the said court. And no justice of the peace shall be removed until he shall have notice of the charges made against him, and an opportunity of being heard in his defence.

8. Sheriffs and clerks of counties, including the register and clerks of the city and county of New York, shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties once in every three years, and as often as vacancies shall happen. Sheriffs shall hold no other office, and be ineligible for the next three years after the termination of their offices. They may be required by law to renew their security from time to time; and in default of giving such new security, their offices shall be deemed vacant. But the county shall never be made responsible for the acts of the sheriff. And the governor may remove any such sheriff, clerk, or register at any time within the three years for which he shall be elected, giving to such sheriff, clerk, or register a copy of the charge against him, and an opportunity of being heard in his defence before any removal

shall be made.

9. The clerks of court, except those clerks whose appointment is provided for in the preceding section, shall be appointed by the courts of which they respectively are clerks; and district attorneys by the county courts. Clerks of courts, and district attorneys shall hold their offices for three years, unless sooner removed by the courts appointing them.

10. The mayors of all the cities in this state shall be appointed annually by the common councils of their respective cities.

11. So many coroners as the legislature may direct, not exceeding four in each county, shall be elected in the same manner as sheriffs, and shall hold their offices for the same term, and be removable in like manner.

12. The governor shall nominate, and, with the consent of the senate, appoint masters and examiners in chancery; who shall hold their offices for three years, unless sooner removed by the senate on the recommendation of the governor. The registers, and assistant-registers, shall be appointed by the chancellor, and hold their offices during his pleasure.

13. The clerk of the court of oyer and terminer, and general sessions of the peace, in and for the city and county of New York, shall be appointed by the court of general sessions of the peace in said city, and hold his office during the pleasure of said court; and such clerks and other officers of courts, whose appointment is not herein provided for, shall be appointed by the several courts; or by the governor, with the consent of the senate, as may be directed by law.

14. The special justices, and the assistant justices and their clerks, in the city of New York, shall be appointed by the com

mon council of the said city; and shall hold their offices for the same term that the justices of the peace, in the other counties of this state, hold their offices, and shall be removable in like

manner.

15. All officers heretofore elective by the people shall continue to be elected, and all other officers whose appointment is not provided for by this constitution, and all officers whose offices may be hereafter created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed, as may by law be directed.

16. Where the duration of any office is not prescribed by this constitution, it may be declared by law; and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment.

ARTICLE V.

1. The court for the trial of impeachments, and the correction of errors, shall consist of the president of the senate, the senators, the chancellors, and the justices of the supreme court, or the major part of them; but when an impeachment shall be prosecuted against the chancellor, or any justice of the supreme court, the person so impeached shall be suspended from exercising his office until his acquital: and when an appeal from a decree in chancery shall be heard, the chancellor shall inform the court of the reasons for his decree, but shall have no voice in the final sentence; and when a writ of error shall be brought on a judgment of the supreme court, the justices of that court shall assign the reasons for their judgment, but shall not have a voice for its affirmance or reversal.

2. The assembly shall have the power of impeaching all civil officers of this state for mal and corrupt conduct in office, and high crimes and misdemeanors: but a majority of all the members elected shall concur in an impeachment. Before the trial of an impeachment, the members of the court shall take an oath or affirmation truly and impartially to try and determine the charge in question according to evidence: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than the removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust, or profit under this state; but the party convicted shall be liable to indictment and punishment according to law.

3. The chancellor and justices of the supreme court shall hold their offices during good behaviour, or until they shall attain the age of sixty years.

4. The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and two justices, any of whom may hold the court.

5. The state shall be divided, by law, into a convenient number of circuits, not less than four nor exceeding eight, subject to alteration by the legislature, from time to time, as the public good may require; for each of which a circuit judge shall be appointed in the same manner, and hold his office by the same tenure, as the justices of the supreme court; and who shall possess the powers of a justice of the supreme court at chambers, and in the trial of issues joined in the supreme court, and in courts of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery. And such equity powers may be vested in the said circuit judges, or in the county courts, or in such other subordinate courts as the legislature may by law direct, subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the chancellor.

6. Judges of the county courts, and recorders of cities shall hold their offices for five years, but may be removed by the senate, on the recommendation of the governor, for causes to be stated in such recommendation.

7. Neither the chancellor, nor justices of the supreme court, nor any circuit judge, shall hold any other office or public trust. All votes for any elective office, given by the legislature or the people, for the chancellor, or a justice of the supreme court, or circuit judge, during his continuance in his judicial office, shall be void.

ARTICLE VI.

1. Members of the legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as may by law be exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of New York. and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of- -according to the best of my ability." And no other oath, declaration, or test, shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.

ARTICLE VII.

1. No member of this state shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.

2. The trial by jury, in all cases in which it has been heretofore used, shall remain inviolate for ever; and no new court shall be

instituted but such as shall proceed according to the course of the common law; except such courts of equity as the legislature is herein authorised to establish.

3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall for ever be allowed in this state to all mankind; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.

4. And whereas the ministers of the gospel are, by their profession, dedicated to the service of God, and the cure of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions; therefore, no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be eligible to or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within this state.

5. The militia of this state shall, at all times hereafter, be armed and disciplined and in readiness for service: but all such inhabitants of this state, of any religious denomination whatever, as from scruples of conscience may be averse to bearing arms shall be excused therefrom, by paying to the state an equivalent in money; and the legislature shall provide by law for the collection of such equivalent, to be estimated according to the expense, in time and money, of an ordinary able-bodied militia man.

6. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension.

7. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or other infamous crime, [except in cases of impeachment, and in cases of the militia when in actual service: and the land and naval forces in time of war, or which this state may keep, with the consent of the congress, in time of peace, and in cases of petit larceny, under the regulation of the legislature; unless on presentment or indietment of a grand jury; and in every trial on impeachment or indictment the party accused shall be allowed council as in civil actions. No person shall be subject, for the same offence, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall he be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law: nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

8. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments, on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. In all prosecutions, or indictments for libels, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury: and if it

shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous is true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.

9. The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of the legislature, shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes, or creating, continuing, altering, or renewing, any body politic or corporate.

10. The proceeds of all lands belonging to this state, except such parts thereof as may be reserved or appropriated to public use, or ceded to the United States, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, together with the fund denominated the common school fund, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of common schools throughout this state. Rates of toll, not less than those agreed to by the canal commissioners, and set forth in their report to the legislature of the twelfth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, shall be imposed on, and collected from, all parts of the navigable communication between the great western and northern lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, which now are, or hereafter shall be, made and completed; and the said tolls, together with the duties on the manufacture of all salt, as established by the act of the fifteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen: and the duties on goods sold at auction, excepting therefrom the sum of thirty-three thousand five hundred dollars, otherwise appropriated by the said act; and the amount of the revenue established by the act of the legislature of the thirtieth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in lieu of the tax upon steam-boat passengers, shall be and remain inviolably appropriated and applied to the completion of such navigable communications, and to the payment of the interest and reimbursement of the capital of the money already borrowed, or which hereafter shall be borrowed, to make and complete the same. And neither the rates of toll on the said navigable communications, nor the duties on the manufacture of salt aforesaid, nor the duties on goods sold at auction, as established by the act of the fifteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen; nor the amount of the revenue established by the act of March the thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in lieu of the tax upon steamboat passengers, shall be reduced or diverted, at any time, before the full and complete payment of the principal and interest of the money borrowed, or to be borrowed, as aforesaid. And the legislature shall never sell or dispose of the salt springs belonging to this state, nor the lands contiguous thereto, which may be neces