Sec. 6. The Board of Education shall provide for uniformity of text-books and the furnishing of school-houses with such apparatus and library as may be necessary, under such regulations as may be provided by law.

Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall set apart, as a permanent and perpetual literary fund, the present literary funds of the State, the proceeds of all public lands donated by Congress for public school purposes, of all escheated property, of all waste and unappropriated lands, of all property accruing to the State by forfeiture, and all fines collected for offenses committed against the State, and such other sums as the General Assembly may appropriate.

Sec. 8. The General Assembly shall apply the annual interest on the literary fund, the capitation tax provided for by this Constitution for public free school purposes, and an annual tax upon the property of the State of not less than one mill nor more than five mills on the dollar, for the equal benefit of all the people of the State, the number of children between the ages of five and twenty-one years in each public free school district. being the basis of such division. Provision shall be made to supply children attending the public free schools with necessary text-books in cases where the parent or guardian is unable, by reason of poverty, to furnish them. Each county and public free school district may raise additional sums by a tax on property for the support of the public free schools. All unexpended sums of any one year in any public free school district shall go into the general school fund for redivision next year: Provided, that any tax authorized by this section to be raised by counties or school districts shall not exceed five mills on a dollar in any one year, and shall not be subject to redivision, as hereinbefore provided in this section.

Sec. 9. The General Assembly shall have power to foster all higher grades of schools under its supervision, and to provide for such purpose a permanent educational fund.

Sec. 10. All grants and donations received by the General Assembly for educational purposes shall be applied according to the terms prescribed by the donors.

Sec. 11. Each city and county shall be held accountable for the destruction of school property that may take place within its limits by incendiaries or open violence.

Sec. 12. The General Assembly shall fix the salaries and prescribe the duties of all school officers, and shall make all needful laws and regulations to carry into effect the public free school system provided for by this article.

ARTICLE IX.
Militia.

Section 1. The militia of this State shall consist of all ablebodied male persons between the ages of eighteen and fortyfive years, except such persons as hereafter may be exempted by the laws of the United States or of this State; but those who belong to religious societies whose tenets forbid them to carry arms shall not be compelled to do so, but shall pay an equivalent for personal service: and the militia shall be organized, armed and equipped, and trained as the General Assembly may provide by law.

Sec. 2. The Legislature shall provide by law for the encouragement of volunteer corps of the several arms of the service, which shall be classed as the active militia; and all other militia shall be classified as the reserve militia, and shall not be required to muster in time of peace.

ARTICLE X.

Taxation and Finance.

Section 1. Taxation, except as hereinafter provided, whether imposed by the State, county, or corporate bodies, shall be equal and uniform, and all property, both real and personal, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law. No one species of property from which a tax may be collected shall be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value.

Sec. 2. No tax shall be imposed on any of the citizens of this State for the privilege of taking or catching oysters from their natural beds with tongs in the waters thereof; but the amount of sales of oysters so taken by any citizen in any one year, may be taxed at a rate not exceeding the rate of taxation imposed upon any other species of property.

Sec. 3. The Legislature may exempt all property used exclusively for State, county, municipal, benevolent, charitable, educational and religious purposes.

Sec. 4. The General Assembly may levy a tax on income in excess of six hundred dollars per annum, and upon the following

licenses-viz.: The sale of ardent spirits, theatrical and circus companies, menageries, jugglers, itinerant peddlers, and all other shows and exhibitions for which an entrance fee is required; commission merchants, persons selling by sample, brokers and pawnbrokers, and all other business which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system. The capital invested in all business operations shall be assessed and taxed as other property. Assesments upon all stock shall be according to the market value thereof.

Sec. 5. The General Assembly may levy a tax, not exceeding one dollar per annum, on every male citizen who has attained the age of twenty-one years, which shall be applied exclusively in aid of public free schools; and counties and corporations shall have power to impose a capitation tax, not exceeding fifty cents per annum, for all purposes.

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall provide for a reassessment of the real estate of this State in the year 1869, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and every fifth year thereafter: Provided, in making such assessment no land shall be assessed above or below its value.

Sec. 7. No debt shall be contracted by this State except to meet casual deficits in the revenue, to redeem a previous liabil ity of the State, to suppress insurrection, repel invasion, or defend the State in time of war.

Sec. 8. The General Assembly shall provide by law a sinking fund, to be applied solely to the payment and extinguishment of the principal of the State debt, which sinking fund shall be continued until the extinguishment of such State debt; and every law hereafter enacted by the General Assembly creating a debt or authorizing a loan shall provide a sinking fund for the payment of the same.

Sec. 9. The unfunded debt shall not be funded or redeemed at a value exceeding that established by law at the time said debt was contracted, nor shall any discrimination hereafter be made in paying the interest on State bonds which shall give a higher actual value to bonds held in foreign countries over the same class of bonds held in this country.

Sec. 10. No money shall be paid out of the State treasury except in pursuance of appropriations made by law; and no appropriation shall ever be made for the payment of any debt or obligation created, in the name of the State of Virginia, by

the usurped and pretended State authorities assembled at Richmond during the late war; and no county, city or corporation shall levy or collect any tax for the payment of any debt created for the purpose of aiding any rebellion against the State or against the United States.

Sec. 11. On the passage of every act which imposes, continues or revives any appropriation of public trust money or property, or releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the State, the vote shall be determined by ayes and noes, and the names of the persons voting for and against the same shall be entered on the journals of the respective houses, and a majority of all the members elected to each house shall be necessary to give it the force of law.

Sec. 12. The credit of the State shall not be granted to or in aid of any person, association or corporation.

Sec. 13. No scrip, certificate or other evidence of State indebtedness shall be issued except for the redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are expressly authorized in this Constitution.

Sec. 14. The State shall not subscribe to or become interested in the stock of any company, association or corporation.

Sec. 15. The State shall not be a party to or become interested in any work of internal improvement, nor engage in carrying on any such work, otherwise than in the expenditure of grants to the State of land or other property.

Sec. 16. Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax shall distinctly state the tax and the object to which it is to be applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object.

Sec. 17. The State shall not assume any indebtedness of the county, borough or city, nor lend its credit to the same.

Sec. 18. A full account of the State indebtedness and an accurate statement of receipts and expenditures of public money shall be attached to and published with its laws passed at every regular session of the General Assembly.

Sec. 19. The General Assembly shall provide by law for adjusting with the State of West Virginia the proportion of the public debt of Virginia proper to be borne by the State of Virginia and West Virginia, and shall provide that such sum as shall be received from West Virginia shall be applied to the payment of the public debt of the State.

Sec. 20. No other or greater amount of tax or revenue shall at any time be levied than may be required for the necessary expenses of the government or to pay the existing indebtedness of the State.

Sec. 21. The liability to the State of any incorporated company or institution to redeem the principal and to pay the interest of any loan heretofore made by the State to such company or institution, shall not be released or commuted.

ARTICLE XI.
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Homestead and Other Exemptions.

Section 1. Every householder or head of a family shall be entitled, in addition to the articles now exempt from levy or distress for rent, to hold, exempt from levy, seizure, garnisheeing, or sale under any execution, order or other process issued on any demand for any debt heretofore or hereafter contracted, his real and personal property, or either, including money and debts due him, whether heretofore or hereafter acquired or contracted, to the value of not exceeding two thousand dollars, to be selected by him: Provided, that such exemption shall not extend to any execution, order or other process issued on any demand in the following cases:

First For the purchase-price of said property or any part thereof.

Second For services rendered by a laboring person or a mechanic.

Third For liabilities incurred by any public officer or officer of a court, or any fiduciary, or any attorney at law, for money collected.

Fourth For a lawful claim for any taxes, levies or assessments accruing after the 1st day of June, 1866.

Fifth-For rent hereafter accruing.

Sixth For the legal or taxable fees of any public officer or officers of a court hereafter accruing.

Sec. 2. The foregoing section shall not be construed as subjecting the property hereby exempted, or any portion thereof, to any lien by reason of any execution levied on property which has been subsequently restored to the defendant, or judgment rendered or docketed on or after the 17th day of April, 1861, and