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Public Instruction, which Board shall perform such duties as
the General Assembly may direct.

Sec. 3. There shall be in each county such number of
School Commissioners, as the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction shall deem necessary, who shall be appointed by
the State Board of Education, shall hold office for four years,
and shall perform such duties and receive such compensation
as the General Assembly or State Superintendent may direct;
the School Commissioners of Baltimore city shall remain as*at
present constituted, and shall be appointed, as at present, by
the Mayor and City Council, subject to such alterations and
amendments as may be made from time to time by the Gen-
eral Assembly or the said Mayor and City Council.

Sec. 4. The General Assembly, at its first session after the
adoption of this Constitution, shall provide a uniform system
of "free public schools; by which a school shall be kept open
and supported, free of expense for tuition in each school dis-
trict, for at least six months in each year; and in case of a
failure on the part of the General Assembly so to provide, the
system reported to it by the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction shall become the system of free Public Schools of
the State; provided, that the report of the State Superinten-
dent shall be in conformity with the provisions of this Con-
stitution, and such system shall be subject to such alterations
conformable to this article, as the General Assembly may
from time to time enact,

Sec. 5. The General Assembly shall levy at each regular
session after the adoption of this Constitution, an annual tax
of not less than ten cents on each one hundred dollars of taxa-
ble property throughout the State, for the support of the free
public schools, which tax shall be collected at the same time,
and by the same agents as the general State levy; and shall
be paid into the Treasury of the State, and shall be distribu-
ted under such regulations a* may be prescribed by law,
among the counties and the city of Baltimore, in proportion to
their respective population, between the ages of five and twen-
ty years; provided, that the General Assembly shall not levy
any additional school tax upon particular counties, unless
such county express by popular vote its desire for such tax;
the city of Baltimore shall provide for its additional school
tax as at present, or as may hereafter be provided by the

General Assembly, or by the Mayor and City Council of Bal-
timore.

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall further provide by
law, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution,
a fund for the support of the free public schools of the State,