ELIHU E. JACKSON, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

213

CHAPTER 195.

AN ACT to amend section forty-eight of article three, of the

constitution of this State.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted ly the General Assembly of Maryland,

(Three-fifths of all the members of the two houses concurring,)

that the following section be and the same is hereby proposed as

an amendment to the constitution of this State, and if adopted

To super-
sede.

by the legal and qualified voters thereof as herein provided, it

shall supersede and stand in the place and instead of section

forty-eight of article three of said constitution.

SEC. 48. Corporations may be formed under general laws, but

shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes

and except in cases where no general laws exist, providing for

the creation of corporations of the same general character as the

corporation proposed to be created, and any act of incorporation

passed in violation of this section shall be void; all charters

granted or adopted in pursuance of this section, and all charters

heretofore granted and created subject to repeal or modification,

may be altered from time to time, or be repealed; provided,

nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to banks,

or the incorporation thereof; the General Assembly shall not alter

or amend the charter of any corporation existing at the time of

Proposed

the adoption of this article, or pass any other general or special

amend-
ment.

law for the benefit of such corporation, except upon the condition

that such corporation shall surrender all claim to exemption from

taxation or from the repeal or modification of its charter, and

that such corporation shall thereafter hold its charter subject to

the provisions of this constitution; and any corporation chartered

by this State which shall accept, use, enjoy or in anywise avail

itself of any rights, privileges or advantages that may hereafter

be granted or conferred by any general or special act, shall be

conclusively presumed to have thereby surrendered any exemp-

tion from taxation to which it may be entitled under its charter

and shall be thereafter subject to taxation as if no such exemp-

tion has been granted by its charter.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,

That the said foregoing section hereby proposed as an amend-

ment to the constitution shall be, at the next general election

held in this State, submitted to the legal and qualified voters

thereof for their adoption or rejection, in pursuance of the direc-

tions contained in article fourteen of the constitution of this

By ballot.

State, and at the said general election the vote on said proposed

amendment to the constitution shall be by ballot, and upon each

ballot there shall be written or printed the words "for the con-

stitutional amendment," or "against the constitutional amend-

ment," as the voter shall elect, and immediately after said elec-