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the time and places of election of representatives, one of whom, for each office respectively, shall be appointed by the governor. They shall hold their offices for three years, if so long they shall behave themselves well, and until successors be duly qualified; but no person shall be twice appointed sheriff, upon election by the citizens, in any term of six years. The governor shall fill vacancies in these offices by new appointments, to continue unto the next general election, and until successors shall be chosen and duly qualified. The legislature, two-thirds of each branch concurring, may. when it shall be judged expedient, vest the appointment of sheriffs and coroners in the governor; but no person shall be twice appointed sheriff, in any term of six years.

§ 5. The attorney general, clerks of the supreme court, prothonotaries, registers, clerks of the orphan's courts and of the peace, shall respectively be commissioned for five years, if so long they shall behave themselves well; but may be removed by the governor within that time, on convic tion of misbehaviour in office, or on the address of both houses of the legislature. Prothonotaries, clerks of the supreme court, of the orphan's courts, registers, recorders, and sheriffs, shall keep their offices in the town or place in each county in which the supreme court and the court of common pleas are usually held.

6. Attorneys at law, all inferior offices in the treasury department, election officers, officers relating to taxes, to the poor, and to the highways, constables and hundred officers, shall be appointed in such manner as is or may be directed by law.

§7. All salaries and fees annexed to offices shall be mode. rate; and no officer shall receive any fees whatever, without giving to the person who pays, a receipt for them, if required, therein specifying every particular, and the charge for it.

§ 8. No costs shall be paid by a person accused, on a bill being returned ignoramus; nor an acquittal by a jury, unless a majority of the judges present at the trial, certify that there was probable cause for the prosecution.

§ 9. The rights, privileges, immunities, and estates of religious societies and corporate bodies, shall remain as if the constitution of this state had not been altered. No clergyman or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of holding any civil offiée in this state, or of being a member of either branch of the legislature, while he

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continues in the exercise of the pastoral or clerical functions.

10. All the laws of this state, existing at the time of making this constitution, and not inconsistent with it, shall re- . main in force, unless they shall be altered by future laws; and all actions and prosecutions now pending, shall proceed as if this constitution had not been made.

11. This constitution shall be prefixed to every edition of the laws made by direction of the legislature.

§12. The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for ascertaining what statutes and parts of statutes shall continue to be in force within this state; for reducing them and all acts of the general assembly, into such order, and publishing them in such manner, that thereby the knowledge of them may be generally diffused; for choosing inspectors and judges of elections, and regulating the same, in such manner as shall most effectually guard the rights of the citizens entitled to vote; for better securing personal liberty, and easily and speedily redressing all wrongful restraints thereof; for more certainly obtaining returns of impartial juries; for dividing lands and tenements in sales by sheriffs, where they will bear a division, into as many parcels as may be, without spoiling the whole, and for advertising and making the sales, in such manner and at such times and places; as may render them most beneficial to all persons concerned; and for establishing schools, and promoting arts and sciences.

ARTICLE 9.

Members of the general assembly, and all officers, execu tive and judicial, shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support the constitution of this state, and to perform the duties of their respective offices with fidelity.

ARTICLE 10.

The general assembly, whenever two-thirds of each house shall deem it necessary, may, with the approbation of the governor, propose amendments to this constitution, and at least three, and not more than six months, before the next general election of representatives, duly publish them in print, for the consideration of the people; and, if threefourths of each branch of the legislature shall, after such an election, and before another, ratify the same amendments, *hey shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as parts of this

constitution. No convention shall be called but by the authority of the people; and an unexceptionable mode of making their sense known, will be for them, at a general election of representatives, to vote also, by ballot, for or against a convention, as they shall severally choose to do; and if, thereupon, it shall appear, that a majority of all the citizens in the state, having right to vote. for representatives, have voted for a convention, the general assembly shall, accordingly, at their next sessions, call a convention, to consist at least of as many members as there are in both houses of the legislature, to be chosen in the same manner, at the same places, and at the same time, that representatives are by the citizens entitled to vote for representatives, on due notice given for one month, and to meet within three months after they shall be elected.

SCHEDULE.

That no inconveniences may arise from the alterations of the constitution of this state, and in order to carry the same into complete operation, it is hereby declared and ordained.

§ 1. That the president, or, in case of his death, inability, or absence from the state, the speaker of the legislative council, at that time, and in case of his death, inability, or absence from the state, the speaker of the house of assembly, at that time, shall respectively, with the privy council; exercise the executive authority of this state, until the third Tuesday in January next. If the death, inability, or absence of the president, shall happen after the first Tuesday of next October, and before the first Tuesday in next January, then the executive authority shall devolve upon the person who was speaker of the council at the next preceding session of the general assembly; and in case of his death, inability, or absence, upon the person who was speaker of the house of assembly at the said next proceeding session.

§ 2. That all persons holding offices to which, under this constitution, appointments are to be made by the governor, shall continue in the exercise of the duties of their respective offices, until the first Tuesday of October, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, unless their commissions shall sooner expire by their own limitations, or the said offices shall become vacant by death or resignation, and no longer, unless re-appointed and commissioned by the governor

§ 3. That justice shall be administered in the several counties of this state, until the period last mentioned, by the same justices, in the same courts, and in the same manner, as heretofore.

§4. That the sheriffs elected at October next shall hold their respective commissions two years, and no longer from that time, or until new sheriffs are elected and appointed; and such persons shall not be again eligible until the expiration of three years after their commissions cease.

§ 5. That the elections of governor, senators, and representatives, shall be conducted by the same persons, and in the same manner as is prescribed by the election laws of this state, concerning the election of members of the council, and of the house of assembly; and the returns thereof shall be made respectively to the person exercising the executive authority, to the senate, and to the house of representatives.

§ 6. The first meeting of the legislature, under this constiintion, shall be at the town of Dover.

Done in convention, the twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the sixteenth. In testimony whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

THOMAS MONTGOMERY, President.

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The following section was adopted on the 22d of January and 5th of February, 1802 in lieu of the 15th section of the Ath article of the constitution.

§ 15. The chancellor shall compose the orphan's court of each county, and exercise the equity jurisdiction heretofore exercised by the orphan's court, except as to the adjusting and settling executors, administrators, and guardians' accounts, in which case he shall have an appellate jurisdiction from the sentence and decree of the register: This court may issue process thoughout the state to compel the attendance of witnesses. Appeals may be made from the orphans' court, in cases where that court has original jurisdiction, to the supreme court, whose decision shall be final.

CONSTITUTION OF

MARYLAND.*

The Declaration of Rights and the Constitution and Form of Government of the state of Maryland.

THE DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.

THE parliament of Great Britain, by a declaratory act, having assumed a right to make laws to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and in pursuance of such claim, endeavoured, by force of arms, to subjugate the united colonies to an unconditional submission to their will and power, and having at length constrained them to declare themselves independent states, and to assume government under the authority of the people:-Therefore,

We, the delegates of Maryland, in free and full convention assembled, taking into our most serious consideration the best means of establishing a good constitution in this state, for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare:

1. That all government of right originates from the people, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole.

2. That the people of this state ought to have the sole and

* Such parts of the original constitution, or the amendments thereto, as have been altered or abolished, are enclosed in brackets.

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