Morrison Waite

“ The ordinance of the mayor and selectmen directing their issue is not of itself enough. Legislative authority, express or implied, to pass the ordinance, must be shown. The recital, therefore, in its present form, is of matter of law only, because it implies the existence of no special facts affecting the case, except the issue of the bonds under the ordinance to pay the subscription to the stock without any vote of the electors to be taxed therefor. ”

“ They are to be made good, if at all, not by waiving irregularities in the execution of an old power, but by the creation of a new one. Clearly, therefore, if the legislature had no constitutional authority to grant the new power, a statute passed for that purpose could not have the effect of validating the old bonds. In Grenada Co. Sup'rs v. Brogden the validating act was sustained, because the subscription was voted by the required two-thirds majority of voters, and therefore the constitution of 1869 did not stand in the way of what was done. ”

“ Supervisors, 102 U.S. 630, the policy of Mississippi, 'from its earliest history, seems to have been to require municipal organizations to meet their current liabilities by current taxation; and in Hawkins v. Carroll Co., 50 Miss. 762, it was expressly declared that 'the grant of power to such a body of an extraordinary character, such as is not embraced in the general scope of its duties, must be strictly construed. ”