Chap. 46.—A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing amendment to the Constitution
of Virginia. [fH J R 1]
Signed February 27, 1928

Whereas the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Vir-
ginia, hereinatfer fully set forth, was agreed to by a majority of the
members elected to the two houses of the general assembly at the
special session of nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, and referred
to this, the next general assembly, and published for three months,
as required by the Constitution of Virginia, and as shown by re-
port of such publication by the clerk of the house of delegates; now,
therefore

Resolved, by the house of delegates, the senate concurring (a
majority of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto),
that the following amendment to the Constitution of Virginia be.
and the same is hereby. proposed in contormity with the provisions
of section one hundred and ninety-six of article fifteen of the said
Constitution, namely:

Strike out from the Constitution of Virginia, articles one to fif-
teen thereof, both inclusive, and sections one to one hundred and
ninety-seven thereof, both inclusive (except section eighty-one of
article five, section one hundred and thirty-one of article nine, sec-
tion one hundred and forty-five of article ten, section one hundred
and seventy of article thirteen, and section one hundred and
seventy-one of article thirteen), and insert the following:

CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA
ARTICHLE& I

Jill of Rights

A declaration of rights made by the good people of Virginia in
the exercise of their sovereign powers, which rights do pertain to
them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government.

Section 1. Equality and rights of men.—That all men are by
nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent
rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they can-
not, by any compact deprive or divest their posterity, namely, the
enjovment of life and liberty, with the means of acqturing and
possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and
safety.

Section 2. People the source of power.—That all power ts vested
in, and consequently derived from, the people, that magistrates are
their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

Section 3. Government instituted for common. benefit—That
government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit,
protection and security of the people, nation or community; of all
the various modes and forms of government, that is best which 1s
capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and satety,
and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministra-
tion; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or
contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an
indubitable, inalienable, and indefensable right to reform, alter or
abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the
public weal.

Section 4. No man entitled to exclusive emoluments or privi-

leges: offices not to be hereditary.—That no man, or set of men, is
entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the
community, but in consideration of public services: which not be-
ing descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate. legislator
or judge to be hereditary.
_ section 5, Legislative, executive and judicial departments of
State should be separate: elections should be periodical —That the
legislative, executive and judicial departments of the State should
be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof mav he
restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the bur-
thens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a
private station, return into that body from which they were ori-
ginally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by regular elections,
in which all or any part of the former members shall be again
eligible, or ineligible, as the laws may direct. |

section 6. Suffrage; taxation; private property for public uses:
consent of governed.—That all elections ought to be free; and that
all nen, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest
with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage,
and cannot be taxed, or deprived of, or damaged in, their property
lor public uses, without their own consent, or that of their rep-
Tesentatives duly elected, or bound by any law to which they have
not, in like manner, assented for the public good.

Section 7. Laws should not be suspended.—That all power of
suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without
consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their
nights, and ought not to be exercised.

Section 8. Concerning criminal prosecutions generally.—That in
criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and
nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and
witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by
an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous con-
sent he cannot be found guilty. He shall not be deprived of life or
liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers;
nor be compelled in any criminal proceeding to give evidence
again himself, nor be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense.

Laws may be enacted providing for the trial of offenses not
felonious by a justice of the peace or other inferior tribunal without
a jury, preserving the right of the accused to an appeal to and a
trial by jury in some court of record having original criminal
jurisdiction. JI.aws may also provide for juries consisting of less
than twelve, but not less than five, for the trial of offenses not
felonious, and may classify such cases, and prescribe the number
of jurors for each class.

In criminal cases, the accused may plead guilty; and, if the ac-
cused plead not guilty, with his consent and the concurrence of the
Commonwealth’s attorney and of the court entered of record, he
may be tried by a smaller number of jurors, or waive a jury, In
case of such waiver, or plea of guilty, the court shall try the case.

Section 9. Excessive bail or fines and cruel and unusual punish-
ments prohibited.—That excessive bail ought not to be required,
nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments in-
flicted.

Section 10. General warrants of search or seizure prohibited.—
That general warrants, whereby an ofhcer or messenger may be
commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact
committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose
offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence,
are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted.

Section 11. No person to be deprived of property without due
process of law; trial by jury to be held sacred.—That no person
shall be deprived of his property without due process of law; and
in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and
man, trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held
sacred. The general assembly may limit the number of jurors for
civil cases in courts of record to not less than five in cases cogniz-
able by justices of the peace, or to not less than seven in cases not
so cognizable.

Section 12, Freedom of the press and of speech.—That the free-
dom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can
never be restrained Hut by despotic governments; and any citizen
may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects,
being responsible for the abuse of that right.

Section 13, Militia the proper defense of a free State; standing
armies should be avoided; military should be subordinate to civil
power.—That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of
the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense
of a free State; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be
avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military
should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil
power.

Section 14. Government should be uniform.—That the people
have a right to uniform government ; and, therefore, that no govern-
ment separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia,
ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.

Section 15. Qualities necessary to preservation of free govern-
ment.—That no free government, or the blessings of liberty can be
preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, modera-
tion, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence
to fundamental principles.

Section 16. Religious freedom.—That religion or the duty which
we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be
directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence:
and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of
religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the
mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and
charity towards each other. -

Section 17. Construction of the bill of rights——The rights
enumerated in this bill of rights shall not be construed to limit other
tights of the people not therein expressed.

ARTICLE II

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE AND QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE

Section 18. Qualifications of voters—Every citizen of the
United States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of
the State one year, of the county, city, or town, six months, and
ot the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days next preced-
ing the election in which he offers to vote, has been registered,
and has paid his State poll taxes, as hereinafter required, shall be
entitled to vote for members of the general assembly and all of-
heers elective by the people; but removal from one precinct to an-
other, in the same county, city or town shall not deprive any per-
son of his right to vote in the precinct from which he has moved,
until the expiration of thirty days after such removal.

The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on
account of sex.

_ Section 19. Registration of voters; those registered prior te
nineteen hundred and four.—Persons registered under the genera!
registration of voters during the years nineteen hundred and twe
and nineteen hundred and three, whose names were required to be
certified by the officers of registration for filing, record and pre-
servation in the clerks’ offices of the several circuit and corporatior
courts, shall not be required to register again, unless they shall have

ceased to be residents of the State, or became disqualified by sec:
tion twenty-three.
Section 20. Who may register.—Every citizen of the United
States, having the qualifications of age and residence required in
section eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:

First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all State
poll taxes legally assessed or assessable against him for the three
years next preceding that in which he offers to register; or, if he
come of age at such time that no poll tax shall have been assessable
against him for the year preceding the year in which he offers to
register, has paid one dollar and fifty cents, in satisfaction of the
hrst year’s poll tax assessable against him; and,

second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to
register in his own handwriting, without aid, suggestion, or memo-
randum, in the presence of the registration officer, stating therein
his name, age, date and place of birth, residence and occupation at
the time and for the one year next preceding, and whether he has
previously voted, and, if so, the State, county, and precinct in
which he voted last; and,

Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting
his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the registration
officer, which questions, and his answers thereto, shall be reduced
to writing, certified by the said officer, and preserved as a part of
his official records,

Section 21. Conditions for voting—A person registered under
the general registration of voters during the years nineteen hundred
and two and nineteen hundred and three, or under the last section,
shall have the right to vote for all officers elective by the. people,
subject to the following conditions:

That unless exempted by section twenty-two, he shall, as a pre-
reauisite to the right to vote, personally pay, at least six months
prior to the election, all State poll taxes assessed or assessable
against him, under this Constitution, during the three years next
preceding that in which he offers to vote.

If he shall have registered after the first day of January, nine-
teen hundred and four, he shall, unless physically unable, prepare
and deposit his ballot without aid, on such printed form as the law
may prescribe; but any voter registered prior to that date may be
aided in the preparation of his ballot by such officer of election as
he himself may designate.

Section 22. Persons exempt from payment of poll tax as condi-
tion of right to vote.-—No person, nor the wife or widow of such
person, who, during the late war between the States, served in the
army or navy of the United States, or of the Confederate States,
or of any State of the United States, or of the Confederate States,
shall at any time be required to pay a poll tax as a prerequisite to
the right to register or vote. The collection of the State poll tax
assessed against anyone shall not be enforced by legal process until
the same has become three years past due.

Section 23. Persons excluded from registering and voting.—The
tMowing persons shall be excluded from registering and voting:
idiots, insane persons and paupers; »ersons who, prior to the adop-
tion of this Constitution, were disqtalified from voting, by convic-
tion of crime, either within or without this State, and whose dis-
abilities shall not have been removed; persons convicted after the
adoption of this Constitution, either witha or without this State,
of treason, or of any felony, petit larceny obtaining money or
property under false pretences, embezzlemem., forgery or perjury;
persons who while citizens of this State, after t2e adoption of this
Constitution, have fought a duel with a deadly weapon, or sent or
accepted a challenge to fight such a duel, either witrin or without
this State, or knowingly conveyed such a challenge, or aided or
assisted in any way in the fighting of such duel.

Section 24. Who not deemed to have gained legal residence.—
No officer, soldier, seaman, or marine of the United States army or
navy shall be deemed to have gained a residence as to the righi of
suffrage, in the State, or in any county, city or town thereof by
reason of being stationed therein; nor shall an inmate of any chari-
table institution or a student in any institution of learning, be re-
garded as having either gained or lost a residence, as to the right of
suffrage, by reason of his location or sojourn in such institution.

Section 25, Directions to general assembly in regard to regis-
tration and transfers.—The general assembly shall provide for the
annual registration of voters under section twenty, for an appeal
by any person denied registration, for the correction of illegal or
fraudulent registration thereunder, and also for the proper transfer
of all voters registered under this Constitution.

Section 26. Persons qualified to vote at next election shall be
admitted to registration.—Any person who, in respect to age or
residence, would be qualified to vote at the next election, shall be
admitted to registration, notw#hstanding that at the time thereof
he is not so qualified, and shall be entitled to vote at said election
if then qualified under the provisions of this Constitution.

Section 27. Method of voting.—All elections by the people shall
be by ballot; all elections by any representative body shall be viva
voce, and the vote recorded in the journal thereof.

The ballot box shall be kept in public view during all elections,
and shall not be opened, nor the ballots canvassed or counted, in
secret.

So far as consistent with the provisions of this Constitution, the
absolute secrecy of the ballot shall be maintained.

Section 28. Ballots—-The general assembly shall provide for
ballots without any distinguishing mark or symbol, for use in all
State, county, city and other elections by the people, and the form
thereof shall be the same in all places where any such election is
held. All ballots shall contain the names of the candidates, and of
the offices to be filled, in clear print and in due and orderly suc-
cession ; but any voter may erase any name and insert another.

— Section 29, Privileges of voters during election No voter, dur-
ing the time of holding any election at which he is entitled to vote,
shall be compelled to perform military service, except in time of
war or public danger; to atte:d any court as suitor, juror, or wit-
ness; and no voter shall be subject to arrest under any civil process
during his attendance at lection or in going to or returning there-
from.

Section 30. Generai assembly may prescribe property qualifica-
tion for voting in ccanty, city or town elections.—The general as-
sembly may presnibe a property qualification not exceeding two
hundred and fifty dollars for voters in any county or subdivision
thereof, or city or town as a prerequisite for voting in any election
for officers, other than the members of the general assembly, to be
wholly elected by the voters of such county or subdivision thereof,
or city, or town, such action, if taken, to be had upon the initiative
of a representative in the general assembly of the county, city or
town affected ; provided, that the general assembly, in its discretion,
nay make such exemptions from the operation of said property
qualifications as shall not be in conflict with the Constitution of
the United States.

Section 31. Electoral boards; appointment and composition ;
powers and duties of ; who ineligible-——There shall be in each county
and city an electoral board, composed of three members, appointed
by the circuit court of the county, or the corporation court of the
city, or the judge of the court in vacation. In the appointment of
the electoral boards representation as far as practicable shall be
given to each of the two political parties which, at the general elec-
tion next preceding their appointment, cast the highest and the
next highest number of votes. The present members of such
boards continue in office until the expiration of their respective
terms; and thereafter their successors shall be appointed for the
term of three years. Any vacancy occurring in any board shall be
filled by the same authority for the unexpired term.

Each electoral board shall appoint the judges, clerks and re-
gistrars of election for its county or city; and, in appointing judges
of election, representation as far as possible shall be given to each
of the two political parties which, at the general election next pre-
ceding their appointment, cast the highest and the next highest
number of votes.

No person, nor the deputy of any person, holding any office or
post of profit or emolument, under the United States government, or
who is in the employment of such government, or holding any elec-
tive office of profit or trust in the State, or in any county, city, or
town thereof, shall be appointed a member of the electoral board,
or registrar or judge of election.

Section 32. Qualifications of officers and of notaries public.—
Every person qualified to vote shall be eligible to any office of the
State, or in any county, city, town or other subdivision of the State,
wherein he resides, except as otherwise provided in this Constitu-
tion, and except that this provision as to residence shall not apply
to any office elective by the people where the law provides other-
wise; and except, further, that the requirements of this section as
to residence and voting qualifications shall not apply to the ap-
pointment of persons to fill positions or posts requiring special
technical or professional training and experience.

Persons eighteen years of age shall be eligible to the office of
notary public and qualified to execute the bonds required of them
in that capacity.

Section 33, When terms of officers to begin and end.—Until
otherwise prescribed by law, the terms of all officers elected under
this Constitution shall begin on the first day of February next suc-
ceeding their election, unless otherwise provided in this Constitu-
tion. All officers, elected or appointed, shall continue to discharge
the duties of their offices after their terms of service have expired
until their successors have qualified.

Section 34. Oath to be prescribed—Members of the general
assembly, and all officers, executive and judicial, elected or ap-
pointed after this Constitution goes into effect shall, before they en-
ter on the performance of their public duties, severally take and
subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Con-
stitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State
of Virginia, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and
perform all the duties incumbent on me @$ ........-.-.--c--cceccecceccececeeeseeeers ,
according to the best of my ability, so help me God.”

Section 35. Primary elections; who may vote.—No person shall
vote at any legalized primary election for the nomination of any
candidate for office unless he is at the time registered and qualified
to vote at the next succeeding election.

Section 36. General assembly shall enact laws to regulate elec-
tions—The general assembly shall enact such laws as are neces-
sary and proper for the purpose of securing the regularity and
purity of general, local and primary elections, and preventing and
punishing any corrupt practices in connection therewith; and shall
have power, in addition to other penalties and punishments now or
hereafter prescribed by law for such offenses, to provide that per-
sons convicted of them shall thereafter be disqualified from voting
or holding office.

Section 37, Voting fnachines.—The general assembly may pro-
vide for the use throughout the State, or in any one or more
counties, cities, or towns in any election, of machines for receiving,
recording, and counting the votes cast thereat; provided, that th~
secrecy of the voting be not thereby impaired.

Section 38. Duties of treasurers, clerks of circuit and corpora-
tion courts and sheriffs in regard to making, filing, delivering and
posting list of paid poll taxes; not corrected—The treasurer of
each county and city shall, at least five months before each regular
election, file with the clerk of the ¢ircuit court of his county, or of
the corporation court of his city, a list of all persons in his county
or city, who have paid not later than six months prior to such
election, the State poll taxes required by this Constitution during
the three years next preceding that in which such election is held ;
which list shall be arranged alphabetically, by magisterial districts
in the counties, and in such manner as the general assembly may
direct in the cities, shall state the white and colored persons sepa-
rately, and shall be verified by the oath of the treasurer. The clerk,
within ten days from the receipt of the list, shall make and certify
a sufficient number of copies thereof, and shall deliver one copy for
each voting place in his county or city, to the sheriff of the county
or sergeant of the city, whose dutty it shall be to post one copy,
without delay, at each of the voting places, and, within ten days
from the receipt thereof, to make return on oath to the clerk, as to
the places where and dates at which said copies were respectively
posted, which return the clerk shall record in a book kept in his
office for the purpose; and he shall keep in his office, for public in-
spection, for at least sixty days after receiving the list, not less than
ten certified copies thereof, and also cause the list to be published
in such other manner as may be prescribed by law. The original
list returned by the treasurer shall be filed and preserved by the
clerk among the public records of his office for at least five years
after receiving the same.

Within thirty days after the list has been so posted, any person
who shall have paid his capitation tax, but whose name is omitted
from the certified list, may, after five days’ written notice to the
treasurer, apply to the circuit court of his county, or corporation
court of his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation, to have the
same corrected and his name entered thereon, which application
the court or judge shall promptly hear and decide.

The clerk shall deliver, or cause to be delivered, with the poll
books, at a reasonable time before every election, to one of the
judges of election of each precinct of his county or city, a like certi-
fied copy of the list, which shall be conclusive evidence of the facts
therein stated for the purpose of voting. The clerk shall also, with-
in sixty days after the filing of the list by the treasurer, forward
a certified copy thereof, with such corrections as may have been
made by order of the court or judge, to the officer designated by
law, who shall charge the amount of the poll taxes stated thereir
to such treasurer, unless previously accounted for.

Further evidence of the prepayment of the capitation taxes re
quired by this Constitution, as a prerequisite to the right to register
and vote, may be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE III

DIVISION OF POWERS

Section 39. Departments to be distinct—Except as hereinafter
provided, the legislative, executive and judicial departments shall
be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly
belonging to either of the others, nor any person exercise the power
of more than one of them at the same time,

ARTICLE IV

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

Section 40. General assembly to consist of senate and house of
delegates—The legislative power of the State shall be vested in a
reneral assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of
delegates.

Section 41. Number and election of senators.——The senate shall
consist of not more than forty and not less than thirty-three mem-
bers, who shall be elected quadrennially by the voters of the several
senatorial districts on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in
November.

Section 42. Number and election of delegates——The house of
delegates shall consist of not more than one hundred and not less
than ninety members, who shall be elected biennially by the voters
of the several house districts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first
Mondav in November.

Section 43. Apportionment of Commonwealth into senatorial
and house districts——The present apportionment of the Common-
wealth into senatorial and house districts shall continue; but a re-
apportionment shall be made in the year nineteen hundred and
thirty-two and every ten years thereafter.

Section 44. Qualifications of senators and delegates; who in-
eligible; removal from district vacates office—Any person may be
elected senator who, at the time of election, is actually a resident of
the senatorial district and qualified to vote for members of the gen-
eral assembly; and any person may be elected a member of the
house of delegates who, at the time of election, is actually a resi-
dent of the house district and qualified to vote for members of the
general assembly, But no person holding a salaried office under the
State government, and no judge of any court, attorney for the
Commonwealth, sheriff, sergeant, treasurer, assessor of taxes, com-
missioner of the revenue, collector of taxes, or clerk of any court,
shall be a member of either house of the general assembly during
his continuance in office, and the election of any such person to
either house of the general assembly, and his qualification as a
member thereof, shall vacate any such office held by him; and no
person holding any office or post of profit or emolument under the
United States government or who is in the employment of such
government, shall be eligible to either house. The removal of a
senator or delegate from the district for which he is elected shall
vacate his office.

Section 45. Salaries of members of general assembly to be fixed
by law; members not to be elected by the general assembly to civil
offices of profit—-The members of the general assembly shall re-
legislation.—There shall be a joint committee of the general assem-
bly, consisting of seven members appointed by the house of dele-
gates, and five members appointed by the senate, which shall be a
standing committee on special, private and local legislation. Be-
fore reference to a committee, as provided by section fifty, any
special, private, or local bills introduced in either house shall be
referred to and considered by such joint committee and returned
to the house in which it originated, with a statement in writing
whether the object of the bill can be accomplished under general
law or by court proceedings; whereupon, the bill, with the ac-
companying statement, shall take the course provided by section
fifty. The joint committee may be discharged from the considera-
tion of a bill by the house in which it originated, in the manner
provided in section fifty for the discharge of other committees.

Section 52. Law shall embrace but one object which shall be
expressed in its title; how laws revived or amended.—No law shail
embrace more than one object which shall be expressed in its title;
nor shall any law be revived or amended with reference to its title,
but the act revived or the section amended shall be re-enacted and
published at length. |

Section 53, Time when laws take effect—No law, except a gen-
eral appropriation law, shall take effect until at least ninety days
after the adjournment of the session of the general assembly at
which it is enacted, unless in case of an emergency (which emer-
gency shall be expressed in the body of the bill) the general assem-
bly shall otherwise direct, by a vote of four-fifths of the members
voting in each house such vote to be taken by the yeas and nays,
and the names of the members voting for and against entered on
the journal.

Section 54, Impeachments; proceeding under; extent of judg-
ment under; indictment, et cetera, to lie—The governor, lieutenant
governor, attorney general, judges, members of the State corpora-
tion commission, and executive officers at the seat of government,
and all officers appointed by the governor or elected by the general
assembly, offending against the State by malfeasance in office, cor-
ruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor, may
be impeached by the house of delegates, and prosecuted before the
senate which shall have the sole power to try impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation.
and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-
thirds of the senators present. Judgment in case of impeachment
shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualifica-
tion to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the
State; but the person convicted shall nevertheless be subject tc
indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The
senate may sit during the recess of the general assembly for the
trial of impeachments.

section 55. Apportionment of State into congressional district:
by general assembly.—The general assembly shall by law appor.
tion the State into districts, corresponding with the number of
representatives to which it may be entitled in the house of repre-
sentatives of the congress of the United States; which districts
shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory containing
as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants.

Section 56. Directions to general assembly concerning elections
and declaring offices vacant.—The manner of conducting and mak-
ing returns of elections, of determining contested elections, and of
filling vacancies i noffice, in cases not specially provided for by this
Constitution, shall be prescribed by law, and the general assembly
may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant
where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.

Section 57. Power of general assembly to remove disabilities —
The general assembly shall have power, by a two-thirds vote, to
remove disabilities incurred under section twenty-three, of article
two, of this Constitution, with reference to duelling.

Section 58. Prohibitions on general assembly as to suspension
of writ of habeas corpus, and enactment of laws referring to reli-
gion and other laws.—The privileges of the writ of habeas corpus
shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of invasion or rebel-
lion, the public safety may require. The general assembly shall
not pass any bill of attainder, or any ex-post facto law, or any law
impairing the obligation of contracts, or any law abridging the
freedom of speech or of the press. It shall not enact any law
whereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses,
without just compensation, the term “public uses” to be defined
by the general assembly. No man shall be compelled to frequent
or support any religious worship, place, or ministry, whatsoever,
nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body
or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious
opinions or belief; but all men shall be free to profess and by argu-
ment to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and the same
shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect, their civil capacities.
And the general assembly shall not prescribe any religious test
whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any
sect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any
religious society, or the people of any district within this State, to
evy on themselves, or others any tax for the erection or repair
of any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or
ministry; but it shall be left free to every person to select his re-
igious instructor, and to make for his support such private con-
‘ract as he shall please.

Section 59. General assembly shall not incorporate churches or
religious denominations; may secure church property.—The gen-
eral assembly shall not grant a charter of incorporation to any
church or religious denomination, but may secure the title to
church property to an extent to be limited by law.

Section 60. Lotteries and sale of lottery tickets prohibited —No
lottery shall hereafter be authorized by law; and the buying, sell-
legislation.—There shall be a joint committee of the general assem-
bly, consisting of seven members appointed by the house of dele-
gates, and five members appointed by the senate, which shall be a
standing committee on special, private and local legislation. Be-
fore reference to a committee, as provided by section fifty, any
special, private, or local bills introduced in either house shall be
referred to and considered by such joint committee and returned
to the house in which it originated, with a statement in writing
whether the object of the bill can be accomplished under general
law or by court proceedings; whereupon, the bill, with the ac-
companying statement, shall take the course provided by section
fifty. The joint committee may be discharged from the considera-
tion of a bill by the house in which it originated, in the manner
provided in section fifty for the discharge of other committees.

Section 52. Law shall embrace but one object which shall be
expressed in its title; how laws revived or amended.—No law shall
embrace more than one object which shall be expressed in its title;
nor shall any law be revived or amended with reference to its title,
but the act revived or the section amended shall be re-enacted and
published at length. |

Section 53, Time when laws take effect—No law, except a gen-
eral appropriation law, shall take effect until at least ninety days
after the adjournment of the session of the general assembly at
which it is enacted, unless in case of an emergency (which emer-
gency shall be expressed in the body of the bill) the general assem-
bly shall otherwise direct, by a vote of four-fifths of the members
voting in each house such vote to be taken by the yeas and nays,
and the names of the members voting for and against entered on
the journal.

Section 54. Impeachments; proceeding under; extent of judg-
ment under; indictment, et cetera, to lie—The governor, lieutenant
governor, attorney general, judges, members of the State corpora-
tion commission, and executive officers at the seat of government,
and all officers appointed by the governor or elected by the general
assembly, offending against the State by malfeasance in office, cor-
ruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor, may
be impeached by the house of delegates, and prosecuted before the
senate which shall have the sole power to try impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation.
and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-
thirds of the senators present. Judgment in case of impeachment
shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualifica-
tion to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the
State; but the person convicted shall nevertheless be subject tc
indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The
Senate may sit during the recess of the general assembly for the
trial of impeachments.

Section 55. Apportionment of State into congressional district:
by general assembly.—The general assembly shall by law appor-.
tion the State into districts, corresponding with the number of
representatives to which it may be entitled in the house of repre-
sentatives of the congress of the United States; which districts
shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory containing
as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants.

Section 56. Directions to general assembly concerning elections
and declaring offices vacant.—The manner of conducting and mak-
ing returns of elections, of determining contested elections, and of
filling vacancies i noffice, in cases not specially provided for by this
Constitution, shall be prescribed by law, and the general assembly
may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant
where no provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.

Section 57. Power of general assembly to remove disabilities —
The general assembly shall have power, by a two-thirds vote, to
remove disabilities incurred under section twenty-three, of article
two, of this Constitution, with reference to duelling. .

Section 58. Prohibitions on general assembly as to suspension
of writ of habeas corpus, and enactment of laws referring to reli-
gion and other laws.—The privileges of the writ of habeas corpus
shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of invasion or rebel-
lion, the public safety may require. The general assembly shall
not pass any bill of attainder, or any ex-post facto law, or any law
mpairing the obligation of contracts, or any law abridging the
reedom of speech or of the press. It shall not enact any law
vhereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses,
vithout just compensation, the term “public uses” to be defined
vy the general assembly. No man shall be compelled to frequent
© support any religious worship, place, or ministry, whatsoever,
ior shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body
r goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious
pinions or belief; but all men shall be free to profess and by argu-
nent to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and the same
hall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect, their civil capacities.
ind the general assembly shall not prescribe any religious test
yhatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any
ect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any
eligious society, or the people of any district within this State, to
vy on themselves, or others any tax for the erection or repair
f any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or
linistry ; but it shall be left free to every person to select his re-
gious instructor, and to make for his support such private con-
ract as he shall please.

Section 59. General assembly shall not incorporate churches or
eligious denominations; may secure church property.—The gen-
ral assembly shall not grant a charter of incorporation to any
hurch or religious denomination, but may secure the title to
hurch property to an extent to be limited by law.

Section 60. Lotteries and sale of lottery tickets prohibited —No
yttery shall hereafter be authorized by law; and the buying, sell-
ing, or transferring of tickets or chances in any lottery shall be
prohibited, ,

Section 61. Formation, division and consolidation of counties.
—No new county shall be formed with an area of less than six hun-
dred square miles; nor shall the county or counties from which it
is formed be reduced below that area; nor shall any county be
reduced in population below eight thousand. But any county, the
length of which is three times its mean breadth, or which exceeds
fifty miles in length, may be divided at the discretion of the general
assembly. oo

The general assembly may provide for the consolidation of
existing counties on a vote of a majority of the qualified voters of
each of such counties voting at an election held for that purpose.

Section 62. Power of the general assembly to enact liquor laws.—
The general assembly may enact laws controlling, regulating. or
prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors. |

Section 63. Powers of the general assembly and limitations
thereon.—The authority of the general assembly shall extend to all
subjects of legislation, not herein forbidden or restricted; and a
specific grant of authority in this Constitution upon a subject shall
not work a restriction of its authority upon the same or any other
subject. The omission in this Constitution of specific grants of
authority heretofore conferred shall not be construed to deprive
the general assembly of such authority, or to indicate a change of
policy in reference thereto, unless such purpose plainly appear.

The general assembly shall confer on the courts power to grant
divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sale of estates
belonging to infants and other persons under legal disabilities, and
shall not, by special legislation, grant relief in these or other cases
of which the courts or other tribunals may have jurisdiction.

The general assembly may regulate the exercise by courts of
the right to punish for contempt. ;

The general assembly shall not enact any local, special or pri-
vate law in the following cases:

1. For the punishment of crime.

2. Providing a change of venue in civil or criminal cases.

3. Regulating the practice in, or the jurisdiction of, or changing
the rules of evidence in any judicial proceedings or inquiry before
the courts of other tribunals, or providing or changing the methods
of collecting debts or enforcing judgments or prescribing the effect
of judicial sales of real estate.

4. Changing or locating county seats.

5. For the assessment and collection of taxes, except as to
animals which the general assembly may deem dangerous to the
farming interests.

6. I'xtending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes.

7. Exempting property from taxation.

8. Remitting, releasing, postponing, or diminishing any obliga-
tion or liability of any person, corporation, or association to the
State or to any political subdivision thereof.

9 Refunding money lawfully paid into the treasury of the State
or the treasury of any political subdivision thereof.

10. Granting from the treasury of the State, or granting, or
3uthorizing to be granted from the treasury of any political sub-
division thereof, any extra compensation to any public officer, ser-
vant, agent, or contractor.

11. For conducting elections or designating the places of voting.

12. Regulating labor, trade, mining or manufacturing, or the
rate of interest on money. |

13. Granting any pension.

14. Creating, increasing, or decreasing, or authorizing to be
created, increased, or decreased, the salaries, fees, percentages, or
allowances of public officers during the term for which they are
elected or appointed.

15. Declaring streams navigable, or authorizing the construc-
tion of booms or dams therein, or the removal of obstructions there-
from.

16, Affecting or regulating fencing or the boundaries of land, or
the running at large of stock. |

17. Creating private corporations, or amending, renewing, or
extending the charters thereof.

18. Granting to any private corporation, association, or individ-
ual any special or exclusive right, privilege or immunity.

19. Naming or changing the name of any private corporation or
association.

20. Remitting the forfeiture of the charter of any private corpo-
ration, except upon the condition that such corporation shall there-
after hold its charter subject to the provisions of this Constitution,
and the laws passed in pursuance thereof.

Section 64. General assembly shall enact general laws in cases
mentioned in preceding section, and wherever general laws will
apply; amendment or partial repeal of general law shall not enact
special tax; restrictions as to laws.—In all cases enumerated in the
last section, and in every other case which, in its judgment, may be
provided for by general laws, the general assembly shall enact gen-
eral laws. Any general law shall be subject to amendment or re-
peal, but the amendment or partial repeal thereof shall not operate
directly or indirectly to enact, and shall not have the effect of the
enactment of, a special, private, or local law.

No general or special law shall surrender or suspend the right
and power of the State, or any political subdivision thereof, to tax
corporations and corporate property, except as authorized by article
thirteen, No private corporation, association, or individual shall
be specially exempted from the operation of any general law, nor
shall its operation be suspended for the benefit of any private corpo-
ration, association, or individual.

Section 65. Powers of local and special legislation may be con-
ferred by general assembly, by general law, on supervisors and
councils.—The general assembly may, by general laws, confer upon
the boards of supervisors of counties, and the councils of cities and
towns, such powers of local and special legislation as it may, from
time to time, deem expedient, not inconsistent with the limitations
contained in this Constitution.

Secion 66. Clerk of house of delegates to be keeper of the rolls,
without com, ensation.—The clerk of the house of delegates shall
be keeper of the rolls of the State, but shall receive no compensation
from the State for his services as such.

Section 67. Limitations on appropriations by general assembly
to charitable and other institutions ; exceptions.—General assembly
shall not make any appropriation of public funds, or personal prop-
erty, or of any real estate, to any church, or sectarian society, as-
sociation, or institution of any kind whatever, which is entirely or
partly, directly or indirectly, controlled by any church or sectarian
society ; nor shall the general assembly make any like appropriation
to any charitable institution which is not owned or controlled by
the State; except that it may, in its discretion, make appropriations
to nonsectarian institutions for the reform of youthful criminals;
but nothing herein contained shall prohibit the general assembly
from authorizing counties, cities, or towns to make such appropria-
tions to any charitable institution or association.

Section 68. Auditing committee, appointment and constitution;
powers and duties.—At each regular session, the general assembly
shall appoint a standing committee, consisting of two members of
the senate and three members of the house of delegates, to be known
as the auditing committee. Such committee shall annually, or
oftener, in its discretion, examine the books and accounts of the
State treasurer, and all other executive officers at the seat of gov-
ernment whose duties pertain to auditing or accounting for the
State revenue, and of the public institutions of the Commonwealth.

such committee shall report the result of its investigations
to the governor, and cause the same to be published in two news-
papers of general circulation in the State. At the beginning of
each session the governor shall submit such reports to the general
assembly.

The committee may sit during the recess of the general assem-
bly, receive such compensation as may be prescribed by law, and
may employ one or more accountants to assist in its investigations.

ARTICLE V

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

Section 69. Governor; term of office-—The chief executive
power of the State shall be vested in a governor. He shall hold
office for a term commencing on the third Wednesday in January
next succeeding his election and ending on the Tuesday after the
second Wednesday in January in the fourth year thereafter. He
shall be ineligible to the same office for the term next succeeding
that for which he was elected, and to any other office during his
term of service.

Section 70. How and when elected; how results ascertained;
how tie or contested elections decided.—The governor shall be
elected by the qualified voters of the State at the time and place
of choosing members of the general assembly. Returns of the elec-
tion shall be transmitted, under seal, by the proper officers, to the
secretary of the Commonwealth, or to such other officer as may
be prescribed by law, who shall deliver them to the speaker of the
house of delegates on the first day of the next session of the general
assembly. The speaker of the house of delegates shall, within three
days thereafter, in the presence of a majority of the senate and of
the house of delegates, open the returns, and the votes shall then
be counted. The person having the highest number of votes shall
be declared elected ; but if two or more shall have the highest and an
equal number of votes, one of them shall be chosen governor by
the joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly. Con-
tested elections for governor shall be decided by a like vote. The
mode of proceeding in such cases shall be prescribed by law.

Section 71. Qualifications of governor.—No person except a
citizen of the United States shall be eligible to the office of gover-
nor; and if such person be of foreign birth, he must have been a
citizen of the United States for ten years next preceding his elec-
tion; nor shall any person be eligible to that office unless he shall
have attained the age of thirty years, and have been a resident of
the State for five years next preceding his election.

Section 72. His place of residence and compensation.—The gov-
ernor shall reside at the seat of government. He shall receive for
his services a compensation to be prescribed by law, which shall
neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he
shall have been elected. While in office he shall receive no other
emolument from this or any other government,

Section 73. Duties and powers of governor.—The governor shall
take care that the laws be faithfully executed; communicate to the
general assembly, at every session, the condition of the State; re-
commend to its consideration such meusures as he may deem ex-
pedient, and convene the general assembly on application of two-
thirds of the members of both houses thereof, or when, in his
opinion, the interest of the State may require. He shall be com-
mander-in-chief of the land and naval forces of the,State; have
power to embody the militia to repel invasion, suppress insurrec-
tion and enforce the execution of the laws; conduct, either in person
or in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, all intercourse
with other and foreign States; and, during the recess of the general
assembly, shall have power to suspend from office for misbehavior,
incapacity, neglect of official duty, or acts performed without due
authority of law, all executive officers at the seat of government.
except the lieutenant governor; but, in any case in which this
power is so exercised, the governor shall report to the general as-
sembly, at the beginning of the next session thereof, the fact of
such suspension and the cause therefor, whereupon the general
assembly shall determine whether such officer shall be restored or
finally removed.

The governor shall have power, during the recess of the general
assembly, to appoint, pro tempore, successors to all officers so
suspended, and to fill, pro tempore, vacancies in all offices of the
State for the filling of which the Constitution and laws make no
other provision. Such appointments to vacancies shall be by com-
missions to expire at the end of thirty days after the commencement
of the next session of the general assembly.

He shall have power to remit fines and penalties under such rules
and regulations as may be prescribed by law; and, except when the
prosecution has been carried on by the house of delegates, to grant
reprieves and pardons after conviction; to remove political dis-
abilities consequent upon conviction for offenses committed prior
or subsequent to the adoption of this Constitution, and to commute
capital punishment.

He shall communicate to the general assembly, at each session,
particulars of every case of fine or penalty remitted, of reprieve or
pardon granted, and of punishment commuted, with his reasons for
remitting, granting or commuting the same.

The general assembly may, however, provide for a pardoning
board, not exceeding three in number, to be appointed by the gov-
ernor, and to serve during his pleasure. Such board may be vested
with exclusive pardoning power over sentences in cases not feloni-
ous.

Section 74. Further powers of governor—The governor may
require information in writing, under oath, from the officers of the
executive department and superintendents of State institutions up-
on any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices and
institutions; and he may inspect at any time their official books,
accounts and vouchers, and ascertain the conditions of the public
funds in their charge, and in that connection may employ ac-
countants. He may require the opinion in writing of the attorney
general upon any question of law affecting the official duties of the
governor,

Section 75. Commissions and grants; how they shall run and
how attested—Commissions and grants shall run in the name of
the Commonwealth of Virginia, and be attested by the governor,
with the seal of the Commonwealth annexed.

Section 76. Bills, duties of governor in regard to; proceedings
of general assembly in passing bills over veto of governor; effect
of failure of governor to sign.—Every bill which shall have passed
the senate and house of delegates shall, before it becomes a law, be
presented to the governor. If he approve, he shall sign it; but, if
not, he may return it with his objections to the house in which it
originated, which shall enter the objections at large on its journal
and proceed to reconsider the same. If, after such consideration,
two-thirds of the members present, which two-thirds shall include
a majority of the members elected to that house, shall agree to
pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the
other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if
approved by two-thirds of all the members present, which two-
thirds shall include a majority of the members elected to that house,
it shall become a. law, notwithstanding the objections. The gov-
ernor shall have the power to veto any particular item or items of
an appropriation bill, but the veto shall not affect the item or items
to which he does not object. The item or items objected to shall
not take effect except in the manner heretofore provided in this
section as to hills returned to the general assembly without his
approval. If he approve the general purpose of any bill, but dis-
approve any part or parts thereof, he may return it, with recom-
mendations for its amendment, to the house in which it originated,
whereupon the same proceeding shall be had in both houses upon
the bill and his recommendations in relation to its amendment as
is above provided in relation to a bill which he shall have returned
without his approval, and with his objections thereto; provided,
that if after such reconsideration, both houses, by a vote of a

maioritv of the members present in each, shall agree to amend the
hill. in accordance with his recommendation in relation thereto, or
either house by such vote shall fail or refuse to so amend it. then,
and in either case the bill shall be again sent to him, and he may act
upon it as if it were then before him for the first time. But in all
the cases above set forth the votes of both houses shall be deter-
mined by ayes and noes, and the names of the members voting for
and against the bill, or item or items of an appropriation bill, shall
be entered on the journal of each house. If any bill shall not be
returned by the governor within five days (Sunday excepted) after
it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless the general assembly shall,
hy final adjournment, prevent such return; in which case it shall
he a law if approved by the governor, in the manner and to the
extent above provided, within ten days after such adjournment, but
not otherwise.

Section 77. Lieutenant governor, election and qualifications, —
A lieutenant governor shall be elected at the same time and for
the same term as the governor, and his qualifications and the man-
ner and ascertainment of his election, in all respects, shall be the
same.

Section 78. Duties of lieutenant governor.—In case of the re-
moval of the governor from office, or of his death, failure to qualify,
resignation, removal from the State, or inability to discharge the
powers and duties of the office, the said office, with its compensa-
tion, shall devolve upon the lieutenant governor; and the general
assembly shall provide by law for the discharge of the executive
functions 1n other necessary cases.

Section 79. Lieutenant governor shall be president of senate;
compensation as such.—The lieutenant governor shall be president
of the senate, but shall have no vote except in case of an equal
division; and while acting as such shall receive a compensation
equal to that allowed to the speaker of the house of delegates.

Section 80. Secretary of the Commonwealth.—A secretary of
the Commonwealth shall be appointed by the governor, subject
to confirmation by the general assembly, for a term coincident with
that of each governor making the appointment; provided, however,
that the first appointment under this section shall not be made until
the expiration of the term of office of the secretary of the Common-
wealth, which began February first, nineteen hundred and twenty-
six; but after January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, the
election or appointment of a secretary of the Commonwealth may
be made in such manner and for such term as may be prescribed by
law.

The powers and duties of the secretary of the Commonwealth
shall be prescribed by law.

On and after the first day of February, nineteen hundred and
thirty, the general assembly may abolish the office of secretary of
the Commonwealth.

Section 82. Auditor of public accounts ——An auditor of public
accounts shall be elected by the joint vote of the two houses of the
general assembly for the term of four years. His powers and duties
shall be prescribed by law.

Section 83. Salaries of officers of executive department.—The
salary of each officer of the executive department shall be fixed by
law, and shall not be increased or diminished during his term of
office.

Section 84. Checks and balances on officers entrusted with col-
lection of revenue, establishment of—The general assembly shall
provide by law for the establishment and maintenance of an ef-
ficient system of checks and balances between the officers at the
seat of government entrusted with the collection, receipt, custody,
or disbursement of the revenues of the State.

Section 85. Bond of officers handling State funds.—All State
officers and their deputies, assistants or employees, charged with
the collection, custody, handling or disbursement of public funds,
shall be required to give bond for the faithful performance of such
duties ; the amount of such bond in each case, and the manner in
which security shall be furnished, to be specified and regulated by
aw.

Section 86. Bureau of labor and statistics —The general assem-
bly shall have power to establish and maintain a bureau of labor
and statistics, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

Section 86-a. Effect of refusal of general assembly to confirm
n appointment by the governor.—No person appointed to any
fice hy the governor, whose appointment is subject to confirma-
ion by the general assembly, under the provisions of this Con-
titution or any statute, shall enter upon, or continue in, office after
he general assembly shall have refused to confirm his appointment,
ior shall such person be eligible for reappointment during the
ecess of the general assembly to fill the vacancy caused by such
efusal to confirm.

ARTICLE VI

Jupic1arYy DEPARTMENT

Section 87. Composition and jurisdiction—The judicial power
f the State shall be vested in a supreme court of appeals, circuit
‘ourts, city courts, and such other courts, inferior to the supreme
‘ourt of appeals, as are hereinafter authorized, or as may be here-
iter established by law. The jurisdiction of these tribunals, and
vf the judges thereof, except so far as conferred by this Constitu-
ion. shall be regulated by law.

The governor may be authorized by law to appoint Judges pro
fem pore.

Section 88. Supreme court of appeals; composition and juris-
Jiction—The supreme court of appeals shall consist of seven
judges, any four of whom when convened shall form a quorum.

The judges may sit in bank, or in two divisions, consisting of
not less than three judges each, as the court may, from time to
time, determine. Jn case the court shall sit in divisions, each of
such divisions shall have the full power and authority of said court
in the determination of causes, the issuing of writs, and the exer-
cise of all powers authorized by this Constitution, or provided by
law. subject to the general control of the court sitting in bank, and
such rules and regulations as the court may make; but no decision
of any division shall become the judgment of the court unless con-
curred in by at least three judges; and no case involving a con-
struction of the Constitution of this State or of the United States,
shall he decided except by the court in bank and the assent of at
least four of the judges shall be required for the court to deter-
mine that any law is or is not repugnant to the Constitution of this
State or of the United States; and if, in a case involving the con-
stitutionality of any such law, not more than three of the judges
sitting agree in opinion on the constitutional questions involved,
and the case cannot be determined without passing on such ques-
tion. no decision shall be rendered therein, but the case shall be
reheard by a full court; and in no case where the jurisdiction of the
court depends solely upon the fact that the constitutionality of a
law 1s involved, shall the court decide the case upon its merits, un-
less the contention of the appellant upon the constitutional question
be sustained. In event the judges composing any division shall
differ as to the judgment to be rendered in any cause, or in event
any judge of either division, within a time and in a manner to be
fixed by the rules to be adopted by the court, shall certify that in
his opinion any decision of any division of the court is in conflict
with any prior decision of the court, or of any division thereof,
the cause shall then be considered and adjudged by the full court,
or a quorum thereof.

The court shall have original jurisdiction in cases of habeas
corpus, mandamus and prohibition, but in other cases in which it
shall have jurisdiction, shall have appellate jurisdiction only.

Subject to such reasonable rules as may be prescribed by law as
to the course of appeals, the limitation as to the time, the value,
amount or subject matter involved, the security required, if anv,
the granting or refusing of appeals, and the procedure therein, it
shall, by virtue of this Constitution, have appellate jurisdiction in
cases involving the constitutionality of a law as being repugnant
to the Constitution of this State or of the United States, or involv-
ing the life or liberty of any person: and in such other cases as may
be prescribed by law. No appeal shall be allowed to the Common-
wealth in a case involving the life or liberty of a person, except that
an appeal by the Commonwealth may be allowed in any case in-
volving the violation of a law relating to the State revenue.

No bond shall be required of an accused person as a condition
of appeal, but a supersedeas bond may be required where the only
punishment imposed in the court below is a fine.

Fach of the judges shall have the title of justice.

The judge longest in continuous service shall be chief justice:
and if two or more shall have so served for the same period, the
senior in years of these shall be chief justice.

Section 89, Special court of appeals—The general assemblv
may. from time to time, provide for a special court of appeals to try
any cases on the docket of the supreme court of appeals, in respect
to which a majority of the judges are so situated as to make it im-
proper for them to sit; and also to try any cases on said docket
which cannot be disposed of with convenient dispatch. The said
special court shall be composed of not less than three nor more
than five of the judges of the circuit courts and city courts of record,
or of the judges of either of said courts, or of any of the judges of
said courts, together with one or more of the judges of the supreme
court of appeals.

Section 90. Opinions and judgments of the supreme court of
appeals.—When a judgment or decree is reversed, modified or af-
firmed by the supreme court of appeals, the reasons therefor shall
he stated in writing and preserved with the record of the case. The
court may, but need not, remand a case for a new trial. In any
civil case, it may enter final judgment, except that judgment for
unliquidated damages shall not be increased or diminished.

Section 91. Qualifications and terms of judges of supreme court
i appeals; how chosen.—The judges of the supreme court of ap-
reals shall be chosen by the joint vote of the two houses of the
‘eneral assembly for terms of twelve years. They shall, when
hosen, have held a judicial station in the United States, or shall
lave practiced law in this or some other State for five years.

Section 92. Officers of supreme court of appeals.—The officers
yf the supreme court of appeals shall be appointed by the court or
yy the judges in vacation. Their duties, compensation, and tenure
yt office shall be prescribed by law.

The supreme court of appeals shall have the management of the
aw library and the appointment of the librarian and other em-
lovees thereof.

Section 93. Sessions of supreme court of appeals.—The supreme
‘ourt of appeals shall hold its sessions at two or more places in the
State, as may be fixed by law.

Section 94. Judicial circuits, number and constitution, —The
judicial circuits of the State shall continue as at present until chang-
-d as hereinafter provided.

Section 95. Powers of general assembly to rearrange judicial
circuits ; limitations.—The general assembly may rearrange the said
circuits and increase or diminish the number thereof. But no new
circuit shall be created containing, by the last United States census
or other census provided by law, less than forty thousand inhabit-
ants, nor when the effect of creating it will be to reduce the number
of inhabitants in any existing circuit below forty thousand, ac-
cording to such census.

Section 96. Circuit judges; election, qualifications; residence
and term of office.—For each circuit a judge shall be chosen by the
joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly for a term of
eight years. He shall, when chosen, possess the same qualifications
as judges of the supreme court of appeals, and during his continu-
ance in office shall reside in the circuit of which he is judge.

Section 97. Terms of circuit courts; judges may be required to
hold terms in other circuits—The number of terms of the circuit
courts to be held for each county and city shall be prescribed by
law. But no separate circuit court shall be held for any city of the
second class, until the city shall abolish its existing city court. The
judge of one circuit may be required or authorized to hold court in
any other circuit or city,

Section 98. Division of cities into classes; courts of each class,
additional courts of cities, how provided; abolition and cessation of
corporation or city court——For the purposes of a judicial system,
the cities of the State shall be divided into two classes.

Cities having a population of ten thousand or more, as shown
by the last United States census, or other census provided by law,
shall be cities of the first class and those having a population of less
than ten thousand, as thus shown, shall be cities of the second class.

In each city of the first class, there may be, in addition to the
circuit court, a corporation court. In any city containing thirty
thousand inhabitants or more, the general assembly may provide
for such additional courts as the public interest may require, and in
every such city the city courts, as they now exist, shall continue
until otherwise provided by law.

In every city of the second class the corporation or hustings
court now existing shall continue under the name of the corporation
court of such city; but it may be abolished by a vote of a majority
of the qualified voters of such city at an election held for the pur-
pose. And whenever the office of judge of a corporation or hustings
court of a city of the second class, whose annual salary is less than
eight hundred dollars, shall become and remain vacant for ninety
days consecutively, such court shall thereby cease to exist. In case
of the abolition of the corporation or hustings court of any city of
the second class, such city shall thereupon come in every respect
within the jurisdiction of the circuit court of the county wherein
it is situated, until otherwise provided by law; and the records of
such corporation or hustings court shall thereupon become a part
oi the records of such circuit court, and be transferred thereto, and
remain therein until otherwise provided by law. During the exist-
ence of the corporation or hustings court, the circuit court of the
county in which such city is situated shall have concurrent juris-
diction with said corporation or hustings court in actions at law
and suits in equity, unless otherwise provided by law.

Section 99, Judges of city courts; qualifications, term of office
and residence; holding court in other circuits.—For each city court
of record a judge shall be chosen for a term of eight years by a joint
vote of the two houses of the general assembly. He shall, when
chosen, possess the same qualifications as judges of the supreme
court of appeals, and during his continuance in office, shall reside
within the jurisdiction of the court over which he presides; but the
judge of the corporation court of any corporation having a city
charter, and less than ten thousand inhabitants, may reside outside
of the city limits; and such judge may be judge of such corporation
court and judge of the corporation court of some other city having
less than ten thousand inhabitants. The judges of city courts may
be required or authorized to hold the circuit or city courts of any
county or city,

Section 100. Courts of land registration—The general assembly
shell have power to establish such court or courts of land registra-
tion as it may deem proper for the administration of any law it may
adopt for the purpose of the settlement, registration, transfer, or
assurance of titles to land in the State, or any part thereof.

Section 101. Clerks of courts; jurisdiction in cases of wills,
insane persons, etc.—The general assembly may confer upon the
clerks of the several courts having probate jurisdiction, jurisdiction
of the probate of wills, and of the appointment and qualification of
guardians, personal representatives, curators, appraisers, and com-
mittees of persons adjudged insane or convicted of felony, and in
the matter of the substitution of trustees.

Section 102. Judges, how commissioned; salaries and allow-
ances; terms of office; vacancies; retirement and compensation.—
Judges shall be commissioned by the governor. They shall receive
such salaries and allowances as shall be prescribed by law, the
amount of which shall not be diminished during their term of
ofice. Their term of office shall commence on the first day of
February next following their election. Whenever a vacancy occurs
in the office of judge, his successor shall be elected for the un-
expired term. The general assembly may enact such laws as it
may deem necessary for the retirement of the said judges with such
compensation and such duties as it may prescribe.

Section 103. Salaries of judges—The salaries of judges shall be
paid out of the State treasury, but the State shall be reimbursed
for one-half of the salaries of each of the circuit judges by the
counties and cities composing the circuit, according to their re-
spective populations, and of each of the judges of a city of the first
class by the city in which such judge presides; except that the
entire salary of the :udge of the circuit court of the city of Richmond
shall be paid by the State. A city may increase the salary of its
circuit or city judge, or any one or more of them, such increase to
be paid wholly by such city and not to be diminished during the
term of office of such judge. A city containing less than ten thou-
sand inhabitants shall pay the salary of its city judge.

Section 104. Removal of judges for cause.—Judges may be re-
moved from office for cause, by a concurrent vote of both houses
of the general assembly; but a majority of all the members elected
to each house must concur in such vote, and the cause of removal
shall be entered on the journal of each house. The judge against
whom the general assembly may be about to proceed shall have
notice thereof, accompanied by a copy of the causes alleged for his
removal, at least twenty days before the day on which either house
of the general assembly shall act thereon.

Section 105. Judges shall not practice law or hold office of pub-
lic trust; exception—No judge of a court of record shall practice
law within or without this State, nor hold any other office of public
trust during his continuance in office; except that the judge of a city
court in a city of the second class may hold the office of commis-
sioner in chancery of the circuit court for the county in which the
city is located.

Section 106. Writs and indictments.—Writs shall run in the
name of the “Commonwealth of Virginia,” and be attested by the
clerks of the several courts. Indictments shall conclude “against
the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth,”

Section 107. Attorney general, election, commission, duties and
compensation.—An attorney general shall be elected by the quali-
fied voters of the State at the same time and for the same term as
the governor; and the fact of his election shall be ascertained in the
same manner. He shall be commissioned by the governor, perform
such duties and receive such compensation as may be prescribed by
law, and shall be removable in the manner prescribed for the re-
moval of judges.

Section 108. Justices of the peace.—The general assembly may
provide for the appointment or election of justices of the peace and
prescribe their jurisdiction. |

Section 109. Applications for bail—The general assembly shall
provide by whom, and in what manner, applications for bail shall
be heard and determined. .

‘ARTICLE VII

ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF COUNTIES

Section 110. County officers, number, terms and compensation ;
county organization.—There shall be elected by the qualified voters
of each county a treasurer, a sheriff, an attorney for the Common-
wealth, and a county clerk, who shall be the clerk of the circuit
court; and there shall also be elected by the qualified voters of each
county one commissioner of the revenue.

The duties and compensation of such officers shall be prescribed
by general law.

There shall be appointed for each county, in such manner as
may be provided by law, one county surveyor,

The general assembly may provide for the election or appoint-
ment of a superintendent of the poor, other ministerial and execu-
tive officers for each county, and for the election or appointment
of such officers for two or more counties conjointly. The provi-
sions of such conjointly elected or appointed officers shall apply
only to such counties as may adopt the same by a majority vote of
the qualified voters of each of such counties voting in any election
held for such purpose.

The general assembly may provide for the consolidation by two
or more counties, or by one or more counties with one or more
cities, of their charitable and penal institutions. But such consoli-
dation shall apply only to such counties and cities as may authorize
the same, in such manner as has heretofore been, or may hereafter
be, prescribed by law.

Notwithstanding the provisions of this article, the general as-
sembly may, by general law, provide for complete forms of county
organization and government different from that provided for in
this article, to become effective in any county when submitted to
the qualified voters thereof in an election held for such purpose and
approved by a majority of those voting thereon,

Section 111. Magisterial districts, supervisors; how chosen,
powers and dutics.—The magisterial districts shall, until changed
by law, remain as now constituted; provided, that hereafter no
additional districts shall be made containing less than thirty square
miles. Subject to the provisions of section one hundred and ten,
in each district there shall be elected by the qualified voters thereof,
one supervisor. The supervisors of the districts shall constitute the
board of supervisors of the county, which shall meet at stated
periods, and at other times as often as may be necessary, lay the
county and district levies, pass upon all claims against the county,
subject to such appeal as may be provided by law, and perform such
duties as may be required by law.

Section 112. Elections for county and district officers, when
held; terms of officers—Regular elections for county and district
officers shall be held on Tuesday after the first Monday in Novem-
ber, and such officers shall enter upon the duties of their offices
on the first day of January next succeeding their election, and shall
hold their respective offices for the term of four years, except that
the county clerks shall hold office for eight years.

Section 113. No person shall hold more than one office at the
same time. Additional security may be required of officer.—Sub-
ject to the provisions of section one hundred and ten foregoing, no
person shall at the same time hold more than one of the offices
mentioned in this article. Any officer required by law to give bond
may be required to give additional security thereon, or to execute a
new bond, and in default of so doing his office shall be declared
vacant. |

Section 114. County not responsible for acts of sheriff,—Coun-
ties shall-not be made responsible for the acts of the sheriffs.

Section 115. Exeminations of books, accounts, etc., of officers
handling public funds——The general assembly shall provide for the
examination of the books, accounts and settlements of county and
city officers who are charged with the collection and disbursement
of public funds.

Section 115-a. Power of counties and districts to borrow money
and to issue evidences of indebtedness restricted—No debt shall
be contracted by any county, or by or on behalf of any district of
any county, or by or on behalf of any school board of any county, or
by or on behalf of any school district in any county, except in pur-
suance of authority conferred by the general assembly by general
law; and the general assembly shall not authorize any county, or
any district of any county, or any school board of anv county, or
any school district in any county, to contract any debt except to
meet casual deficits in the revenue, a debt created in anticipation of
the collection of the revenue of the said county, board or district
for the then current year, or to redeem a previous hahility, unless in
the general law authorizing the same provision be made for the
submission to the qualified voters of the proper county or district.
for approval or rejection, by a majority vote of the qualified voters
voting in an election, of the question of contracting such debt; and
such approval shall be a prerequisite to contracting such debt. No
scrip, certificate or other evidence of county or district indebtedness
shall be issued except for such debts as are expressly authorized
in this Constitution or by the laws made in pursuance thereof.

ARTICLE VIII

ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF CITIES AND TOWNS

Section 116. Definitions of “cities” and “towns.”—As used in
this article the words “incorporated communities” shall be con-
strued to relate only to cities and towns, All incorporated com-
munities, having within defined boundaries a population of five
thousand or more, shall be known as cities; and all incorporated
communities, having within defined boundaries a population of less
than five thousand, shall be known as towns. In determining. the
population of such cities and towns the general assembly shall be
governed by the last United States census, or such other enumera-
tion as may be made by authority of the general assembly; but
nothing in this section shall be construed to repeal the charter of
any incorporated community of less than five thousand inhabitants
having a city charter at the time of the adoption of this Constitu-
tion, or to prevent the abolition by such incorporated communities
of the corporation or hustings court thereof.

- Section 117. General assembly shall enact laws for government
of cities and towns; how special act therefor passed; as to city
charters existing at adoption of Constitution—(a) General laws
for the organization and government of cities and towns shall be
enacted by the general assembly, and no special act shall be passed
in relation thereto, except in the manner provided in article four of
this Constitution, and then only by a recorded vote of two-thirds of
the members elected to each house. But each of the cities and
towns of the State having at the time of the adoption of this Con-
stitution a municipal charter may retain the same, except so far
as it shall be repealed or amended by the general assembly; pro-
vided, that every such charter is hereby amended to conform to all
the provisions, restrictions, limitations and powers set forth in this
article, or otherwise provided in this Constitution.

(b) The general assembly may, by general law or by special act
(passed in the manner provided in article four of this Constitution)
provide for the organization and government of cities and towns
without regard to, and unaffected by any of the provisions of this
article, except those of sections one hundred and twenty-four, one
hundred and twenty-five (except so far as the provisions of section
one hundred and twenty-five recognize the office of mayor and the
power of veto), one hundred and twenty-six and one hundred and
twenty-seven of this article, and except those mentioned in sub-
section (d) of this section. The term “council,” as used in any of
said sections, shall include the body exercising legislative authority
for the city or town, and all ordinances enacted and resolutions
adopted by such body shall have the same force and effect for all
purposes, as if enacted or adopted in accordance with the provisions
of section one hundred and twenty-three of this article. But such
organization and government shall apply only to such cities or
towns as may thereafter adopt the same by a majority vote of those
qualified voters of any such city or town voting in any election to
be held for the purpose, as may be provided by law.

(c) The general assembly, at the request of any city or town,
made in manner provided by law, may grant to it any special form
of organization and government authorized by subsection (b) of
this section, and subject to all of the provisions of that subsection,
except that it shall not be necessary for such city or town to there-
after adopt the same.

(d) Any laws or charters enacted pursuant to the provisions of
this section shall be subject to the provisions of this Constitution
relating expressly to judges and clerks of courts, attorneys for the
Commonwealth, commissioners of revenue, city treasurers and city
sergeants.

(e) Any form of organization and government authorized by
any provisions of this section which may have been adopted here-
tofore by any city or town pursuant to any act of the general assem-
bly enacted before such provisions became effective, and which is
now in operation, is hereby declared legal and valid ab initio, and
shall have the same force and effect as if it had been authorized by
this Constitution at the time of its adoption.

Section 118, Clerks of city courts, elections, duties and number ;
only one in ctiy of less than thirty thousand inhabitants.—In each
city which has a court in the office of which deeds are admitted to
record, there shall be elected, for a term of eight years, by the quali-
fied voters of such city, a clerk of said court, who shall perform
such duties as may be required by law.

There shall be elected in like manner and for a like term all such
additional clerks of courts for cities as the general assembly may
prescribe, or as are now authorized by law, so long as such courts
shall continue in existence. In a city of less than thirty thousand
inhabitants there shall be not more than one clerk of the court, who
shall be clerk of all the courts of record in such city.

Section 119. Commonwealth’s attorney in cities; commissioner
of revenue in cities.—In every city, so long as it has a corporation
court, or a separate circuit court, there shall be elected, for a term
of four years, by the qualified voters of such city, one attorney for
the Commonwealth, who shall also, in those cities having a sepa-
rate circuit court, be the attorney for the Commonwealth for such
circuit court.

In every city there shall be elected one commissioner of the
revenue for a term of four years.

The duties and compensation of such officers shall be prescribed
by general law.

Section 120. City officers, their titles, election, powers and
duties.—In every city there shall be elected by the qualified voters
thereof, one city treasurer, for a term of four years; one city ser-
gant, for a term of four years, whose duties shall be prescribed by
law; and a mayor for a term of four years, who shall be the chief
executive officer of such city. All city and town officers, whose
election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution,
shall be elected by the electors of such cities or towns, or of some
division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof as the
General Assembly shall designate.

The mayor shall see that the duties of the various city officers,
members of the police and fire departments, whether elected or
appointed, in and for such city, are faithfully performed. He shall
have power to investigate their acts, have access to all books and
documents in their offices, and may examine them and their subordi-
nates on oath, The evidence given by persons so examined shall
not be used against them in any criminal proceedings. He shall also
have power to suspend such officers, and the members of the police
and fire departments, and to remove such officers, and also such
members of said departments, when authorized by the general as-
sembly, for misconduct in office or neglect of duty, to be specified in
the order of suspension or removal; but no such removal shall be
made without reasonable notice to the officer complained of, and an
opportunity afforded him to be heard in person, or by counsel, and
to present testimony in his defense. From such order of suspension
or removal, the city officer so suspended or removed shall have
an appeal of right to the corporation court, or, if there be no such
court, to the circuit court of such city, in which court the case shall
be heard de novo by the judge thereof, whose decision shall be final.
He shall have all the other powers and duties which may be con-
ferred and imposed upon him by general laws.

Section 121. City council, composition, how elected, powers and
duties; ineligibility of members to certain offices; powers and
duties as to reapportionments; when mandamus against council
lies.--There shall be in every city a council, composed of two
branches, having a different number of members, whose powers and
terms of office shall be prescribed by law, and whose members shall
be elected by the qualified voters of such city, in the manner pre-
scribed by law, but so as to give, as far as practicable, to each ward
of such city, equal representation in each branch of said council
in proportion to the population of such ward; but the general as-
sembly may permit the council to consist of one branch.

No member of the council shall be eligible, during his tenure
of office as such member, or for one year thereafter, to any office to
be filled by the council by election or appointment.

The council of every city may, in a manner prescribed by law,
increase or diminish the number, and change the boundaries, of the
wards thereof, and shall, in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-
three, and in every tenth year thereafter, and also whenever the
houndaries of such wards are changed, reapportion the representa-
ion in the council among the wards in a manner prescribed by law;
nd whenever the council of any such city shall fail to perform the
uty so prescribed, a mandamus shall lie on behalf of any citizen
hereof to compel its performance.

Section 122. Election and terms of office of city officers—The
navors and councils of cities shall be elected on the second Tuesday
n June, and their terms of office shall begin on the first day of Sep-
ember, succeeding, All other elective officers, provided for by this
irticle. or hereafter authorized by law, shall be elected -on the
Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and their terms of of-
ice shall begin on the first day of January succeeding, except that
he terms of office of clerks of the city courts shall begin coincidently
with that of the judges of said courts; provided, that the general
assembly may change the time of election of all or any of the said
officers, except that the election and the beginning of the terms of
mayors and councils of cities shall not be made by the General As-
sembly to occur at the same time with the election and beginning of
the terms of office of the other elective officers provided for by this
Constitution.

Section 123. Ordinances, proceedings to pass over veto of
mayor; as to appropriation ordinances vetoed.—FEvery ordinance,
or resolution having the effect of an ordinance, shall, before it be-
comes operative, be presented to the mayor. If he approve he shall
sign it, but if not, if the council consist of two branches, he may re-
turn it, with his objections i in writing, to the clerk, or other record-
ing officer, of that branch in which it originated ; which branch shall
enter the objections at length on its journal and proceed to recon-
sider it. If after such consideration two-thirds of all the members
elected thereto shall agree to pass the ordinance or resolution, it
shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other branch, by
which it shall likewise be considered. and if approved by two-thirds
of all the members elected thereto, it shall become operative, not-
withstanding the objections of the mayor. But in all such cases
the votes of both branches of the council shall be determined by
veas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against
the ordinance or resolution shall be entered on the journal of each
branch. If the council consist of a single branch, the mayor’s objec-
tions, in writing, to any ordinance, or resolution having the effect
of an ordinance, shall be returned to the clerk. or other recording
officer of the council, and be entered at length on its journal; where-
upon the council shall proceed to reconsider the same. Upon such
consideration the vote shall be taken in the same manner as where
the council consists of two branches, and if the ordinance or resolu-
tion be approved by two thirds of all the members elected to the
council, it shall hecome operative, notwithstanding the objections
of the mayor. If any ordinance or resolution shall not be returned
by the mayor within five days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have
been presented to him, it shall become operative in like manner
as if he had signed it, unless his term of office, or that of the council,
shall expire within said five days.

The mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or
items of an appropriation ordinance or resolution; but the veto
shall not affect any item or items to which he does not object. The
item or items objected to shall not take effect except in the manner
provided in this section as to ordinances or resolutions not approved
by the mayor. No ordinance or resolution appropriating money
exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars, imposing taxes, or
authorizing the borrowing of money, shall be passed, except by a
recorded affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected
to the council or to each branch thereof where there are two; and in
case of the veto by the mayor of such ordinance or resolution, it
shall require a recorded affirmative vote of two-thirds of all the
members elected to the council, or to each branch thereof where
there are two, to pass the same over such veto in the manner pro-
vided in this section. Nothing contained in this section shall operate
to repeal or amend any provision in any existing city charter re-
quiring a two-thirds vote for the passage of any ordinance as to the
appropriation of money, imposing taxes or authorizing the bor-
rowing of money.

Section 124 Consent of corporate authorities necessary to use
of streets, alleys, or public grounds by certain companies or per-
sons.—No street railway, gas, water, steam or electric heating,
electric light or power, cold storage, compressed air, viaduct, con-
duit, telephone or bridge company, nor any corporation, associa-
tion, person or partnership engaged in these or like enterprises,
shall be permitted to use the streets, alleys, or public grounds of a
city or town without the previous consent of the corporate authori-
ties of such city or town.

Section 125. Sale of corporate property and granting of franchise
by cities and towns.—The rights of no city or town in and to its
water front, wharf property, public landings, wharves, docks,
streets, avenues, parks, bridges, and other public places, and its
gas, water, and electric works shall be sold. except by an ordinance
or resolution passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three-fourths
of all the members elected to the council, or to each branch thereof
where there are two. and under such other restrictions as may be
imposed by law; and in case of the veto by the mavor of such an
ordinance or resolution, it shall require a recorded affirmative
vote of three-fourths of all the members elected to the council, or
to each branch thereof where there are two, had in the manner
heretofore provided for in this article, to pass the same over the veto.
No franchise, lease or right of any kind to use any such public prop-
erty or any other public property or easement of any description, in
a manner not permitted to the general public, shall be granted for
a longer period than thirty vears. Before granting any such fran-
chise or privilege for a term of years, except for a trunk railway,
the municipality shall first, after due advertisement, receive bids
therefor publicly, in such manner as may be provided by law, and
shall then act as may be required by law, Such grant, and any
contract in pursuance thereof, may provide that upon the termina-
tion of the grant the plant as well as the property, if any, of the
prantee in the streets, avenues, and other public places shall there-
upon, without compensation to the grantee, or upon the payment

of a fair valuation therefor, be and become the property of the said
city or town; but the grantee shall be entitled to no payment by
reason of the value of the franchise: and any such plant or prop-
erty acquired by a city or town may be sold or leased, or, if author-
ized by law, maintained, controlled and operated, by such city or
town. Every such grant shall specify the mode of determining
anv valuation therein provided for, and shall make adequate pro-
vision by way of forfeiture of the grant, or otherwise, to secure
efficiency of public service at reasonable rates, and the mainte-
nance of the property in good order throughout the term of the
grant. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as preventing
the general assemblv from prescribing additional restrictions on the
powers of cities and towns in granting franchises or in selling or
leasing any of their property, or as repealing any additional restric-
on now required in relation thereto in any existing municipal
charter,

Section 126, Corporate limits, contraction or extension of. gen-
eral assembly shall provide for.—The general assembly shall pro-
vide by general laws for the extension and the contraction, from
time to time. of the corporate limits of cities and towns; and no
special act for such purpose shall be valid.

Section 127. Concerning bonded indebtedness of cities and
towns.—No citv or town shall issue any bonds or other interest-
bearing obligations for any purpose, or in any manner, to an amount
which, including existing indebtedness, shall, at any time, exceed
eighteen per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate
in the city or town subject to taxation. as shown by the last pre-
ceding assessment for taxes; provided, however, that nothing above
contained in this section shall apply to those cities and towns whose
charters existing at the adoption of this Constitution authorize a
larger percentage of indebtedness than is authorized by this section;
and provided, further, that in determining the limitation of the
power of a city or town to incur indebtedness there shall not be
included the following classes of indebtedness.

_ (a) Certificates of indebtedness, revenue bonds or other obliga-
tions issued in anticipation of the collection of the revenue of such
city or town for the then current year; provided that such certifi-
cates. bonds or other obligations mature within one year from the
date of their issue, and be not past due, and do not exceed the reve-
nue for such year.

_(b) Bonds authorized by an ordinance enacted in accordance
with section one hundred and twenty-three, and approved by the
affirmative vote of the majority of the qualified voters of the citv or
town voting upon the question of their issuance, at the general
election next succeeding the enactment of the ordinance, or at a
special election held for that purpose, for a supply of water or
other specific undertaking from which the city or town may derive
a revenue; but from and after a period to be determined by the
council, not exceeding five years from the date of such election,
whenever and for so long as such undertaking fails to produce suf-
ficient revenue to pay for cost of operation and administration
(including interest on bonds issued therefor), and the cost of insur-
ance against loss by injury to persons or property, and an annual
amount to be covered into a sinking fund sufficient to pay, at or be-
fore maturity, all bonds issued on account of said undertaking, all
such bonds outstanding shall be included in determining the limita-
tion of the power to incur indebtedness, unless the principal and 1n-
terest thereof be made payable exclusively from the receipts of the
undertaking.

Section 128. (Omitted.)
ARTICLE IX

EDUCATION AND PuBLic INSTRUCTION

Section 129. Free schools to be maintained.—The general assem-
bly shall establish and maintain an efficient system of public free
schools throughout the State.

Section 130. State board of education; composition; vacancies,
how filled.—The general supervision of the school system shall be
vested in a State board of education, to be appointed by the gover-
nor, subject to confirmation by the general assembly, and to con-
sist of seven members. The first appointment under this section
shall be one member for one year, two members for two years.
two members for three years, and two members for four years, and
thereafter all appointments shall be made for a term of four years.
except appointments to fill vacancies, which shall be for the un-
expired terms.

Section 132. Powers and duties of State board of education.—
The duties and powers of the State board of education shall be as
follows:

First. It shall divide the State into appropriate school divisions,
comprising not less than one county or city each, but no county or
city shall be divided in the formation of such divisions. It shall
certify to the local school board or boards of each division in the
State a list of persons having reasonable academic and business
qualifications for division superintendent of schools, one of whom
shall be selected as the superintendent of schools for such division
hy the said school board or boards, as provided by section one hun-
dred and thirty-three of this Constitution.

Second. It shall have the management and investment of the
school fund under regulations prescribed by law.
Third. It shall have such authority to make rules and regula-
tions for the management and conduct of the schools as the gen-
eral assembly may prescribe; but until otherwise provided by law,
the State board of education may continue existing rules and regu-
lations in force and amend or change the same,

Fourth. It shall select textbooks and educational appliances for
use in the schools of the State, exercising such discretion as it may
see fit in the selection of books suitable for the schools in the cities
and counties, respectively; provided, however, the general assem-
bly may prescribe the time in which the State board of education
may change the textbooks.

Section 133. School districts; school trustees—The supervision
of schools in each county and city shall be vested in a school board,
to be composed of trustees to be selected in the manner, for the
term and to the number provided by law. Each magisterial district
shall constitute a separate school district, unless otherwise provided
by law, and the magisterial district shall be the basis of representa-
tion on the school board of such county or city, unless some other
basis is provided by the general assembly; provided, however, that
in cities of one hundred and fifty thousand or more, the school
boards of respective cities shall have power, subject to the ap-
proval of the local legislative bodies of said cities, to prescribe the
number and boundaries of the school districts.

There shall be appointed by the school board or boards of each
school division, one division superintendent of schools, who shall
be selected from a list of eligibles certified by the State board of
education and shall hold office for four years. In the event that the
local board or boards fail to elect a division superintendent within
the time prescribed by law, the State board of education shall ap-
point such division superintendent.

Section 134. Literary fund—The general assembly shall set
apart as a permanent and perpetual literary fund, the present lit-
erary fund of the State; the proceeds of all public lands donated
by Congress for public free school purposes; of all escheated prop-
erty ; of all waste and unappropriated lands; of all property accruing
to the State by forfeiture,.and all fines collected for offenses com-
mitted against the State, and such other sums as the general assem-
bly may appropriate.

Section 135. Appropriations for school purposes, school age.—
The general assembly shall apply the annual interest on the literary
fund; that portion of the capitation tax provided for in the Consti-
tution to be paid into the State treasury, and not returnable to the
counties and cities; and an amount equal to the total that would be
received from an annual tax on property of not less than one nor
more than five mills on the dollar to the schools of the primary and
grammar grades, for the equal benefit of all the people of the State,
to be apportioned on a basis of school population; the number of
children between the ages of seven and twenty years in each school
district to be the basis of such apportionment, And the general
assembly shall make such other appropriations for school purposes
as it may deem best, to be apportioned on a basis to be provided
by law.

Section 136. Local school taxes.—Each county, city or town, i
the same be a separate school district, and school district is author-
ized to raise additional sums by a tax on property, subject to local
taxation, not to exceed in the aggregate in any one year a rate of
levy to be fixed by law, to be apportioned and expended by the
local school authorities of said counties, cities, towns and districts
in establishing and maintaining such schools as in their judgment
the public welfare may require; provided that such primary schools
as may be established in any school year shall be maintained at
least four months of that school year, before any part of the fund
assessed and collected may be devoted to the establishment of
schools of higher grade. The boards of supervisors of the several
counties, and the councils of the several cities and towns, if the
same be separate school districts, shall provide for the levy and
collection of such local school taxes.

Section 137. Agricultural, normal, manual training and techni-
cal schools.—The general assembly may establish agricultural, nor-
mal, manual training and technical schools, and such grades of
schools as shall be for the public good.

Section 138. Compulsory education.—The general assembly may,
in its discretion, provide for the compulsory education of children
of school age.

Section 139. Free textbooks.—Provision shall be made to supply
children attending the public schools with necessary textbooks
in cases where the parent or guardian is unable, by reason of pov-
erty, to furnish them.

Section 140, Mixed schools prohibited —White and colored chil-
dren shall not be taught in the same school.

Section 141. State appropriations prohibited to schools or insti-
tutions of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the State
or some subdivision thereof; exceptions to rule.——No appropriation
of public funds shall be made to any school or institution of learn-
ing not owned or exclusively controlled by the State or some politi-
cal subdivision thereof; provided, first, that the general assembly
may, in its discretion, continue the appropriations to the College
of William and Mary; second, that this section shall not be con-
strued as requiring or prohibiting the continuance or discontinuance
by the general assembly of the payment of interest on certain bonds
held by certain schools and colleges as provided by an act of the
general assembly, approved February twenty-third, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-two, relating to bonds held by schools and colleges ;
third, that counties, cities, towns, and districts may make appro-
priations to nonsectarian schools of manual, industrial, or techni-
cal training, and also to any school or institution of learning owned
or exclusively controlled by such county, city, town, or school dis-
trict.
Section 142. Boards of visitors and trustees of educational insti-
tutions, how appointed, and term of office—Members of the boards
of visitors or trustees of educational institutions shall be appointed
as may be provided by law, and shall hold for the term of four
years; provided, that at the first appointment, if the board be of an
even number, one-half of them, or, if an odd number, the least
majority of them, shall be appointed for two years.

ARTICLE X

AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGRATION

Section 143. Department of agriculture and immigration, where
maintained, how controlled, composition, qualification of members,
how appointed and term of office-——There shall be a department
of agriculture and immigration, which shall be permanently main-
tained at the capital of the State, and which shall be under the man-
agement and control of a board of agriculture and immigration,
composed of one member from each congressional district, who shall
he a practical farmer, appointed by the governor for a term of four
years, subject to confirmation by the senate, and the president of
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, who shall be ex-officio member
of the board.

Section 144. Powers and duties of same.—The powers and dutise
ot the board shall be prescribed by law; provided, that it shall have
power to elect and remove its officers, and establish elsewhere in
the State subordinate branches of said department.

Section 146. President of board of agriculture and immigration
to be ex-officio member of board of visitors of Virginia Polytechnic
Institute—The president of the board of agriculture and immigra-
tion shall be ex-officio a member of the board of visitors of the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

ARTICLE XI

Pusutic WELFARE AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS

_ Section 147. Public welfare, charitable, reformatory, or penal
Institutions.—Such public welfare, charitable, sanitary, benevolent,
retormatory or penal institutions as the claims of humanity and the
public good may require shall be established and operated by the
Commonwealth under such organization and in such manner as the
general assembly may prescribe.

Until otherwise prescribed by law, the existing institutions and
laws with respect thereto shall continue.

Section 148. (Omitted.)

Section 149. (Omitted.)

Section 150. (Omitted.)

Section 151. (Omitted. )

Section 152. Office of commissioner of State hospitals abolished.

—The office of commissioner of State hospitals for the insane is
hereby abolished.

ARTICLE XII

CORPORATIONS

Section 153. Definition of terms used in article; article not to
conflict with F ederal Constitution.—As used in this article, the term
“corporation” or “company” shall include all trusts, associations
and joint stock companies having any powers or privileges not pos-
sessed by individuals or unlimited partnerships, and exclude all
municipal corporations and public institutions owned or controlled
by the State; the term “charter” shall be construed to mean the
charter of incorporation by, or under, which any such corporation
is formed; the term “transportation company” shall include any
company, trustee, or other person owning, leasing or operating for
hire a railroad, street railway, canal, steamboat or steamship line,
and also any freight car company, car association, or car trust,
express company, or company, trustee or person in any way en-
gaged in business as a common carrier over a route acquired in
whole or in part under the right of eminent domain; the term
“rate” shall be construed to mean “rate of charge for any service
rendered or to be rendered”; the terms “rate,” “charge” and “regu-
lation” shall include joint rates, joint charges, and joint regulations,
respectively; the term “transmission company” shall include any
company owning, leasing or operating for hire any telegraph or
telephone line; the term “freight” shall be construed to mean any
property transported, or received for transportation by any trans-
portation company; the term “public service corporation” shall in-
clude all transportation and transmission companies, all gas, elec-
tric light, heat and power companies, and all persons authorized to
exercise the right of eminent domain, or to use or occupy any
street, alley or public highway, whether along, over, or under the
same, in a manner not permitted to the general public; the term

“person,” as used in this article, shall include individuals, partner-
ships and corporations, in the singular as well as plural number;
the term “bond” shall mean all certificates or written evidences of
indebtedness issued by any corporation and secured by mortgage
or trust deed; the term “frank” shall be construed to mean any
writing or token, issued by, or under authority of, a transmission
company, entitling the holder to any service from such company
free of charge. The provisions of this article shall always be so
restricted in their application as not to conflict with any of the pro-
visions of the Constitution of the United States, and as if the neces-
sary limitations upon their interpretation had been herein expressed
in each case.

Section 154. As to chartering a corporation, and legislation re-
lating thereto by general assembly ; surrender of charters; special
acts regulating corporations prohibited. The creation of corpora-
tions, and the extension and amendment of charters (whether
heretofore or hereafter granted), shall be provided for by general
laws, and no charter shall be granted, amended or extended by spe-
cial act, nor shall authority in such matters be conferred upon any
tribunal or officer, except to ascertain whether the applicants have,
by complying with the requirements of the law, entitled themselves
to the charter, amendment or extension applied for, and to issue,
or refuse, the same accordingly. Such general laws may be amended
or repealed by the general assembly; and all charters and amend-
ments of charters, now existing and revocable, or hereafter granted
or extended, may be repealed at any time by special act. Pro-
vision shall be made, by general laws, for the voluntary surrender
of its charter by any corporation, and for the forfeiture thereof,
for non-use or mis-use. The general assembly shall not, by spe-
cial act, regulate the affairs of any corporation, nor, by such act,
give it any rights, powers or privileges.

Section 155. State corporation commission; how selected; term
of office; how vacancies filled; who ineligible; qualifications of at
least one member; how removed or impeached; officers, how se-
lected ; rules of order and procedure; general provisions ; salaries.—
There shall be a permanent commission, to consist of three mem-
bers, which shall be known as the State corporation commission.
Their regular term of office shall be six years, respectively. When-
ever a vacancy in the commission shall occur, the governor shall
forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same for the un-
expired term, subject to confirmation by the general assembly or
until his successor be chosen as provided by law. Commissioners
selected for regular terms shall, at the beginning of the terms for
which selected, and those appointed to fill vacancies, shall immedi-
ately upon their selection or appointment, enter upon the duties of
their office, The commissioners shall be elected by the general
assembly. The present commissioners shall continue in office until
the expiration of their present terms. The terms of their successors
shall begin on the first day of February next succeeding their
selection.

No person while employed by, or holding any office in relation
to, any transportation or transmission company, or while in any
wise financially interested therein, or while engaged in practicing
law, shall hold office as a member of said commission, or perform
anv of the duties thereof. Nor shall any such person be interested,
either directly or indirectly, in any insurance company, association
or fraternal organization, or in any bank, trust or other like com-
pany doing business in this State and which is by law made subject
to the supervision of said State corporation commission, but this
section shall not be so construed as to prevent any such person from
heing a policy-holder in any insurance company, insurance associa-
tion, or fraternal organization.

At least one of the commissioners shall have the qualifications
Prescribed for judges of the supreme court of appeals; and any
commissioner may be impeached or removed in the manner pro-
vided for the impeachment or removal of a judge of said court.
The commission shall annually elect one of its members chair-
man of the same, and shall have one clerk, and such other clerks,
officers, assistants and subordinates as may be provided by law,
all of whom shall be appointed and subject to removal by the
commission. It shall prescribe its own rules of order and pro-
cedure, except so far as the same are specified in this Constitution
or any amendment thereof.

The general assembly may establish within the department, and
subject to the supervision and control of the commission, subordi-
nate divisions, or bureaus of insurance, banking or other special
branches of the business of that department.

All sessions of the commission shall be public, and a permanent
record shall be kept of all its judgments, rules, orders, findings and
decisions, and of all reports made to or by it. Two of the commis-
sioners shall constitute a quorum for the exercise of a judicial, legis-
lative and discretionary functions of the commission, whether there
be a vacancy in the commission or not, except as otherwise pro-
vided by law, but a quorum shall not be necessary for the exercise
of its administrative functions, which are mandatory. The commis-
sion shall keep its office open for business on every day except
Sundays and legal holidays.

Transportation companies shall at all times transport, free of
charge, within this State, the members of said commission and its
officers, or any of them, when engaged on their official duties.

The general assembly shall provide suitable quarters for the
commission and funds for its lawful expenses, including pay for
witnesses summoned, and costs of executing processes issued by the
commission of its own motion; and shall fix the salaries of the
members of the commission,

Section 156. Powers, duties and method of procedure of com-
mission.—(a) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to
such requirements, rules and regulations as may be prescribed by
law, the State corporation commission shall be a department of
government through which shall be issued all charters and amend-
ments or extensions thereof, for domestic corporations, and all
licenses to do business in this State to foreign corporations; and
through which shall be carried out all the provisions of this Consti-
tution, and of the laws made in pursuance thereof, for the creation,
visitation, supervision, regulation and control of corporations char-
tered by, or doing business in, this State.

The commission shall prescribe the forms of all reports which
may be required of such corporations by this Constitution or by
law. It shall have all the rights and powers of, and perform al}
the duties devolving upon, the railroad commissioner and the board
of public works on July tenth, nineteen hundred and two, except sa
far as they are or may be inconsistent with the law or this Con-
stitution.

(b) The commission shall have the power and be charged with
the duty of supervising, regulating and controlling all transporta-
tion and transmission companies doing business in this State, in al)
matters relating to the performance of their public duties and their
charges therefor, and of correcting abuses therein by such com-
panies; and to that end the commission shall, from time to time,
prescribe and enforce against such companies, in the manner here-
inafter authorized, such rates, charges, classifications of traffic, and
rules and regulations, and shall require them to establish and main-
tain all such public service facilities and conveniences as may be
reasonable and just, which said rates, charges, classifications, rules,
regulations and requirements the commission may, from time to
time, alter or amend. All rates, charges, classifications, rules and
rerulations adopted, or acted upon, by any such company, incon-
sistent with those prescribed by the commission, within the scope
of its authority, shall be unlawful and void.

The commission shall also have the right at all times to inspect
the books and papers of all transportation and transmission com-
panties doing business in this State, and to require from such com-
panies, from time to time, special reports and statements, under
oath. concerning their business; it shall keep itself fully informed
of the physical condition of all the railroads of the State, as to the
manner in which they are operated, with reference to the security
and accommodation of the public, and shall, from time to time,
make and enforce such requirements, rules and regulations as may
be necessary to prevent unjust or unreasonable discriminations
by any transportation or transmission company in favor of, or
against, any person, locality, community, connecting line, or kind
at traffic, in the matter of car service, train or boat schedule,
eficiency of transportation or otherwise, in connection with the
public duties of such company.

Before the commission shall prescribe or fix any rate, charge, or
classification of traffic, and before it shall make any order, rule,
regulation or requirement directed against any one or more com-
panies by name, the company or companies to be affected by such
rate. charge, classification, order, rule, regulation or requirement
shall first be given, by the commission, at least ten days’ notice of
the time and place when and where the contemplated action in the
premises will be considered and disposed of, and shall be afforded a
reasonable opportunity to introduce evidence and to be heard
thereon, to the end that justice may be done, and shall have process
to enforce the attendance of witnesses; and. before the commission
shall make or prescribe any general order, rule, regulation or re-
quirement, not directed against any specific company or companies
hy name, the contemplated general order, rule, regulation or re-
quirement shall first be published in substance, not less than oree
a week for four consecutive weeks in one or more of the news-
papers of general circulation published in the city of Richmond,
Virginia, together with notice of the time and place when and where
the commission will hear any objections which may be urged by any
person interested, against the proposed order, rule, regulation or
requirement; and every such general order, rule, regulation or re-
quirement made by the commission shall be published at length, for
the time and in the manner above specified, before it shall go into
effect, and shall also, as long as it remains in force, be published
in each subsequent annual report of the commission.

The authority of the commission (subject to review on appeal
as hereinafter proyided) to prescribe rates, charges and classifica-
tions of traffic for transportation and transmission companies shall
be paramount; but its authority to prescribe any other rules, regu-
lations or requirements for corporations or other persons shall be
subject to the superior authority of the general assembly to legis-
late thereon by general laws; provided, however, that nothing in
this section shall impair the right which has heretofore been, or
may hereafter be, conferred by law upon the authorities of any
city, town or county to prescribe rules, regulations or rates of charge
to be observed by any public service corporation in connection with
any services performed by it under a municipal or county franchise
eranted by such city, town or county, so far as such services may
be wholly within the limits of the city, town or county granting
the franchise. Upon the request of the parties interested, it shall
be the duty of the commission, as far as possible, to effect, by
mediation, the adjustment of claims, and the settlement of con-
troversies, between transportation or transmission companies and
their patrons. |

(c) In all matters pertaining to the public visitation, regulation
or control of corporations, and .within the jurisdiction of the com-
mission, it shall have the powers and authority of a court of record,
to administer oaths, to compel the attendance of witnesses and the
production of papers, to punish for contempt any person guilty of
disrespectful or disorderly conduct in the presence of the commis-
sion while in session, and to enforce compliance with any of its law-
ful orders or requirements by adjudging the enforcing by its own
appropriate process, against the delinquent or offending company
(after it shall have been first duly cited, proceeded against by due
process of law before the commission sitting as a court, and af-
forded opportunity to introduce evidence and to be heard, as well
against the validity, justness or reasonableness of the order or re-
quirement alleged to have been violated, as against the liability of
the company for the alleged violation), such fines or other penalties
as may be prescribed or authorized by this Constitution or by law.

The commission may he vested with such additional powers, and
charged with such other duties (not inconsistent with this Consti-
tution) as may be prescribed by law, in connection with the visita-
tion, regulation or control of corporations, or with the préscribing
and enforcing of rates and charges to be observed in the cohduct of
any business where the State has the right to prescribe the rates and
charges in connection therewith, or with the assessment of the prop-
erty of corporations, or the appraisement of their franchises, for
testo or with the investigation of the subject of taxation gem
erally, ;

Any corporation failing or refusing to obey any valid order or
requirement of the commission, within such reasonable time, not
less than ten days, as shall be fixed in the order, may be fined by
the commission (proceeding by due process of law as aforesaid)
such sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars, as the commission
may deem proper, or such sum, in excess of five hundred dollars,
as may he prescribed, or authorized by law; and each day’s con-
tinuance of such failure or refusal, after due service upon such cor-
poration of the order or requirement of the commission, shall be a
separate offense; provided, that should the operation of such order
or requirement be suspended pending an appeal therefrom, the
period of such suspension shall not be computed against the com-
pany in the matter of its lability to fines or penalties.

(d) From any action of the commission prescribing rates,
charges or classifications of traffic, or affecting the train schedule of
any transportation company, or requiring additional facilities, con-
veniences or public service of any transportation or transmission
company, or refusing to approve a suspending bond, or requiring
additional security thereon, or an increase thereof, as provided for
in subsection (e) of this section, an appeal (subject to such reason-
able limitation as to time, regulations as to the procedure and pro-
visions as to costs, as may be prescribed by law) may be taken by
the corporation whose rates, charges or classifications of traffic,
schedule, facilities, conveniences or service are affected, or by any
person deeming himself aggrieved by such action, or (if allowed
by law) by the Commonwealth. Until otherwise provided by law,
such appeal shall be taken in the manner in which appeals may be
taken to the supreme court of appeals from the inferior courts, ex-
cept that such an appeal shall be of right, and the supreme court of
appeals may provide by rule for proceedings in the matter of ap-
peals in any particular in which the existing rules of law are in-
applicable. If such appeal be taken by the corporation whose rates,
charges or classifications of traffic, schedules, facilities, conve
ences or service are affected, the Commonwealth shall be made the
appellee; but, in the other cases mentioned, the corporation so
atfected shall be made the appellee.

The general assembly may also, by general laws, provide for ap-
peals from any other action of the commission, by the Common-
wealth or by any person interested, irrespective of the amount in-
volved. All appeals from the commission shall be to the supreme
court of appeals only; and in all appeals to which the Common-
wealth is a party it shall be represented by the attorney general or
his legally appointed representatives. No court of this Common-
wealth (except the supreme court of appeals, by way of appeal as
herein authorized) shall have jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct
or annul any action of the commission, within the scope of its au-
thority, or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof,
or to enjoin, restrain or interfere with the commission in the per-
formance of its official duties; provided, however, that the writs of
mandamus and prohibition shall lie from the supreme court of
appeals to the commission in all cases where such writs, respec-
tively, would lie to any inferior tribunal or officer.
(e) Upon the granting of an appeal, a writ of supersedeas may
be awarded by the appellate court, suspending the operation of the
action appealed from until the final disposition of the appeal; but,
prior to the final reversal thereof by the appellate court, no action
of the commission prescribing or affecting the rates, charges or
classifications of traffic of any transportation or transmission com-
pany shall be delayed, or suspended, in its operation, by reason of
any appeal by such corporation, or by reason of any proceedings
resulting from such appeal, until a suspending bond shall first have
been executed and filed with, and approved by, the commission (or
approved on review by the supreme court of appeals), payable to the
Commonwealth, and sufficient in amount and security to insure the
prompt refunding, by the appealing corporation to the parties en-
titled thereto, of all charges which such company may collect or
receive, pending the appeal, in excess of those fixed, or authorized,
by the final decision of the court on appeal. The commission, upon
the execution of such bond, shall forthwith require the appealing
company, under penalty of the immediate enforcement (pending the
appeal and notwithstanding any supersedeas) of the order or re-
quirement appealed from, to keep such accounts, and to make to
the commission, from time to time, such reports, verified by oath,
as may, in the judgment of the commission, suffice to show the
amounts being charged or received by the company, pending the
appea!, in excess of the charge allowed by the action of the com-
mission appealed from, together with the names and addresses of
the persons to whom such overcharges will be refundable in case
the charges made by the company pending the appeal, be not sus-
tained on such appeal, and the commission shall also, from time
to time, require such company, under like penalty, to give additional
security on, or to increase the said suspending bond, whenever, in
the opinion of the commission, the same may be necessary to insure
the prompt refunding of the overcharges aforesaid. Upon the final
decision of such appeal, all amounts which the appealing company
may have collected, pending the appeal, in excess of that authorized
by such final decision, shall be promptly refunded, with legal inter-
est from the date of collection thereof, by the company to the parties
entitled thereto, in such manner, and through such methods of dis-
tribution, as may be prescribed by the commission or by law. All
such appeals affecting rates, charges or classifications of traffic shall
have precedence upon the docket of the appellate court, and shall
be heard and disposed of promptly by the court, irrespective of its
place of session, next after the habeas corpus and commonwealth’s
cases already on the docket of the court.

({) In no case of appeal from the commission shall any new
or additional evidence be introduced in the appellate court; but the
chairman of the commission, under the seal of the commission, shall
certify to the appellate court all the facts upon which the action ap-
pealed from was based, and which may be essential for the proper
decision of the appeal, together with such of the evidence introduced
before, or considered by, the commission as may be selected, speci-
hed and required to be certified by any party in interest, as well as
such other evidence, so introduced or considered, as the commis-
sion may deem proper to certify. Thé commission shall, whenever
an appeal is taken therefrom, file with the record of the case, and
as a part thereof, a written statement of the reasons upon which
the action appealed from was based, and such statement shall be
read and considered by the appellate court upon disposing of the
appeal. The appellate court shall have jurisdiction, on such appeal,
to consider and determine the reasonableness and justness of the
action of the commission appealed from, as well as any other mat-
ter arising under such appeal; provided, however, that the action
of the commission appealed from shall be regarded as prima facie
lust, reasonable and correct, but the court may, when it deems
necessary in the interest of justice, remand to the commission any
case pending on appeal, and require the same to be further investi-
gated by the commission, and reported upon to the court (together
with a certificate of such additional evidence as may be tendered
hefore the commission by any party in interest), before the appeal
is finally decided.

(¢) Whenever the court, upon appeal, shall reverse an order of
the commission affecting the rates, charges or the classification of
trafic of any transportation or transmission company, it shall, at
the same time, substitute therefor such order as, in its opinion, the
commission should have made at the time of entering the order
appealed from ; otherwise the reversal order shall not be valid, Such
substituted order shall have the same force and effect (and none
other) as if it had been entered by the commission at the time the
original order appealed from was entered. The right of the com-
mission to prescribe and enforce rates, charges, classifications, rules
and regulations, affecting any or all actions of the commission
theretofore entered by it. and appealed from, but based upon cir-
cumstances different from those existing at the time the order ap-
pealed from was made, shall not be suspended or impaired by rea-
son of the pendency of such appeal; but no order of the commission,
prescribing or altering such rates, charges, classifications, rules or
reculations shall be retroactive.

(h) The right of any person to institute and prosecute in the
ordinary courts of justice any action, suit or motion against any
transportation or transmission company, for any claim or cause of
action against such company, shall not be extinguished or im-
paired by reason of any fine or other penalty which the commis-
sion mav impose, or be authorized to impose, upon such company,
hecause of its breach of any public duty, or because of its failure
‘9 comply with any order or requirement of the commission; but,
inno such proceeding by any person against such corporation, nor
in any collateral proceeding, shall the reasonableness, justness or
validity of any rate, charge, classification of traffic, rule, regula-
tion or requirement, theretofore prescribed by the commission,
within the scope of its authority, and then in force, be questioned ;

Provided, however, that no case based upon or involving any order
of the commission shall be heard or disposed of against the objec-
tion of either party, so long as such order is suspended in its opera-
tion by an order of the supreme court of appeals, as authorized by
this Constitution or by any law passed in pursuance thereof.

(1) The commission shall make arinual reports to the governor
of its proceedings, in which reports it shall recommend, from time
to time, such new or additional legislation in reference to its powers
or duties, or to the creation, supervision, regulation or control of
corporations, or to the subject of taxation, as it may deem wise or
expedient, or as may be required by law.

- (j) In addition to the modes of amendment provided for in
article fifteen of this Constitution, the general assembly, upon the
recommendation of the State corporation commission, may, by law,
from time to time, amend subsections (a) to (i), inclusive, of this
section, or any of them, or any such amendment thereof; provided,
that no amendment made under authority of this subsection shall
contravene the provisions of any part of this Constitution other than
the subsections last above referred to, or any such amendment
thereof.

(k) All books, papers and documents pertaining to the board of
public works and the office of railroad commissioner, which have
been transferred to the State corporation commission, shall continue
to be a part of its records.

Section 157. Fees from corporations.—Provision shall be made
by general laws for the payment of a fee to the Commonwealth by
every domestic corporation, upon the granting, amendment or ex-
tension of its charter, and by every foreign corporation upon ob-
taining a license to do business in this State, as specified in this
section; and also for the payment, by every domestic corporation,
and foreign corporation doing business in this State, of an annual
registration fee of not less than five dollars, nor more than twenty-
five dollars, which shall be irrespective of any specific license or
other tax imposed by law upon such company for the privilege of
carrying on its business in this State, or upon its franchise or
property; and for the making, by every such corporation (at the
time of paving such annual registration fee), of such report to the
State corporation commission of the status, business or condition of
such corporation, as the general assembly may prescribe. No for-
eign corporation shall have authority to do business in this State
until it shall have first obtained from the commission a license to
do business in this State, upon such terms and conditions as may
be prescribed by law. The failure by any corporation for two suc-
cessive years to pay its annual registration fee, or to make its said
annual reports, shall, when such failure shall have continued for
ninety davs after the expiration of such two years, operate as revo-
cation and annulment of the charter of such corporation if it be a
doinestic company, or, of its license to do business in this State,
if it be a foreign company, and the general assembly shall provide
additional and suitable penalties for the failure of any corporation to
comply promptly with the requirements of this section, or of any
laws passed in pursuance thereof. The commission shall compel
all corporations to comply promptly with such requirements, by
enforcing, in the manner hereinbefore authorized, such fines and
penalties against the delinquent company as may be provided for,
or authorized by this article; but the general assembly may relieve
from the payment of said registration fee any purely charitable
institution or institutions.

Section 158. Effect of amendment of previously obtained char-
ter of corporation.—Every corporation heretofore chartered in this
State, which shall hereafter accept, or effect, any amendment or
extension of its charter, shall be conclusively presumed to have
thereby surrendered every exemption from taxation, and every non-
repealable feature of its charter and of the amendments thereof, and
also all exclusive rights or privileges theretofore granted to it by
the general assembly and not enjoyed by other corporations of a
similar general character; and to have thereby agreed to thereafter
hold its charter and franchises, and all amendments thereof, under
the provisions and subject to all the requirements, terms and condi-
tions of this Constitution and of any laws passed in pursuance there-
ot, so far as the same may be applicable to such corporation.

Section 159. Eminent domain and police power of State never
abridged.—The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never
be abridged, nor so construed as to prevent the general assembly
from taking the property and franchises of corporations and sub-
jecting them to public use, the same as the property of individuals;
and the exercise of the police power of the State shall never be
abridged, nor so construed as to permit corporations to conduct
their business in such manner as to infringe the equal rights of in-
dividuals or the general well being of the State.

Section 160. Concerning rates of transportation and transmis-
sion companies.—No transportation or transmission company shall
charge or receive any greater compensation, in the aggregate, for
transporting the same class of passengers or property, or for trans-
mitting the same class of messages, over a shorter than over a
longer distance, along the same line and in the same direction.—
the shorter being included in the longer distance; but this section
shall not be construed as authorizing any such company to charge
or receive as great compensation for a shorter as for a longer dis-
tance. The State corporation commission may, from time to time,
authorize any such company to disregard the foregoing provisions
of this section, by charging such rates as the commission may pre-
scribe as just and equitable between such company and the public,
to or from any junctional or competitive points or localities, or
where the competition of points located without this State may
make necessary the prescribing of special rates for the protection
of the commerce of this State; but this section shall not apply to
mileage tickets, or to any special excursion, or commutation rates, or
to special rates for services rendered to the government of this State,
or of the United States, or in the interest of some public object, when
such tickets or rates shall have been prescribed or authorized by the
commission.

Section 161. Free transportation to members of general assem-
bly and of State, county, district, or municipal officers, except mem-
bers and officers of State corporation commission, prohibited; pen-
alty ; policemen and firemen excepted.—No transportation or trans-
mission company doing business in this State shall grant to any
member of the general assembly, or to any State, county, district
or municipal officer, except to members and officers of the State
corporation commission for their personal use while in office, any
frank, free pass, free transportation, or any rebate or reduction in
the rates charged by such company to the general public for like
services. For violation of the provisions of this section the offend-
ing company shall be liable to such penalties as may be prescribed
by law; and any member of the general assembly, or any such of-
ficer, who shall, while in office, accept any gift, privilege or benefit,
prohibited by this section, shall thereby forfeit his office, and be
subject to such further penalties as may be prescribed by law; but
this section shall not prevent a street railway, transportation or
transmission company from granting free transportation or free
service, within this State, to any member of the police force or fire
department while in the discharge of his official duties, nor prohibit
the acceptance by any such policeman or fireman of such free trans-
portation.

Section 162. Fellow-servant doctrine abolished to extent stated.
—The doctrine of fellow-servant, so far as it affects the liability of
the master for injuries to his servant, resulting from the acts or
omissions of any other servant or servants of the common master,
is, to the extent hereinafter stated, abolished as to every employee
of a railroad company, engaged in the physical construction, repair
or maintenance of its roadway, track or any of the structures con-
nected therewith, or in any work in or upon a Car or engine standing
upon a track, or in the physical operation of a train, car, engine, or
switch, or in any service requiring his presence upon a train, car
or engine; and every such employee shall have the same right to
recover from every injury suffered by him from the acts or omis-
sions of any other employee or employees of the common master,
that a servant would have (at the time when this Constitution goes
into effect), if such acts or omissions were those of the master him-
self in the performance of nonassignable duty; provided, that the
injury, so suffered by such railroad employee, result from the
negligence of an officer, or agent of the company of a higher grade
of service than himself, or from that of a person employed by the
company, having the right, or charged with the duty, to control or
direct the general services of the immediate work of the party in-
jured, or the general services or the immediate work of the co-
employee through or by whose act or omission he is injured; or
that it result from the negligence of a co-employee engaged in an-
other department of labor, or engaged upon, or in charge of any
car upon which, or upon the train of which it is a part, the injured
employee is not at the time receiving the injury, or who is in charge
of any switch, signal point or locomotive engine, or is charged with
dispatching trains or transmitting telegraphic or telephonic orders
therefor and whether such negligence be in the performance of an
assignable or nonassignable duty. The physical construction, re-
pair or maintenance of the roadway, track or any of the structures
connected therewith, and the physical construction, repair, mainte-
nance, cleaning or operation of trains, cars or engines shall be re-
garded as different departments of labor within the meaning of
this section. Knowledge by any such railroad employee injured,
of the defective or unsafe character or condition of any machinery,
ways, appliances or structures shall be no defense to an action for
injury caused thereby. When death, whether instantaneous or not,
results to such an employee from any injury for which he could
have recovered, under the above provisions, had death not occurred,
then his legal or personal representative, surviving consort and
relatives (and any trustee, curator, committee or guardian of such
consort or relatives) shall, respectively, have the same rights and
remedies with respect thereto as if his death had been caused by
the negligence of a co-employee while in the performance, as vice-
principal of a nonassignable duty of the master. Every contract or
agreement, express or implied, made by an employee, to waive the
benefit of this section, shall be null and void. This section shall not
be construed to deprive any employee or his legal or personal
representative, surviving consort or relatives (or any trustee, cura-
tor, committee or guardian of such consort or relatives), of any
rights or remedies that he or they may have by the law of the land,
at the time this Constitution goes into effect. Nothing contained
in this section shall restrict the power of the general assembly to
further enlarge, for the above-named class of employees, the rights
and remedies hereinbefore provided for, or to extend such rights
and remedies to, or otherwise enlarge the present rights and
remedies of any other class of employees of railroads or of em-
ployees of any person, firm or corporation.

Section 163. As to foreign corporations—-No foreign corpo-
rations shall be authorized to carry on, in this State, the business,
or to exercise any of the powers or functions of a public service
corporation, or be permitted to do anything which domestic corpo-
rations are prohibited from doing, or be relieved from compliance
with any of the requirements made of similar domestic corporations
by the Constitution and laws of this State, where the same can be
made applicable to such foreign corporations without discriminating
against it. But this section shall not affect any public service
corporation whose line or route extends across the boundary of this
Commonwealth, nor prevent any foreign corporation from continu-
Ing in such lawful business as it may be actually engaged in within
this State, when this Constitution goes into effect; but any such
foreign public service corporation, so engaged, shall not, without
hrst becoming incorporated under the laws of this State, be au-
thorized to acquire, lease, use or operate, within this State, any pub-
lic or municipal franchise or franchises, in addition to such as it
may own, lease, use or operate, when this Constitution goes into
effect. The property within this State, of foreign corporations, shall
always be subject to attachment, the same as that of nonresident
individuals; and nothing in this section shall restrict the power of
the general assembly to discriminate against foreign corporations
whenever, and in whatsoever respect, it may deem wise or ex-
pedient.

— Section 164. Right of regulation and control of common car-
riers and public service corporations never surrendered or abridged.
—The right of the Commonwealth, through such instrumentalities
as it may select, to prescribe and define the public duties of all
common carriers and public service corporations, to regulate and
control them in the performance of their public duties, and to fix
and limit their charges therefor shall never be surrendered or
abridged.

Section 165. General assembly shall enact laws preventing all
trust, combinations and monopolies inimical to the public welfare.
—-The general assembly shall enact laws preventing all trusts, com-
binations and monopolies, inimical to the public welfare.

Section 166. Right to parallel railroads; as to building road
parallel to Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad; duties
of connecting railroad——The exclusive right to build or operate
railroads parallel to its own or any other line of railroad, shall not be
granted to any company; but every railroad company shall have
the right, subject to such reasonable regulations as may be pre-
scribed by law, to parallel, intersect, connect with or cross, with its
roadway, any other railroad or railroads; but no railroad company
shall build or operate any line of railroad not specified in its char-
ter, or in some amendment thereof. All railroad companies whose
lines of railroad connect, shall receive and transport each other’s
passengers, freight and loaded or empty cars, without delay or
discrimination. Nothing in this section ‘shall deprive the general
assembly of the right to prevent, by statute, repealable at pleasure,
any railroad from being built parallel to the present line of the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad.

Section 167. Concerning issuance of stocks and bonds by corpo-
rations; penalty for violation—The general assembly shall enact
general laws regulating and controlling all issues of stock and bonds
by corporations. Whenever stock or bonds are to be issued by a
corporation, it shall, before issuing the same, file with the State
corporation commission a statement (verified by the oath of the
president or secretary of the corporation, and in such form as may
be prescribed or permitted by the commission) setting forth fully
and accurately the basis, or financial plan upon which such stock or
bonds are to be issued; and where such basis or plan includes serv-
ices or property (other than money), received or to be received by
the company, such statement shall accurately specify and describe,
in the manner prescribed or permitted by the commission, the serv-
ices or property, together with the valuation at which the same are
received or to be received; and such corporation shall comply with
any other requirements or restrictions which may be imposed by
law. The general assembly shall provide adequate penalties for
the violation of this section, or of any laws passed in pursuance
thereof; and it shall be the duty of the commission to adjudge and
enforce (in the manner hereinbefore provided), against any corpo-
ration refusing or failing to comply with the provisions of this sec-
tion. or of any laws passed in pursuance thereof, such fines and
penalties as are authorized by this Constitution, or may be pre-
scribed by law. ,

ARTICLE XIII

TAXATION AND FINANCE

Section 168. Taxable prdperty; taxes shall be uniform as to
class of subjects and levied and collected under general laws.—-All
property, except as hereinafter provided, shall be taxed; all taxes,
whether State, local or municipal, shall be uniform upon the same
class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying
the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general law. The
general assembly may define and classify taxable subjects, and,
except as to classes of property herein expressly segregated for
either State or local taxation, the general assembly may segregate
the several classes of property so as to specify and determine upon
what subjects State taxes, and upon what subjects local taxes may
be levied.

Section 169. How property assessed; general assembly may
erant cities and towns right to reduce taxation for a period of years
on land added to corporate limits—Except as hereafter provided,
a!l assessments of real estate and tangible personal property shall
be at their fair market value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law.
So long as the State shall levy upon any public service corporation,
other than a railway or a canal corporation, a State franchise, li-
cense, or other tax, based upon or measured by its gross receipts,
or gross earnings, or any part thereof, its real estate and tangible
personal property shall be assessed by the State corporation com-
mission, or other central State agency, in the manner prescribed by
law. The general assembly may allow a lower rate of taxation to be
imposed for a period of years by a city or town upon land added
to its corporate limits, than is imposed on similar property within
tts limits at the time such land is added.

Section 172. Assessment of coal and mineral lands—Coal and
other mineral lands shall be assessed or reassessed for local taxa-
tion, in such manner and at such times as the general assembly
has heretofore prescribed, or may hereafter prescribe by general
laws. ,

Section 173. State, county and municipal capitation taxes.—
The general assembly shall levy a State capitation tax of, and not
exceeding one dollar and fifty cents per annum on every resident
of the State not less than twenty-one years of age, except those
pensioned by this State for military services; one dollar of which
shall be applied exclusively in aid of the public free schools, and
the residue shall be returned and paid by the State into the treasury
of the county or city in which it was collected, to be appropriated
by the proper authorities to such county or city purposes as they
shall respectively determine. Such State capitation tax shall not
be a lien upon, nor collected by legal process from, the personal
property which may be exempt from levy or distress under the poor
debtor’s law. The general assembly may authorize the board of
supervisors of any county, or the council of any city or town, to
levy an additional capitation tax not exceeding one dollar per an-
num on every such resident within its limits, to be applied to city,
town or county purposes.

Section 174. Statute of limitations shall not run against State
taxes; failure to assess not to defeat subsequent assessment and col-
lection of taxes; exception as to bona fide purchaser for value—
After this Constitution shall be in force, no statute of limitations
shall run against any claim of the State for taxes upon any prop-
erty; nor shall the failure to assess property for taxation defeat a
subsequent assessment for and collection of taxes for any preceding
year or years, unless such property shall have passed to a bona fide
purchaser for value, without notice; in which latter case the prop-
erty shall be assessed for taxation against such purchaser from the
date of his purchase.

Section 175. The natural oyster beds.—The natural oyster beds,
rocks and shoals, in the waters of this State shall not be leased,
rented or sold, but shall be held in trust for the benéfit of the people
of this State, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the
general assembly may prescribe, but the general assembly may,
from time to time, define and determine such natural beds, rocks or
shoals by surveys or otherwise.

Section 176. Assessment and taxation of railroad and canal com-
panies,—The State corporation commission shall annually ascertain
and assess, in the manner prescribed by law, the value of the road-
bed and other real estate, rolling stock, and all other personal
property whatsoever (except its franchise and the nontaxable shares
of stock issued by other corporations) in this State, of each railway
corporation, whatever its motive power, now or hereafter liable
for taxation upon such property ; the canal bed and other real estate,
the boats and all other personal property whatsoever (except its
franchise and the nontaxable shares of stock issued by other corpo-
rations) in this State, of each canal corporation, empowered to con-_
duct transportation; and subject to such segregation of property, if
any, as is provided in section one hundred and seventy-one of this

Constitution, such property shall be taxed for State, county, city,
town and district purposes in the manner prescribed by law, at such
rates of taxation as may be imposed by them, respectively, from time
to time. upon the real_estate and personal property of natural per-
sons.
Section 177. Franchise tax of railroad and canal companies.—
Every such railway or canal corporation shall also pay an annual
State franchise tax to be prescribed by law, upon the gross receipts
hereinaiter specified in section one hundred and seventy-cicht, for
the privilege of exercising its franchises in this State, which, with
the taxes provided for in section one hundred and seventy-six, shall
be in lieu of all other taxes or license charges whatsoever upon the
franchise of such corporation, the shares of stock issued by it, or
upon its property assessed under section one hundred and seventy-
six; provided, that nothing herein contained shall exempt such
corporation from the annual fee required by section one hundred
and fifty-seven of this Constitution, or from assessments for street
and other public local improvements authorized by section one hun-
dred and seventy; and provided, further, that nothing herein con-
tained shall annul or interfere with or prevent any contract or agree-
ment by ordinance between street railway corporations and munici-
pal:ties, as to compensation for the use of the streets or alleys of
such municipalities by such railway corporations.

Section 178. Amount and ascertainment of such franchise tax.
—The amount of such franchise tax shall be equal to such per
centum of the gross transportation receipts of such corporation of
the vear preceding the year for which the tax is levied, or the year
for which the tax is levied, as may be prescribed by law, to be as-
certained by the State corporation commission in the following
manner :

(a) When the road or canal of the corporation lies wholly within
this State, the tax shall be equal to the prescribed per centum of the
entire gross transportation receipts of such corporation.

(b) When the road or canal of the corporation lies partly within
and partly without this State, or is operated as a part of a line or
system extending bevond this State, the tax shall be equal to the
prescribed per centum of the gross transportation receipts earned
within this State. to be determined as follows: By ascertaining the
average gross transportation receipts per mile over its whole extent,
within and without this State, and multiplying the result by the
number of miles operated within this State; provided, that from
the sum so ascertained there may be a reasonable deduction because
of any excess of value of the terminal facilities or other similar ad-
vantages in other States over similar facilities or advantages in
this State.

Section 179. Reports of corporations to corporation commission,
~—Fach corporation mentioned in sections one hundred and seventy-
six and one hundred and seventy-seven shall annually, at the time
Prescribed by law, make to the State corporation commission a
report which shall show the property taxable in this State belong-
ing to the corporation on the date that mav be prescribed by law.
and its total gross transportation receipts for the year ending on
that date. Upon receiving such report the State corporation com-
mission shall, after thirtv days’ notice previously given, as provided
pensioned by this State for military services; one dollar of which
shall be applied exclusively in aid of the public free schools, and
the residue shall be returned and paid by the State into the treasury
of the county or city in which it was collected, to be appropriated
by the proper authorities to such county or city purposes as they
shall respectively determine. Such State capitation tax shall not
be a lien upon, nor collected by legal process from, the personal
property which may be exempt from levy or distress under the poor
debtor’s law. The general assembly may authorize the board of
supervisors of any county, or the council of any city or town, to
levy an additional capitation tax not exceeding one dollar per an-
num on every such resident within its limits, to be applied to city,
town or county purposes. |

Section 174. Statute of limitations shall not run against State
taxes ; failure to assess not to defeat subsequent assessment and col-
lection of taxes; exception as to bona fide purchaser for value.—
After this Constitution shall be in force, no statute of limitations
shall run against any claim of the State for taxes upon any prop-
erty; nor shall the failure to assess property for taxation defeat a
subsequent assessment for and collection of taxes for any preceding
year or years, unless such property shall have passed to a bona fide
purchaser for value, without notice; in which latter case the prop-
erty shall be assessed for taxation against such purchaser from the
date of his purchase. ,

Section 175. The natural oyster beds——The natural oyster beds,
rocks and shoals, in the waters of this State shall not be leased,
rented or sold, but shall be held in trust for the benefit of the people
of this State, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the
general assembly may prescribe, but the general assembly may,
from time to time, define and determine such natural beds, rocks or
shoals by surveys or otherwise.

Section 176. Assessment and taxation of railroad and canal com-
panies.—-The State corporation commission shall annually ascertain
and assess, in the manner prescribed by law, the value of the road-
bed and other real estate, rolling stock, and all other personal
property whatsoever (except its franchise and the nontaxable shares
of stock issued by other corporations) in this State, of each railway
corporation, whatever its motive power, now or hereafter liable
for taxation upon such property: the canal bed and other real estate,
the boats and all other personal property whatsoever (except its
franchise and the nontaxable shares of stock issued by other corpo-
rations) in this State, of each canal corporation, empowered to con-
duct transportation: and subject to such segregation of property, if
any, as is provided in section one hundred and seventy-one of this
Constitution, such property shall be taxed for State, county, city,
town and district purposes in the manner prescribed by law, at such
rates of taxation as may be imposed by them, respectively, from time
to time. upon the real estate and personal property of natural per-
sons.
Section 177, Franchise tax of railroad and canal companies.—
Every such railway or canal corporation shall also pay an annual
State franchise tax to be prescribed by law, upon the gross receipts
hereinafter specified in section one hundred and seventy-eight, for
the privilege of exercising its franchises in this State, which, with
the taxes provided for in section one hundred and seventy-six, shall
be in heu of all other taxes or license charges whatsoever upon the
franchise of such corporation, the shares of stock issued by it, or
upon its property assessed under section one hundred and seventy-
six; provided, that nothing herein contained shall exempt such
corporation from the annual fee required by section one hundred
and fifty-seven of this Constitution, or from assessments for street
and other public local improvements authorized by section one hun-
dred and seventy; and provided, further, that nothing herein con-
tained shall annul or interfere with or prevent any contract or agree-
ment by ordinance between street railway corporations and munici-
palities, as to compensation for the use of the streets or alleys of
such municipalities by such railway corporations.

Section 178. Amount and ascertainment of such franchise tax.
—The amount of such franchise tax shall be equal to such per
centum of the gross transportation receipts of such corporation of
the year preceding the vear for which the tax ts levied, or the year
for which the tax is levied, as may be prescribed by law, to be as-
certained by the State corporation commission in the following
manner :

(a) When the road or canal of the corporation lies wholly within
this State, the tax shall be equal to the prescribed per centum of the
entire gross transportation receipts of such corporation.

(b) When the road or canal of the corporation lies partly within
and partly without this State, or is operated as a part of a line or
system extending bevond this State, the tax shall be equal to the
prescribed per centum of the gross transportation receipts earned
within this State. to be determined as follows: By ascertaining the
average gross transportation receipts per mile over its whole extent,
within and without this State, and multiplving the result by the
number of nules operated within this State; provided, that from
the suim so ascertained there may bea reasonable deduction because
of any excess of value of the terminal facilities or other similar ad-
vantages in other States over similar facilities or advantages in
this State.

Section 179. Reports of corporations to corporation commission.
—FEach corporation mentioned in sections one hundred and seventy-
six and one hundred and seventy-seven shall annually, at the time
prescribed by law, make to the State corporation commission a
report which shall show the property taxable in this State belong-
ing to the corporation on the date that may be prescribed by law.
and its total gross transportation receipts for the vear ending on
that date. Upon receiving such report the State corporation com-
mission shall, after thirtv days’ notice previously given, as provided
hy law, assess the value of the property of the corporation not
exempt from taxation, and ascertain the amount of the franchise
tax and not State taxes chargeable against it.

All taxes for which the corporation is liable shall be paid as
prescribed by law.

Such taxes, until paid, shall be a lien upon the property within
this State of the corporation owning the same, and take precedence
of all other liens or incumbrances.

Section 180. Application for relief from assessment of taxation ;
proceedings thereunder.—The Commonwealth, or any political sub-
division thereof, or a corporation, aggrieved by the assessment and
ascertainment made under sections one hundred and seventy-six
and one hundred and seventy-eight foregoing, may, according to
such course of procedure as may be prescribed by law, apply for
relief first to the State corporation commission and then to the cir-
cult court of the city of Richmond.

If the court be of opinion that the assessment or tax 1s exces-
sive, it shall reduce the same; but if of opinion that it is insufficient,
shall 1ucrease the same. Unless the applicant paid the taxes under
protest, when due, the court, if it disallows the application, shall
give judgment against it for a sum, by way of damages, equal to
interest at the rate of one per centum per month upon the amount
of taxes from the time the same were payable.

If the application be allowed, in whole or in part, appropriate
relief shall be granted, including the right to recover any excess
of taxes that may have been paid, with legal interest thereon, and
costs from the State or local authorities, or both, as the case may
be; the judgment to be enforceable by mandamus or other proper
process issuing from the court finally adjudicating the application.

Subject to the provisions of article six of this Constitution, the
supreme court of appeals may allow a writ of error to either party.

Section 181. Legislative power over system of corporate taxa-
tion. — Notwithstanding the provisions of sections one hundred and
seventy-one and one hundred and seventy-six to one hundred and
eighty. inclusive, the general assembly shall have power to change
the system of taxation as to the corporations therein mentioned to
he administered by the State corporation commission, or other cen-
tral State agencv. If the said system of taxation shall, for any
reason hecome inoperative the general assembly shall have power
to prescribe some other system in lieu thereof, and to provide how
and by what agencies it shall be administered.

Section 182. (Omitted.)

Section 183. Propertv exempt from taxation.—Unless otherwise
provided in this Constitution, the following property and no other
shall be exempt from taxation, State and local, including inheritance
taxes:

(a) Property owned directly or indirectly by the United States,
the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, and obliga-
tions of the Commonwealth issued since February fourteenth,
eighteen hundred and eighty-two, or hereafter exempted by law.

(b) Buildings with land they actually occupy, and the furniture
and furnishings therein and endowment funds lawfully owned and
held by churches or religious bodies, and wholly and exclusively
used for religious worship, or for the residence of the minister of
any such church or religious body, together with the additional
adjacent land reasonably necessary for the convenient use of any
such building.

(c) Private or public burying grounds or cemeteries and en-
dowment funds, lawfully held, for their care, provided the same are
not operated for profit. ,

(d) Property owned by public libraries, incorporated ‘colleges
or other incorporated institutions of learning, not conducted for pro-
ht, together with the endowment funds thereof not invested in real
estate. But this provision shall apply only to property primarily
used for literary, scientific or educational purpose or purposes in-
cidental thereto. It shall not apply to industrial schools which sell
their product to others than their own employees or students.

(e) Real estate belonging to, actually and exclusively occupied
and used by, and personal property, including endowment funds,
belonging to young men’s christian associations, and other similar
religious associations, orphan or other asylums, reformatories, hos-
pitals and nunneries, conducted not for profit, but exclusively as
charities, also parks or playgrounds held by trustees for the per-
petual use of the general public.

(f) Buildings with the land they actually occupy, and the furni-
ture and furnishings therein, belonging to any benevolent or chari-
table association and used exclusively for lodge purposes or meeting
rooms by such association, together with such additional adjacent
land as may be necessary for the convenient use of the buildings
for such purposes ; and

g) Property of the association for the preservation of Virginia
antiquities, the confederate memorial literary society, the Mount
Vernon ladies’ association of the Union, the Virginia historical
society, the Thomas Jefferson memorial foundation, incorporated,
the posts of the American legion and such other similar organiza-
tions or societies as may be prescribed by law.

Except as to class (a) above, general laws may be enacted re-
stricting but not extending the above exemptions.

Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to exempt
from taxation the property of any person, firm, association, or
corporation, who shall, expressly or impliedly, directly or indirectly,
contract or promise to pay a sum of money or other benefit, on
account of death, sickness, or accident to any of its members or
other person.

Whenever any building or land, or part thereof, mentioned in
this section, and not belonging to the State, shall be leased or shall
otherwise be a source of revenue or profit, all of such buildings and
land shall be liable to taxation as other land and buildings in the
same county, city or town. But the general assembly may provide
for the partial taxation of property not exclusively used for the pur-
poses herein named.

Nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing or
requiring any county, city, or town to tax for county, city, or town
purposes, in violation of the rights of the lessees thereof, existing
under any lawful contract heretofore made, any real estate owned
by such county, city or town, as heretofore leased by it.

Obligations issued by counties, cities or towns may be exempted
by the authorities of such localities from local taxation.

Section 183-a. Officers’ salaries not exempt from income tax.—
The provisions of this Constitution forbidding the diminution of the
salary or compensation of a judge or other officer during his term
of office shall not be construed to exempt such salary or compensa-
tion from State income tax thereon.

Section 184. Authorization of certain debts—The general as-
sembly may contract debts to meet casual deficits in the revenue,
to redeem a previous liability of the State, to suppress insurrection,
repel invasion, or defend the State in time of war.

Section 184-a. Authorization of certain liabilities if approved
by popular vote; limitations as to amount.—No debt or liability,
except the debts specified in section one hundred and eighty-four,
shall be hereafter contracted by or in behalf of the State, unless
such debt shall be authorized by law for some single purpose con-
stituting new capital outlay, to be distinctly specified therein, and
a vote of a majority of all the members elected to each house shall
be necessary to the passage of such law. On the final passage of
such law in either house of the general assembly, the question shall
be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals there-
of, and shall be: “Shall this bill pass, and ought the same to receive
the sanction of the people?” No such law shall take effect until it
shall have been submitted to the people at a general election, and
shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for or against it.
Such law shall be published, as may be prsecribed by law, for at
least three months next preceding such election.

The aggregate amount of the debts authorized by this section
shall not at any one time exceed one per centum of the assessed
value of all the taxable real estate in the State, as shown by the last
preceding assessment.

None of the provisions of this section shall apply to the debts
specifically authorized by section one hundred and eighty-four of
this article.

Section 184-b. Issues of evidences of indebtedness by State pro-
hibited with certain exceptions.—No scrip, certificates, or other evi-
dences of indebtedness, shall be issued, except for the transfer or
redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are
expressly authorized in this Constitution.

Section 185. Lending of credit to, or subscription to stock of,
corporations or persons by State, county, city or town prohibited;
State shall become interested in no work of internal improvements
except public roads and public parks; exceptions as to counties,
cities and towns.-—Neither the credit of the State, nor of anv county,
city, or town, shall be, directly or indirectly, under any device or
pretense whatsoever, granted to or in aid of any person, associa-
tion, or corporation, nor shall the State, or any county, city, or town
subscribe to or hecome interested in the stock or obligations of any
company, association, or corporation, for the purpose of aiding in
the construction or maintenance of its work; nor shall the State
become a party to or become interested in any work of internal 1m-
provement, except public roads and public parks, or engage in
carrying on any such work; nor assume any indebtedness of any
county, city, or town, nor lend its credit to the same; but this sec-
tion shall not prevent a county, city, or town from pertecting a
subscription to the capital stock of a railroad company authorized
by existing charter conditioned upon the affirmative vote of the
voters and freeholders of such county, city, or town in favor of such
subscription ; provided, that such vote was had prior to July first,
nineteen hundred and three.

Section 186. Collection and disposition of State revenue; pay-
ment of money from State treasury; what appropriations shall not
be made.—All taxes, licenses and other revenue of the State shall
be collected by its proper officers and paid into the State treasury.
No money shall be paid out of the State treasury except in pursu-
ance of appropriations made by law; and no such appropriation shall
be made which is payable more than two years and six months after
the end of the session of the general assembly at which the law is
enacted authorizing the same; and no appropriation shall be made
ior the payment of any debt or obligation created in the name of
the State during the war between the Confederate States and the
United States. Nor shall any county, city or town pay any debt or
obligation created by such county, city or town in aid of said war.

Section 187. Sinking fund for State debt; every law creating a
debt to provide for a sinking fund for its payment.—The general
assembly shall provide and maintain a sinking fund, in accordance
with the provisions of section ten of the act, approved February the
twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, entited an act to pro-
vide for the settlement of the public debt of Virginia not funded
under the provisions of an act entitled an act to ascertain and de-
clare Virginia’s equitable share of the debt created before and
actually existing at the time of the partition of her territory and
resources, and to provide for the issuance of bonds covering the
same, and the regular and prompt payment of the interest thereon,
approved February the fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-
two. Every law hereafter enacted by the general assembly, creating
a debt or authorizing a loan, shall provide for the creation and
maintenance of a sinking fund for the payment or redemption of the
same.
Section 188. Limit of tax or revenue.—No other or greater
amount of tax or revenue shall, at any time, be levied than may be
required for the necessary expenses of the government, or to pay the
indebtedness of the State.

Section 189. Authorization of exemption of manufactories for
local taxation——The general assembly may, by general law, au-
thorize the governing bodies of cities, towns and counties to exempt
manufacturing establishments and works of internal improvement
from local taxation for a period not exceeding five years, as an in-
ducement to their location.

ARTICLE XIV

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS, HOMESTEAD AND OTHER EXEMPTIONS

Section 190. Homestead exemptions; when not to apply.—
Every householder or head of a family shall be entitled, in addition
to the articles now exempt from levy or distress for rent, to hold
exempt from levy, seizure, garnishment, or sale under execution,
order, or other process issued on any demand for a debt hereafter
contracted, his real and personal property, or either, including
money and debts due him, to the value of not exceeding two thou-
sand dollars, to be elected by him; provided, that such exemption
shall not extend to any execution, order, or other process issued on
any demand in the following cases:

First. For the purchase price of said property, or any part
thereof. If the property purchased, and not paid for, be exchanged
for, or converted into, other property by the debtor, such last-named
property shall not be exempted from the payment of such unpaid
purchase money under the provisions of this article;

Second. For services rendered by a laboring person or mechanic;

Third. For liabilities incurred by any public officer, or officer of
a court, or any fiduciary, or any attorney-at-law for money col-
lected;

Fourth. For a lawful claim for any taxes, levies, or assessments
accruing after the first day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-six ;

Fifth. For rent;

Sixth. For the legal or taxable fees of any public officer, or
officers of a court.

Section 191. In what property homestead exemptions cannot be
claimed.—The said exemption shall not be claimed or held in a
shifting stock of merchandise, or in any property the conveyance
of which by the homestead claimant has been set aside on the
ground of fraud or want of consideration.

Section 192. Manner and conditions on which homestead may
be set apart to be prescribed by general assembly.—The general
assembly shall prescribe the manner and the conditions on which a
householder or head of a family shall set apart and hold for him-
self and family a homestead in any part of the property hereinbefore
mentioned. But this section shall not be construed as authorizing
the general assembly to defeat or impair the benefits intended to be
conferred by the provisions of this article.

Section 193. Homestead previously claimed not invalidated
(liberally construed).—Nothing contained in this article shall in-
validate any homestead exemption heretofore claimed under the
provisions of the former Constitution; or impair in any manner the
right of any householder or head of a family existing at the time
that this Constitution goes into effect, to select the exemption, or
any part thereof, to which he is entitled under the former Consitu-
tion ; provided, that such right, if hereafter exercised, be not in con-
flict with the exemptions set forth in sections one hundred and
ninety and one hundred and ninety-one. But no person who has
selected and received the full exemption allowed by the former Con-
stitution shall be entitled to select an additional exemption under
this Constitution; and no person who has selected and received
part of the exemption allowed by the former Constitution shall be
entitled to select an additional exemption beyond the difference
between the value of such part and a total valuation of two thou-
sand dollars. So far as necessary to accomplish the purposes of
this section the provisions of chapter two hundred and seventy-four
of the Code of Virginia, and the acts amendatory thereof, shall re-
main in force until repealed by the general assembly. The provi-
sions of this article shall be liberally construed.

Section 194, Stay laws prohibited ; exceptions.—The general as-
sembly is hereby prohibited from passig any law staying the col-
lection of debts, commonly known as “stay laws’; but this section
shall not be construed as prohibiting any legislation which the gen-
eral assembly may deem necessary to fully carry out the provisions
of this article.

Section 195. Heirs of property; children of slaves.—The chil-
dren of parents, one or both of whom were slaves at and during the
period of cohabitation, and who were recognized by the father as
his children, and whose mother was recognized by such father as
his wife, and was cohabited with as such, shall be as capable of
inheriting any estate whereof such father may have died seized or
possessed, or to which he was entitled, as though they had been
born in lawful wedlack.

Section 195-a. Terms of office of incumbents.—All incumbents
of offices shall serve the term for which they have been previously
selected, subject to all the contingencies which affect officials of a
similar class hereafter selected.

ARTICLE XV

FutTurRE CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION

Section 196. Amendments.—Any amendment or amendments
to the Constitution may be proposed in the senate or house of dele-
gates, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the mem-
bers elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment
or amendments shall be entered on their journals, with the ayes and
noes taken thereon, and referred to the general assembly at its first
regular session held after the next general election of members of
the house of delegates, and shall be published for three months
previous to the time of such election. If, at such regular session or
any subsequent extra session of that general assembly the 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
general assembly to submit such proposed amendment or amend-
ments to the people, in such manner and at such times as it shall
prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amend-
ment or amendments by a majority of the electors, qualified to vote
for members of the general assembly, voting thereon, such amend-
ment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution.

Section 197. Constitutional convention; how called.—At such
time as the general assembly may provide, a majoritv of the mem-
bers elected to each house being recorded in the affirmative, the
question “shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and
amend the same?” shall he submitted to the electors qualified to
vote for members of the general assembly; and in case a majority
of the electors so qualified, voting thereon, shall vote in favor of a
convention for such purpose, the general assembly, at its next ses-
sion, shall provide for the election of delegates to such convention;
and no convention for such purpose shall be otherwise called.

ARTICLE XVI

RULES OF CONSTRUCTION

Section 198. Rules of construction.—In this Constitution, the
singular shall include the plural and the masculine the feminine.

In conferring a power or imposing a duty, “may” is permissive
and “shall” is mandatorv.

Omissions, having been often made for brevity, or because a part
omitted was superfluous, do not necessarily imply a change of policy.

These rules do not apply where a contrary intent plainly appears.