supreme court hereby established. Proceedings pending in courts of common pleas and in suits originally commenced in justices' courts, shall be transferred to the county courts provided for in this constitution, in such manner and form and under such regulation as shall be provided by law. The courts of oyer and terminer hereby established shall, in their respective counties, have jurisdiction on and after the day last mentioned of all indictments and proceedings then pending in the present courts of oyer and terininer, and also of all indictments and proceedings then pending in the present courts of general sessions of the peace; except in the city of New York, and except in cases of which the courts of sessions hereby established may lawfully take cognizance; and of such indictments and proceedings as the courts of sessions hereby established shall have jurisdiction on and after the day last mentioned. SECTION 6. The chancellor and the present supreme court Chancellor shall, respectively, have power to hear and determine any of such suits and proceedings ready on the first Monday of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, for hearing or decision, and shall, for their services therein, be entitled to their present rates of compensation until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, or until all such suits and proceedings shall be sooner heard and determined. Masters Masters in in chancery may continue to exercise the functions of their office in the court of chancery, so long as the chancellor shall continue to exercise the functions of his office under the provisions of this constitution.

And the supreme court hereby established shall also have power to hear and determine such of said suits and proceedings as may be prescribed by law.

and supreme court.

chancery.

office of

justice

court, how

SECTION 7. In case any vacancy shall occur in the office of Vacancy in chancellor or justice of the present supreme court, previously chancellor, to the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-of present eight, the governor may nominate, and by and with the advice Supreme and consent of the senate appoint, a proper person to fill such filled. vacancy. Any judge of the court of appeals or justice of the supreme court, elected under this constitution, may receive and hold such appointment.

abolished.

SECTION 8 The offices of chancellor, justice of the existing Offices supreme court, circuit judge, vice-chancellor, assistant vicechancellor, judge of the existing county courts of each county, supreme court commissioner, master in chancery, examiner in chancery, and surrogate, (except as herein otherwise provided,) are abolished from and after the first Monday of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, (1847.)

and

SECTION 9. The chancellor, the justices of the present su-Chancellor preme court and the circuit judges, are hereby declared to be eligibletices severally eligible to any office at the first election under this constitution.

SECTION 10. Sheriffs, clerks of counties, (including the register Officers to and clerk of the city and county of New York.) and justices of hold until the peace and coroners, in office when this constitution shall of term.

expiration

Judicial

officers may

until, &c.

take effect, shall hold their respective offices until the expiration of the term for which they were respectively elected.

SECTION 11. Judicial officers, in office when this constitution receive fees shall take effect, may continue to receive such fees and perquisites of office as are now authorized by law, until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, notwithstanding the provisions of the twentieth section of the sixth article of this constitution.

Local

courts to re

&C.

SECTION 12. All local courts established in any city or village, main until, including the superior court, common pleas, sessions and surrogates' courts of the city and county of New York, shall remain, until otherwise directed by the legislature, with their present powers and jurisdictions; and the judges of such courts and any clerks thereof in office on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, shall continue in office until the expiration of their terms of office, or until the legislature shall otherwise direct.

Constitu

tion goes in

SECTION 13. This constitution shall be in force from and to operation including the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, except as is herein otherwise provided.

DONE in convention, at the capitol, in the city of Albany, the ninth day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, and of the independence of the United States of America the seventy-first. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

[The following delegates composed the convention which formed the foregoing constitution.]

[The following amendment to the constitution was proposed by the legislature in 1853, agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses for that year, referred to the legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators (the legislature of 1854), published for three months previous to making such choice, agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each house of the legislature (the legislature of 1854), submitted to the people, and approved and ratified at an election held on the third Wednesday of February, 1854.]

[Substitute for section three, of article seven, the following :)

After paying the said expenses of collection, superintendence and repairs of the canals, and the sums appropriated by the first and second sections of this article, there shall be appropriated

fund to pay

and set apart in each fiscal year, out of the surplus revenues of Sinking the canals, as a sinking fund, a sum sufficient to pay the interest interest and as it falls due, and extinguish the principal within eighteen principal in years, of any loan made under this section; and if the said

extinguish

18 years.

$200,000

payable an

of revenues

into trea

Bury.

sinking fund shall not be sufficient to redeem any part of the principal at the stipulated times of payment, or to pay any part of the interest of such loan, as stipulated, the means to satisfy any such deficiency shall be procured on the credit of the said sinking fund. After complying with the foregoing provisions, nually out there shall be paid annually out of said revenues, into the trea'sury of the state, two hundred thousand dollars, to defray the necessary expenses of government. The remainder shall, in each fiscal year, be applied to meet appropriations for the enlargement and completion of the canals mentioned in this section, until the said canals shall be completed. In each fiscal year thereafter the remainder shall be disposed of in such manner as the legislature may direct, but shall at no time be anticipated or pledged for more than one year in advance. The legislature shall annually, during the next four years, appropriate to the enlargement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Cayuga and Seneca canals, and to the completion of the Black River and Genesee Valley canals, and for the enlargement of the locks of the Champlain canal, whenever from dilapidation or decay it shall be necessary to rebuild them, a sum not exceeding two millions. two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The remainder of the revenues of the canals, for the current fiscal year in which such appropriation is made, shall be applied to meet such appropriation; and if the same shall be deemed insufficient, the legislature shall at the same session provide for the deficiency by loan.

Legislature to borrow $1,500,000.

of § 12 not to

loans au

this

Bection;

The legislature shall also borrow one million and five hundred thousand dollars to refund to the holders of the canal revenue certificates, issued under the provisions of chapter four hundred and eighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, the amount received into the treasury thereon. But no interest to accrue after July first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, shall be paid on such certificates. Provisions The provisions of section twelve of this article, requiring every apply to law for borrowing money to be submitted to the people, shall thorized by not apply to loans authorized by this section. No part of the revenues of the canals, or of the funds borrowed under this section, shall be paid or applied upon or in consequence of any alleged contract made under chapter four hundred and eightyfive of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, except to pay for work done or materials furnished prior to the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. The rates of toll on persons or property transported on the canals shall not be reduced below those for the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, except by the canal board, with the concurrence of the legislature. All contracts for work or materials on any canal shall be made with the person who shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance.

REVISED STATUTES

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

PART FIRST.

AN ACT

Concerning the territorial limits and divisions, the civil polity and the internal administration of this state.

WHEREAS it is expedient that the several statutes of this state, relating to its territorial limits and divisions, its civil polity and its internal administration, should be consolidated and arranged in appropriate chapters, titles and articles; that the language thereof should be simplified; and that omissions and other defects should be supplied and amended: Therefore, The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do declare and enact as follows:

CHAPTER I.

Of the Boundaries of the State and its Territorial Jurisdiction.

TITLE 1. Of the boundaries of the state.

TITLE 2. Of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the state.

TITLE 3. Of the places ceded to the United States.

TITLE I.

Of the Boundaries of the State.

SEC. 1. Description of the boundaries of the state.

[62]

SECTION 1. It being deemed useful for the information of the Preamble. citizens and officers of this state, that its boundaries, so far as its jurisdiction is now asserted, should be declared, it is therefore declared, that the State of New York is bounded as follows: Begin- Boundaries. ning at Lyon's point in the mouth of a brook or river called Byram river, where it falls into Long Island sound, and running thence up along said river to a rock at the ancient road or wading place in said river, which rock bears north twelve degrees and forty-five minutes east, five hundred and fifty rods from said point; then north twenty- Eastern. three degrees and forty-five minutes west, two thousand two hundred and ninety-two rods; then east-northeast thirteen miles and sixty-four rods, which lines were established in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five, by Francis Harrison, Cadwallader Colden and Isaac Hicks, commissioners on the part of the then province of New York, and Jonathan Law, Samuel Eells, Roger