of such Board, or a majority of them, and returned, one copy thereof to the Mayor, or other chief executive officer of such city, and the other to the Recorder of deeds of the county. Such proposed charter shall then be published in two daily papers of general circulation in such city for at least twenty days, and within not less than thirty days after such publication it shall be submitted to the qualified electors of such city at a general or special election, and if a majority of such qualified electors voting thereat shall ratify the same, it shall thereafter be submitted to the Legislature for its approval or rejection as a whole, without power of alteration or amendment, and if approved by a majority vote of the members elected to each House, it shall become the charter of such city, or if such city be consolidated with a county, then of such city and county, and shall become the organic law thereof, and supersede any existing charter and all amendments thereof, and all special laws inconsistent with such charter. A copy of such charter, certified by the Mayor, or chief executive officer, and authenticated by the seal of such city, setting forth the submission of such charter to the electors and its ratification by them, shall be made in duplicate and deposited, one in the office of the Secretary of State, the other, after being recorded in the office of the Recorder of deeds of the county, among the archives of the city; all Courts shall take judicial notice thereof. The charter so ratified may be amended at intervals of not less than two years, by proposals therefor, submitted by legislative authority of the city to the qualified voters thereof, at a general or special election held at least sixty days after the publication of such proposals, and ratified by at

least three-fifths of the qualified electors voting thereat, and approved by the Legislature as herein provided for the approval of the charter. In submitting any such charter, or amendment thereto, any alternative article or proposition may be presented for the choice of the voters, and may be voted on separately without prejudice to others.

Mo. IX, 16-22. For amendment of § 8, 1892, see p. 123.

City charter.-A city charter is a general law. It is doubtful whether the legislature may enact in a city charter that the violation of an ordinance which the city may thereafter pass shall be a misdemeanor.2

1 Clark v. Janesville, 10 Wis. 136.

2 Pillsbury v. Brown, 47 Cal. 478.

§ 9. The compensation of any county, city, town, or municipal officer shall not be increased after his election or during his term of office; nor shall the term of any such officer be extended beyond the period for which he is elected or appointed.

§ 10. No county, city, town, or other public or municipal corporation, nor the inhabitants thereof, nor the property therein, shall be released or discharged from its or their proportionate share of taxes to be levied for State purposes, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in any form whatsoever.

Colo. X, 8; Ill. VIII, 6; Mo. X, 9; Neb. IX, 4.

Release of indebtedness.-This section was not intended to embrace a release of claims doubtful or hazardous which the State may hold against a corporation. Burr v. City of Carbondale, 76 Ill. 455.

§ 11. Any county, city, town, or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local, police, sani.

tary, and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.

Ark. XII, 4.

General laws.-A law cannot be general in any correct sense of the term, but must be local or special, which by reason of a local option is repealed, or has its vitality suspended in one locality, but remains in full force and vigor in another, or that in the same locality is law or not law, according to the changing fancies of the local authority. A city ordinance requiring payment of a license for the sale of spirituous liquors does not violate this provision.2

1 People v. Cooper, 83 Ill. 585.

2 Ex parte Hurl, 49 Cal. 557.

See Ante, p. 226, LOCAL OPTION LAWS.

§ 12. The Legislature shall have no power to impose taxes upon counties, cities, towns, or other public or municipal corporations, or upon the inhabitants or property thereof, for county, city, town, or other municipal purposes, but may, by general laws, vest in the corporate authorities thereof the power to assess and collect taxes for such purposes.

Neb. IX, 7.

§ 13. The Legislature shall not delegate to any special commission, private corporation, company, association, or individual, any power to make, control, appropriate, supervise, or in any way interfere with, any county, city, town, or municipal improvement, money, property, or effects, whether held in trust or otherwise, or to levy taxes or assessments, or perform any municipal functions what

ever.

Colo. V. 35; Pa. III, 20.

Delegation of powers.-That the legislature shall not delegate to a special commission, etc., is prospective only. A grant of an easement in a street made to a corporation is purely a grant of corporate powers, and cannot be made to private corporations by special act.2 The legislature cannot authorize a municipal corporation to confer special franchises not common to all similar corporations under the general law. Where there is a grant of power in the constitution to a department of government or to a constitutional or statutory officer or tribunal, without defining the manner of its exercise, the legislature may prescribe the rule.4

1 Perkins v. Slack, 86 Pa. St. 270.

2 San Francisco v. S. V. W. W. 48 Cal. 493.

3 Waterloo T. Co. v. Cole, 51 Cal. 381; San Francisco v. S. V. W. W. 48 Cal. 493.

4 Austin v. Gulf C. &c. R. R. Co. 45 Tex. 234.

§ 14. No State office shall be continued or created in any county, city, town, or other municipality, for the inspection, measurement, or graduation of any merchandise, manufacture, or commodity; but such county, city, town, or municipality may, when authorized by general law, appoint such officers.

N. Y. V, 8; Pa. III, 27; See Pinkham v. Tapscott, 17 N. Y. 141.

§ 15. Private property shall not be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debt of any political or municipal corporation.

Colo. X, 14; Mo. X, 13; Neb. IX, 7.

§ 16. All moneys, assessments, and taxes belonging to or collected for the use of any county, city, town, or other public or municipal corporation, coming into the hands of any officer thereof, shall immediately be deposited with the Treasurer, or other legal depositary, to the credit of

such city, town, or other corporation respectively, for the benefit of the funds to which they respectively belong.

§ 17. The making of profit out of county, city, town, or other public money, or using the same for any purpose not authorized by law, by any officer having the possession or control thereof, shall be a felony, and shall be prosecuted and punished as prescribed by law.

Ark. XVI, 3; Mo. X, 17; Pa. IX, 14.

§ 18. No county, city, town, township, Board of Education, or school district, shall incur any indebtedness or liability in any manner, or for any purpose, exceeding in any year the income and revenue provided for it for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors thereof voting at an election to be held for that purpose, nor unless, before or at the time of incurring such indebtedness, provision shall be made for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. Any indebtedness or liability incurred contrary to this provision shall be void.

Ill. IX, 12; Mo. X, 12. For amendment of § 18, 1892, see p. 127.

Construction. This section is a restriction on legislative discretion in the authorizing of county and municipal indebtedness to aid railroad and other improvements. It fixes the boundary beyond which the legislature cannot go, but within which its authority is still supreme.1 There is no warrant for the creation of county indebtedness beyond the limit prescribed and sanctioned by at least two-thirds of the votes cast.2 and any attempt to evade