1821, c. 110, absence, or resignation of the mayor, and when- mayor. ever there is a vacancy in the office from any §5. cause, and the same being declared, and a vote passed by the aldermen and common council respectively, declaring such cause, and the expediency of electing a mayor for the time being to supply the vacancy thus occasioned, the board of aldermen shall issue their warrants in due form, for the election of a mayor, and the same proceedings shall be had as are hereinbefore provided for the choice of a mayor. Accounta boards and public 1821, c. 110, SECT. 51. All boards and officers acting under the authority of the said corporation, and entrus- bility of all ted with the expenditure of public money, shall officers for be accountable therefor to the city council, in money. such manner as they may direct; and it shall be § 20. the duty of the city council to publish and distribute annually, for the information of the citizens, a particular statement of the receipts and expenditures of all public moneys, and a particu- Annual lar statement of all city property. financial statement. overseers of 1821, c. 110, c. 211. by act of [SECT. 52. The qualified voters of each ward Election of shall, at the annual meeting, be called upon to the poor. give in their votes for one able and discreet per- § 19; 1849, son, being an inhabitant of the ward, to be an overseer of the poor, and thereupon the same Annulled proceedings shall be had as are before directed in 1864. the election of members of the common council. And the persons thus chosen shall, together, con- Their powstitute the board of overseers for said city, and shall continue to have all the powers, and be sub- 22 Pick. ject to all the duties, now by law appertaining to ers and du ties. The school committee. § 1. the overseers of the poor of the city of Boston, until the same shall be altered or qualified by the legislature.] SECT. 53. The school committee shall consist 1835, c. 128, of the mayor of the city, the president of the 1851, c. 309. common council, and of the persons hereinafter mentioned. A majority of the persons duly elected shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business; and at all meetings of the board, the mayor, if present, shall preside. Same sub ject. Organiza tion of school com mittee. SECT. 54. At the annual election next after the passage of this act, the qualified voters of each ward shall be called upon to give in their ballots for six inhabitants of the ward to be members of the school committee; and the two persons who receive the highest number of votes, or, in case more than two receive an equal number of votes, the two persons who are senior by age, shall hold their office for three years from the second Monday in January next ensuing, and the next two persons who receive the highest number of votes, or who are senior by age in the contingency aforesaid, shall hold their office for two years from said date; and the two other persons shall hold their office for one year from said date; and, at every subsequent annual election, two persons shall be chosen in each ward, to be members of the school committee for the term of three years. SECT. 55. The persons so chosen as members of the school committee shall meet and organize on the second Monday of January, at such hour as the mayor may appoint. They may choose a secretary and such subordinate officers as they Secretary may deem expedient, and shall define their duties dinate offi and fix their respective salaries. and subor cers. duties of mittee. § 19. SECT. 56. The said committee shall have the Powers and care and management of the public schools, and school commay elect all such instructors as they may deem 1821, c. 110, proper, and remove the same whenever they consider it expedient. And generally they shall have all the powers, in relation to the care and management of the public schools, which the selectmen of towns or school committees are authorized by the laws of this commonwealth to exercise. tions of municipal etc. 1821, c. 110, § 8. Amend. SECT. 57. Every male citizen of twenty-one Qualificayears of age and upwards, excepting paupers and voters at persons under guardianship, who shall have re-elections, sided within the commonwealth one year, and 182 within the city six months next preceding any meeting of citizens, either in wards or in general meeting, for municipal purposes, and who shall see xx. have paid by himself or his parent, master or Const. guardian, any state or county tax, which, within two years next preceding such meeting, shall have been assessed upon him in any town or district in this commonwealth, and also every citizen who shall be by law exempted from taxation, and who shall be, in all other respects, qualified as above mentioned, shall have a right to vote at such meeting, and no other person shall be entitled to vote at such meeting'. 1 By the twentieth amendment of the constitution of the state, no person aldermen to make lists of voters prior to every elec tion. 1821, c. 110, § 24. R. S. c. 3. Board of SECT. 58. It shall be the duty of the board of aldermen, prior to every election of city officers, or of any officer or officers under the government of the United States or of this commonwealth, to make out lists of all the citizens of each ward qualified to vote in such election, in the manner in which selectmen and assessors of towns are required to make out similar lists of voters, and for that purpose they shall have free access to the assessors' books and lists, and shall be entitled to the aid and assistance of all assessors, assistant assessors, and other officers of said city. And it shall be the duty of said board of aldermen to deliver such list of the voters in each ward, so prepared and corrected, to the clerk of said ward, to be used by the warden and inspectors thereof at such election, and no person shall be entitled Inspectors to vote at such election whose name is not borne one to vote on such list. And to prevent all frauds and miswhose name takes in such elections, it shall be the duty of the inspectors in each ward to take care that no person shall vote at such election whose name is not so borne on the list of voters, and to cause a mark to be placed against the name of each voter on such list, at the time of giving in his vote. And the city council shall have authority to establish such rules and regulations, as to making out, publishing and using such lists of qualified voters, as they to allow no is not on the list. A shall have a right to vote "who shall not be able to read the constitution in the English language and write his name." The amendment does not, however, apply to any person prevented by a physical disability from complying with its requisitions, nor to any person who in May, 1857, had the right to vote, or who was then sixty years of age and upwards. shall deem proper, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the commonwealth. national and cers. § 2. R. S. c. 5, R. S. c. 6, §§ R. S. c. 4, § R. S. c. 5, § R. S. c. 6, §§ See xiv. Amend. Const. 14. SECT. 59. All elections for governor, lieu- Elections of tenant-governor, senators, representatives, repre- state offisentatives to congress, and all other officers, who 1821, c. 110, are to be chosen and voted for by the people, s. e. 5. shall be held at meetings of the citizens qualified $11. to vote in such elections, in their respective wards, 9, 18. at the time fixed by law for those elections respec- 12. tively. And at such meetings, all the votes given 11. in being collected, sorted, counted, and declared 2, 18. by the inspectors of elections in each ward, it shall 1852, c. 209. be the duty of the clerk of such ward to make a true record of the same, specifying therein [the whole number of ballots given in,] the name of each person voted for, and the number of votes G.S. c. 7, § for each, expressed in words at length. And a transcript of such record, certified by the warden, clerk, and a majority of the inspectors of elections in such ward, shall forthwith be transmitted or delivered by each ward clerk to the clerk of the city. And it shall be the duty of the city clerk forthwith to enter such returns, or a plain and intelligible abstract of them, as they are successively received, in the journals of the proceedings of the board of aldermen, or in some other book kept Examina for that purpose. And it shall be the duty of the tion and reboard of aldermen to meet together within two voters. days after every such election, and examine and compare all the said returns, and thereupon to make out a certificate of the result of such election, certificate. to be signed by a majority of the aldermen, and turn of |