PENNSYLVANIA. 



721 



selves involved in a debt of $645,000, none of 

 which can be contested, when they find their 

 way into the hands of lona fide holders for 

 value, if the power to issue this amount bo 

 *ust;iinod, whether they be legitimate or ille- 

 gitimate. Hero it is that the doctrine of the 

 opinion does a great wrong. It sustains the 

 illegitimate as well as the legitimate issues, on 

 the ground that the implied power to issue 

 them exists, and with this aegis covers the en- 

 tire sum." Has a municipal bond the attributes 

 of commercial paper ? is a question which did 

 not entirely escape notice. Judge Agnew says, 

 in his dissenting opinion : " That logic is false 

 which deduces from the power of a mere mu- 

 nicipal corporation ... a power on the part 

 of such a corporation, created by law for gov- 

 ernmental purposes, to issue commercial paper 

 . . . negotiable according to the law merchant 

 or general usage. . . . This is not a municipal 

 power. It flows from no relation of the citi- 

 zens to the corporation. They are not stock- 

 holders, nor partners, nor associates, but are a 

 portion of the people, living under a local gov- 

 ernment for certain local purposes. The offi- 

 cers of a municipal corporation are not the 

 agents of the people" 



A case involving the liability of a municipal- 

 ity for the condition of its thoroughfares camo 

 before the Supreme Court. The action grew 

 out of injuries sustained at Pittston. The 

 plaintiff's son was driving his horse and wagon 

 through the main street, which is sixty feet in 

 width, but narrows at a mill which it passes. 

 At this narrowing a perpendicular wall de- 

 scends to the tracks of a railroad, but there is 

 no abutment or guard of any kind at the edge 

 of the road. The horses of the plaintiff took 

 fright as a train approached, and they, with 

 the wagon, were precipitated to the track be- 

 low. The boy was hurt, one horse was killed, 

 another injured, and the wagon destroyed. The 

 Court said : 



It is true that, without the frightening of the horses, 

 there would have been no accident j but the horse is 

 naturally a timid animal, and is so liable to fright that 

 those having charge of the public highways ought to 

 make reasonable provisions for a matter so common 

 and so likely to happen at any time. Horses abound, 

 but horses that never frighten or are never fractious 

 are exceedingly rare : and, if roads were to be con- 

 structed only for sucn animals, there must need bo 

 but little traveling upon them. We think it was well 

 said, in the case of Lower Macungie Township vs. 

 Merkhoffer (21 P. F. S., 276), that it was no defense 

 that bv careiul driving the accident might have been 

 avoide'J, since that would fall far short of the purpose 

 of a public highway. In the case of Newlin township 

 tv. Davis (27 P. T. S., 317), the accident occurred 

 through the fright of a horse upon a bridge unprotect- 

 ed by side-railings ; but it was not, in that case, pre- 

 tended that the omission of such railing was not jw se 

 neglect, nor that the fright of the horse relieved the 

 township of liability. Now, it is hard to understand 

 why a precipice at the side of a narrow street docs not 

 require fencing quite as much as the sides of a bridge. 

 We can readily understand and excuse the want ot 

 precautions of thia kind in wild and sparsely settled 

 portions of the State, for the finances of the townships 

 are exhausted in the making of roads even of an in- 

 ferior character ; but wo can neither understand nor 

 VOL. six. 46 A 



excuse the motive of a borough of ten thousand Inhab- 

 itant-) in refusing to properly guard a place on ita main 

 thoroughfare so dangerous as that now under consid- 

 eration, especially when the expense of so doing would 

 be but trifling. In the present case there w certain- 

 ly, then, but little, if any, doubt but that the negli- 

 gence of the borough authorities was the direct cause 

 of the accident complained of, with its resulting dam- 

 ages. 



Criminal proceedings were commenced 

 against the persons reported as having attempt- 

 ed to bribe members of the Legislature. Bills 

 of indictment were found against them, but 

 the trial was postponed. 



By another decision of the Supreme Court, 

 the liability to taxation of sectarian and other 

 asylums was affirmed. A Protestant Episco- 

 pal church had established an orphan asylum. 

 The law of Pennsylvania exempts from taxa- 

 tion public charitable and educational institu- 

 tions. The Supreme Court held that this or- 

 phan asylum, being generally limited to the 

 reception of the orphan children of Episco- 

 palian parents, is not a "public" charitable 

 institution within the proper meaning of the 

 statute, and hence is liable to taxation. The 

 Court also held that, though the asylum some- 

 times received orphans not of Episcopalian 

 parentage, yet the main object of the asylum 

 was not a " public " charity, but to advance 

 the particular interests of one religious denom- 

 ination ; hence it was not a " public " charitable 

 institution within the meaning of the statute, 

 and is liable to taxation. In illustration of the 

 decision, the opinion of the Court intimates 

 that if Girard College should open its doors 

 only to one denomination or class of persons, 

 it would not be a "public" educational insti- 

 tution, and would be liable to taxation ; or if 

 the Pennsylvania Hospital should refuse to re- 

 ceive any but Protestants, or any but Roman 

 Catholics, it would cease to be a ' public" 

 charitable institution, and would be liable to 

 taxation. 



An election was held on November 4th for 

 the choice of a State Treasurer and the State 

 Legislature. 



The State Temperance Convention assembled 

 at Harrisburg on April 24th, attended by 346 

 delegates from 39 counties and 7 cities. Felix 

 R. Brunot of Pittsburgh was chosen President. 

 A series of resolutions was adopted, which re- 

 quested the Legislature to change the policy of 

 the State from that of license and regulation 

 to that of prohibiting the manufacture and salo 

 of intoxicating liquors for public drinking pur- 

 poses ; that all males and females over twenty- 

 one years old be clothed with legal power to 

 vote on a duly framed law for prohibiting the 

 traffic in liquors ; that each candidate for office 

 be interrogated before and after nomination as 

 to his view of a temperance law, and, if un- 

 favorable, that he be regarded as unfit to rep- 

 resent the people ; that the Legislature author- 

 ize the appointment of a commission to inves- 

 tigate the alcoholic liquor traffic. A law waa 

 framed prohibiting the sale and manufacture 



