ARTICLE VII.

JUDICIAL

SECTION 1. The Judicial power of the State shall be vested in a Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, and in such inferior Courts as the General Assembly may establish.

Sec. 2. The Supreme Court shall consist of not less than three, nor more than five Judges; a majority of whom shall form a quorum. They shall hold their offices for six years, if they so long behave well.

Sec. 3. The State shall be divided into as many districts as there are judges of the Supreme Court; and such districts shall be formed of contiguous territory, as nearly equal in population, as, without dividing a county, the same can be made. One of said judges shall be elected from each district, and reside therein; but said judge shall be elected by the electors of the State at large.

Sec. 4. The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction, co-extensive with the limits of the State, in appeals and writs of error, under such regulations and restrictions as may be prescribed by law. It shall also have such original jurisdiction as the General Assembly may confer.

Sec. 5. The Supreme Court shall, upon the decision of every case, give a statement in writing of each question arising in the record of such case, and the dicision of the court thereon.

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall provide, by law, for the speedy publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court, made under this Constitution; but no judge shall be allowed to report such decisions.

Sec. 7. There shall be elected by the voters of the State, a Clerk of the Supreme Court, who shall hold his office four years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by law.

Sec. 8. The circuit courts shall each consist of one judge, and shall have such civil and criminal jurisdiction as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 9. The State shall from time to time. be divided into judicial circuits; and a judge for each circuit shall be elected by the voters thereof. He shall reside within the circuit, and shall hold his office for the term of six years, if he so long behave well.

Sec. 10. The General Assembly may provide by law, that the judge of one circuit may hold the courts of another circuit, in cases of necessity or convenience; and in case of temporary inability of any judge, from sickness or other cause, to hold the courts in his circuit, provision may be made, by law, for holding such courts.

Sec. 11. There shall be elected in each judicial circuit, by the voters thereof, a prosecuting attorney, who shall hold his office for two years.

Sec. 12. Any judge or prosecuting attorney, who shall have been convicted of corruption or other high crime, may, on information in the name of the State, be removed from office by the Supreme Court, or in such other manner as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 13. The judges of the Supreme Court and circuit courts shall, at stated times, receive a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Sec. 14. A conpetent number of justices of the peace shall be elected, by the voters in each township in the several counties. They shall continue in office four years, and their powers and duties shall be prescribed by law.

Sec. 15. All judicial officers shall be conservators of the peace in their respective jurisdictions.

Sec. 16. No person elected to any judicial office, shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be eligible to any office of trust or profit, under the State, other than a judicial office.

Sec. 17. The General Assembly may modify, or abolish, the grand jury system.

Sec. 18. All criminal prosecutions shall be carried on in the name, and by the authority of the State; and the style of all process shall be: "The State of Indiana."

Sec. 19. Tribunals of conciliation may be established, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law; or the powers and duties of the same may be conferred upon other courts of justice; but such tribunals or other courts, when sitting as such, shall have no power to render judgment to be obligatory on the parties, unless they voluntarily submit their matters of difference, and agree to abide the judgment of such tribunal or court.

Sec. 20. The General Assembly, at its first session after the

adoption of this Constitution, shall provide for the appointment of three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to revise, simplify, and abridge the rules, practice, pleadings, and forms of the courts of justice. And they shall provide for abolishing the distinct forms of action at law, now in use, and that justice shall be administered in a uniform mode of pleading, without distinction between law and equity. And the General Assembly may, also, make it the duty of said commissioners to reduce into a systematic code, the general statute law of the State; and said commissioners shall report the result of their labors to the General Assembly, with such recommendations and suggestions, as to abridgment and amendment, as to said commissioners, may seem necessary or proper. Provision shall be made, by law, for filling vacancies, regulating the tenure of office and the compensation of said commissioners.

Sec. 21. Every person of good moral character, being a voter, shall be entitled to admission to practice law in all courts of justice.

ARTICLE VIII.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.

Sec. 2. The common school fund shall consist of the congressional township fund, and the lands belonging thereto; The surplus revenue fund;

The saline fund and the lands belonging thereto;

The bank tax fund, and the funds arising from the one hundred and fourteenth section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana;

The fund to be derived from the sale of county seminaries, and the moneys and property heretofore held for such seminaries; from the fines assessed for breaches of the penal laws of the State; and from all forfeitures which may accrue;

All lands and other estate which shall escheat to the State, for want of heirs or kindred entitled to the inheritance;

All lands that have been, or may hereafter be, granted to the State, where no special purpose is expressed in the grant, and the proceeds of the sales thereof; including the proceeds of the sales of the Swamp Lands, granted to the State of Indiana by the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, after deducting the expenses of selecting and draining the same;

Taxes on the property of corporations, that may be assessed by the General Assembly for common school purposes.

Sec. 3. The principal of the common school fund shall remain a perpetual fund, which may be increased, but shall never be diminished; and the income thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools, and to no other purpose whatever.

Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall invest, in some safe and profitable manner, all such portions of the common school fund as have not heretofore been entrusted to the several counties; and shall make provision, by law, for the distribution among the several counties of the interest thereof.

Sec. 5. If any county shall fail to demand its proportion of such interest for common school purposes, the same shall be reinvested for the benefit of such county.

Sec. 6. The several counties shall be held liable for the preservation of so much of the said fund as may be intrusted to them, and for the payment of the annual interest thereon. Sec. 7. All trust funds held by the State shall remain inviolate, and be faithfully, and exclusively applied to the purpose for which the trust was created.

Sec. 8. The General Assembly shall provide for the election, by the voters of the State, of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall hold his office for two years, and whose duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IX.

STATE INSTITUTIONS.

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by law for the support of Institututions for the education of the Deaf and Dumb, and of the Blind; and also for the treatment of the Insane.

Sec. 2. The General Assembly shall provide Houses of Refuge for the correction and reformation of juvenile offenders. Sec. 3. The county boards shall have power to provide farms, as an asylum for those persons who, by reason of age, infirmity or other misfortune, have claims upon the sympathies and aid of society.

ARTICLE X.

FINANCE.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall provide by law for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation; and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, both real and personal, excepting such only for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes, as may be specially exempted by law.

Sec. 2. All the revenues derived from the sale of any of the public works belonging to the State, and from the net annual income thereof, and any surplus that may at any time remain in the treasury, derived from taxation for general State purposes, after the payment of the ordinary expenses of the government, and of the interest on bonds of the State, other than bank bonds, shall be annually applied, under the direction of the General Assembly, to the payment of the principal of the public debt.

Sec. 3. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in pursuance of appropriations made by law.

Sec. 4. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money, shall be published with the laws of each regular session of the General Assembly.

Sec. 5. No law shall authorize any debt to be contracted, on behalf of the State, except in the following cases: To meet casual deficits in the revenue; to pay the interest on the State Debt; to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or if hostilities be threatened, provide for the public defense.

Sec. 6. No county shall subscribe for stock in any incorporated company, unless the same be paid for at the time of such subscription; nor shall any county loan its credit to any incorporated company, nor borrow money for the purpose of taking stock in any such company; nor shall the General Assembly ever, on behalf of the State, assume the debts of