This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

240 HIGH COURT OF ERRORS AND APPEALS.
Monet «. Jones.
The following agreement of counsel was filed :
“ In this case, by agreement of counsel, no question is presented ; but as to the validity of the act of 1846, locating the seat of justice for Hancock county. If the court is of opinion, that the act is void, the opinion below is to be reversed; if, on the other hand, the court should be of opinion that the act is valid, the judgment below should be affirmed. To this question only are the arguments of counsel directed.
Hurst and Monet, for appellant.
W. P. Harris, for appellee.
Hurst and Monet, for appellant, contended,
1.	That the act of 1846 was unconstitutional in terms. It manifestly designed to locate the seat of government at Gainesville only on condition that the citizens erected the prescribed public buildings; such is the interpretation of all the sections of the act when viewed in connection with the words, the context, the subject-matter, the effects and consequences, or the spirit and reason of the law. 1 Bl. Com. 40 ; if the county seat be moved without a compliance with these expressed conditions, the intention and will of the legislature will be violated. The conditions thus form* part of the act locating the county seat; they constitute the inducement of the law, and if they are unconstitutional, the whole law is so. The conditions are such as the legislature had no right to impose; to command the citizens of part of a county to erect public buildings is a stretch of legislative usurpation, not the exercise of legislative power.
2.	The second section of the act is unconstitutional, because the legislature undertakes to judge of the validity of the title to the land, direct the mode of payment, &c.; which are all matters of county police, and appertain exclusively to the board of police.
3.	Locating county sites is a legitimate matter of county police, and the exercise of the powers by the legislature is an infringement on the jurisdiction of the boards of police. County police means government regulation of the county, and confers authority to administer all public matters for county purposes, of whatsoever nature. Baxter v. Taber, 4 Mass. R. 361.