ARTICLE VIII. § 1. The Legislature shall not in any manner create any debt or debts, liability or liabilities, which shall, singly or in the aggregate, with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war, to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by some law for some single object or work, to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and dis rates in any city and county, or city or town in this State, otherwise than as so established, shall forfeit the franchises and water-works of such person, company, or corporation to the city and county, or city or town where the same are collected, for the public use. § 2. The right to collect rates or compensation for the use of water supplied to any county, city and county, or town, or the inhabitants thereof, is a franchise, and cannot be exercised except by authority of and in the manner prescribed by law. ARTICLE XV. HARBOR FRONTAGES, ETC. § 1. The right of eminent domain is hereby declared to exist in the State to all frontages on the navigable waters of this State. § 2. No individual, partnership, or corporation, claiming or possessing the the frontage or tidal lands of a harbor, bay, inlet, estuary, or other navigable water in this State, shall be permitted to exclude the right of way to such water whenever it is required for any public purpose, nor to destroy or obstruct the free navigation of such water; and the Legislature shall enact such laws as will give the most liberal construction to this provision, so that access to the navigable waters of this State shall be always attainable for the people thereof. § 3. All tide lands within two miles of any incorporated city or town in this State, and fronting on the waters of any harbor, estuary, bay, or inlet used for the purposes of navigation, shall be withheld from grant or sale to private persons, partnerships, or corporations. ARTICLE XVI. STATE INDEBTEDNESS. § 1. The Legislature shall not, in any manner, create any debt or debts, liability or liabilities, which shall, singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by law for some single object or work to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of charge the principal of such debt or liability within twenty years from the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general election, it shall have been submitted to the people and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election; and all money raised by authority of such law shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby created; and such law shall be published in at least one newspaper in each Judicial District, if one be published therein, throughout the State, for three months next preceding the election at which it is submitted to the people. SCHEDULE. § 16. The limitation of the powers of the Legislature contained in Article VIII of this Constitution shall not extend to the first Legislature elected under the same, which is hereby authorized to negotiate for such amount as may be necessary to pay the expenses of the State Government. ARTICLE XI. § 15. The Legislature shall protect by law from forced sale a certain portion of the homestead and other property of all heads of families. ARTICLE X. MODE OF AMENDING AND REVISING THE CONSTITUTION. § 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or Assembly; and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members such debt or liability within twenty years of the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general election, it shall bave been submitted to the people and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election; and all moneys raised by authority of such law shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby created, and such law shall be published in at least one newspaper in each county, or city and county, if one be published therein, throughout the State, for three months next preceding the election at which it is submitted to the people. The Legislature may at any time after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same. ARTICLE XVII. LAND, AND HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. § 1. The Legislature shall protect, by law, from forced sale a certain portion of the homestead and other property of all heads of families. § 2. The holding of large tracts of land, uncultivated and unimproved, by individuals or corporations, is against the public interest, and should be discouraged by all means not inconsistent with the rights of private property. § 3. Lands belonging to this State, which are suitable for cultivation, shall be granted only to actual settlers, and in quantities not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres to each settler, under such conditions as shall be prescribed by law. ARTICLE XVIII. AMENDING AND REVISING THE CONSTITUTION. § 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or Assembly, and if two-thirds of all the members elected to each of the two elected to each of the two Houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their Journals, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legislature then next to be chosen, and shall be published for three months next preceding the time of making such choice. And if, in the Legislature next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each House, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people, in such manner and at such time as the Legisla ture shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, by a majority of the electors qualified to vote for members of the Legislature voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution. § 2. And if at any time two-thirds of the Senate and Assembly shall think it necessary to revise and change this entire Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors at the next election for members of the Legislature to vote for or against a Convention; and if it shall appear that a majority of the electors voting at such election have voted in favor of calling a Convention, the Legislature shall, at its next session, provide by law for calling a Convention, to be holden within six months after the passage of such law; and such Convention shall consist of a number of members not less than that of both branches of the Legislature. * The Constitution that may have been agreed upon and adopted by such Convention shall be submitted to the people, at a special election to be provided for by law, for their ratification or rejection. Each voter shall express his opinion by depositing in the ballot box a ticket, whereon shall be written or printed the words "For the New Constitution," or "Against the New Constitution." The returns of such election shall, in such manner as the Convention shall direct, be certified to the Executive of the State, who shall call to his assistance the Controller, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, and compare the votes so certified to him. If, by such examination, it be ascertained that a majority of the whole number of votes cast at such election be in favor of such new Constitution, the Executive of this State shall, by his proclamation, declare such new Constitution to be the Constitution of the State of California. [Words after the* were added by amendment of 1856.] |