Fell v. State

Bartol, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant was indicted for selling spirituous liquors on the 5th day of October, 1874, within the third election district of Caroline County, in violation of the provisions of the Act of 1874, ch. 453. The case was submitted to the Circuit Court upon an agreed statement of facts, set out in the record, and the judgment being against the defendant, he has prosecuted this appeal. It is admitted that an election was held as provided by the Act, on the second Tuesday of July, 1874, and that the returns thereof were duly made by the proper officers, that in the third, election district, a majority of the votes cast were against the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors; and on the 4th day of August, 1874, proclamation of the resuLt was made by the Judges of the Circuit Court, as provided by the Act.

It was also admitted that the sales were made by the defendant as charged in the indictment. If tbs Act of Assembly be valid, tbe offeree eomes eleaxly within the second and, third sections. But it is contended on the part of the appellant, that the Act is unconstitutional and void, because it is alleged to be an attempt by the Legislature to delegate to the legal voters of the district, the power of making the law. By the Constitution, the legislative power is delegated to the General Assembly exclusively, and that the power thus delegated, cannot constitutionally be exercised by any other body or authority is universally conceded. ⁸⁴ Mr. Cooley, in his work on “ Constitutional Limitations," page 117, says, “ One of the settled maxims of constitutional law is that the power conferred on the Legislature to make laws, cannot he delegated hy that department to any other body or authority.” This principle rests upon the established rule “ delegatus non potest deleg ari,” and the application of this rule to the several dejjartments of the government created hy the Constitution, and clothed with the exercise of political power, is sanctioned both by reason and authority.

The .tnm question, therefore, is whether the Act of Assembly now under consideration is a delegation of the legislative power to the voters, and to determine this question it is important to examine the provisions of the Act. Section 1 Provides for an election to he held on the second Tuesday of July, 1874, at which the voters of the several election districts, in the counties named, shall cast ballots “for the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors” or “ against the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors;” and directs that the judges of the election shall make return of the votes to the Judges of the Circuit Court, who shall make proclamation of the result. Section 2nd, Enacts that if it shall be found by the returns of the judges of election, and proclamation of the Judges of the Circuit Court, that a majority of the votes, in any district of either of said counties * * * has been cast against the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, that then it shall not be lawful for any person, or persons, or body corporate to sell spirituous or fermented liquors, in any district of either of said counties voting by a majority against selling the same. Section 3rd, Prescribes the penalty for a violation of the Act.

Section ith, Provides that the Act shall take effect, immediately after it shall have been determined by a majority of the people in any one or more election districts of the ⁸⁵ counties named, whether or not spirituous or fermented liquors shall not be sold, as before provided for. Now what has been delegated to the voters by this Act of Assembly? Certainly not the power to make the law, or to'repeal existing laws. They are called on by the first section simply to express, by their ballots, their opinion or sentiment as to the subject-matter to which the law relates.

They declare no consequences, prescribe no penalties and .exercise no legislative functions. The consequences are declared in the law, and are exclusively the result of the legislative will. The Act of Assembly is “a perfect and complete law as it left the halls of legislation and was approved by the Governor;” but by its terms, it was made to go into operation in any district, upon the contingency of a majority of the legal voters within the district, being ascertained to be in favor of the prohibition contained in the second section. The question before us therefore resolves itself simply into this.

May the Legislature constitutionally enact a law, and make its operation depend upon the contingency of the popular vote ? It has never been denied that “ the Legislature may provide that an Act shall not take effect until a future day, or until the happening of some particular event, or in some contingency thereafter to arise, or upon the performance of some specified condition.” A familiar example of such legislation may be found in the Acts of Congress, which came under review before the Supreme Court in the case of the Brig Aurora vs. United States, 7 Cranch, 382 . It was decided by this Court that “ a valid law may be passed, to take effect upon the happening of a future contingent event, even where that event involves the assent to its provisions by other parties.” Mayor, &c. of Balt, vs. Clunet, et al., 23 Md., 469 ; in support of this proposition many cases might be cited. It. has been well remarked by a learned Judge : “ If the Legislature may make the operation of its Act depend on ⁸⁶ some contingency thereafter to happen, or may prescribe' conditions, it must be for them to judge in what contingency, or upon what condition the Act shall take effect.

They must have the power to prescribe any they may think proper; and if the condition be that a vote of approval shall first be given by the people affected by the proposed measure, it is difficult to see why it may not be as good and valid as any other condition whatever. There can be no inherent vice in the nature of such a condition, which shall serve to defeat the Act, when it would be legal and effectual, if made to depend upon some other event. To say in such a case, that the Act is made by the voters and not by the Legislature, is to disregard all proper distinctions, and involves an utter confusion of ideas upon this subject.” “ Wherever the contingency upon which a law is to take effect, depends upon the action of third persons, it might be said with equal truth, that the law was enacted by those persons instead of the Legislature.” Bull vs. Read, 13 Grattan, 90, 91. In the same case Judge Lee uses the following argument which seems to us to present the question in a very clear and forcible manner: “ It will not be questioned, that it is entirely competent for the Legislature to provide for taking a vote of the people or any portion of them, upon a measure directly affecting them, and if a given number be in favor of its adoption, to enact a law thereupon, carrying it into effect.

And there would seem to be but little difference in substance, in a reversal of the process, by first enacting the law in all its parts ; but providing that its operation is to be suspended until it be ascertained that the requisite number of the people to be affected by it were in favor of its adoption.” 13 Grattan, 88. We refer also to the opinion of Redfield, C. J., in The State vs. Parker, 26 Vermont, 365, where the same views are expressed. ⁸⁷ It must be borne in mind that the question with which we are dealing, is one of constitutional power. As to the wisdom or expediency of such legislation we are not authorized to judge. These are questions which under our system of government, are exclusively confided to the Legislature, and so long as that department acts within the constitutional limits of its authority, this Court has no power to sit in judgment on the wisdom, or expediency of its action.

The constitutional question here involved is not a new one in this State. In our judgment it has been distinctly passed upon by our predecessors in this Court. By the Act of 1825, cli. 162, a general system of primary schools was established. The 29th and 30th sections of that Act were as follows: i£29th.

Be it enacted, That at the next election of delegates to the General Assembly, every voter when he offers to vote, shall be required by the judges of election, to state whether he is for or against the establishment of primary schools, and the said judges shall record the number of votes for and against primary schools, and make return thereof to the Legislature, during the first week of the session, and if a majority of the said votes in any County shall be in favor of the establishment of primary schools as is therein provided for, then and in that case the said Act shall be valid for such County or Counties, otherwise of no effect whatever.” “Sec. 30th. And he it enacted, That if a majority of the votes of any County in this State, shall be against the establishment of primary schools, as established by this Act, then and in that case the said Act shall be void as to that County.” This law came before the Court of Appeals in Burgess vs. Pue, 2 Gill, 11, (decided in 1844.) Its validity was assailed, on the same ground as is now urged against the Act of 1874. That is, that its operation in any County was made to depend upon the result of a popular vote. It ⁸⁸ was urged there as here, that the effect of the 29th and 30th sections, was to delegate the law-making power to the voters, which the Legislature could not constitutionally do.

After a most full and able argument, the Court decided that the law was valid, and that there was no validity in the constitutional objection. The same question again arose in a case between the same parties, 2 Gill, 254 , and again the constitutionality of the law was maintained. It would he difficult to find a more solemn and authoritative decision upon any question than is presented by those cases ; and if would be equally difficult to distinguish the principle then decided, from, that involved in the present case ; so far as it concerns the question of the supposed delegation of legislative power, by a submission to the popular vote to determine the contingency upon which a law is to go into operation. Again in Hammond vs. Haines, 25 Md., 541 , this Court by a unanimous decision held the Act of 1864, ch. 348, to be valid, and constitutional.

That Act submitted to the qualified voters of,the borough of North East, to decide by ballot whether any license should he granted to sell spirituous or fermented liquors within the borough. The position of the appellant finds no support in the decided cases in Maryland. In other States there has been much conflict in the decisions. In some of them, the Courts have held laws to be invalid, because their operation was made to depend upon the contingency of a popular vote.

Among the earliest of these cases are Parker vs. Commonwealth, 6 Barr, (Penn.,) 507, (decided in 1847 ;) Rice vs. Foster, 4 Harr., (Del.,) 479, (decided about the same time ;) and Barto vs. Himrod, 4 Selden, (N. Y.,) 483. These were followed by the Courts of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and some others. We do not consider it necessary to refer to these cases more particularly. In many of the States, decisions have been rendered by the Courts of last resort, in accordance with the ruling of this Court in ⁸⁹ Burgess vs. Pue, and Hammond vs. Haines.

In Pennsylvania the leading case of Parker vs. The Commonwealth, ■which furnished the basis of many of the decisions in other States, cited by the appellant, has recently been overruled and reversed by the Supreme Court of the same State in Locke’s Appeal, 72 Penn., 491 . This last decision by that able Court was made after full argument, and an examination of the course of judicial decision upon the question, and is in accordance with the conclusions we have expressed. In the examination of the question before us, we have kept in view the cardinal principle, which must always govern the Courts, when called on to pass upon the constitutionality of the acts of a co-ordinate department of the government. Every intendment ought to be made in support of the legislative enactment, and it is not to be declared invalid, except for the plainest and most conclusive reasons.

In this case, we have failed to discover any sufficient grounds to justify us in declaring the Act of 1874, ch. 453, unconstitutional or inoperative. So to pronounce would in our judgment be contrary to sound reason, as well as at variance with the previous decisions of this Court. There can be no question of the power of the Legislature to fix the time when a law shall go into effect; nor can it be doubted that the Legislature has power to prohibit the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, in any part of the State ; notwithstanding a party to be affected by the law, may have procured a license, under the general license laws of the State, which has not yet expired. Such a license is in no sense a contract made by the State with the party holding the license.

It is a mere permit, subject to be modified or annulled at the pleasure of the Legislature, who have the power to change or repeal the law under which the license was granted. Parkinson vs. State, 14 Md., 185 . ⁹⁰ (Decided 11th March, 1875.) Being of opinion that none of the objections to the validity of the law, urged by the appellant are valid ; the judgment of the Circuit Court has been affirmed. Judgment affirmed. Bowie, J., delivered the following dissenting opinion : This being a test case, on the decision of which a number of others depended, involving questions of great importance, and being the only dissentient, I feel compelled, as much by respect to my colleagues as regard for enlightened public opinion, to assign the reasons which prevent my concurring in the conclusions of the majority of the Court.

The case was submitted to the Court below upon an agreed statement of facts, reserving the right of appeal. It appears from the record, that the ajipellant was indicted at October Term, 1874, in the Circuit Court for Caroline County, for selling spirituous liquors on the 5th of October, 1874, at Denton, in the third election district of said county, “ contrary to the Act of Assembly in such case made and provided,” etc. • It is agreed that at December Session, 1878-74, the General Assembly passed an Act entitled— “ An Act to enable the qualified voters of Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties, to determine by ballot, whether spirituous or fermented liquors shall be sold in said counties, or in any election district thereof, or a license granted for the sale of the same.” The Act, which was approved the 11th of April, 1874, is set out in the record, and enacts 1st, “ That the question whether or not any person or persons, or any house may be licensed in any election district of either of said counties, shall be submitted to the voters of the counties respectively, on the 2nd Tuesday of July next;” that an election shall' be held in accordance with the law governing ⁹¹ the general elections of the State ; that ballots for or against such sale shall be cast, and the judges of the general election shall return the vote to the Judges of the Circuit Court of the county in which such district is situated, and if it shall appear that either one or more election districts of either of said counties, shall have cast a majority against the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, then the Judges of the Circuit Court shall make a proclamation of the result of such election, defining therein the district or districts, or the whole county or counties, as the case may be. Sec. 2, enacts, that if it shall be found, etc., that a majority of the votes in any district of either of said counties, or all of them, has been cast against the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, that then it shall not be lawful for any person or persons, etc., to sell spirituous liquors in any district of either of said counties, voting by a majority against the selling of tire same. Sec. 3, enacts, that every person convicted of a violation of the Act shall be fined not more than $300, nor less than $50, for every such offence.

Sec. 4, enacts, this Act shall take effect immediately after it shall be determined by a majority of the people, in any one or more election districts, whether or not spirituous liquors shall not be sold as provided for. It is further admitted, that an election was held in the third election district of Caroline county, on the 2nd Tuesday of July, 1874, according to the Act of Assembly, and the judges of the election made return thereof, to the Judges of the Circuit Court, who afterwards on the 4th of August, 1874, made proclamation of the result of the election ; and in the third election district of Caroline county there were 249 votes cast for the sale of spirituous liquors, and 340 against. It was also agreed that the appellant was a resident of the third election district of Caroline county, doing business therein as a seller of spirituous and fermented liquors, ⁹² and that he made the sales charged in the indictment, having at the time a retail liquor license, trader’s license, and ordinary license, issued the 1st of May, 1874, under the provisions of the 5th Art. of the Code of General Laws, to continue until the 1st of May next, all of which had been paid for and the money remitted to the Treasury, upon which statement of facts, the appellant was found guilty by the Court, and from the judgment thereon appealed. The guilt or innocence of the accused depends upon the validity of the Act of Assembly, of 1874, ch. 453.

The gist of the offence is the violation of a Public Local Law, which, it is insisted, repeals the Public General Law. The traverser relies upon the license issued by the State, pursuant to Art. 56, Code of Pub. Gen. Laws.

The questions presented are, 1st. The'constitutionality of the Act of 1874, ch. 453. 2nd. Its effect as repealing the license laws of the State. The appellant insists, the Act under consideration is unconstitutional. “Because the Act is not a complete law in itself, as it came from the hands of the Legislature, but is made to depend for its existence and operation as a law on the popular vote.

In its terms and in effect, it is a delegation of the law-making power to the people.” 2. “Because by its terms, it is to go into effect as a law, if at all, upon a contingency not in the purview of the Constitution, and at a period of time,, not warranted by that instrument.” The appellee maintains the converse of these propositions ; denies there has been any delegation of authority ; and relies upon the statutes and decisions of this State as conclusive. Whatever deference may be due to the judicial opinions of the Courts of other States, if the points raised have been directly decided by our predecessors, we are bound to submit to the latter, unless very cogent reasons .exist to the contrary. ⁹³ Before attempting to review adjudged cases in other States, or to weigh their comparative merits as authority, we must endeavor to ascertain whether the question has been decided by this Court. The cases referred to by the appellee' are Burgess vs. Pue, 2 Gill, 11 and 254, and Hammond vs. Haines, 25 Md., 541 . The cases of Burgess vs. Pue were decided in this Court in 1844, and arose out of certain proceedings, adopted to enforce the payment of taxes, imposed by the inhabitants of a school district, in Howard District of Anne Arundel county, by virtue of an Act for the public instruction of youth in Primary Schools and its supplements.

The 29th and 30th sections of the Act, provided for the submission of the question of its adoption, to the voters of the several counties, and if the majority of said voters should be in favor of the establishment of primary schools as therein provided for, then the said Act should be valid for said county or counties, otherwise of no'effect whatever; and “ e converso,” if a majority should be against the establishment of primary schools, then the said Act should be void. Other sections required the counties to be laid off into school districts, and authorized the taxable inhabitants of said districts to vote a tax on the assessable property in said districts, to build school houses, etc. The appellee resisted the payment of the tax, on the ground among others, that the law was unconstitutional, being dependent for its validity and operation upon the votes of a majority of the voters of each county, and because it authorized a tax to be levied by one or more of the taxable inhabitants of the school district, on the assessable property of the district. In support of these objections, it was urged bjr the appellee, that the reference to the people of the counties, for the sanction or obligation of a law, was no where recognized or warranted by the Constitution. ⁹⁴ It was insisted that the counties had no separate political existence• they were not recognized hy the Constitution as municipalities, with power of self-government, hut as political divisions of the territory and were hut component parts of the State, with no exclusive legislative powers within their own limits. That the legislative power of the State was vested in a G-eneral Assembly, consisting of a Senate and House of Delegates, elected by the counties and cities, to the benefit of whose collective wisdom every citizen of the State was entitled in the enactment of laws and the imposition of taxes ; and the delegation of the power to adopt the law to the voters of the counties, and of the power to tax, to an indefinite number óf taxahles, destroyed the responsibility of the delegate to the constituent, and abolished all the guarantees of representative government, contrary to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

The learned Judge who delivered the opinion of the Court in the first case, took no notice directly of the first point — the submission of the law to the voters of the counties. With regard to the second, he said : “We think there was no validity in the constitutional question which was raised by the appellee's counsel, in the course of his argument relative to the competency of the Legislature to delegate the power of taxation to the taxable inhabitants for the purpose of raising a fund for the diffusion of knowledge and the support of primary schools. The object was a laudable one, and there is nothing in the Constitution prohibitory of the delegation of the power of taxation in the mode adopted to effect the attainment of it. We may say that grants of similar powers to other bodies, for political purposes, have been co-eval with the Constitution itself, and that no serious doubts have ever been entertained of their validity.

It is therefore too late at this day to raise such an objection.” ' 2 Gill, 19 . Replying to the ⁹⁵ argument that such legislation destroyed the relation of representative and constituent and the accountability of the former to the latter, the Court said : “It is not perceived how the Act in question can be deemed a violation of either of those principles of the fundamental law. The tax was certainly levied by the consent of the Legislature, because the power to impose it emanated from the legislative department of the government, and was expressly given by a law passed for that purpose, and there is nothing in it which can be considered as in the slightest degree impairing the responsibility of the law-making power to their constituents, for the due and faithful execution of the trust confided to them, because if deemed to be unwise or inexpedient, an expression of the popular will to that effect, was all that was necessary to procure its repeal.” 2 Gill, 19 . This is an emphatic assertion, that the act of the voters is the Act of the Legislature, for which they are as responsible as if done directly by them ; adopting or applying to legislation, as broadly as in transactions between man and man, the common law maxim “ qui faeit per alium facit per se,” and disregarding totally, the other axiom, “delegatus non potest delegari.” Again, the power to delegate, is said to belong to the Legislature, because there was nothing in the Constitution prohibiting its exercise, and as a power which had been often exercised (although no instance was cited), from the foundation of the government without objection.

If these positions are correct they sanction all the delegation of legislative power which can be made, without regard to the character of the deputy. The Court in the case cited made no distinction between the delegation of legislative or taxing power to the inhabitants of counties, cities, municipal corporations, or school districts; all seemed in their opinion equally capable of being the depositories of the legislative will. ⁹⁶ In the second case of Burgess vs. Pue, although the same objections to the constitutionality of the Primary School law were relied on, and more minutely, the Court assumed they had been dispósed of by the decision of the first, and decided the case upon other grounds. It is suggested in some of the cases that the delegation of the power to tax for local purposes is the deputation of an executive or ministerial duty, and not the exercise of a legislative function. This view seems to be taken by Judge Sharswood in Loche’s Appeal, and other cases.

No such distinction, however, was adverted to by this Court in deciding Burgess vs. Pue; they justified it upon the grounds that it emanated from the Legislature, was done with their assent, and was sanctioned by contemjmraneous usage. In this aspect of the case, in the passage of the Primary School law, there was a double delegation of the legislative will; first, in submitting the law for adoption by a majority of the voters of the county ; secondly, in the levying of taxes, by the taxables of the school districts. By the decisions of this Court, in Burgess vs. Pue, both of these delegations of power were affirmed, and the payment of taxes levied under them enforced by legal process. A more solemn sanction of the exercise of authority after judicial examination can scarcely be imagined or produced.

In the interval between the decisions in 2 Gill, (1844,) and 25 Md., (1866,) a number of cases had occurred in other States, involving the validity of laws submitted to the voters of counties, cities, towns and municipal corporations, in the course of which conflicting conclusions were reached in some instances, and refined distinctions adopted in others; so.that in the decision of the latter case, this Court had the benefit of the views of other tribunals, and therefore in its opinion was careful to distinguish between Acts of legislation, which had previously been deemed homogeneous. ■ ⁹⁷ In the case of Hammond vs. Haines, 25 Md., 541 , the appellant insisted that this Court had decided in Burgess vs. Pue, that the Primar}' School law was constitutional, notwithstanding the 29th and 30th sections; they being in the nature of conditions subsequent, which being void, left the law to operate independently of them, “per se,” and that the delegation of the power to tax, was granted to the taxable inhabitants as members of a quasi corporation. The appellee controverted these positions, relying on Burgess vs. Pue, as conclusive of the constitutional power of the Legislature to delegate its authority, as in that instance. This Court, through Weisel, J., delivering their opinion, referring to the argument in the case just cited, said: “ The cases of Burgess vs. Pue, 2 Gill, 11 and 254, were strongly relied upon by the appellee in the argument of this case, as settling the question in this State, and establishing the validity of the Taw. Those cases arose under the operation of the Primary School Law above referred to (1825, ch. 162,) and the provisions of the 29th and 30th. sections of that law, submitting it to the votes of the people of the several counties, with a view to its adoption and operation in such as would vote accordingly, were urged in the argument as not .warranted by the Constitution, and as avoiding the law.

This Court, however, held the law to be constitutional, but not distinctly upon the ground that there was no force in the objection taken to those sections, but that it was competent for the Legislature to delegate the power of taxation to the taxable inhabitants for the purpose of raising a fund for the support of schools.” 25 Md., 560 . Without adopting or dissenting from the views expressed in Burgess vs. Pue, except by inference as heretofore indicated, the Court declining to regard Burgess vs. Pue, as conclusive on the point, assimilated the Act of 1864, ch. 348, then before them, to the Act of 1846, ch. 112, ⁹⁸ prohibiting the clerk of Washington County, from issuing licenses within ten miles of St. James’ College, without an order from one of the Judges of the Court — (an Act under which one Lancaster was convicted and fined, and which judgment was afterwards affirmed on appeal.) This law (1846, ch. 172,) the Court said, repealed all laws inconsistent with it, but left the license laws operative within the interdicted limits, if the Judge was satisfied of its propriety and necessity. Comparing the principal cases with that of Lancaster, the Court said : “In the town of North East, a majority of its qualified voters, speaking through the ballot-box, was declared to have the effect of suspending the operation of the law within its limits. The effect was, or is, the same in both, one operating affirmatively, the other negatively; the mode of expressing the assent or dissent only being different.

We regard both laws as virtually involving the same principle,” etc. After affirming the constitutionality of the Act of 1864, ch. 348, concluding their opinion, the Court significantly adds: “In deciding this law to be constitutional, this Court is not to be understood as embracing within its views 'the character of a law which would, in a broader or more enlarged sense, submit its passage or existence to the popular vote. Law (as has been most aptly defined) is the result of the legitimate action of legislative power. * * * The Greneral Assembly, composed of the Senate and House of Delegates, is, in this State, the only law-making power.” In deciding the case of Hammond vs. Haines, this Court emphasized the fact-that the privilege of deciding bj' ballot, whether any licenses to sell liquor should be issued by the clerk, was granted to the qualified voters residing in the borough of North East. They carefully guarded against the announcement of a general rule, which would sanction as constitutional, “a law which would, in a broader or more enlarged sense, submit its passage or its existence to ⁹⁹ the popular voto.” Hence, whatever conclusions might have been drawn from the action of this Court in the cases of Burgess vs. Pue, standing alone, when they are considered as interpreted and qualified by the opinion in Hammond vs. Haines, it is clear the judicial mind of this Court is not precluded from being governed by the force of -principles or weight of authority which may preponderate on either side of this question. It may further be said, that the subject which in the cases of Burgess vs. Pue, was “res integra,” and decided upon general principles almost without the citation of authority, has been since so thoroughly discussed in other tribunals, that it would be no disrespect to our learned and venerated predecessors to yield to the authority of more recent decisions.

Whether a law is constitutional or not must depend on the powers conferred on the Legislature by the Constitution under which it is organized, and by which it acts. Although great similarity prevails in the provisions of the Constitutions of the several States (all of them, being republican,) yet in a portion of them a democratic element more or less exists, which originated in their colonial necessities, and has heeu recognized and continued by their State Constitutions. Thus, in the New England States, and perhaps in some of the Western, founded upon their model, a system of towns or townships is established, which is thus briefly described by a recent essayist: “The entire area of the county is divided into a convenient number of towns, with boundaries definitely ascertained, and positively fixed by law, somewhat like our ‘ election districts,’ but generally of smallar extent. Each of these towns is a body corporate, with all the powers necessary to a legal corporation.

Every voter living within the boundaries of the town is, by virtue of his residence, entitled — as a stockholder in any ordinary corporation — to a voice in the management ¹⁰⁰ of the business of the town. Certain things are required of these town corporations in conformity to general law. The mode of meeting the requirements is determined, and the town officers through whom it shall he done, are selected hy the voters assembled, in general town meeting, and acting as a pure democracy.” * * * “The public interests confided to the town administration are: the ascertainment of the value of property; the levying, assessment and collection of all taxes ; the highways and bridges, the schools and general educational interests, the