David Josiah Brewer

“ In it the railroad company claimed under a statute providing 'that the stock, fixtures, and property of said company shall be exempt from taxation,' but the taxes which were held included within the exemption were the general taxes of the city for corporate purposes. There was no special assessment for local improvements on property benefited thereby, but simply the ordinary taxes levied for corporate purposes, including, it is true, among them matters of public improvement. Such taxes come strictly within the provisions in respect to taxation. ”

“ A city is a municipal corporation, a political subdivision of the state, charged with certain specified duties of government within its territorial limits, and for the full discharge of those duties it is authorized to levy taxes. In this respect it does not differ from a county, and, although some of the funds derived from a city tax may have been used for public improvement, that does not change the character of the tax. ”

“ It does not cease to be a 'tax,' properly so called, any more than would a tax levied by the state if a portion of the funds raised thereby were invested in the building of a capitol, or any other public improvement. ”

“ So, too, in the levee district, composed of several counties and parts of counties, lands in the river counties, which are supposed to receive the largest benefit, may be assessed higher than those more remote. The legislature may classify the lands and tax accordingly.'
That such is now the settled law in Mississippi is not denied by counsel for complainants, but it is insisted that these decisions were subsequently to the vesting of title to those lands in the railroad company ”

“ Complainants contend that the deeds are themselves evidence of a prior payment and discharge of the levee taxes, on the theory that such payment was a statutory prerequisite to the conveyance by the auditor. Nofire v. U.S., 164 U.S. 657, 17 Sup. Ct. 212. We do not so understand the force of the statute. The transactions with the auditor and with the levee board were independent of each other. ”