44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The public, it has been claimed, could uot be taxed to aid such 

 private corporations, because the benefits anticipated from them 

 would be purely incidental, not differing in their nature from those 

 which miajht flow from the building of a mill for the manufacture of 

 bread stutfs, lumber, &c. 



On the other hand, the argument has been that such corporations 

 had a duplicate nature and were both private and public ; that they 

 are (juasi public highways on which the public at large were entitled 

 to equal and impartial accommodations, and that for all these reasons 

 there was a public interest in their construction, which constituted 

 them public purposes within the meaning of the law of taxation, and 

 thus rendered the question of public assistance to them a question 

 purely of policy and not at all one of power. It is conceded that 

 municipal bodies have no such power unless it is specialh' conferred 

 by the Legislature, the general authority to construct highways, town 

 ways and bridges not comprehending such a case. 



CEMETERIES. 



As all the citizens of every municipality' must die, and their bodies 

 be disposed of in a manner becoming to our civilization, as well as to a 

 regard for the health of the communit}^ the purchasing and fencing 

 burying grounds, and the purchasing and repairing a hearse and 

 hearse house for the exclusive use of the citizens, has been declared 

 b}' our Legislature to be a public use. While no person is compelled 

 bv law to bur}' his dead in a public cemetery, still the common, 

 almost universal sentiment and inclination of the people tends to a 

 common spot, in a convenient and appropriate place, where the 

 bodies of those who have moved on just before us to join the vast 

 majority may mingle together in the common dust, and the living 

 mourners may together mingle their sorrows and their tears as they 

 mournfully visit the silent cities. 



AND FOR OTHER NECESSARY TOWN CHARGES. 



Our court has said that these words do not constitute a new and 

 distinct grant of indefinite and unlimited power, to raise money at 

 the will and pleasure of the majority. The}' embrace all incidental 

 expenses arising, directlj* or indirectly, in the due and legitimate ex- 

 ercise of the powers conferred upon towns, and accordingly have 

 ever received a liberal construction. Without attempting to enu- 

 merate them all, I will name a few of the items which the courts have 



