68 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND. [ART. III

failing to perform the same; and also, to provide by Law for compelling
any person so bribing, or attempting to bribe, or so demanding or receiv-
ing a bribe, fee, reward or testimonial, to testify against any person or
persons who may have committed any of said offences; provided, that
any person so compelled to testify shall be exempted from trial and
punishment for the offence of which he may have been guilty; and any
person convicted of such offense shall, as part of the punishment thereof,
be forever disfranchised and disqualified from holding any office of
trust or profit in this State.

Sec. 51. The personal property of residents of this State shall be
subject to taxation in the county or city where the resident bona fide
resides for the greater part of the year for which the tax may or shall
be levied, and not elsewhere, except goods and chattels permanently
located, which shall be taxed in the city or county where they are so
located.

[Sec. 51. The personal property of residents of this State shall be
subject to taxation in the county or city where the resident bona fide
resides for the greater part of the year for which the tax may or shall be
levied, and not elsewhere, except goods and chattels permanently located,
which shall be taxed in the city or county where they are so located, but
the General Assembly may by law provide for the taxation of mortgages
upon property in this State and the debts secured thereby in the
county or city where such property is situated.]*

Sec. 52. The General Assembly shall appropriate no money out of
the Treasury for payment of any private claim against the State
exceeding three hundred dollars, unless said claim shall have been first
presented to the Comptroller of the Treasury, together with the proofs
upon which the same is founded, and reported upon by him.

Sec, 53. No person shall be incompetent, as a witness, on account
of race or color, unless hereafter so declared by Act of the General
Assembly.

Sec. 54. No County of this State shall contract any debt, or obliga-
tion, in the construction of any Railroad, Canal, or other Work of
Internal Improvement nor give, or loan its credit to or in aid of any
association, or corporation, unless authorized by an Act of the General
Assembly, which shall be published for two months before the next
election for members of the House of Delegates in the newspapers
published in such County, and shall also be approved by a majority of
all the members elected to each House of the General Assembly, at its
next session after said election.

Sec. 55. The General Assembly shall pass no law suspending the
privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.

Sec. 56. The General Assembly shall have power to pass all such
Laws as may be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the

*Thus amended by Chapter 426, Acts of 1890, ratified by the people November
3, 1891.