396 



ILLINOIS. 



INDIA. 



that neither illegality nor irregularity in the pro- 

 ceedings, nor error nor excess in the valuation, nor 

 the hardship nor injustice of the law, provided it be 

 constitutional, nor any grievance which can be rem- 

 edied by a suit at law, either before or after pay- 

 ment of the tax, will authorize an injunction against 

 its collection. 



2. This rule is founded on the principle that the 

 levy of taxes is a legislative and not a judicial func- 

 tion, and the court can neither make nor cause to be 

 made a new assessment if the one complained of be 

 erroneous, and also in the necessity that the taxes, 

 without which the State cannot exist, should be regu- 

 larly and promptly paid into its Treasury. 



3. Quaere : Whether the same rigid rule against 

 equitable relief would apply to taxes levied solely 

 by municipal corporations for corporation purposes 

 as that here applied to State taxes 'i Probably not. 



4. No injunction, preliminary or final, can be 

 granted to stay collection of taxes until it is shown 

 that all the taxes conceded to be due, or which the 

 court can see ought to be paid, or which can be 

 shown to be due by affidavits, have beeen paid or 

 tendered without demanding a receipt in full. 



5. While the constitution of Illinois requires tax- 

 ation in general to be uniform and equal, it declares 

 in express terms that 'a large class of persons en- 

 gaged in special pursuits, among whom are persons 

 or corporations owning franchises and privileges, 

 may be taxed, as the Legislature shall determine, by 

 a general law, uniform as to the class upon which it 

 operates, and under this provision a statute is not 

 unconstitutional which prescribes a different rule of 

 taxation for railroad companies from that for indi- 

 viduals. 



6. Nor does it violate any provision of the Con- 

 stitution of the United States. 



7. The capital stock, franchises, and all the real 

 and personal property of corporations, are justly 

 liable to taxation; and a rule which ascertains the 

 value of all this, by ascertaining the cash value of 

 the funded debt and of the shares of the capital 

 stock as the basis of assessment, is probably as fair 

 as any other. 



8. Deducting from this the assessed value of all 

 the tangible real and personal property, which is 

 also taxed, leaves the real value of the capital stock 

 and franchise subject to taxation as justly as any 

 other mode, all modes being more or less imperfect. 



9. It is neither in conflict with the constitution 

 of Illinois nor unequitable that the entire taxable 

 property of the railroad company should be ascer- 

 tained by the State Board of Equalization, and that 

 the State, county, and city taxes should be collected 

 within each municipality on this assessment in the 

 proportion which the length of the road within such 

 municipality bears to the whole length of the road 

 within the State. 



10. The action of the Board of Equalization in in- 

 creasing the assessed valiie of the property of a 

 railroad company, or an individual, above the return 

 made to the board, does not require a notice to the 

 party to make it valid, and the courts cannot sub- 

 stitute their judgment as to such valuation for that 

 of the board. 



11. The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois 

 having decided that the law complained of in these 

 cases is valid under her constitution, and having 

 constructed the statute, this court adopts the deci- 

 sion of that court as a rule to be followed in the Fed- 

 eral courts. 



In concluding his opinion, the justice said : 



But, if for no other reason, we should reverse the 

 decrees of the Circuit Court in these cases because 

 the same questions, involving the same consider- 

 ations urged upon us here, have been decided by 

 the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois in a man- 

 ner which leads to the reversal of these. The cases 

 referred to are those of Samuel E. Porter, County 



Treasurer, and John W. Cook, County Clerk, vs. 

 Eockford, Kock Island & St. Louis Kailroad Com- 

 pany, decided at the January term, 1874, and the 

 subsequent case of the Chicago, Burlington & 

 Quincy Kailroad Company vs. J. J. Cole and another, 

 decided in June, 1875. In these two cases all the 

 points arising in the present cases were presented 

 to the court and decided adversely to the railroad 

 companies. These questions all grew out of the 

 validity and the construction of the tax law in- 

 volved in the present cases, and out of the same 

 action of the Board of Equalization. The validity 

 of the statute is not seriously questioned here on 

 account of any conflict with the Constitution of the 

 United States. If any such claim be set up it is suf- 

 ficient to say it is without foundation. As the whole 

 matter, then, concerns the validity of a State law as 

 affected by the constitution of the State, that ques- 

 tion, and the other one of the true construction of 

 that statute, belong to the class of questions in re- 

 gard to which this court still holds, with some few 

 exceptions, that the decisions of the State courts 

 are to be accepted as the rule of decision for the 

 Federal courts. It is, nevertheless, a satisfaction 

 that our judgment concurs with that of the State 

 court, and leads us to the same conclusions. 



In a case hrought against the Toledo, "Wahash 

 & Western Railroad Company in the Mason 

 Circuit Court a decision was rendered in May, 

 establishing the point that a raihoad company 

 could not show the cost of constructing and 

 operating its road by way of sustaining, as just 

 and reasonable, rates of charges which would 

 afford a fair profit upon the investment. 



INDIA, a British viceroyalty in Asia. Vice- 

 roy and Governor- General of Bengal, Lord 

 Lytton, appointed in 1876; commander-in- 

 chief of the army, Sir Frederick P. Haines. The 

 Executive and Legislative Council is composed 

 as follows : the Viceroy, the commander-in- 

 chief, Major-General Sir H. W. Norman, A. 

 Hobhouse, E. C. Bayley, Sir William Muir, Sir 

 Andrew Clarke, and Sir Alexander J. Arbuth- 

 not. The lieutenant-governors of the provinces 

 are honorary members of the Council, when 

 it meets in their respective provinces. Govern- 

 ment Secretaries: For the Interior, A. C. Lyall; 

 for the Finances, E. B. Chapman ; for Agri- 

 culture and Commerce, A. O. Hume; for For- 

 eign Affairs, C. V. Aitchison ; for Military Af- 

 fairs, Colonel H. K. Burne; for Public Works, 

 Colonel C. H. Dickens. The lieutennnt-gov- 

 ernors and chief commissioners of the different 

 provinces are as follows : Bengal, Lieutenant- 

 Governor, Sir E. Temple ; Northwestern Prov- 

 inces, Sir I. Strachey; Punjaub, Lieutenant- 

 Governor, E. H. Davies; Central Provinces, 

 Chief Commissioner, E. H. Morris; Oude, 

 Chief Commissioner, Sir G. T. V. Couper, Bt. ; 

 British Burmah, Chief Commissioner, A. Rivers 

 Thompson ; Madras, Governor-General, Duke 

 of Buckingham and Chandos; Bombay, Gov- 

 ernor-General, Sir P. T. Vodehouse. 



The results of the great Indian census, ex- 

 tending over a term of years from 1867 in 

 Berar to 1871-'72 in almost all the other prov- 

 inces, were published in the latter part of 1875. 

 Each province took its own census, and sent 

 the reports to the General Government, by 

 whom the returns were revised and corrected. 



