Page:State v. Johnson.pdf/1

26 Ark.]  1870.]

S C—Power to issue Writs of Mandamus and Quo Warranto.—Under the present Constitution, the Supreme Court, in the exercise of its original jurisdiction, has power to issue writs of mandamus and quo warranto.

S C—Construction of.—That clause of the schedule to the Constitution (sec. 10), requiring all officers to qualify "within fifteen days after they shall have been duly notified of their election or appointment," is mandatory, and, for the purpose designed, has all the force and effect of a provision of the Constitution, and is to be construed by the same rules.

The command, and the use of the word "shall," in the schedule, denotes command, that the officer shall qualify within fifteen days after haviag been duly notified of his election, is nothing more nor less than a grant to qualify within that time.

Where the Constitution designates, in express and explicit terms, the precise time when a fundamental act shall be done, and is utterly silent as to the performance at any other time, it cannot be done at any other time.

T.—To what cases does not extend, etc.—The right of trial by jury, at common law, did not extend to summary proceedings, nor to civil proceedings against a public officer, and the proceeding by quo warranto, is nothing more nor less than a civil proceeding against a public officer.

The Constitution having given this court jurisdiction to issue the writs, with power to hear and determine the same, the court has the power to determine the facts arising on the writs in which it exercises jurisdiction.