county judge or special surrogate, not to exceed two in any county, to discharge the duties of county judge or of surrogate in such cases as may be provided by law. Any such special county judge or surrogate shall be chosen at the general election held in the first odd-numbered year after the creation of any such office, to take office on the first day of January following such election, but no appointment shall be made by the governor to such office meantime.

SECTION 13. The existing surrogates' courts are continued, and the surrogates now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective present terms. Their successors shall be chosen by the electors of their respective counties, and their terms of office shall be six years, except in the counties of New York, Kings Bronx and Queens, where they shall hereafter be elected for terms of fourteen years. The legislature may provide for the election of an additional surrogate in any county having a population of more than one million. Surrogates and surrogates' courts shall have the jurisdiction, legal and equitable, and powers now established by law until otherwise provided by the legislature. The county judge shall be and serve as surrogate of his county except where a separate surrogate has been or shall be elected. In any county having a population exceeding forty thousand wherein there is now no separate surrogate, the legislature may provide for the election of a separate officer to be surrogate, whose term of office shall be six years. When the surrogate shall be elected as a separate officer, his compensation shall be established by law, and shall be payable out of the county treasury.

The legislature may at any time provide that the duties of county judge and surrogate in any county be discharged by the same person. For the relief of surrogates' courts, the legislature may confer upon the supreme court in any county having a population exceeding four hundred thousand, the powers and jurisdiction of surrogates.

SECTION 14. The court of general sessions in and for the city and county of New York is continued with its present jurisdiction, under the name of the court of general sessions of the county of New York. The said court shall consist of the judges now in office, all of whom shall continue to be judges of the court of general sessions of the county of New York for the remainder of the terms for which they were severally elected or annointed. The successors to the judges who were elected or appointed as judges of the court of general sessions in and for the city and county of New York shall be elected by the electors within the county of New York. The legislature may in its discretion authorize the election of one or more additional judges of said court. The successors to all said indges of the court of general sessions of the county of New York shall be elected for the term of fourteen years. SECTION 15. The city court of the city of New York is continued, and from and after the first day of January in the second year following the adoption of this article, it shall have the same

jurisdiction and power throughout the city of New York, under the name of the city court of the city of New York, as it now possesses within the county of New York and the county of Bronx, and original jurisdiction concurrent with the supreme court in actions for the recovery of money only in which the complaint demands judgment for a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars. and interest, and in actions of replevin, foreclosure of mechanic's liens and liens on personal property where the property involved does not exceed in value the sum of three thousand dollars. Its jurisdiction to enter judgment upon a counterclaim shall be unlimited. It shall consist of the justices then in office, who shall continue to be justices of the court for the remainder of the terms for which they severally were elected or appointed, and the additional justices to be elected as provided in this section. The justices who were elected or appointed as justices of the city court of the city of New York shall be paid the compensation now fixed by law for such justices until the expiration of the terms for which they were respectively elected or appointed. Eight of their successors shall be elected by the electors of the county of New York and two by the electors of the county of Bronx, and hold office for ten years. There shall also be five additional justices, two of whom shall reside in and be chosen by the electors in the county of Kings, and one of whom shall reside in and be chosen by the electors in each of the counties of New York, Bronx and Queens, and all of whom shall he elected at the first general election following the adoption of this article. and they and their successors, who shall be chosen in like manner. shall hold office for ten years. Until the Legislature shall otherwise provide. the county judge and surrogate of Richmond county shall perform in said county the duties of a justice of the city court of the city of New York and also the duties of a instice of the supreme court at chambers or out of court. The Legislature may in its discretion authorize the election of one or more additional instices of the city court in any county within the city of New York. The justices hereafter elected shall receive from the city of New York such compensation as may be fixed by law.

The justices of the city court of the city of New York shall choose one of their number to be the presiding justice thereof. who shall act as such during his term of office, and who shall be charged with the general administration of the court and the assignment of the justices to hold the terms thereof. subiect to such regulations as the presiding justices of the appellate divisions of the supreme court in the first and second departments shall from time to time prescribe. The justices of said city court shall have nower to annoint and remove a chief clerk of the court, and one or more deputy clerks in each county. who shall keen their respective office or offices at a place or places to be designated by the court and whose duties shall be regulated and supervised by the presiding instice of the court.

All civil actions or proceedings pending on said first day of January in the county courts of the counties of Kings, Bronx,

Queens and Richmond, respectively, are hereby transferred to the city court of the city of New York for hearing and determination at terms held within the counties in which the same shall be pending and, for the purpose only of such hearing and determination and the enforcement of the judgments rendered thereon, said city court shall have and exercise the equity jurisdiction previously vested in the respective county courts from which such cases are so transferred, but not otherwise. Until the legislature shall otherwise provide, the clerk of the city court of the city of New York and the chief clerk of the county court in each of the counties of Kings, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, shall severally act within his county as a deputy clerk of the city court of the city of New York, and the presiding justice of the court shall make such rules and regulations respecting the clerk's offices, the assignment of secretaries to the justices, court clerks, stenographers, interpreters and other attendants and the distribution of the business of the court in the said several counties as from time to time may be expedient, subject to such general regulations as the presiding justices of the appellate division of the first and second departments shall from time to time prescribe. Appeals from the city court of the city of New York shall be taken to the appellate term for the appropriate department or otherwise as may be prescribed by law.

SECTION 16. Vacancies occurring in the office of county judge, special county judge, surrogate, special surrogate, judge of the court of general sessions of the city of New York, or justice of the city court of the county of New York, shall be filled by appointment by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate if the senate be in session, or if not in session, the governor shall fill such vacancy by appointment which shall continue until and including the last day of December next after the election at which the vacancy shall be filled.

SECTION 17. The electors of the several towns shall, at their annual town meetings, or at such other time and in such manner as the legislature may direct, elect justices of the peace, whose term of office shall be four years. In case of an election to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a full term, they shall hold for the remainder of the unexpired term. Their number, classification and duties shall be regulated by law. Justices of the peace, justices of the municipal court of the city of New York, and judges or justices of inferior courts not of record, and their clerks, may be removed for cause, after due notice and an opportunity of being heard, by such courts as are or may be prescribed by law. All other judicial officers in cities, whose election or appoinment is not otherwise provided for in this article, including all judicial officers holding courts of special sessions, magistrates' courts, or other inferior local courts of criminal jurisdiction in the city of New York, shall be chosen by the electors of such cities, or appointed by some local authorities thereof as may be prescribed by law. The boards

of supervisors, or other officials exercising power now vested in such boards, may fix the compensation to be paid or allowed to justices of the peace for their services in criminal matters.

SECTION 18 Inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the legislature, but no such inferior local court which has been created since the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, or is hereafter created shall be a court of record. All inferior local courts now or hereafter established may be regulated or discontinued by the legislature. The legislature shall not hereafter confer upon any inferior or local court of its creation any equity jurisdiction or any greater jurisdiction in other respects than is conferred upon county courts by or under this article; but it may provide that the territorial jurisdiction in civil cases of any inferior or local court now existing or hereafter established in any city or of justices of the peace in cities shall extend throughout the county or counties in which such city may be located. Courts of special sessions and inferior local courts of similar character shall have such jurisdiction of offenses of the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law, and the legislature may authorize them to try such offenses without a jury.

The legislature may establish children's courts, and courts of domestic relations, as separate courts, or as parts of existing courts or courts hereafter to be created, and may confer upon them such jurisdiction as may be necessary for the correction, protection, guardianship and disposition of delinquent, neglected or dependent minors, and for the punishment and correction of adults responsible for or contributing to such delinquency, neglect or dependency, and to compel the support of a wife, child, or poor relative by persons legally chargeable therewith who abandon or neglect to support any of them. In conferring such jurisdiction the legislature shall provide that whenever a child is committed to an institution or is placed in the custody of any person by parole, placing out, adoption, or guardianship, it shall be so committed or placed, when practicable, to an institution governed by persons, or in the custody of a person, of the same religious persuasion as the child. In the exercise of such jurisdiction such courts may hear and determine such causes with or without a jury, except those involving a felony.

SECTION 19. All judges, justices and surrogates shall receive for their services such compensation as is now or may hereafter be established by law, provided only that such compensation shall not be diminished during their respective terms of office. Except as in this article provided, all judicial officers shall be elected or appointed at such times and in such manner as the legislature may direct. No one shall be eligible to the office of judge of the court of appeals, justice of the supreme court, surrogate, or judge of any other court of record who is not an attorney and counselor of this state except in the county of Hamilton as to the office of county judge or surrogate. No judge or justice shall sit in any

appellate court in review of a decision made by him or by any court of which he was at the time a sitting member. No person shall hold the office of judge or justice of any court or the office of surrogate longer than until and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age. The judges of the court of appeals and the justices of the supreme court shall not hold any other public office or trust, except that they shall be eligible to serve as members of a constitutional convention. All votes for any such judges or justices for any other than a judicial office or as a member of a constitutional convention, given by the legislature or the people, shall be void. No judicial officer except justices of the peace, shall receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office. A judge of the court of appeals, a justice of the supreme court, a judge of the court of general sessions of the county of New York, a justice of the city court of the city of New York, and a county judge or surrogate elected in a county having a population exceeding one hundred and twenty thousand, shall not practice as an attorney or counselor in any court of record in this state nor act as referee in any action or proceeding. The legislature may impose a similar prohibition upon county judges or surrogates in other counties. No district attorney or assistant to or deputy of a district attorney shall appear or act as attorney or counsel for the defendant in any criminal case or proceeding in any court of the state, nor shall any county judge, special county judge, surrogate, or special surrogate appear or act as counsel for a defendant in any criminal case or proceeding pending in his own county or in any adjacent county.

SECTION 20. The testimony in equity cases shall be taken in like manner as in cases at law; and, except as herein otherwise provided, the legislature shall have the same power to alter and regulate the jurisdiction and proceedings in law and in equity that it has heretofore exercised.

SECTION 21. The clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the supreme court, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law. The clerk of the court of appeals shall keep his office at the seat of government. The clerk of the court of appeals and the clerks of the appellate divisions shall receive such compensation as may be established by law which shall be paid out of the state treasury.

SECTION 22. The legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statutes and all civil or criminal practice acts and rules, and for the collection, compilation and publication annually of the civil and criminal judicial statistics of the state. It shall further provide for the recreation of a state law reporting bureau, which shall be under the direction and control of an official state reporter, who shall be appointed and be removable by the court of appeals, and who shall be charged with the duty, as may be provided by law and directed by said court, of publishing official reports of the opinions or decisions of all the courts of the state. But all laws and judicial opinions or decisions shall nevertheless be free for publication by any person.