SEC. 4. From and after the adoption of a charter under the provisions of this Article by the City of Baltimore or any county of this State, no Public Local Law shall be enacted by the General Assembly for said city or county on any subject covered by the express powers granted as above proided. Any law so drawn as to apply to two or more of the geographical-subdivisions of this State shall not be deemed a Local Law, within the meanIng of this Act. The term "geographical sub-division" herein used shall be taken to mean the City of Baltimore or any of the counties of this State. SEC. 5.

Amendments to any charter adopted by the City of Baltimore or any county of this State under the provisions of this Article may be froposed by a resolution of the Mayor of Baltimore and the City Council of aid the City of Baltimore, or the Council of said county, or by a petition igned by not less than 20 per cent of the registered voters of said city or ounty, provided, however, that in any case 10,000 signatures shall be suffiSent to complete a petition, and filed with the Mayor of Baltimore or the President of the County Council, and when so proposed shall be submitted the voters of said city or county at the next General or Congressional elecfon occurring after the passage of said resolution, or the filing of said petion, and if at said election the majority of the votes cast for and against aid amendments shall be in favor thereof, said amendment shall be adopted ind become a part of the charter of said city or county from and after the hirtieth day after said election. Said amendments shall be published by id Mayor of Baltimore or President of the County Council once a week br five successive weeks prior to said election in at least one newspaper blished in said city or county.

or

SEC. 6. The power heretofore conferred upon the General Assembly to escribe the number, compensation, powers and duties of the County Comissioners in each county, and the power to make changes in Sections 1 to inclusive, Article XI of this Constitution, when expressly granted as herebefore provided, are hereby transferred to the voters of each county and the ters of City of Baltimore, respectively, provided that said powers so transferred shall be exercised only by the adoption or amendment of a charter as hereinbefore provided; and provided further, that this Article shall not be contrued to authorize the exercise of any powers in excess of those conferred by Legislature upon said counties or city as this Article sets forth. SEC. 7. The words "Petition," as used in this Article, means one more sheets, written or printed, or partly written and partly printed; "Signare" means the signature of a registered voter written by himself in his own handwriting (and not by his mark), together with the ward or district and precinct in which he is registered. The authenticity of such signatures and the fact that the persons so signing are registered voters shall be evidenced by the affidavit of one or more registered voters of the city or county in which said voters so signing are registered, and one affidavit may apply to or cover any number of signatures to such petition. The false signing of any name, or the signing of any fictitious name to said petition shall be forgery, and the making of any false affidavit in connection with said petition shall be perjury.34

ARTICLE XII.
PUBLIC WORKS.

SECTION 1. The Governor, the Comptroller of the Treasury and the Treas rer shall constitute the Board of Public Works in this State. They shall keep a journal of their proceedings, and shall hold regular sessions in the city of Annapolis on the first Wednesday in January. April, July and October in each year, and oftener if necessary; at which sessions they shall hear and determine such matters as affect the public works of the State, and as the General Assembly may confer upon them the power to decide.

SEC. 2. They shall exercise a diligent and faithful supervision of all "Article XI-A is a new article; it was proposed by the legislature of 1914 and ratified on November 2, 1915.

public works in which the State may be interested as stockholder or creditor. and shall represent and vote the stock of the State of Maryland in all meetings of the stockholders of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; and shall ap point the directors in every railroad and canal company in which the State has the legal power to appoint directors, which said directors shall represent the State in all meetings of the stockholders of the respective companies for which they are appointed or elected. And the president and directors of the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company shall so regulate the tolls of said company from time to time as to produce the largest amount of revenue, and to avoid the injurious effect to said company of rival competition by other internal improvement companies. They shall require the directors of all said public works to guard the public interest and prevent the establishment of tolls which shall discriminate against the interests of the citizens or products of this State, and from time to time, and as often as there shall be any change in the rates of toll on any of the said works, to furnish the said Board of Public Works a schedule of such modified rates of toll, and sa adjust them as to promote the agricultural interests of the State; they shall report to the General Assembly at each regular session, and recommend such legislation as they may deem necessary and requisite to promote or protect the interests of the State in the said public works; they shall perform suchother duties as may be hereafter prescribed by law, and a majority of them shall be competent to act. The Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer shall re reive no additional salary for services rendered by them as members of the Board of Public Works. The provisions of the Act of the General Assembly. of Maryland of the year 1867, Chapter 359, are hereby declared null and void.

SEC. 3. The Board of Public Works is hereby authorized, subject to such regulations and conditions as the General Assembly may from time to time. prescribe, to sell the State's interest in all works of internal improvement whether as a stockholder or a creditor. and also the State's interest in any banking 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.35

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 linesa 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 majority of the legal voters of such part of each of said counties, respectively, shall be required; non 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 be longed 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 rejection of this Constitution, in each election district, in those parts of Worcester and Somerset counties, comprised within the following limits, viz.: Beginning at the point where Mason and Dixon's line crosses the channel of Pocomoke river: thence following said line to the channel of the Nanticoke river; thence with the channel of said river to Tangier's 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 PasserAmendment proposed by the legislature of 1890 and ratified at the election of November 3, 1891.

dyke 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 southwest 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 the return judges of said Fection districts shall certify the results 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 inabitants of the other counties of this State.

SEC. 3. When said new county shall have been so created, the inhabitants hereof 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 proporlonate shares of the then existing debts and obligations of the said counties gcording to the last assessment in said counties, to be ascertained and apporfoued by the Circuit Court of Somerset county, as to the debts and obligations it said county, and by the Circuit Court of Worcester county as to the debts and obligations of Worcester county, on the petition of the County Commissers 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 sepatated; 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 if the proposed county of Wicomico, the Surveyor of Worcester county shall fun 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 Worester 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 neces sary 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 embraced in a separate bill, embodying the Article 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 proposed amendment or amendments shall be submitted, in a form 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 amend ment or amendments, severally, shall be returned to the Governor, in the man ner prescribed in other cases, and if it shall appear to the Governor that majority of the votes cast at said election on said amendment or amendments severally, were cast in favor thereof, the Governor shall, by his proclams tion, declare the said amendment or amendments having received said må jority of votes. to have been adopted by the people of Maryland as part the Constitution thereof, and thenceforth said amendment or amendment shall be part of the said Constitution. When two or more amendments shal be submitted in manner aforesaid, to the voters of this State at the sam election, they shall be so submitted as that each amendment shall be vote on separately.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by la for taking, at the general election to be held in the year eighteen hundre and eighty-seven, and every twenty years thereafter, the sense of the peopl in regard to calling a convention for altering this Constitution; and if majority of voters at such election or elections shall vote for a convention, th General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide by law for the assemblin of such convention, and for the election of Delegates thereto. Each count and Legislative District of the city of Baltimore shall have in such conve tion a number of Delegates equal to its representation in both Houses at th time at which the convention is called. But any Constitution, or change. amendment, or the existing Constitution, which may be adopted by such co vention, shall be submitted to the voters of this State, and shall have no effe unless the same shall have been adopted by a majority of the voters votin thereon.

ARTICLE XV.
MISCELLANEOUS.

SECTION 1. Every person holding any office created by, or existing unde the Constitution or laws of the State (except Justices of the Peace, Con stables and Coroners), or holding any appointment under any court of thi State, whose pay or compensation is derived from fees or moneys coming int his hands for the discharge of his official duties, or in any way growing ou of or connected with his office, shall keep a book in which shall be entere every sum or sums of money received by him, or on his account, as a pay ment 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 disposi tion 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, 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 dolars 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 a 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 parts shall pass into the jurisdiction of the several courts, by which they may be respectively superseded.

SEC. 3. The Governor and all officers, civil and military, now holding fice under this State, whether by election or appointment, shall continue to old, exercise and discharge the duties of their offices (unless inconsistent with ☛ 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 andidates shall have the highest and an equal number of votes, a new eleclon shall be ordered by the Governor, except in cases specially provided for this Constitution.

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

SEC. 6. The right of trial by jury of all issues of fact in civil proceedings the several courts of law in this State, where the amount in controversy Breeds the sum of five dollars, shall be inviolably preserved.

SEC. 7. All general elections in this State shall be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in the month of November, in the year in which hey shall occur; and the first election of all officers, who, under this Constion, are required to be elected by the people, shall, except in cases herein ially provided for, be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday # November, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.

SEC. 8. The Sheriffs of the several counties of this State and of the city f Baltimore shall give notice of the several elections authorized by this Contution, in the manner prescribed by existing laws for elections to be held this State, until said laws shall be changed.

SEC. 9. The term of office of all judges and other officers, for whose dection provision is made by this Constitution, shall, except in cases otherrise expressly provided herein, commence from the time of their election; and ll such officers shall qualify as soon after their election as practicable, and hall enter upon the duties of their respective offices immediately upon their alification; and the term of office of the State Librarian and of Commisdoner of the Land Office shall commence from the time of their appointment.

SFC. 10. Any officer elected or appointed in pursuance of the provisions of this Constitution, may qualify, either according to the existing provisions of law, in relation to officers under the present Constitution, or before the Governor of the State, or before any clerk of any court of record in any art of the State; but in case an officer shall qualify out of the county in which he resides, an official copy of his oath shall be filed and recorded in The clerk's office of the Circuit Court of the county in which he may reside. or in the clerk's office of the Superior Court of the city of Baltimore, if he shall reside therein.

VOTE ON THE CONSTITUTION.

For the purpose of ascertaining the sense of the people of this State in regard to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution, the Governor shall issue his proclamation within five days after the adjournment of this conention, directed to the Sheriffs of the city of Baltimore and of the several Counties of this State, commanding them to give notice in the manner now prescribed by law in reference to the election of members of the House of Delegates, that an election for the adoption or rejection of this Constitution