bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, shall be eligible to a seat in the Legislature. No person who may have collected or been entrusted with public money, whether State, county, township, district, or other municipal organization, shall be eligible to the Legislature, or to any office of honor, trust, or profit in this State, until he shall have duly accounted for and paid over such money according to law,

15. No Senator or Delegate, during the term for which he shall have been elected, shall be elected or appointed to any civil office of profit under this State, which has been created, or the emoluments of which have been increased during such term, except offices to be filled by election by the people. Nor shall any member of the Legislature be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the State, or any county thereof, authorized by any law passed during the term for which he shall have been elected.

16. Members of the Legislature, before they enter upon their duties, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm,) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, and faithfully discharge the duties of Senator (or Delegate,) according to the best of my ability; and they shall also take this further oath, to-wit: "I will not accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing, from any corporation, company, or person, for any vote or influence I may give or withhold, as Senator (or Delegate,) on any bill, resolution or appropriation, or for any act I may do or perform as Senator (or Delegate.)" These oaths shall be administered in the hall of the House to which the member is elected, by a Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, or of a Circuit Court, or by any other person authorized by law to administer an oath; and the Secretary of State shall record and file said oaths subscribed by each member; and no other oath or declaration shall be required as a qualification. Any member who shall refuse to take the oath herein prescribed, shall forfeit his seat; and any member who shall be convicted of having violated the oath last above required to be taken, shall forfeit his seat and be disqualified thereafter from holding any office of profit or trust in this State.

17. Members of the Legislature shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session, and for ten days before and after the same; and for words spoken in debate, or any report, motion or proposition made in either House, a member shall not be questioned in any other place.

18. The Legislature shall assemble at the Seat of Government biennially, and not oftener, unless convened by the Governor. The first session of the Legislature, after the adoption of this Constitution, shall commence on the third Tuesday of November, 1872; and the regular bi-ennial session of the Legislature shall commence on the second Wednesday of January, 1875, and every two years thereafter, on the same day.

19. The Governor may convene the Legislature by proclamation

whenever, in his opinion, the public safety or welfare shall require it. It shall be his duty to convene it, on application in writing, of three-fifths of the members elected to each House.

20. The Seat of Government shall be at Charleston, until otherwise provided by law.

21. The Governor may convene the Legislature at another place, when, in his opinion, it cannot safely assemble at the Seat of Government, and the Legislature may, when in session, adjourn to some other place, when in its opinion, the public safety or welfare, or the safety of the members, or their health shall require it.

22. No session of the Legislature, after the first, shall continue longer than forty-five days, without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected to each House.

23. Neither House shall, during the session, adjourn for more than three days, without the consent of the other. Nor shall either, without such consent, adjourn to any other place than that in which the Legislature is sitting.

24. A majority of the members elected to each House of the Legislature, shall constitute a quorum. But a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, as each House may provide. Each House shall determine the rules of its proceedings and be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members. The Senate shall choose, from its own body, a President; and the House of Delegates, from its own body, a Speaker. Each House shall appoint its own officers, and remove them at pleasure. The oldest Delegate present shall call the House to order, at the opening of each new House of Delegates, and preside over it until the Speaker thereof shall have been chosen, and have taken his seat. The oldest member of the Senate present at the commencement of each regular session thereof, shall call the Senate to order, and preside over the same until a President of the Senate shall have been chosen, and have taken his seat.

25. Each House may punish its own members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected thereto, expel a member, but not twice for the same offence. 26. Each House shall have power to provide for its own safety, and the undisturbed transaction of its business, and may punish, by imprisonment, any person not a member, for disrespectful behavior in its presence; for obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its officers in the discharge of his duties, or for any assault, threat or abuse of a member, for words spoken in debate. But such imprisonvent shall not extend beyond the termination of the session, and shall not prevent the punishment of any offence, by the ordinary course of law.

27. Laws shall be enacted and enforced, by suitable provisions and penalties, requiring sheriffs, and all other officers, whether State, county, district or municipal, who shall collect or receive, or

whose official duty it is, or shall be, to collect, receive, hold or pay out any money belonging to, or which is, or shall be, for the use of the State or of any county, district, or municipal corporation, to make annual account aud settlement therefor. Such settlement, when made, shall be subject to exceptions, and take such direction, and have only such force and effect, as may be provided by law; but in all cases, such settlement shall be recorded, and be open to the examination of the people at such convenient place or places as may be appointed by law.

28. Bills and resolutions may originate in either House, but may be passed, amended or rejected by the other.

29. No bill shall become a law, until it has been fully and distinctly read, on three different days in each House, unless, in case of urgency, by a vote of four-fifths of the members present, taken by yeas and nays on each bill, this rule be dispensed with: Provided, in all cases, that an engrossed bill shall be fully and distinctly read in each House.

30. No act hereafter passed, shall embrace more than one object, and that shall be expressed in the title. But if any object shall be embraced in an act, which is not so expressed, the act shall be void only as to so much thereof, as shall not be so expressed, and no law shall be revived, or amended, by reference to its title only; but the law revived, or the section amended, shall be inserted at large, in the new act. And no act of the Legislature, except such as may be passed at the first session under this Constitution, shall take effect until the expiration of ninety days after its passage, unless the Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each House, taken by yeas and nays, otherwise direct.

31. When a bill or joint resolution, passed by one House, shall be amended by the other, the question on agreeing to the bill, or joint resolution, as amended, shall be again voted on, by yeas and nays, in the House by which it was originally passed, and the result entered upon its journals; in all such cases, the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected to such House shall be necessary.

32. Whenever the words, "a majority of the members elected to either House of the Legislature," or words of like import, are used in this Constitution, they shall be construed to mean a majority of the whole number of members to which each House is, at the time, entitled, under the apportionment of representation, established by the provisions of this Constitution.

33. The members of the Legislature shall each receive for their services the sum of four dollars per day and ten cents for each mile traveled in going to and returning from the Seat of Government by the most direct route. The Speaker of the House of Delegates and the President of the Senate, shall each receive an additional compensation of two dollars per day for each day they shall act as presiding officers. No other allowance or emolument than that by this

section provided shall directly or indirectly be made or paid to the members of either House for postage, stationery, newspapers, or any other purpose whatever.

34. The Legislature shall provide by law that the fuel, stationery and printing paper, furnished for the use of the State; the copying, printing, binding and distributing the laws and journals; and all other printing ordered by the Legislature, shall be let by contract to the lowest responsible bidder, bidding under a maximum price to be fixed by the Legislature; and no member or officer thereof, or officer of the State, shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in such contract, but all such contracts shall be subject to the approval of the Governor, and in case of his disapproval of any such contract, there shall be a re-letting of the same in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

35. The State of West Virginia shall never be made defendant in any court of law or equity.

36. The Legislature shall have no power to authorize lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets in this State.

37. No law shall be passed after the election of any public officer, which shall operate to extend the term of his office.

38. No extra compensation shall be granted or allowed to any public officer, agent, servant or contractor, after the services shall have been rendered or the contract made; nor shall any Legislature authorize the payment of any claim or part thereof, hereafter created against the State, under any agreement or contract made, without express authority of law; and all such unauthorized agreements shall be null and void. Nor shall the salary of any public officer be increased or diminished during his term of office, nor shall any such officer, or his or their sureties be released from any debt or liability due to the State: Provided, The Legislature may make appropriations for expenditures hereafter incurred in suppressing insurrection, or repelling invasion.

39. The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases; that is to say, for

Granting divorces;

Laying out, opening, altering and working roads or highways;
Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds;
Locating, or changing county seats;

Regulating or changing county or district affairs;

Providing for the sale of church property, or property held for charitable uses;

Regulating the practice in courts of justice;

Incorporating cities, towns or villages, or amending the charter of any city, town or village, containing a population of less than two thousand;

Summoning or impanneling grand or petit juries;

The opening or conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting;

The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors, or others under disability;

Chartering, licensing, or establishing ferries or toll bridges ;
Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures;

Changing the law of descent;

Regulating the rate of interest;

Authorizing deeds to be made for land sold for taxes;
Releasing taxes;

Releasing title to forfeited lands.

The Legislature shall provide, by general laws, for the foregoing and all other cases for which provision can be so made; and in no case shall a special act be passed, where a general law would be proper, and can be made applicable to the case, nor in any other case in which the courts have jurisdiction, and are competent to give the relief asked for.

40. The Legislature shall not confer upon any court, or judge, the power of appointment to office, further than the same is herein provided for.

41. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and cause the same to be published from time to time, and all bills and joint resolutions shall be described therein, as well by their title as their number, and the yeas and nays on any question, if called for by onetenth of those present, shall be entered on the journal.

42. Bills making appropriations for the pay of members and officers of the Legislature, and for salaries for the officers of the Government, shall contain no provision on any other subject.

43. The Legislature shall never authorize or establish any board or court of registration of voters.

44. In all elections to office which may hereafter take place in the Legislature, or in any county, or municipal body, the vote shall be viva voce, and be entered on its journals.

45. It shall be the duty of the Legislature, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, to provide, by law, for the punishment by imprisonment in the penitentiary, of any person who shall bribe, or attempt to bribe, any executive or judicial officer of this State, or any member of the Legislature in order to influence him, in the performance of any of his official or public duties; and also to provide by law for the punishment by imprisonment in the penitentiary, of any of said officers, or any member of the Legislature, who shall demand, or receive, from any corporation, company or person, any money, testimonial, or other valuable thing, for the performance. of his official or public duties, or for refusing or failing to perform the same, or for any vote or influence a member of the Legislature may give or withhold as such member; and also to provide by law for compelling any person, so bribing or attempting to bribe, or so demanding or receiving a bribe, fee, reward, or testimonial, to tes