to the judges of the supreme court such defects and omissions in the laws as their experience may suggest; and the judges of the supreme court shall, on or before the first day of January of each year, report in writing to the governor such defects and omissions in the constitution and laws as they may find to exist, together with appropriate forms of bills to cure such defects and omissions in the laws. And the judges of the several circuit courts shall report to the next general assembly the number of days they have held court in the several counties composing their respective circuits, the preceding two years.

32. All officers provided for in this article shall hold their offices until their successors shall be qualified, and they shall, respectively, reside in the division, circuit, county or district for which they may be elected or appointed. The terms of office of all such officers, where not otherwise prescribed in this article, shall be four years. All officers, where not otherwise provided for in this article, shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as is or may be provided by law. Vacancies in such elective offices shall be filled by election; but where the unexpired term does not exceed one year, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment, as follows: Of judges, by the governor; of clerks of court, by the court to which the office appertains, or by the judge or judges thereof; and of all such offices, by the board of supervisors or board of county commissioners in the county where the vacancy occurs. [Hoagland v. Creed, 81 Ill. 507.

33. All process shall run: In the name of the People of the State of Illinois; and all prosecutions shall be carried on: In the name and by the authority of the People of the State of Illinois; and conclude: Against the peace and dignity of the same. Population," wherever used in this article, shall be determined by the next preceding census of this State, or of the United States.

ARTICLE VII.

Suffrage. SEC. 1. Every person having resided in this State one year, in the county ninety days, and in the election district thirty days next preceding any election therein, who was an elector in this State on the first day of April, in the year of our Lord 1848, or obtained a certificate of naturalization before any court of record in this State prior to the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1870, or who shall be a male [*74] citizen of the United States, above the age of 21 years, shall be entitled

to vote at such election.

§2. All votes shall be by ballot.

3. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same. And no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on the days of election, except in time of war or public danger.

$4. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in this State by reason of his absence on business of the United States, or of this State, or in the military or naval service of the United States.

§ 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United

States shall be deemed a resident of this State in consequence of being stationed therein.

6. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this State, civil or military, who is not a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have resided in this State one year next preceding the election or appointment.

7. The general assembly shall pass laws excluding from the right of suffrage persons convicted of infamous crimes.

ARTICLE VIII.

Education. SEC. I. The general assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free-schools, whereby all children of this State may receive a good common school education.

[Fuller v. Heath, 89 Ill. 313.

§ 2. All lands, moneys, or other property, donated, granted or received for schools, college, seminary or university purposes, and the proceeds thereof, shall be faithfully applied to the objects for which such gifts or grants were made.

[City of Chicago v. The People, 80 Ill. 384.

3. Neither the general assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, any thing in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.

§ 4. No teacher, State, county, township or district school officer shall be interested in the sale, proceeds or profits of any book, apparatus or furniture used or to be used in any school in this State, with which such officer or teacher may be connected, under such penalties as may be provided by the general assembly.

§ 5. There may be a county superintendent of schools in each county,

whose qualifications, powers, duties, compensation, and time and manner of election, and term of office shall be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IX.

Revenue. SEC. 1. The general assembly shall provide such revenue as may be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her or its property. such value to be ascertained by some person or persons, to be elected or appointed in such manner as the general assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the general assembly shall have power to tax peddlers, auctioneers, brokers, hawkers, merchants, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, innkeepers, grocer kyeepers, liquor dealers, toll bridges, ferries, insurance, telegraph and express interests

or business, vendors of patents, and persons or corporations owning or using franchises and privileges, in such manner as it shall from time to time direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it operates.

[Euright v. People, 79 Ill. 214; Trustees v. McConnel, 12 Ill. 138; Ill. Cent. R. R. Co. v. County of McLean, 17 Ill. 291; Hunsaker v. Wright, 30 l 146; Board of Supervisors v. Campbell, 42 Ill. 491; Rhinehart v. Schuyler, 2 Gil. 473; Shaw v. Dennis, 5 Gil. 405: City of Chicago v. Larned, 34 Ill. 203; City of Ottawa v. Spencer, 40 Ill. 211; City of Chicago v. Baer, 41 ill. 306; Creote v. City of Chicago, 56 Ill 422; Greeley v. People, 60 III. 19; Primm v. City of Belleville, 59 Ill. 142; People v. McRoberts, 62 111. 38; Bedard v. Hall, 44 Ill. 91; Dunham v. City of Chicago, 55 Ill 357; City of East St. Louis v Wehrung, 46 Ill. 392; Fitch v. Pinckard. 4 Scam 70; McVeagh v City of Chicago, 49 Ill. 318; McVeagh v. Neuhaus, 49 ill. 330; First National Bank v. Smith, 65 Ill. 44; People v. Salomon, 46 Ill. 333; Scammon v. City of Chicago, 44 III. 269; Howe v. People, 86 Ill. 287; Sleight v. People, 74 Ill. 49.

§2. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxation [*75] shall not deprive the general assembly of the power to require other subjects or objects to be taxed in such manner as may be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this constitution.

$3. The property of the State, counties, and other municipal corporations, both real and personal, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be only by general law. In the assessment of real estate incumbered by public easement, any depreciation occasioned by such easement may be deducted in the valuation of such property.

[N. W University v. People, 80 Ill. 333.

$4. The general assembly shall provide in all cases where it may be necessary to sell real estate for the non-payment of taxes or special assessments for State, county, municipal or other purposes, that a return of such unpaid taxes or assessments shall be made to some general officer of the county having authority to receive State and county taxes; and there shall be no sale of said property for any of said taxes or assessments but by said officer, upon the order or judgment of some court of record.

[Edwards v. People, 88 Ill. 345; Webster v. City of Chicago, 62 Ill. 302.

$5. The right of redemption from all sales of real estate for the nonpayment of taxes or special assessments of any character whatever, shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate, for a period of not less than two years from such sales thereof. And the general assembly shall provide by law for reasonable notice to be given to the owners or parties interested, by publication or otherwise, of the fact of the sale of the property for such taxes or assessments, and when the time of redemption shall expire: Provided, that occupants shall in all cases be served with personal notice before the time of redemption expires. [Billings v. Riggs, 56 Ill. 483; Williams v. Underhill, 58 Ill. 137.

$6. The general assembly shall have no power to release or discharge any county, city, township, town or district whatever, or the inhabitants thereof, or the property therein, from their or its proportionate share of

taxes to be levied for State purposes, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in any form whatsoever.

[Livingston County v. Weider, 64 Ill 427.

7. All taxes levied for State purposes shall be paid into the State treasury.

§ 8. County authorities shall never assess taxes, the aggregate of which shall exceed seventy-five cents per $100 valuation, except for the payment of indebtedness existing at the adoption of this constitution, unless authorized by a vote of the people of the county.

§ 9. The general assembly may vest the corporate authorities of cities, towns and villages with power to make local improvements by special assessment, or by special taxation of contiguous property, or otherwise. For all other corporate purposes, all municipal corporations may be vested with authority to assess and collect taxes; but such taxes shall be uniform in respect to persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same.

53

[People v. Gage, 83 I. 486; Guild v. City of Chicago, 82 Ill. 477; People v. Mayor of Chicago, 51 Ill. 18; Dunnavan v. Green, 57 Ill. 63; Lovingston v. Wider, 302; Wider v. City of East St. Louis, 55 Ill. 133; County of Madison v. People, 58 111 456; People v. Canty, 55 Ill. 33; Taylor v. Thompson, 42 l. 9; Misner v. Bullard, 42 Ill. 470; Johnson v. Campbell, 49 Ill. 316; Henderson v. Lagow, 42 Ill. 360; Briscoe v. Allison, 43 Ill. 291; Stebbins v. Leaman, 47 Ill. 352; Harward v. St. Clair Drainage Co., 51 III. 130; Sleight v. People, 74 Ill. 49.

10. The general assembly shall not impose taxes upon municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for corporate purposes, but shall require that all the taxable property within the limits of municipal corporations shall be taxed for the payment of debts contracted under authority of law, such taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. Private property shall not be liable to be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debts of a municipal corporation. [Hyde Park v. Ingalls, 87 Ill. 13; Sleight v. People, 74 Ill. 49.

11. No person who is in default, as collector or custodian of money or property belonging to a municipal corporation, shall be eligible to any office in or under such corporation. The fees, salary or compensation of no municipal officer who is elected or appointed for a definite term of office, shall be increased or diminished during such term. [Purcell v. Parks, 82 Ill. 346.

12. No county, city, township, school district, or other municipal corporation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any manner or for any purpose, to an amount, including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding five per centum on the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and [*76] county taxes, previous to the incurring of such indebtedness. Any county, city, school district, or other municipal corporation, incurring any indebtedness as aforesaid, shall before, or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the

same. This section shall not be construed to prevent any county, city, township, school district, or other municipal corporation, from issuing their bonds in compliance with any vote of the people which may have been had prior to the adoption of this constitution in pursuance of any law providing therefor.

[Springfield v. Edwards, 84 Ill. 629; Law v. People, 87 Ill. 385; Fuller v. Heath, 1 Brad. 123.

ARTICLE X.

Counties. SEC. 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the general assembly, which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents than 400 square miles; nor shall any county be formed of less contents; nor shall any line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided.

$2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county, voting on the question, shall vote for the same.

[People v. Marshall, 12 Ill. 391; People v. Warfield, 20 Ill. 159.

§3. There shall be no territory stricken from any county, unless a majority of all the voters living in such territory shall petition for such division; and no territory shall be added to any county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added. But the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be holden for, and obliged to pay its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which it has been taken.

County seats. § 4. No county seat shall be removed until the point to which it is proposed to be removed shall be fixed in pursuance of law, and three-fifths of the voters of the county, to be ascertained in such manner as shall be provided by general law, shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point; and no person shall vote on such question who has not resided in the county six months, and in the election precinct ninety days next preceding such election. The question of the removal of a county seat shall not be oftener submitted than once in ten years, to a vote of the people. But when an attempt is made to remove a county seat to a point nearer to the center of a county, then a majority vote only shall be necessary.

(People v. Wiant, 48 Ill. 263; Joliet v. Tuohey, 1 Brad. 489.

County government. § 5. The general assembly shall provide, by general law, for township organization, under which any county may organize whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at any general election, shall so determine, and whenever any county shall adopt township organization, so much of this constitution as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns of the said county by the board of county commissioners, may be dispensed with, and the affairs of said county may be transacted in such manner as the general assem