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their own Pastors or Clergy; and, at the fame time, that the State may have fufficient fecurity for the due discharge of the pastoral office by those who shall be admitted to be Clergymen, no perfon hall officiate as Minister of any established church, who thall not have been chofen by a majority of the Society to which he fhall minifter, or by perfons appointed by the said majority to choose and procure a Minifter for them, nor until the Minifter so chofen and appointed shall have made and fubfcribed the following declaration, over and above the aforefaid five articles, viz.

"That he is determined, by God's grace, out of the Holy Scriptures to inftruct the people committed to his charge, and to teach nothing (as required of neceffity to eternal salvation) but that which he shall be perfuaded may be concluded and proved from the Scripture; that he will use both public and private admonitions, as well to the fick as to the whole, within his cure, as need fhall require, and occafion shall be given; and that he will be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in fuch ftudies as help to the knowledge of the fame; that he will be dili

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gent

gent to frame and fashion his own felf and his family according to the doctrine of Chrift, and to make both himself and them, as much as in him lieth, wholefome examples and patterns to the flock of Chrift; that he will maintain and fet forwards, as much as he can, quietness, peace, and love, among all people, and especially among thofe that are or shall be committed to his charge."

No person shall disturb or molest any religious affembly, nor fhall ufe any reproachful, reviling, or abufive language against any Church; that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the converfion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animofities, to the hatred of the profeffors and that profeffion which otherwise they might be brought to affent to. No person whatsoever shall speak any thing, in their religious affembly, irreverently or feditiously of the Government of this State. No perfon fhall, by law, be obliged to pay towards the maintenance and fupport of a religious worship that he does not freely join in, or has not voluntarily engaged to fupport : but the churches, chapels, parfonages, glebes, and all other property, now belonging to any Societies

of the Church of England, or any other religious Societies, fhall remain, and be secured to them for ever. The poor fhall be fupported, and elections managed, in the accustomed man. ner, until laws shall be provided to adjust those matters in the most equitable way.

XXXIX. That the whole State fhall, as foon as proper laws can be paffed for those purposes, be divided into districts and counties, and county courts established.

XL. That the penal laws, as heretofore used, fhall be reformed, and punishments made, in fome cafes, lefs fanguinary, and, in general, more proportionate to the crime.

XLI. That no freeman of this State be taken, or imprisoned, or diffeized of his freehold, liberties or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in ay min ner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land..

XLII. That the military be fubordinate to the civil power of the State.

XLIII. That the liberty of the prefs be inviolably preferved.

XLIV. That no part of this Constitution fhall be altered without a notice of ninety

days

days being previously given; nor fhall any part of the fame be changed without the confent of a majority of the Members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

XLV. That the Senate and Houfe of Representatives shall not proceed to the election of a Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, until there be a majority of both Houses present. In the COUNCIL-CHAMBER, the 19th day of March, 1778.

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Affented to,

RAWLINS LOWNDES.

HUGH RUTLEDGE, Speaker of the
Legislative Council.

THOMAS BEE, Speaker of the Gene-
ral Affembly.

In the GENERAL ASSEMBLY, the 19th day

of March, 1778.

Published by Order of the House,

PETER TIMOTHY, C. G. A.

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UNANIMOUSLY AGREED TO IN CONVENTION, THE FIFTH OF FEBRUARY, 1777.

WH

HEREAS the conduct of the legislature of Great-Britain for many years paft has been fo oppreffive on the people of America, that of late years they have plainly declared and afferted a right to raise taxes upon the people of America, and to make laws to bind them in all cafes whatsoever, without their consent; which conduct being repugnant to the common rights of mankind, hath obliged the Americans, as freemen, to oppose fuch oppreffive measures, and to affert the rights and privileges they are entitled to by the laws of nature and reason; and accordingly it hath been done by the general confent of all the people of the States of New-Hampshire,

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