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244 HIGH COURT OF ERRORS AND APPEALS.
Monet v. Jones.
regulations. Strictly speaking, therefore, the term police hast relation to a power of organization of a system of regulations tending to the health, order, convenience and comfort of the inhabitants, and to the prevention and' punishment of injuries and offences to the public. But it must be remembered, that the constitution has elsewhere specifically confided to designated officers and tribunals, as to justices of the peace and the various courts of law, the prevention and punishment of offences against the public, and retained, as a part of the sovereignty of the state, the power to enact by the legislature such laws for the1 preservation of good order and good government, as it may, in its wisdom, deem suitable. It follows, therefore, that the term, as used in this connection in the constitution, conveys but little if any meaning, and in order to properly define it, legislation was necessary. Hence, it will be found, that the legislature has, from time to time, pdinted out the extent of the authority so given, by confiding powers to the boards of police “ in addi* tion to their jurisdiction specifically vested in them by the constitution,” which specification is a jurisdiction over “ roads, highways, ferries and bridges.” H. & H. 445, sec. 3, and passim in the laws relating to the board of police. The grant of general jurisdiction in matters of police to become operative, required legislation to designate its subject-matter. The conclusion necessarily is, that as the power to locate the seats of justice of the several counties, has not been confided to the boards of police by the legislature, the power still remains in that branch of the government It is next in order of inquiry, whether the above mentioned act of the legislature of 1846, ch. 145, locating the seat of justice of Hancock county at Gainesville, constituted a location absolutely, or only upon condition. The first and seventh sections of that act, we think, put it beyond doubt, that the location was thereby made absolute, and to take effect, at all events, ten days after the expiration of the spring term of the circuit court of that county, to be holden for the year 1846. These sections are as follows:
“ 1st. That the seat of justice for the county of Hancock, be,