tory thereof), subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure compliance with the terms of its endowments and the proper investment and security of its funds. It shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence, and kept free therefrom in the appointment of its regents, and in the administration of its affairs; provided, that all the moneys derived from the sale of the public lands donated to this State by act of Congress, approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two (and the several acts amendatory thereof), shall be invested as provided by said acts of Congress, and the interest of said moneys shall be inviolably appropriated to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college of agriculture, where the leading objects shall be (without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics) to teach such branches of learning as are related to scientific and practical agriculture and the mechanic arts, in accordance with the requirements and conditions of said acts of Congress; and the Legislature shall provide that if, through neglect, misappropriation, or any other contingency, any portion of the funds so set apart shall be diminished or lost, the State shall replace such portion so lost or misappropriated, so that the principal thereof shall remain forever undiminished. No person shall be debarred admission to any of the collegiate departments of the university on account of sex.

ARTICLE X.

THE STATE PRISONS.

SECTION 1. Prison Directors: Appointment and Term.There shall be a State board of prison directors, to consist of five persons, to be appointed by the Governor,

with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall hold office for ten years, except that the first appointed shall, in such manner as the Legislature may direct, be so classified that the term of one person so appointed shall expire at the end of each two years during the first ten years, and vacancies occurring shall be filled in like manner. The appointee to a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a term, shall hold office only for the unexpired term of his predecessor. The Governor shall have the power to remove either of the directors for misconduct, incompetency, or neglect of duty, after an opportunity to be heard, upon written charges.

SECT. 2. Powers and Duties.-The board of directors shall have the charge and superintendence of the State prisons, and shall possess such powers, and perform such duties, in respect to other penal and reformatory institutions of the State, as the Legislature may prescribe.

SECT. 3. Prison Officers.-The board shall appoint the warden and clerk, and determine the other necessary officers of the prisons. The board shall have power to remove the wardens and clerks for misconduct, incompetency, or neglect of duty. All other officers and employés of the prisons shall be appointed by the warden thereof, and be removed at his pleasure.

SECT. 4. Compensation of Prison Directors.-The members of the board shall receive no compensation, other than reasonable traveling and other expenses incurred. while engaged in the performance of official duties, to be audited as the Legislature may direct.

SECT. 5. Powers of the Legislature.-The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary to further define and regulate the powers and duties of the board, wardens, and clerks, and to carry into effect the provisions of this article.

SECT. 6. Convict Labor.-After the first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, the labor of convicts shall not be let out by contract to any person, copartnership, company, or corporation, and the Legislature shall, by law, provide for the working of convicts for the benefit of the State.

COUNTIES, CITIES, AND TOWNS.

SECTION 1. Existing Counties Recognized.—The several counties, as they now exist, are hereby recognized as legal subdivisions of this State.

SECT. 2. Removal of County Seat.-No county seat shall be removed unless two thirds of the qualified electors of the county, voting on the proposition at a general election, shall vote in favor of such removal. A proposition of removal shall not be submitted in the same county more than once in four years.

SECT. 3. New Counties.-No new county shall be established which shall reduce any county to a population of less than eight thousand; nor shall a new county be formed containing a less population than five thousand; nor shall any line thereof pass within five miles of the county seat of any county proposed to be divided. Every county which shall be enlarged or created from territory taken from any other county or counties, shall be liable for a just proportion of the existing debts and liabilities of the county or counties from which such territory shall be taken.

SECT. 4. County Government.-The Legislature shall establish a system of county governments which shall be uniform throughout the State; and by general laws shall

provide for township organization, under which any county may organize whenever a majority of the qualified electors of such county, voting at a general election, shall so determine; and whenever a county shall adopt township organization, the assessment and collection of the revenue shall be made and the business of such county and the local affairs of the several townships therein shall be managed and transacted in the manner prescribed by such general laws.

SECT. 5. County Officers.-The Legislature, by general and uniform laws, shall provide for the election or appointment, in the several counties, of boards of supervisors, sheriffs, county clerks, district attorneys, and such other county, township, and municipal officers as public convenience may require, and shall prescribe their duties and fix their terms of office. It shall regulate the compensation of all such officers, in proportion to duties, and for this purpose may classify the counties by population; and it shall provide for the strict accountability of county and township officers for all fees which may be collected by them, and for all public and municipal moneys which may be paid to them or officially come into their possession.

SECT. 6. Municipal Corporations.—Corporations for municipal purposes shall not be created by special laws; but the Legislature, by general laws, shall provide for the incorporation, organization, and classification, in proportion to population, of cities and towns, which laws may be altered, amended, or repealed. Cities and towns heretofore organized or incorporated may become organized under such general laws whenever a majority of the electors voting at a general election shall so determine, and shall organize in conformity therewith; and cities or towns heretofore or hereafter organized, and all charters thereof framed or adopted by authority of this Constitution, shall be subject to and controlled by general laws.

SECT. 7. Consolidated City and County Governments.— City and county governments may be merged and consolidated into one municipal government, with one set of officers, and may be incorporated under general laws providing for the incorporation and organization of corporations for municipal purposes. The provisions of this Constitution applicable to cities, and also those applicable to counties, so far as not inconsistent or not prohibited to cities, shall be applicable to such consolidated government. In consolidated city and county governments, of more than one hundred thousand population, there shall be two boards of supervisors or houses of legislation-one of which, to consist of twelve persons, shall be elected by general ticket from the city and county at large, and shall hold office for the term of four years, but shall be so classified that after the first election only six shall be elected every two years; the other, to consist of twelve persons, shall be elected every two years, and shall hold office for the term of two years. Any vacancy occurring in the office of supervisor, in either board, shall be filled by the mayor or other chief executive officer.

SECT. 8. Charters for Cities Containing more than One Hundred Thousand Inhabitants.-Any city containing a population of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants may frame a charter for its own government, consistent with and subject to the Constitution and laws of this State, by causing a board of fifteen freeholders, who shall have been for at least five years qualified electors thereof, to be elected by the qualified voters of said city, at any general or special election, whose duty it shall be, within ninety days after such election, to prepare and propose a charter for such city, which shall be signed in duplicate by the members of such Board, or a majority of them, and returned, one copy thereof to the mayor or other chief