cution thereupon: to which courts and judicatories are hereby given and granted full power and authority from time to time to adminifter oaths or affirmations, for the better difcovery of truth in any matter in controversy or depending before them.

IV, And further, full power and authority are hereby given and granted to the said General Court from time to time to make, ordain, and establish, all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, ftatutes and ordinances, directions and instructions, either with penalties or without, fo as the fame be not repugnant or contrary to this Constitution, as they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of this Commonwealth, and for the government and ordering thereof and of the subjects of the fame, and for the necessary support and defence of the government thereof; and to name and fettle annually, or provide by fixed laws, for the naming and fettling all civil officers within the faid Commonwealth, the election and conftitution of whom are not hereafter in this form of government otherwise provided for; and to fet forth the feveral duties, powers, and limits, of the feveral civil and military

E 3

military officers of this Commonwealth, and the forms of fuch oaths or affirmations as fhall be respectively adminiftered unto them for the execution of their feveral offices and places, fo as the fame be not repugnant or contrary to this Constitution; and to impofe and levy proportional and reasonable affeffments, rates, and taxes, upon all the inhabitants of, and perfons refident, and estates lying within the said Commonwealth; and also to impose and levy reasonable duties and excifes upon any produce, goods, wares, merchandizes, and commodities whatsoever, brought into, produced, manufactured, or being within the fame, to be issued and difpofed of by warrant under the hand of the Governor of this Commonwealth for the time being, with the advice and consent of the Council, for the public fervice, in the neceffary defence and fupport of the government of the said Commonwealth, and the protection and prefervation of the subjects thereof, according to fuch acts as are or fhall be in force within the fame.

And while the public charges of government, or any part thereof, fhall be affeffed on polls and estates, in the manner that has hither

to

to been practised; in order that fuch affeffments may be made with equality, there fhall be a valuation of estates within the Commonwealth taken anew once in every ten years at the leaft, and as much oftener as the General Court fhall order.

§. 2.

SENATE.

I.THERE shall be annually elected by the freeholders and other inhabitants of this Commonwealth, qualified as in this Constitution is provided, forty perfons to be Councillors and Senators for the year enfuing their election, to be chosen by the inhabitants of the districts into which the Commonwealth may from time to time be divided by the General Court for that purpose. And the General Court, in affigning the numbers to be elected by the respective districts, fhall govern themselves by the proportion of the public taxes paid by the said districts; and timely make known to the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, the limits of

each district, and the number of Councillors and Senators to be chofen therein; provided that the number of fuch diftricts fhall be never. less than thirteen, and that no diftrict be fo large as to entitle the fame to chufe more than fix Senators.

And the feveral counties in this Commonwealth fhall, until the General Court shall determine it neceffary to alter the faid diftricts, be diftricts for choice of Councillors and Senators (except that the counties of Dukes-county and Nantucket fhall form one diftrict for that purpose), and shall elect the following number for Councillors and Senators, viz.

II. The Senate shall be the first branch of the legislature; and the Senators shall be chosen in the following manner, viz. There shall be a meeting on the first Monday in April annually,

forever

forever, of the inhabitants of each town in the feveral counties of this Commonwealth, to be called by the Selectmen, and warned in due course of law, at least seven days before the first Monday in April, for the purpose of electing perfons to be Senators and Councillors : and at such meetings every male inhabitant of twenty-one years of age and upwards, having a freehold estate within the Commonwealth of the annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the value of fixty pounds, shall have a right to give in his vote for the Senators for the district of which he is an inhabitant. And to remove all doubts concerning the meaning of the word" inhabitant," in this Conftitution, every person shall be confidered as an inhabitant, for the purpose of electing and being elected into any office or place within this State, in that town, diftrict, or plantation, where he dwelleth, or hath his home.

pre

The Selectmen of the feveral towns fhall fide at fuch meetings impartially; and fhall receive the votes of all the inhabitants of fuch towns present and qualified to vote for Senators, and shall fort and count them in open townmeeting, and in prefence of the town-clerk, who fhall make a fair record, in prefence of the

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