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JANUARY TERM, 1848.
237
Monet *. Jones.
Julius C. Monet, President of the Board of Police of Harrison County, vs. Beniamin Jones, Clerk of the Probate Court of said county.
The constitution of this state, which (Art. 4, $ 20) gives to the boards of police, “ full jurisdiction over roads, highways, ferries, and bridges, and all other matters of county police,” does not, ander the clause, “ matters of county police” confer the right on boards of police to locate the seats of jus* tice in their respective counties.
The term, “ county police,” in this clause of the constitution, has but little meaning in itself; and, in order properly to define it, legislation is necessary ; the term is inoperative, until legislation designates its subject-matter. The legislature, having previously located the county seat of Hancock county, elsewhere, in the year 1846, passed a law, by the first section of which, it was provided, “ that the seat of justice was thereby made permanent, and located in the town of Gainesville." The other sections contain provisions, that the citizens of Gainesville should erect, at their own expense, suitable public buildings, one-third of the cost of which, should be refunded to them, &c. ; and the seventh section provided the period at which all the officers of the county should remove their books and papers to Gainesville; held, that by this act of the legislature, the seat of justice waa absolutely established at Gainesville, dependent on no condition that the citizens should erect the public buildings at their expense; and that the act was constitutional.
The fact, that the legislature has at one session established the seat of justice of a county, does not at all militate against the validity of an act establishing a different place for the seat of justice, at a subsequent session ; it is a subject at all times under legislative control and discretion.
On appeal from the circuit court of Harrison county; Hon. Thomas A. Willis, judge.
Julius C. Monet, President of the Board of Police, of Hancock county, filed his petition in the circuit court of Harrison county, for a mandamus, m which he alleges that the legislature, at its session of 1846, passed an act, entitled, “An act to vol. x.	21
'101 237 , HA 7i9
Note: this is a silly typo? Monet is president of the board of HANCOCK county.
(The case was filed in Harrison county.)