.MTU1Mg.MTczNTQ

power and jurisdiction of Massachusetts in and over this State were to cease, according to the express terms of the Act of Separation, (on condition of its admission into the union on or before the fourth day of March last;) and the day when they in fact did cease. Because it was not contemplated that Maine should become a State, (though admitted into the Union by the time presented) until the seventeenth of March; and of course none of the provisions of the Constitution would become effectual until that time. We are led to the inquiry, whether any of the provisions of the tax act, above mentioned, are repugnant to the Constitution? If they are, then they are not "in force in this state," according to the third section of the tenth article above cited. It is understood that one provision in the tax act, contained in the third section of it, is supposed to be repugnant to the Constitution. The provision is in these words: "and said assessors shall estimate all kinds of property, which by this act they are required to tax, at six per centum on the value thereof, excepting unimproved lands, which they shall estimate at two per centum on its value:" the clauses in the Constitution, to which the foregoing provision of the tax act is supposed to be repugnant, is the eight section of the ninth article, in the following words "All taxes upon real estate, assessed under the authority of this State, shall be apportioned and assessed equally according to the just value thereof." If the words "assessed by the authority of this State," had not been used in the last cited section, there would seem to be little doubt as to the rule and principles of assessing taxes on real estate in all cases, hence it becomes important to ascertain the meaning and effect of the expression: And these must be collected from a view of the other parts of the Constitution, in connection with this; and of the Act of Separation, one section of which has become a part of the Constitution. We believe that an examination and fair construction of these will remove all doubt, and show the provision of the Constitution and the tax act, to have been intended to affect desirable objects in protecting certain rights belonging to Massachusetts, to a limited extent, and beyond this limitation, prescribing the mode in which the sovereign power of this State should be exercised in the taxation of real property. In this stage of the investigation, it may be useful to introduce a part of the section of the Act of Separation, which has now become a part of our Constitution. It is in these words: "And this Commonwealth shall have the same remedies within the proposed State, as it now has for the collection of all taxes, bonds or debts, which may be assessed, due, made or contracted, by, to or with, the Commonwealth, on or before the said fifteenth day of March, within the said District of Maine; and, all officers within Massachusetts proper and the District of Maine, shall conduct themselves accordingly." It will be recollected that the Act of Separation was passed in June, 1819, and it seems very clear that the object in view in the above provision, was to secure to Massachusetts the right of collecting the State tax, which might, and was intended to be laid on all the towns and plantations in the