Sec. 7. From and after the adoption of this Constitution, no debt (except as hereinafter excepted) shall be created by the mayor and city council of Baltimore; nor shall the credit of the mayor and city council of Baltimore be given or loaned to, or in aid of any individual, association or corporation; nor shall the mayor and city council of Baltimore have the power to involve the city of Baltimore in the construction of works of internal improvement, nor in granting any aid thereto, which shall involve the faith and the credit of the city, nor make any appropriation therefor, unless such debt or credit be authorized by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland, and by an ordinance of the mayor and city council of Baltimore, submitted to the legal voters of the city of Baltimore at such time and place as may be fixed by said ordinance, and approved by a majority of the votes cast at such time and place; but the mayor and city council may, temporarily, borrow any amount of money to meet any deficiency in the city treasury or to provide for any emergency arising from the necessity of maintaining the police or preserving the safety and sanitary condition of the city, and may make due and proper arrangements and agreements for the removal and extension, in whole or in part, of any and all debts and obligations, created according to law before the adoption of this Constitution.

Sec. 8. All laws and ordinances, now in force, applicable to the city of Baltimore, not inconsistent with this article, shall be and they are hereby continued until changed in due course of law.

Sec. 9. The General Assembly may make such changes in this article, except in section seventh thereof, as it may deem best; and this article shall not be so construed or taken as to make the political corporation of Baltimore independent of or free from the control which the General Assembly of Maryland has over all such corporations in this State.

ARTICLE XII.

Public Works.

Section 1. The Governor, the Comptroller of the Treasury, and the Treasurer, shall constitute the Board of Public Works in this State. They shall keep a journal of their proceedings, and shall hold regular sessions in the city of Annapolis, on the

first Wednesday in January, April, July and October, in each year, and oftener, if necessary; at which sessions they shall hear and determine such matters as affect the public works of the State, and as the General Assembly may confer upon them the power to decide.

Sec. 2. They shall exercise a diligent and faithful supervision of all public works in which the State may be interested as stockholder or creditor, and shall represent and vote the stock of the State of Maryland in all meetings of the stockholders of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal; and shall appoint the directors in every railroad and canal company in which the State has the legal power to appoint directors, which said directors shall represent the State in all meetings of the stockholders of the respective companies for which they are appointed or elected. And the president and directors of the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company shall so regulate the tolls of said company, from time to time, as to produce the largest amount of revenue, and to avoid the injurious effects to said company of rival competition by other internal improvement companies. They shall require the directors of all said public works to guard the public interest and prevent the establishment of tolls which shall discriminate against the interest of the citizens or products of this State, and from time to time, and as often as there shall be any change in the rates of toll on any of the said works, to furnish the said Board of Public Works a schedule of such modified rates of toll, and so adjust them as to promote the agricultural interests of the State; they shall report to the General Assembly at each regular session and recommend such legislation as they may deem neces-. sary and requisite to promote or protect the interests of the State in the said public works; they shall perform such other duties as may be hereafter prescribed by law; and a majority of them shall be competent to act. The Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer shall receive no additional salary for services rendered by them as members of the Board of Public Works. The provisions of the act of the General Assembly of Maryland of the year 1867, chapter 359, are hereby declared null and void.

Sec. 3. (2.) The Board of Public Works is hereby authorized, subject to such regulations and conditions as the General Assembly may from time to time prescribe, to sell the State's interest in all works of internal improvement, whether as a stockholder or a creditor, and also the State's interest in any banking

corporation, receiving in payment the bonds and registered debt now owing by the State, equal in amount to the price obtained for the State's said interest. (Thus amended by act of 1890, chapter 362, and ratified by the people, November 3, 1891.)

ARTICLE XIII.

New Counties.

Section 1. The General Assembly may provide by law for organizing new counties, locating and removing county seats, and changing county lines; but no new county shall be organized without the consent of the majority of the legal voters residing within the limits proposed to be formed into said new county; and whenever a new county shall be proposed to be formed out of portions of two or more counties, the consent of a majority of the legal voters of such part of each of said counties, respectively, shall be required; nor shall the lines of any county be changed without the consent of a majority of the legal voters residing within the district, which, under said proposed change, would form a part of a county different from that to which it belonged prior to said change; and no new county shall contain less than four hundred square miles, nor less than ten thousand white inhabitants; nor shall any change be made in the limits of any county whereby the population of said county would be reduced to less than ten thousand white inhabitants, or its terri tory reduced to less than four hundred square miles.

Sec. 2. At the election to be held for the adoption or rejec tion of this Constitution, in each election district, in those parts of Worcester and Somerset counties, comprised within the fol lowing limits, viz.: Beginning at the point where Mason and Dixon's line crosses the channel of the Pocomoke river, thence following said line to the channel of the Nanticoke river; thence with the channel of said river to Tangier sound, or the intersec tion of Nanticoke and Wicomico rivers; thence up the channel of the Wicomico river to the mouth of Wicomico creek; thence with the channel of said creek and Passerdyke creek to Dashield's or Disharoon's Mills; thence with the mill-pond of said mills and branch, following the middle prong of said branch, to Meadow Bridge, on the road dividing the counties of Somerset and Worcester, near the south-west corner of farm of William P. Morris; thence due east to the Pocomoke river; thence with the

channel of said river to the beginning, the judges of election in each of said districts shall receive the ballots of each elector voting at said election who has resided for six months preceding said election within said limits, for or against a new county; and and the return judges of said election districts shall certify the result of such voting, in the manner now prescribed by law, to the Governor, who shall by proclamation make known the same; and if a majority of the legal votes cast within that part of Worcester county contained within said lines, and also a majority of the legal votes cast within that part of Somerset county contained within said lines shall be in favor of a new county, then said parts of Worcester and Somerset counties shall become and constitute a new county, to be called Wicomico county; and Salisbury shall be the county seat. And the inhabitants thereof shall thenceforth have and enjoy all such rights and privileges as are held and enjoyed by the inhabitants of the other counties of this State.

Sec. 3. When said new county shall have been so created, the inhabitants thereof shall cease to have any claim to or interest in the county buildings and other public property of every description belonging to said counties of Somerset and Worcester, respectively, and shall be liable for their proportionate shares of the then existing debts and obligations of the said counties, according to the last assessment in said counties, to be ascer tained and apportioned by the Circuit Court for Somerset county, as to the debts and obligations of said county, and by the Circuit Court for Worcester county, on the debts and obligations of Worcester county, on the petition of the county commissioners of the said counties, respectively; and the property in each part of the said counties included in said new county shall be bound only for the share of the debts and obligations of the county from which it shall be separated; and the inhabitants of said new county shall also pay the county taxes levied upon them at the time of the creation of such new county, as if such new county had not been created; and on the application of twelve citizens of the proposed county of Wicomico, the surveyor of Worcester county shall run and locate the line from Meadow Bridge to the Pocomoke river, previous to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution, and at the expense of said petitioners.

Sec. 4. At the first general election held under this Constitution the qualified voters of said new county shall be entitled to elect a Senator and two Delegates to the General Assembly, and all such county or other officers as this Constitution may authorize or require to be elected by other counties of the State; a notice of such election shall be given by the sheriffs of Worcester and Somerset counties in the manner now prescribed by law; and in case said new county shall be established, as aforesaid, then the counties of Somerset and Worcester shall be entitled to elect but two Delegates each to the General Assembly.

Sec. 5. The county of Wicomico, if formed according to the provisions of this Constitution, shall be embraced in the first judicial circuit; and the times for holding the courts therein shall be fixed and determined by the General Assembly.

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall pass all such laws as may be necessary more fully to carry into effect the provisions of this article.

ARTICLE XIV.

Amendments to the Constitution.

Section 1. The General Assembly may propose amendments to this Constitution: Provided, that each amendment shall be embrace in a separate bill, embodying the aticle or section as the same will stand when amended and passed by three-fifths of all the members elected to each of the two houses, by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journals with the proposed amend ment. The bill or bills proposing amendment or amendments shall be published by order of the Governor in at least two newspapers in each county, where so many may be published, and where not more than one may be published, then in that newspaper, and in three newspapers published in the city of Baltimore, one of which shall be in the German language, once a week for at least three months preceding the next ensuing general election, at which the said proposed amendment, or amendments shall be submitted in a form to be prescribed by the General Assembly, to the qualified voters of the State for adoption or rejection. The votes cast for and against said proposed amendment or amendments, severally, shall be returned to the Governor, in the manner prescribed in other cases, and if it shall appear to the Governor that a majority of the votes cast at said election on amendment or amendments, severally, were cast in