corporation, receiving in payment the bonds and registered debt now owing by the State, equal in amount to the price obtained for the State's said interest. (Thus amended by act of 1890, chapter 362, and ratified by the people, November 3, 1891.)

ARTICLE XIII.

New Counties.

Section 1. The General Assembly may provide by law for organizing new counties, locating and removing county seats, and changing county lines; but no new county shall be organized without the consent of the majority of the legal voters residing within the limits proposed to be formed into said new county; and whenever a new county shall be proposed to be formed out of portions of two or more counties, the consent of a majority of the legal voters of such part of each of said counties, respectively, shall be required; nor shall the lines of any county be changed without the consent of a majority of the legal voters residing within the district, which, under said proposed change, would form a part of a county different from that to which it belonged prior to said change; and no new county shall contain less than four hundred square miles, nor less than ten thousand white inhabitants; nor shall any change be made in the limits of any county whereby the population of said county would be reduced to less than ten thousand white inhabitants, or its territory reduced to less than four hundred square miles.

Sec. 2. At the election to be held for the adoption or rejec tion of this Constitution, in each election district, in those parts of Worcester and Somerset counties, comprised within the fol lowing limits, viz.: Beginning at the point where Mason and Dixon's line crosses the channel of the Pocomoke river, thence following said line to the channel of the Nanticoke river; thence with the channel of said river to Tangier sound, or the intersection of Nanticoke and Wicomico rivers; thence up the channel of the Wicomico river to the mouth of Wicomico creek; thence with the channel of said creek and Passerdyke creek to Dashield's or Disharoon's Mills; thence with the mill-pond of said mills and branch, following the middle prong of said branch, to Meadow Bridge, on the road dividing the counties of Somerset and Worcester, near the south-west corner of farm of William P. Morris; thence due east to the Pocomoke river; thence with the

channel of said river to the beginning, the judges of election in each of said districts shall receive the ballots of each elector voting at said election who has resided for six months preceding said election within said limits, for or against a new county; and and the return judges of said election districts shall certify the result of such voting, in the manner now prescribed by law, to the Governor, who shall by proclamation make known the same; and if a majority of the legal votes cast within that part of Worcester county contained within said lines, and also a majority of the legal votes cast within that part of Somerset county contained within said lines shall be in favor of a new county, then said parts of Worcester and Somerset counties shall become and constitute a new county, to be called Wicomico county; and Salisbury shall be the county seat. And the inhabitants thereof shall thenceforth have and enjoy all such rights and privileges as are held and enjoyed by the inhabitants of the other counties of this State.

Sec. 3. When said new county shall have been so created, the inhabitants thereof shall cease to have any claim to or interest in the county buildings and other public property of every description belonging to said counties of Somerset and Worcester, respectively, and shall be liable for their proportionate shares of the then existing debts and obligations of the said counties, according to the last assessment in said counties, to be ascertained and apportioned by the Circuit Court for Somerset county, as to the debts and obligations of said county, and by the Circuit Court for Worcester county, on the debts and obligations of Worcester county, on the petition of the county commissioners of the said counties, respectively; and the property in each part of the said counties included in said new county shall be bound only for the share of the debts and obligations of the county from which it shall be separated; and the inhabitants of said new county shall also pay the county taxes levied upon them at the time of the creation of such new county, as if such new county had not been created; and on the application of twelve citizens of the proposed county of Wicomico, the surveyor of Worcester county shall run and locate the line from Meadow Bridge to the Pocomoke river, previous to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution, and at the expense of said petitioners.

Sec. 4. At the first general election held under this Constitution the qualified voters of said new county shall be entitled to elect a Senator and two Delegates to the General Assembly, and all such county or other officers as this Constitution may authorize or require to be elected by other counties of the State; a notice of such election shall be given by the sheriffs of Worcester and Somerset counties in the manner now prescribed by law; and in case said new county shall be established, as aforesaid, then the counties of Somerset and Worcester shall be entitled to elect but two Delegates each to the General Assembly.

Sec. 5. The county of Wicomico, if formed according to the provisions of this Constitution, shall be embraced in the first judicial circuit; and the times for holding the courts therein shall be fixed and determined by the General Assembly.

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall pass all such laws as may be necessary more fully to carry into effect the provisions of this article.

ARTICLE XIV.

Amendments to the Constitution.

Section 1. The General Assembly may propose amendments to this Constitution: Provided, that each amendment shall be embrace in a separate bill, embodying the aticle or section as the same will stand when amended and passed by three-fifths of all the members elected to each of the two houses, by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journals with the proposed amendment. The bill or bills proposing amendment or amendments shall be published by order of the Governor in at least two newspapers in each county, where so many may be published, and where not more than one may be published, then in that newspaper, and in three newspapers published in the city of Baltimore, one of which shall be in the German language, once a week for at least three months preceding the next ensuing general election, at which the said proposed amendment, or amendments shall be submitted in a form to be prescribed by the General Assembly, to the qualified voters of the State for adoption or rejection. The votes cast for and against said proposed amendment or amendments, severally, shall be returned to the Governor, in the manner prescribed in other cases, and if it shall appear to the Governor that a majority of the votes cast at said election on amendment or amendments, severally, were cast in

favor thereof, the Governor shall, by his proclamation, declare the said amendment or amendments, having received said majority of votes, to have been adopted by the people of Maryland as part of the Constitution thereof, and thenceforth said amendment or amendments shall be part of the said Constitution. When two or more amendments shall be submitted, in manner aforesaid, to the voters of this State at the same election, they shall be so submitted as that each amendment shall be voted on separately.

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by law for taking, at the general election to be held in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and every twenty years thereafter, the sense of the people in regard to calling a convention for altering this Constitution; and if a majority of voters at such election or elections shall vote for a convention, the General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide by law for the assembling of such convention, and for the election of delegates thereto. Each county and legislative district of the city of Baltimore shall have in such convention a number of delegates equal to its representation in both houses at the time at which the convention is called. But any Constitution, or change or amendment of the existing Constitution, which may be adopted by such convention shall be submitted to the voters of this State, and shall have no effect unless the same shall have been adopted by a majority of the voters voting thereon.

ARTICLE XV.
Miscellaneous.

Section 1. Every person holding any office created by or existing under the Constitution or laws of the State (except justices of the peace, constables and coroners), or holding any appointment under any court of this State, whose pay or compensation is derived from fees or moneys coming into his hands. for the discharge of his official duties, or in any way, growing out of or connected with his office, shall keep a book in which shall be entered every sum or sums of money received by him, or on his account, as a payment or compensation for his performance of official duties, a copy of which entries in said book, verified by the oath of the officer by whom it is directed to be kept, shall be returned yearly to the Comptroller of the State for his inspection, and that of the General Assembly of the State, to which

the Comptroller shall, at each regular session thereof, make a report showing what officers have complied with this section; and each of the said officers, when the amount received by him for the year shall exceed the sum which he is by law entitled to retain as his salary or compensation for the discharge of his duties, and for the expenses of his office, shall yearly pay over to the Treasurer of the State the amount of such excess, subject to such disposition thereof as the General Assembly may direct; if any of such officers shall fail to comply with the requisitions of this section for the period of thirty days after the expiration of each and every year of his office, such officer shall be deemed to have vacated his office, and the Governor shall declare the same vacant, and the vacancy therein shall be filled as in case of vacancy for any other cause, and such officer shall be subject to suit by the State for the amount that ought to be paid into the treasury; and no person holding any office created by or existing under this Constitution or laws of the State, or holding any appointment under any court in this State, shall receive more than three thousand dollars a year as a compensation for the discharge of his official duties, except in cases specially provided in this Constitution.

Sec. 2. The several courts existing in this State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall, until superseded under its provisions, continue with like powers and jurisdiction, and in the exercise thereof, both at law and in equity, in all respects as if this Constitution had not been adopted; and when said courts shall be so superseded, all causes then depending in said courts shall pass into the jurisdiction of several courts, by which they may be respectively superseded.

Sec. 3. The Governor, and all officers, civil and military, now holding office under this State, whether by election or appointment, shall continue to hold, exercise and discharge the duties of their offices (unless inconsistent with, or otherwise provided in this Constitution) until they shall be superseded under its provisions, and until their successors shall be duly qualified.

Sec. 4. If at any election directed by this Constitution, any two or more candidates shall have the highest and an equal number of votes, a new election shall be ordered by the Governor, except in cases specially provided by this Constitution.

Sec. 5. In the trial of all criminal cases, the jury shall be the judges of law, as well as of fact.