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Sec. 39. The General Assembly shall enact no law autho-
rizing private property to be taken for public use, without
just compensation, as agreed upon between the parties, or
awarded by a jury, being first paid or tendered to the party
entitled to such compensation.

Sec. 40. Any citizen of this State who shall, after the adop-
tion of this Constitution, either in or out of this State, fight
a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge so
to do, or who shall act as a second, or knowingly aid or as-
sist in any manner those thus offending, and any citizen who
has thus offended, or who has so aided or assisted those thus
offending since the first Wednesday of June, eighteen hun-
dred and fifty-one, shall ever thereafter be incapable of hold-
ing any office of trust or profit under this State.

Sec. 41. The General Assembly shall pass laws for the
preservation of the purity of elections by the registration of
voters, and by such other means as maybe deemed expedient;
and to make effective the provisions of the Constitution, dis-
franchising certain persons or disqualifying them from hold-
ing office.

Sec, 42. The General Assembly shall pass laws necessary
to protect the property of the wife from the debts of the hus-
band during her life, and for securing the same to her issue
after her death.

Sec. 43. Laws shall be passed by the General Assembly to
protect from execution, a reasonable amount of property of a
debtor not exceeding in value the sum of five hundred dollars.

Sec. 44. The General Assembly shall provide a simple and
uniform system of charges in the offices of Clerks of Courts
and Register of Wills, in the counties of this State and the
city of Baltimore, and for the collection thereof; provided,
the amount of compensation to any of said officers shall not
exceed the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars a year, over
and above office expenses and compensation to Assistants;
and provided further, that such compensation of Clerks, Reg-
isters, Assistants and office expenses shall always be paid out
of the fees or receipts of the offices respectively.

Sec. 45. The General Assembly shall have power to receive
from the United States any grant or donation of land, money
or securities for any purpose designated by the United States,
and shall administer or distribute the same according to the
conditions of the said grant.

Sec. 46. The General Assembly shall make provision for
all cases of contested elections of any of the officers not herein
provided for.