The General Assembly shall not delegate to any special commission, private corporation or association, any power to make, supervise or interfere with any municipal improvement, money, property or effects, whether held in trust or otherwise, or to levy taxes or perform any municipal function whatever.

No act of the General Assembly shall limit the amount to be recovered for injuries resulting in death, or for injuries to persons or property; and, in case of death from such injuries the right of action shall survive, and the General Assembly shall prescribe for whose benefit such actions shall be prosecuted. No act shall prescribe any limitations of time, within which suits may be brought against corporations for injuries to persons or property, or for other causes, different from those fixed by general laws, regulating actions against natural persons, and such acts now existing are avoided.

No act of the General Assembly shall authorize the investment of trust funds by executors, administrators, guardians or other trustees, in the bonds or stock of any private corporation, and such acts now existing are avoided, saving investments heretofore made. The power to change the venue in civil and criminal cases shall be vested in the courts, to be exercised in such manner as shall be provided by law.

No obligation or liability of any railroad or other corporation, held or owned by the Commonwealth, shall ever be exchanged, transferred, remitted, postponed, or in any way diminished, by the General Assembly, nor shall such liability or obligation be released, except by payment thereof into the State Treasury.

When the General Assembly shall be convened in special session, there shall be no legislation upon subjects other than those designated in the proclamation of the Governor calling such session.

No State office shall be continued or created for the inspection or measuring of any merchandise, manufacture or commodity, but any county or municipality may appoint such officers when authorized by law.

No law changing the location of the capital of the State shall be valid, until the same shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the Commonwealth, at a general election, and ratified and approved by them.

Act Regulating the Publication of Application for Local or Special Legislation-Feb. 12, 1874.

That no local or special bill, either to repeal or enact a law, shall be passed by the Legislature, unless notice of the intention to apply therefore shall be published in the locality where the matter or thing to be effected may be situated, which notice shall state specifically the title and objects of the bill, and shall be published by not less than four insertions in at least two daily or weekly newspapers, one of which may be in a language other than English, once a week for four consecutive weeks, printed in the county, or in each of the several counties, where such matter or thing to be affected may be situated; the first insertion to be at least thirty days prior to and within three months immediately preceding the introduction of such bill into the General Assembly, and be signed by at least one of the parties applying therefor: Provided, That the publication in one newspaper shall be deemed sufficient where but one is published in the county or counties aforesaid.

The evidence of the publication aforesaid shall be by attaching to a bill a copy or copies, as the case may be, of said notice, verified by the affidavit of the owner, publisher, editor or foreman of each of the several newspapers in which said notice is by this act required to be published, of due compliance with the preceding section.

That when such local or special bill shall effect any matter or things situated in any city or borough, said publication shall be in two of the newspapers published in said city or borough, if so many there be; and if there be but one a publication in that one shall be deemed sufficient; if there be no newspaper published in said city or borough, then by publication in the newspaper or newspapers of the county in which said city or borough is located, as provided in the first section of this act.

DIGEST OF THE ELECTION LAWS.

Polls open at 7 A. M., and close at 7 P. M.

WHO CAN VOTE.

Every male citizen, twenty-one years of age, possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections:

1. He shall have been a citizen of the United States one month.

2. He shall have resided in the State one year; or, if having previously been a qualified elector or native-born citizen thereof, and shall have removed therefrom and returned, then he shall have resided therein six months immediately preceding the election.

3. He shall have resided in the district where he intends to vote two months immediately preceding the election, instead of ten days, as heretofore. A residence is neither lost nor gained by being left in any poor-house, nor while confined in prison.

4. If twenty-two years of age, or upward, he shall have paid, within two years a State or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least two months previous to the election, and paid at least one month previous to the

same.

5. The "naturalized" citizen must have been "naturalized" at least one month before the election.

6. All persons are required to take notice, that by the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, it is provided that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude."

GENERAL ELECTION.

General elections shall be held on the Tuesday next following the first Mon. day in November, in each year.

ELECTIONS FOR CITY, WARD AND BOROUGH OFFICERS. Elections for city, ward, borough, and township officers, for regular terms of service, on the third Tuesday of February in each year.

ELECTIONS--WHERE HELD.

The place for holding elections is fixed by the court, but shall not be held in any room any part of which is used for the sale of liquors if possible to obtain another room in that vicinity.

MAGISTRATES.

In Philadelphia, there shall be established, for each thirty thousand inhabitants, one court, not of record, of police and civil causes, with jurisdiction not exceeding one hundred dollars; such courts shall be held by magistrates, whose term of office shall be five years, and they shall be elected on general

ticket, by the qualified voters at large; and in the election of the said magistrates no voter shall vote for more than two-thirds of the number of persons to be elected, when more than one are to be chosen. They shall be compensated only by fixed salaries, to be paid by said county; and shall exercise such jurisdiction, civil and criminal, except as herein provided, as is now exercised by aldermen, subject to such changes, not involving an increase of civil jurisdiction, or conferring political duties, as may be made by law. In Philadelphia the office of alderman is abolished.

WOMEN TO Hold office.

Women, twenty-one years of age and upward shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of this State.

ASSESSORS.

One assessor is elected annually, in February, in each division; but where the division is divided, on account of the vote exceeding two hundred and fifty, the court of common pleas appoints in the new division, until the next election, the old officer holding over in the original division.

The assessor takes the transcript of the former assessment and revises it, visiting every house in his district, and inquiring who has died or removed, who remains, and who has moved into the division, and adds or erases the names, as the case may be. He then makes out an alphabetical list of the persons entitled to vote. Prior to the first Monday of August, the assessor must put a copy of the registry of electors on the door of, or on the division house, and retain one other copy in his possession, for the inspection, free of charge, of any person in the district, and from time to time to add to the list the names of persons entitled to vote, upon personal application; and opposite each name shall give the number of house, occupation, whether housekeeper; if not, with whom he boards, and name of employer; and opposite each name write the word "voter;" if naturalized, mark the letter "V" where he has declared his intentions and designs to be naturalized before the next election, mark “D. 1. " where entitled to be naturalized under existing laws, without making a declaration of intention, and intends to be natural. ized at least one month before the next general election, mark “I. N. ;” where on age, mark “ age," and if moved into the district since last election, to reside, mark "R;" then make out a separate list of new assessments, and return all lists to the county commissioners, who shall cause the same to be printed and posted on the voting place for each division, for inspection. On the sixty-first and sixty-second days prior to the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, the assessor must sit at the division house from 10 A. M. to 3 P. M., and from 6 P. M. to 9 P. M., for the purpose of adding to the list the names of persons entitled to vote, and of striking from the list the names of fictitious persons, and of persons who have died or removed from the division.

FINE AND IMPRISONMENT OF ASSESSSORS.

A penalty, of fine and imprisonment, for an assessor knowingly assessing any person who is not a voter, or refusing to assess a person who is qualified, is provided.

APPEAL TO BE MADE IN COURT.

In addition, the court of common pleas, or any judge thereof, at any time before the day of election, upon complaint before it or him, under oath, of a breach of any of the duties imposed on the assessor, can call the assessor be

fore it or him, and hear the parties and dispose of the subject, in a summary manner, as to law and justice belong, and, if need be, order the assessor to correct the registry accordingly, and enforce such order by attachment or proceedings upon contempt. The court of common pleas has no power to add a name to the assessor's list unless the party has made application to the assessor to have his name put upon the list, or the assessor has been guilty of gross bad faith in the discharge of the duties of the office.

The assessors shall each recive the same compensation for the time necessarily spent in performing the duties, as provided by law to assessors making valuations, to be paid by the county commissioners. It shall not be lawful for any assessor to assess a tax against any person within sixty-one days preceding the annual November election, and any election officer, assessor or overseer, who shall neglect their duty shall be subject to a fine of one hundred dollars.

ASSESSORS APPOINTED.

In districts where an assessor has not been elected the court of common pleas shall appoint a reputable person to the position.

At the election held on the third Tuesday of February, each district shall elect one judge, and two inspectors and an assessor.

The respective assessors, inspectors, judges and overseers shall each have the power to administer oaths to any person claiming the right to be assessed or the right of suffrage. Assessors convicted of drunkenness while in discharge of their duties liable to imprisonment for thirty days and fine of twenty dollars and costs.

WHO CAN BE ELECTION OFFICERS.

No one can be an election officer who holds, or has held within two months of the election, any office, appointment, or employment, in or under the Government of the United States, or of this State, or of any municipal board, commission, or trust, in any city. This excludes an objectionable class of persons who have heretofore figured largely among the election officers.

ELECTION OFFICERS.

District election boards shall consist of a judge and two inspectors; each elector may vote for one person for judge and one person for inspector-the person receiving the highest number of votes to be judge, and the two receiving the highest number of votes for inspectors to be inspectors. Each inspector appoints a clerk, who must be a qualified elector of the division. The judges, inspectors and clerks each receive five dollars.* Service upon an election board exempts the party so serving from jury duty for a year. Election officers convicted of drunkenness while in discharge of their duties liable to imprisonment for thirty days and fine of twenty dollars and costs.

FILLING VACANCIES.

The manner of filling vacancies in the board of election officers on the day of election, under the act of 1839, is as follows: If the minority inspector shall not attend on election day the defeated minority candidate for judge of election acts as the minority inspector. If the majority inspector shall not attend the judge appoints an inspector. If the judge shall not attend the majority inspector appoints a judge. If any vacancy is not filled within an hour after the opening of the poils, the voters of the division elect a per*This applies to Philadelphia. The compensation is regulated by law, and is not the same in all counties.