Morrison Waite

“ As the statute on its face contemplated no delay in raising the money by taxation, no implication of a power to borrow in anticipation of the tax can arise. The subscription might be made, but the money must be raised by taxation to meet it. The railroad company cannot complain; for when it received the subscription it knew, or ought to have known, from what source the money was to come to meet the payment, and it impliedly gave its consent to such delays as were necessarily incident to the mode of collection. ”

“ But when it is taken in connection with the further provision of the same section, which authorizes the boards of police to direct that the railroad company issue to the tax-payers, in lieu of the county, stock to the amount of their taxes paid, the intention is even more apparent. As stock was to be issued by the company to an amount equal to the taxes paid, it would seem as though it could not have been supposed that before the tax was collected any payment of the subscription was to be made, or any stock issued, that could in any manner interfere with this privilege of the tax-payers. ”

“ On the 19th of April, 1872, a general act was passed 'to authorize counties, cities, and towns to subscribe to the capital stock of railroads,' which gave any county through which any railroad should pass authority to subscribe any sum to the capital stock, if two-thirds of the legal voters should give their assent in the manner specially provided for. Such subscriptions were to be paid in the twenty-year coupon bonds of the county, bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum. Taxes were to be levied and collected to pay the principal and interest of these bonds as they matured ”