereinafter provided, unless by the assent of a majority of all the delegates elected to the convention, the yeas and nays being entered on the journal to be kept. The convention shall have the power to appoint such officers, employes and assistants as it may deem necessary, and fix their com pensation and to provide for the printing of its documents, journal and proceedings. The convention shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, choose its own officers, and be the judge of the election, returns and qualifications of its members. In case of a vacancy, by death, resignation or other cause, of any district delegate elected to the convention, such vacancy shall be filled by a vote of the remaining delegates representing the district in which such vacancy occurs. If such vacancy occurs in the office of a delegate-at-large, such vacancy shall be filled by a vote of the remaining delegatesat-large. Any proposed constitution or constitutional amendment which shall have been adopted by such convention, shall be submitted to a vote of the electors of the State at the time and in the manner provided by such convention, at an election which shall be held not less than six weeks after the adjournment of such convention. Upon the approval of such constitution or constitutional amendments, in the manner provided in the last preceding session, such constitution or constitutional amendment, shall go into effect on the first day of January next after such approval. Section 3. Any amendment proposed by a constitutional convention relating to the same subject as an amendment proposed by the Legislature, coincidently submitted to the people for approval at the general election held in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, or at any subsequent election, shall, if approved, be deemed to supersede the amendment so proposed by the Legislature. ARTICLE XV. Section 1. This Constitution shall be in force from and including the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, except as herein otherwise provided. Done in Convention at the Capitol in the City of JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE, CHARLES ELLIOTT FITCH, Secretary. |