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 in which the governor had only a casting vote. But the constitution of 1821 abolished the council of appointment and gave the choice of the principal state departmental officers to the legislature, and the constitution of 1846 transferred the choice of these officers from the legislature to the people, where it has since remained. Under the constitution of 1821 a great number of local officers were appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The choice of most of these was given to the people in 1846, but since then many new state departments have been created, the heads of which are usually appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the Senate. Under the present system, therefore, there is a biennial election (in even-numbered years) of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a state comptroller, a state treasurer, an attorney-general and a state engineer and surveyor; and the governor appoints, subject to the approval of the Senate, a superintendent of public works, a superintendent of state prisons, a superintendent of insurance, a superintendent of banks, a commissioner of excise, a commissioner of agriculture, a forest, fish and game commissioner, a commissioner of health, a commissioner of labour, a state architect, a state historian, a state librarian, two public service commissions, a civil service commission, a board of charities, a commission of prisons, a commission in lunacy, three tax commissioners and several other boards and commissions. The governor has the power, also, of filling vacancies in certain state offices and on the benches of the supreme court and county courts, and he may remove or suspend certain county and municipal officers on charges.

Legislature.—The legislative power is vested in a Senate of 50 members elected biennially and an Assembly of 150 members elected annually. Since 1846 both senators and assemblymen have been elected by single districts, and ever since the state government was established they have been apportioned according to population, but the present constitution limits the representation of New York City in the Senate by declaring that no county shall have more than one-third of all the senators nor any two adjoining counties more than one-half of them. The first and second state constitutions required that every senator should be a freeholder, but since 1846 no property qualifications have been prescribed for membership in either house; the only persons disqualified are those who at the time of the election or within one hundred days before the election were members of Congress, civil or military officers under the United States, or officers under any city government. The constitution of 1846 limited the pay of members of both houses to three dollars a day and to three hundred dollars for any one session (except in impeachment proceedings) besides an allowance for travelling expenses, but since an amendment of 1874 they have been paid $1500 a year and ten cents a mile for travelling expenses.

Judiciary.—At the close of the colonial era there were a court of chancery, a supreme court, circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer which were held in the several counties by the justices of the supreme court, a court of common pleas and a court of sessions in each county, and courts held by justices of the peace in the several towns. This system, with the addition of the Senate, the chancellor and the justices of the supreme court occasionally sitting as a court for the correction of errors, was retained with only slight changes until 1846. But the new constitution of that year substituted a court of appeals for the court of errors, merged the court of chancery into the supreme court, established in each county a new county court composed of a single judge, and, taking the appointment of judges from the governor, gave the election of them to the people. Some further alterations in the constitution affecting the courts were made in 1869, 1879, 1888, 1894, 1899 and 1909, and the system as at present constituted comprises a supreme court of ninety-seven justices, an appellate division of the same, a court of appeals, a court of claims and local courts. The highest judicial court in the state is not, as in most states of the Union, the supreme court, but the court of appeals. This court consists of a chief judge and six associate judges elected from the state at large for a term of fourteen years. Its jurisdiction is limited, except where judgment is of death, to a review of questions of law. Vacancies are temporarily filled from among the justices of the supreme court by the governor. To expedite business, at the request of the court, the governor may designate not more than four justices of the supreme court to act temporarily as additional associate judges of the court of appeals. The salary of the chief judge is $14,200, of the associate judges $13,700 a year.

Local Government.—The state is divided into sixty-one counties, each (unless wholly included in a city) having a county board of supervisors elected for two years, one from every town or city ward. This board has certain administrative and legislative powers, such as the care of county property, the borrowing of money for the erection of county buildings, the fixing of the salary of the county treasurer and of other county officers, the levying of county taxes and the division of the county into assembly districts and school commissioners’ districts. Other county officers are a county judge and a county surrogate elected for a term of six years, a treasurer, a clerk, a district attorney, a sheriff and from one to four coroners elected for a term of three years. Cities are of three classes: (1) those having a population of 175,000 or more; (2) those having a population between 50,000 and 175,000; and (3) those whose population is less than 50,000; the classification is according to the latest state enumeration.