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.

13. 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.

14. On the final passage, in either house of the Legislature, of every act which imposes, continues, or revives a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust money or property, or releases, discharges, or commutes any claim or demand of the state, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, which shall be duly entered on the journals, and three-fifths of all the members elected to either house, shall, in all such cases, be necessary to constitute a quorum therein.

ARTICLE 8.

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 All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section, may be altered from time to time or repealed.

2. Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the corporators and other means as may be prescribed by law.

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.

4. 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.

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.

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.

7. The stockholders in every corporation and jointstock association for banking purposes, issuing bank notes or any kind of paper credits to circulate as money, after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, 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, contracted after the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty.

8. In case of the insolvency of any bank or banking association, the bill-holders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment, over all other creditors of such bark or association.

9. 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.

ARTICLE 9

SECTION 1. The capital of the Common School Fund; the capital of the Literature Fund; and the capital of the United States Deposite Fund, shall be respectively preserved inviolate. The revenue of the said Common School Fund shall be applied to the support of common schools; the revenues 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 Deposite Fund shall each year be appropriated to and made a part of the capital of the said Common School Fund.

ARTICLE 10.

SECTION 1. Sheriffs, clerks of counties, including the register and clerk of the city and county of New-York, coroners, and district attorneys, shall be chosen, by the electors of the respective counties, once in every three years and as often as vacancies shall happen. Sheriffs shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next three years after the termination of their offices. They may be required by law, to renew their security, from time to time; and in default of giving such new secu rity, their 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 defence.

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 authori ties, 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 whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people or appointed, as the Legislature may direct.

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.

4. The time of electing all officers named in this arti cle shall be prescribed by law.

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.

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 Tuesday in January, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.

7. Provisions 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 clected at general elections, and also for supplying vacancies created by such removal.

8. The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant, where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.

ARTICLE 11.

SECTION 1. The militia of this State, shall at all times hereafter, be armed and disciplined, and in readiness for service; but all such inhabitants of this State of any re\ligious denomination whatever as from scruples of conscience may be averse to bearing arms, shall be excused therefrom, upon such conditions as shall be prescribed by law.

2. Militia officers shall be chosen, or appointed, as follows:-captains, subalterns and non-commissioned officers shall be chosen by the written votes of the members of their respective companies. Field officers of regiments and separate battalions, by the written votes of the commissioned officers of the respective regiments and separate battalions; brigadier-generals and brigade inspectors by the field officers of their respective brigades; major generals, brigadier generals and commanding officers of regiments or separate battalions, shall appoint the staff officers to their respective divisions, brigades, regiments or separate battalions.

3. The Governor shall nominate, and with the consent of the Senate, appoint all major generals, and the commissary general. The adjutant general and other chiefs of staff departments, and the aids-de-camp of the commander in-chief shall be appointed by the Governor, and

their commissions shall expire with the time for which the Governor shall have been elected. The commissary general shall hold his office for two years. He shall give security for the faithful execution of the duties of his office, in such manner and amount as shall be prescribed by law.

4. The Legislature shall, by law, direct the time and manner of electing militia officers, and of certifying their elections to the Governor.

5. The commissioned officers of the militia shall be commissioned by the Governor; and no commissioned officer shall be removed from office, unless by the Senate on the recommendation of the Governor, stating the grounds on which such removal is recommended, or by the decision of a court martial, pursuant to law. The present officers of the militia shall hold their commissions subject to removal, as before provided.

6. In case the mode of election and appointment of militia officers hereby directed, shall not be found conducive to the improvement of the militia, the Legislature may abolish the same, and provide by law for their appointment and removal, if two-thirds of the members present in each house shall concur therein.

ARTICLE 12.

SECTION 1. Members of the Legislature and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as may 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, as the case may be) 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 of according to the best of my ability."

And no other oath, declaration, or test shall be required a qualification for any office or public trust.