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the Commonwealth, in the course of the then next January Session of the General Court, as well as of any balances of taxes which might remain due. It must have been foreseen, that the principal part, perhaps all, of the next preceding State tax would be collected before the fifteenth of March alluded to in the Act: The principal object then contemplated by the General Court, must have been to reserve to Massachusetts the right of coercing the collection of the State tax intended to be imposed or assessed at their then next Session. We now can perceive why the cautionary language so often quoted, "assessed by authority of this State," was adopted; evidently with the design of distinguishing this tax, (the right of collecting which was expressly reserved,) from those other taxes on real estate, which might be apportioned and assessed for its own exclusive use, without the intermixture of any of the authority of Massachusetts in any stage of the proceeding: So that the generality of the expression "all taxes" must be restricted by the following words, "assessed by the authority of this State," and explained by the other clause, which has been slated reserving the right of collection to Massachusetts of all taxes that might be assessed on or before the fifteenth of March, which, as the term is here used, must be construed to convey the same meaning as the word "imposed." - The words "assessed" and "assessment" may primarily and technically be understood to express that act which is performed by a board of municipal or parochial officers called and known in law as assessors; by whom taxes are immediately apportioned on the polls & estates of individuals; and, it some times means the imposition or apportionment of a tax on the several towns and plantations: and as used in the passage of the Act of Separation, its connection and bearing, as well as the obligations of good faith to Massachusetts require that the term "assessed" should receive the latter and more liberal construction; otherwise the provision intended to to secure to that State an important right, might be ineffectual and worthless. It may be proper to ascertain to what the term in the section alluded to "by the authority of this State" is opposed, or to what it is contradistinguished: It would be violating its true spirit and meaning to limit its operation to taxes imposed only on real estates: Such as a land tax or the State tax so called, properly so called. We can imagine only two authorities, except the provisional and temporary authority of Massachusetts before alluded to, having the right, within their respective spheres, to prescribe, direct, and

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