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Sec. 41. Any person who shall, directly or indirectly offer, give or promise, any money or thing of value, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage, to any executive or judicial officer or member of the Legislature, to influence him in the performance of any of his public or official duties, shall be guilty of bribery, and be punished in such manner as shall be provided by law. And any member of the Legislature, or executive or judicial officer, who shall solicit, demand or receive, or consent to receive, directly or indirectly, for himself or for another, from any company corporation or person, any money, appointment, employment, testimonial, reward, thing of value or employment, or of personal advantage or promise thereof, for his vote or official influence, or for withholding the same, or with any understanding, expressed or implied, that his vote or official action shall be in any way influenced thereby, or who shall solicit, demand and receive any such money or other advantage, matter or thing aforesaid, for another, as the consideration of his vote or official influence, in consideration of the payment or promise of such money, advantage, matter or thing to another, shall be held guilty of bribery, within the meaning of the Constitution, and shall incur the disabilities provided for said offenses, with a forfeiture of the office they may hold, and such other additional punishment as is or shall be provided by law.

Sec. 42. The Legislature may establish an inebriate asylum, for the cure of drunkenness and reform of inebriates.

Sec. 43. No man or set or men shall ever be exempted, relieved or discharged, from the performance of any public duty or service imposed by general law, by any special law. Exemp tions from the performance of such public duty or service shall only be made by general law.

Sec. 44. The Legislature shall prescribe the duties, and provide for the election, by the qualified voters of each county in this State, of a County Treasurer and a County Surveyor, who shall have an office at the county seat, and hold their office for two years, and until their successors are qualified; and shall have such compensation as may be provided by law.

Sec. 45. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide. for collecting, arranging and safely keeping such records, rolls, correspondence, and other documents, civil and military, relating to the history of Texas, as may be now in the possession of parties willing to confide them to the care and preservation of the State.

Sec. 46. The Legislature shall provide by law for organizing and disciplining the militia of the State, in such manner as they shall deem expedient, not incompatible with the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

Sec. 47. Any person who conscientiously scruples to bear of this Constitution, it is declared that all process and writs of arms, shall not be compelled to do so, but shall pay an equivalent for personal service.

Sec. 48. All laws and parts of laws now in force in the State of Texas, which are not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States or to this Constitution, shall continue and remain in force as the laws of this State, until they expire by their own limitation or shall be amended or repealed by the Legislature.

Sec. 49. The Legislature shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to protect by law from forced sale a certain portion of the personal property of all heads of families, and also of unmarried adults, male and female.

Sec. 50. The homestead of a family shall be, and is hereby protected from forced sale, for the payment of all debts except for the purchase-money thereof, or a part of such purchasemoney, the taxes due thereon, or for work and material used in constructing improvements thereon, and in this last case only when the work and material are contracted for in writing, with the consent of the wife given in the same manner as is required in making a sale and conveyance of the homestead; nor shall the owner, if a married man, sell the homestead without the consent of the wife, given in such manner as may be prescribed by law. No mortgage, trust deed or other lien on the homestead shall ever be valid, except for the purchase-money therefor, or improvements made thereon, as hereinbefore provided, whether such mortgage, or trust deed, or other lien, shall have been created by the husband alone or together with his wife; and all pretended sales of the homestead involving any condition of defeasance shall be void.

Sec. 51. The homestead not in a town or city shall consist of not more than two hundred acres of land, which may be in one or more parcels, with the improvements thereon; the homestead in a city, town or village, shall consist of lot or lots, not to exceed in value five thousand dollars at the time of their designation as the homestead, without reference to the value of any improvements thereon: Provided, That the same shall be

used for the purposes of a home, or as a place to exercise the calling or business of the head of a family: Provided, also, That any temporary renting of the homestead shall not change the character of the same, when no other homestead has been acquired.

Sec. 52. On the death of the husband or wife, or both, the homestead shall descend and vest in like manner as other real property of the deceased, and shall be governed by the same laws of descent and distribution, but it shall not be partitioned among the heirs of the deceased during the lifetime of the surviving husband or wife, or so long as the survivor may elect to use or occupy the same as a homestead, or so long as the guardian of the minor children of the deceased may be permitted, under the order of the proper court having the jurisdiction, to use and occupy the same.

Sec. 53. That no inconvenience may arise from the adoption all kinds which have been or may be issued and not returned or executed when this constitution is adopted, shall remain valid, and shall not be in any way affected by the adoption of this Constitution.

Sec. 54. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the custody and maintenance of indigent lunatics, at the expense of the State, under such regulations and restrictions as the Legislature may prescribe.

Sec. 55. The Legislature may provide annual pensions, not to exceed one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, to surviving soldiers or volunteers in the war between Texas and Mexico, from the commencement of the revolution in 1835, until the 1st of January, 1837; and also to the surviving signers of the declaration of independence of Texas; and to the surviving widows, continuing unmarried, of such soldiers and signers: Provided, That no such pension be granted except to those in indigent circumstances, proof of which shall be made before the county court of the county where the applicant resides, in such manner as may be provided by law.

Sec. 56. The Legislature shall have no power to appropriate any of the public money for the establishment and maintenance of a bureau of immigration, or for any purpose of bringing immigrants to this State.

Sec. 57. Three millions acres of the public domain are hereby appropriated and set apart for the purpose of erecting a new

State capitol and other necessary public buildings at the seat of government, said lands to be sold under the direction of the Legislature; and the legislature shall pass suitable laws to carry this section into effect.

ARTICLE XVII.

Mode of Amending the Constitution of this State.

Section 1. The Legislature, at any biennial session, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, to be entered by yeas and nays on the journals, may propose amend ments to the Constitution, to be voted upon by the qualified electors for members of the Legislature, which proposed amendments shall be duly published once a week for four weeks, commencing at least three months before an election, the time of which shall be specified by the Legislature, in one weekly newspaper of each county in which such a newspaper may be published; and it shall be the duty of the several returning officers of said election to open a poll for, and make returns to the Secre tary of State of the number of legal votes cast at said election for and against said amendments; and if more than one be proposed, then the number of votes cast for and against each of them; and if it shall appear from said return that a majority of the votes cast have been cast in favor of any amendment the said amendment so receiving a majority of the votes cast shall become a part of this Constitution, and proclamation shall be made by the Governor thereof.

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

STATE OF VERMONT.

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