APPENDIX. 59 



"There is also a common assent that the legislature has the right 

 of control in all matters affecting public safety, health, and welfare, 

 on the ground that these are within the indefinable but unquestioned 

 purview of what is known as the police power. It is indefinable 

 because none can forsee the everchanging conditions which may call 

 for its exercise; and it is unquestioned, because it is a necessary 

 function of government to provide for the safety and welfare of the 

 people. Private rights are often involved in its exercise, but a law 

 is not on that account rendered invalid or unconstitutional. The 

 first inquiry is whether the subject of the law is within the power; 

 for, if it is, the legislature has jurisdiction to enact it and its terms 

 are subject to a reasonable legislative discretion." Opinion to the 

 Governor, 24 R. I. 603, 605. 



As was said by Tillinghast v. Dalton, 22 R. I. 77-86, in commenting 

 upon the definition of "liberty" as given in People v. Gillson, 109 

 N. Y. 389: "this inalienable right is trenched upon and impaired 

 whenever the legislature prohibits a man from carrying on his business 

 in his own way, provided always, of course, that the business and the 

 mode of carrying it on are not injurious to the public, and provided, 

 also, that it is not a business which is affected with a public use or 

 interest." 



Now the subject matter of cap. 437, the act in question, relates not 

 merely to a business affected with a public use and interest, but to 

 the public use and interest itself. The act purports to be in sub- 

 stitution of an act entitled "An act for the better protection of the 

 lobster fisheries." By this it means the lobster fisheries of the people 

 of the state. One of the fisheries embraced in the great franchise 

 orginally granted to the people by the king in the charter and after- 

 wards perpetuated to them by the constitution. The words "people 

 of the state" have received the following judicial construction: 

 "The Constitution in its preamble starts out, 'We, the people of the 

 State,' etc. In article 1, section 2, it is declared that all governments 

 are instituted for the protection, safety and happiness of the people. 

 In the same article, section 6, it is further declared that the right of 



