viz judge of probate, sheriff, register of probate, or register of deeds; and never more than any two offices which are to be held by appointment of the governor, or the governor and council, or the senate, or the house of representatives, or by the election of the people of the state at large, or of the people of any county, military offices, and the office of justice of the peace excepted, shall be held by one person,

No person holding the office of judge of the fupreme judicial court, secretary, attorney-general, solicitor-general, treasurer or receiver-general, judge of probate, commiflary-general; president, profeffor, or instructor of Harvard College; sheriff, clerk of the house of representatives, register of probate, regifter of deeds, clerk of the supreme judicial court, clerk of the inferior court of common-pleas, or officer of the customs, including in this description naval officers, shall at the fame time have a feat in the senate or house of representatives; but their being chosen or appointed to, and accepting the fame, shall operate as a refignation of their seat in the senate or house of representatives, and the place so vacated shall be filled up.

And the fame rule shall take place in case any judge of the said fupreme judicial court, or judge of probate, shall accept a seat in council; or any councillor shall accept of either of those offices or places.

And no person shall ever be admitted to hold a feat in the legislature, or any office of trust or importance under the government of this commonwealth, who shall, in the due course of law, have been convicted of bribery or corruption in obtaining an election or appointment.

III. In all cases where sums of money are mentioned in this conftitution, the value thereof shall be computed in silver, at fix shillings and eight-pence per ounce: and it shall be in the power of the leg flature from time to time to increase such qualifications, as to property of the persons to be elected into offices, as the circumstances of the commonwealth shall require.

IV. All commissions shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, signed by the governor and attested by the secretary or his deputy, and have the great seal of the commonwealth affixed thereto.

V. All writs issuing out of the clerk's office in any of the courts of law shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts: they shall be under the feal of the court from whence they issue: they shall bear test of the first justice of the court to which they shall be returnable, who is not a party, and be signed by the clerk of fuch court.

VI. All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used and approved in the province, colony, or state of ManachusettsBay, and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still re

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main and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legislacure; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this constitution.

VII. The privilege and benefit of the writ of habeas-corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious and ample manner; and shall not be fufpended by the legislature, except upon the most urgent and preffing occafions, and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve months.

VIII. The enacting style in making and paffing all acts, statutes, and laws, shall be, "Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in general court affembled, and by the authority of the same."

IX. To the end there may be no failure of justice, or danger arife to the commonwealth from a change of the form of government-all officers, civil and military, holding commissions under the government and people of Maffachusetts-Bay in New-England, and all other officers of the faid government and people, at the time this constitution shall take effect, shall have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy, all the powers and authority to them granted or committed, until other persons shall be appointed in their stead: And all courts of law shall proceed in the execution of the business of their respective departments; and all the executive and legifslative officers, bodies, and powers, sball continue in full force, in the enjoyment and exercise of all their trufts, employments, and authority, until the general court, and the fupreme and executive officers under this conftitution, are defignated and invested with their respective trufts, powers and authority.

X. In order the more effectually to adhere to the principles of the constitution. and to correct those violations which by any means may be made therein, as well as to form such alterations as from experience shall be found neceffary, the general court which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five shall iffue precepts to the selectmen of the several towns, and to the affeffors of the unincorporated plantations, directing them to convene the qualified voters of their respective towns and plantations, for the purpose of collecting their sentiments on the necessity or expediency of revising the conftitution, in order to amendments.

And if it shall appear by the returns made, that two-thirds of the qualified voters throughout the state who shall assemble and vote in consequence of the faid precepts are in favour of fuch revision and amendment, the general court shall issue precepts, or direct them to be issued from the secretary's office, to the feveral veral towns to elect delegates to meet in convention, for the purpose aforesaid.

The faid delegates to be chosen in the same manner and proportion as their representatives in the second branch of the legiflature are by this constitution to be chofen.

XI. This form of government shall be enrolled on parchment, and deposited in the secretary's office, and be a part of the laws of the land; and printed copies thereof shall be prefixed to the book containing the laws of this commonwealth, in all future editions of the faid laws..

JAMES BOWDOIN, PRESIDENT.

✓ Attest. SAMUEL BARRET, Secretary.

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RHODE

RHODE-ISLAND.

RHODE-ISLAND CHARTER, granted by King Charles II. in the Fourteenth Year of his Reign.

Quintadecima pars Patentium Anno Regni Regis Caroli Secundi

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Quintodecimo.

HARLES the Second, by the grace of God, &c. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas we have been informed by the petition of our trusty and well beloved subjects, John Clarke, on the behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William Codington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John Weekes, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Cogeshall, Jofeph Clarke, Randall Houlden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel Wildbore, WilJiam Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers, and free inhabitants of our island called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narraganset-Bay in New England in America, That they, pursuing with peace and loyal minds their fober, serious, and religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves and one another in the holy Christian faith and worship as they were perfuaded, together with the gaining over and converfion of the poor ignorant Indian natives in those parts of America to the fincere profession and obedience of the fame faith and worship, did not only by the consent and good encouragement of our royal progenitors, transport themselves out of this kingdom of England into America; but also since their arrival there, after their first settlement among other our subjects in those parts, for the avoiding of discord and those many evils which were likely to ensue upon those our fubjects not being able to bear in those remote parts their different apprehenfions in religious concernments; and in pursuance of the aforesaid ends did once again leave their defirable stations and habitations, and with excessive labour and travail, hazard and charge, did tranfplant themselves into the midft of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, are the most potent princes and people of all that country; where, by the good providence of God (from whom the plantations have taken their name) upon their labour and industry,

dustry, they have not only been preserved to admiration, but have increased and profpered, and are seized and possessed, by purchafe and consent of the said natives, to their full content, of such lands, islands, rivers, harbours, and roads, as are very convenient both for plantations, and also for building of ships, supply of pipe-staves, and other merchandise, and which lye very commodious in many respects for commerce, and to accommodate our fouthern plantations, and may much advance the trade of this our realm, and greatly enlarge the territories thereof; they having, by near neighbourhood to, and friendly society with, the great body of the Narraganset Indians, given them encouragement, of their own accord, to subject themselves, their people and lands, unto us; whereby, as is hoped, there may, in time, by the bleffing of God upon their endeavours, be laid a sure foundation of happiness to all America. And whereas, in their humble address, they have freely declared, That it is much on their hearts (if they be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernments; and that true piety, rightly grounded upon gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty: Now, know ye, That we being willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking of our faid loyal and loving subjects, and to secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their civil and religious rights appertaining to them, as our loving subjects; and to preserve unto them that liberty in the true Christian faith and worship of God which they have fought with so much travail, and with peaceable minds and loyal subjection to our royal progenitors and ourselves, to enjoy; and because some of the people and inhabitants of the fame colony cannot, in their private opinion, conform to the public exercise of religion, according to the liturgy, form, and ceremonies of the church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf; and for that the fame, by reason of the remote distances of those places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity established in this nation, have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, ordain, and declare, that our royal will and pleasure is, That no person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of our faid colony; but that all and every perfon and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgements and confciences, in matters of religious concernments, throughout the track of land hereafter-mentioned, they behaving themselves

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