SEC. 8. The Legislature shall have power to establish and to abolish municipalities, to provide for their government, to prescribe their jurisdiction and powers, and to alter or amend the same at any time. When any municipality shall be abolished, provision shall be made for the protection of its creditors.

ARTICLE IX.

TAXATION AND FINANCE.

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

SEC 2. The Legislature shall provide for raising revenue sufficient to defray the expenses of the State for each fiscal year, and also a sufficient sum to pay the principal and interest of the existing indebtedness of the State.

SEC. 3. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law. SEC. 4. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury except in pursuance of appropriations made by law.

SEC. 5. The Legislature shall authorize the several counties and incorporated cities or towns in the State to assess and impose taxes for county and municipal purposes, and for no other purposes, and all property shall be taxed upon the principles established for State taxation. But the cities and incorporated towns shall make their own assessments for municipal purposes upon the property within their limits. The Legislature may also provide for levying a special capitation tax, and a tax on licenses. But the capitation tax shall not exceed one dollar a year and shall be applied exclusively to common school purposes.

SEC. 6. The Legislature shall have power to provide for issuing State bonds only for the purpose of repelling invasion or suppressing insurrection, or for the purpose of redeeming or refunding bonds already issued, at a lower rate of interest.

SEC. 7. No tax shall be levied for the benefit of any chartered company of the State, nor for paying interest on any bonds issued by such chartered companies, or by counties, or by corporations, for the above mentioned purpose.

SEC. 8. No person or corporation shall be relieved by any court from the payment of any tax that may be illegal, or ille

gally or irregularly assessed, until he or it shall have paid such portion of his or its taxes as may be legal, and legally and regularly assessed.

SEC. 9. There shall be exempt from taxation property to the value of two hundred dollars to every widow that has a family dependent on her for support, and to every person that has lost a limb or been disabled in war or by misfortune.

SEC. 10. The credit of the State shall not be pledged or loaned to any individual, company, corporation or association; nor shall the State become a joint owner or stockholder in any company, association or corporation. The Legislature shall not authorize any county, city, borough, township or incorporated district to become a stockholder in any company, association or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for, or to loan its credit to, any corporation, association, institution or individual.

ARTICLE X.

HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION.

SECTION I. A homestead to the extent of one hundred and sixty acres of land, or the half of one acre within the limits of any incorporated city or town, owned by the head of a family residing in this State, together with one thousand dollars' worth of personal property, and the improvements on the real estate, shall be exempt from forced sale under process of any court, and` the real estate shall not be alienable without the joint consent of husband and wife, when that relation exists. But no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes or assessments, or for the payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said property, or for the erection or repair of improvements on the real estate exempted, or for house, field or other labor performed on the same. The exemption herein provided for in a city or town. shall not extend to more improvements or buildings than the residence and business house of the owner; and no judgment or decree or execution shall be a lien upon exempted property ex-. cept as provided in this Article.

SEC. 2. The exemptions provided for in section one shall inure to the widow and heirs of the party entitled to such exemption, and shall apply to all debts, except as specified in said section.

SEC. 3. The exemptions provided for in the Constitution of this State adopted in 1868 shall apply as to all debts contracted and judgments rendered since the adoption thereof and prior to the adoption of this Constitution.

SEC. 4. Nothing in this Article shall be construed to prevent the holder of a homestead from alienating his or her homestead so exempted by deed or mortgage duly executed by himself or herself, and by husband and wife, if such relation exists; nor if the holder be without children to prevent him or her from disposing of his or her homestead by will in a manner prescribed by law.

SEC. 5. No homestead provided for in section one shall be reduced in area on account of its being subsequently included within the limits of an incorporated city or town, without the consent of the owner.

SEC. 6. The Legislature shall enact such laws as may be necessary to enforce the provisions of this Article.

ARTICLE XI.

MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY.

SECTION 1. All property, real and personal, of a wife owned by her before marriage, or lawfully acquired afterward by gift, devise, bequest, descent, or purchase, shall be her separate property, and the same shall not be liable for the debts of her husband without her consent given by some instrument in writing executed according to the law respecting conveyances by married women.

SEC. 2. A married woman's separate real or personal property may be charged in equity and sold, or the uses, rents and profits thereof sequestrated for the purchase money thereof; or for money or thing due upon any agreement made by her in writing for the benefit of her separate property; or for the price of any property purchased by her, or for labor and material used with her knowledge or assent in the construction of buildings, or repairs, or improvements upon her property, or for agricultural or other labor bestowed thereon, with her knowledge and consent. SEC. 3. The Legislature shall enact such laws as shall be necessary to carry into effect this Article.

ARTICLE XII.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The Legislature shall provide for a uniform system of public free schools, and shall provide for the liberal maintenance of the same.

SEC. 2. There shall be a Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose duties shall be prescribed by law, and whose term of office shall be four years, and until the election and qualification of his successor.

SEC. 3. The Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney-General, State Treasurer and State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall constitute a body corporate, to be known as the State Board of Education of Florida, of which the Governor shall be President, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction Secretary. This Board shall have power to remove any subordinate school officer for cause, upon notice to the incumbent; and shall have the management and investment of all State School Funds under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and such supervision of schools of higher grades as the law shall provide. SEC. 4. The State School Fund, the interest of which shall be exclusively applied to the support and maintenance of public free schools, shall be derived from the following sources:

The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to the State by the United States for public school purposes.

Donations to the State when the purpose is not specified.
Appropriations by the State.

The proceeds of escheated property or forfeitures.

Twenty-five per cent. of the sales of public lands which are now or may be hereafter owned by the State.

SEC. 5. The principal of the State School Fund shall remain sacred and inviolate.

SEC. 6. A special tax of one mill on the dollar of all taxable property in the State, in addition to the other means provided, shall be levied and apportioned annually for the support and maintenance of public free schools.

SEC. 7. Provision shall be made by law for the distribution of the interest on the State School Fund and the special tax among the several counties of the State in proportion to the number of children residing therein between the ages of six and twenty-one years.

SEC. 8. Each county shall be required to assess and collect annually for the support of public free schools therein, a tax of not less than three mills nor more than five mills on the dollar of all taxable property in the same.

SEC. 9. The County School Fund shall consist, in addition to the tax provided for in section eight of this Article, of the proportion of the interest of the State School Fund and of the one mill State tax apportioned to the county; the net proceeds of all fines collected under the penal laws of the State within the

county; all capitation taxes collected within the county; and shall be disbursed by the County Board of Public Instruction solely for the maintenance and support of public free schools.

SEC. 10. The Legis ure may provide for the division of any county or counties into convenient school districts; and for the election biennially of three school trustees, who shall hold their office for two years, and who shall have the supervision of all the schools within the district; and for the levying and collection of a district school tax, for the exclusive use of public free schools within the district, whenever a majority of the qualified electors thereof that pay a tax on real or personal property shall vote in favor of such levy; Provided, That any tax authorized by this section shall not exceed three mills on the dollar in any one year on the taxable property of the district.

SEC. 11. Any incorporated town or city may constitute a School District. The fund raised by section ten may be expended in the district where levied for building or repairing school houses, for the purchase of school libraries and textbooks, for salaries of teachers, or for other educational purposes, so that the distribution among all the schools of the district be equitable.

SEC. 12. White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, but impartial provision shall be made for both.

SEC. 13. No law shall be enacted authorizing the diversion or the lending of any County or District School Funds, or the appropriation of any part of the permanent or available school fund to any other than school purposes; nor shall the same, or any part thereof, be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.

SEC. 14. The Legislature at its first session shall provide for the establishment, maintenance and management of such Normal Schools, not to exceed two, as the interests of public educatiom may demand.

SEC. 15. The compensation of all county school officers shall be paid from the school fund of their respective counties, and all other county officers receiving stated salaries shall be paid from the general funds of their respective counties.

ARTICLE XIII.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

SECTION 1. Institutions for the benefit of the insane, blind and deaf, and such other benevolent institutions as the public